The Wheeling daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1864-1878, 1876-03-15
TEMPORA MUTANTUR.
by JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL.

The world turns mild; democracy, they
say,
And no great harm, unless at grave ex-
pense
OF what needs edge OF proof, the moral
For man or race is on the downward path
Whose fbre grows too soft for honest
And there's subtle influence that
From words to modify our sense of
A plain distinction is obscured of late;
Men, If they will, may pardon, but the
state
Forgets Its junction If not fixed as Fate.
SO thought our sires; a hundred years
ago,
II men were knaves why, people called
them SO,
And crime could see the prison portal
bend
In those days for plain things plain
words would serve;
Men had not learned 10 admire the grace
iul Swerve
Wherewith the .ESthetic Natures genial
mood
Makes public duty slope to private good !;
No muddled conscience raised the saving
doubt;
\ soldier proved unworthy was ruled out,
An officer caShiered, II civil servant,
(No ma ter though his piety was frrvenp,
DissracefuIly dismissed, and through the
land
Each bore for life u stigma from the
Whose iar-heard hiss made others more
adverse
To take the iaCile step from bad TO worse.
The Ten Commandments had meaning
then,
Felt in their bones by least considerable
men,
Because behind them Public Conscience
stood,
And without wincing made their man.
dates good.
But now that Craftsmanship is just
way
To dodge the primal curse and make it
Since Office means Il kind Of patent drill
To force an entrance to the Nation till,
And peCulatiOn something rather less
Risky than If you Spelt it with an -;
Now that 10 Stea. by law is grown an art,
W hom rOgues the sircS, their milder
sons call smart,
And slightly irregular" dilutcs the
shame
OF what had once somewhat blunter
name;
With generous curve We draw the moral
line;
our swindlers ale permitted TO resign;
their guilt is wrapped in deierential
And twenty sympathize for one that
Add national disgrace to private crime,
Confront mankind with braZen 'front.' SUB
lime,
steal but enough, the world is unSevere,
Tweed is Il stat eSnau, FISK nnancler;
Invent a mine and Dc-the Lord knows
what,
Secure, al any rate, with what you've got.
The public servant who has stolen or
lied.
If called on, may resign with honest
pride;
Asun,ust fayor put him in, why doubt
DIsfaVor as unjust has turned hum out?
Even if indicted. what is that but Judge
10 him who counted in the elective
judge?
whiirwashed, he quits the politicians
AT ease in mind, with pockets filled tor
His lady glare> with gems whose vulgar
blaze
The poor man through his heightened
taxes pays,
Himself content with one huge KohinoOr
Bulge from "a shirt front ampler than be-
Rut not too candid, lest II happy tend
10 rouse suspicion OF the Peoples Friend ;
\ public meeting, treated at his cost,
Resolves hin back more virtue than he
lost;
With character regilt he counts his gains;
whats gone was air, the solid good re-
mains:
For what is good, except what friend and
foe
Seem both unanimous in thinking so,
The stocks and bonds which in our age OF
loans
Replace the stupid pagan'S stocks ana
stones?
With cnokcr white, wherein no cynic
eye
Dar,S see localized Il hempen tie,
Al parish meetings he conducts in PRAYER
And pays tor missions 10 be sent else
where,
ON Change respected, TO his friends en-
deared
Add but a Sunday School class, he's re-
vered,
And to his early tomb will not b" dumb
10 poiut moral for our youth To come.