Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1876-02-09
Is the World Going to the Devil?
London telegraph.

lAouuon Telegraph.
Dean Stanley, in Westminster Abbey, yes
torday, spoke of the fears of many at the pres
ent time that the world is growing worse. "It
may be that some time 10 our gloomy moods
We are inclined to think we cannot count on
the continuous advance of the onward progress
Of our race. 1t may be we are sometimes in.
cined to fear that the latter half Of the nine
teenth century is to close in lower morality,
darker philosophy, debasement of the sen.
ses, or a term of gross superstition. 1t may
be that diaboical crimes shall rise again which
we had hoped were dead forever, that states
men may again become corrupt and selt-seek-
ing, that the leaders OF sects and churches will
again prefer the outward to the inward, the
natural to the spiritual. the seen to the un-
seen." There are plenty of revelations to bear
out in part pessmist philosopher; Dor is there
any common sense 10 vanishing over the ugly
facts of the day. 1t is not always wise to make
the best OF things aud to take cheerful view
OF everything all round. Comparing ourselves
with our forefathers, we hear of many nearly
colossal calamities, and are face to face with a
larger number OF great crimes The accidents
that shocked them killed or manned units, cur
misfortunes desolate hundreds of homes Tue
horrible consequences of strong drink in brutal
ity to women and children have multiplied in
our large towns. For one English child
brought up in foul air three hundred
years ago, there are now at least fifty.
For ten men habItually unused to country
walks 10 the sixteenth century, there are
DOW probably one hundred. If we look
abroad and remember the civil war in America,
or the recent French war, we see that the
numbers of men engaged in deadly struggle
were ten or twelve times the forces of our an.
cestors though great, and the loss in money and
every way to the nations striving proportionate-
ly increased. In trade and commerce dishon-
esty has made gigantic strides; the tiny pick
ings and stealing Of the villages have grown
into gigantic city frauds. Goldsnith's rogue
no longer cheats Farmer Marlborough in bar
gain, or overreaches Moses with "a gross OF
blue spectacles, he starts company, and dips
bis hand 10 thousands of pockets. Then in
stead of few sailors being paid to scuttle a
ship, giving the passengers time to escape in
boats, we have the Bremerhaven monster, who
murders by machinery and winds up an assassi-
nation eight days in advance Of the deed, eav-
ing no hope for the victims of the calculated
crime. Moreover, faith has died down leaving
none OF the stern, relentless zeal that impelled
men to die at the stake themselves or burn their
neighbor for clause in creed The cbival-
rous loyalty which placed life and goods at the
the bidding ola king is vanished, or is cherish
ed only by a few peasants, priests and mobiles
in Biscay and Navarro. Our theatre revels
pot on intellectual but sensuous attractions; our
literature is all a copy and compilation our
poetry is half-hearted, and Romeo, signing
under Juliet's balcony, is soothed by the an
'icipation OF dinner, cigar and rubber at the
club.