The Daily state journal. [volume] (Alexandria, Va.) 1868-1874, 1873-06-09
MONDAY EVEN'G. JUNE o, 1873.
The Spirit of tie Age.


with less energy and profit than formerly,
although it is true that no age has devel-
oped higher degree of abstract thought or
n more subtle philosophy, to say nothing of
practical inspirations, than the advanced
one in which we live. But the highest
displays and most useful employ
ments Of the human intellect are now d.
rected to the amelioration of the physical
condition of our race; to overcoming the
obstacles which nature lnterposes
to the more convenient habita-
tons Of civilized man, and to wrest-
ing the ris mertite that lies in material
masses from blocking the path Of progress
and general utility demanded by the spirit
of the age. In this effort at advancing
civilization and improvement, it is but nat
ural that we should brush aside many of
the prejudces transmitted to us by our
fathers, especially the shackles of institu-
tons, customs, and opinions which have
manilestly retarded material progress in
the past, and which, still deep-rooted and in
veterate, would distrust any improvement
which has not an ancestral sanction for its
test Of adoption.
But this spirit of the age is not without
strong undercurrents of resistance, and the
greatest UiS me,tie to be overcome is that
which lies in popular ignorance, besotted
superstition and degrading prejudice which
still overhangs thcpath Of human progress,
Haunting it's dark folds in the face of all
innovation and improvement and as bird
of i'll omen accustomed to flap its
wings continually upon the left. Mil
lions have been crushed" croaks ore
of these ill-omened birds ''in the
attempt to push the car of state out of the
ruts of old opinions !" France has
waded through seas of blood,'
croaks another, " in search Of improve
ment, and how little has she effected J"
And yet the world is constantly advancing
in spite of these croakers, and the men
who would go back to the days of monkish
supremacy, when the human mind was
practically forbidden to think for itself,
but was kept under the baleful influence
of ignorance and superstition as the only
safeguard to the institutional thraldom that
then prevailed, are to be as much pitied as
the troglodytes Of cavedom in Upper
Egypt and Nubia.
We have not few of this troglodyte class
in Virginia to-day-men still encountered
with the Institutions, customs, and preju-
dices of other and less enlightened times.
These men croak Of the present and in
stance US splendid examples of man
hood in the past, claiming the finest his
toric characters for the era Of old
institutions, and worst examples of political
degeneracy and baseness for the new. But
the splendid examples of the past became
such in spite of the institutional follies
by which the age was encountered. Vir-
gina's greatest patriots and statesmen
were those who either shook off the puerl-
tiles of her political institutions, or cast
aside the shackles Of prejudice, custom and
opinion, and looked forward to the time
when their beloved state should stand forth
as she now is by an insttu-
ton that, in their judgment, was only a
curse and a blot upon her otherwise fair
escutcheon. They were great men in spite
Of their institutional surroundings, but
they left their testimony against the ignoble |
impulses that actuated the age in which |
they lived.
What we desire to see in this state is |
little more of the spirit which animated |
the breast Of her old-timc patriots and
statesmen, who, if they croaked at all, did |
So over the criminal follies and weakness
es of their own times, and whose mental |
vision pierced the grand future of the Re-
public, moving on in her three great eli
matte belts to the Pacific, with an empire
washed by three oceans, and commanding
tribute from rcmotest continents, as well |
as the isles of the sea. They had minds
to grasp the possibilities Of the future, and
TO look into the open vista, magnificent and
dazzling as it then seemed; though the
one-half was not then realized in the dream
Of greatness in which their imaginations in
lulged.
The one constant and hopeful dream of
Washington-that which so early engaged
his great faculties-was the internal-im-
project connecting the waters of
the James and Ohio rivers, by way Of the
l<anawha valley, with its vast resources
Of wealth to the state, and the immensely
greater treasures lying in the far west be-
You'd. This grand project is now possible
Of completion; but it requires something
more than the plots and schemes of self
sh politicians to effect it. The wealth and
intelligence of the nation must be appealed
10, bysome stronger motive than local self
interest, to engage in the great undertaking.
nation Of croakers will do nothing to.
wards it. The sphinxes of Carnac and the
pyramids of Cheops would better illustrate
their spirit of enterprise and true nobility
Of character. The dead past is what they
lelight to live, and Gray's 'moping OWL,
the proper symbol of their achievement.
What Virginia wants is to align herself
ylth fha nav GRO and o,,;.,. ~ s:..L |