The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1886-10-07
THE SOUL IN EVIL.

THE SOUL IN EVIL.
Some Timely and Beautiful Extracts FROM
an Old Lecture By Paul h. Hayne.
Beyond the orbit of Longfellow's "red
planet Mars" wheeling in circles which
sometimes interest each other, astrono.
mers discovered between 1900 and 1907
four small planetary bodies, to which Sir
John Herschel has given the name Of
asteroids. Deviating so much from the
path in the heavens described by the
other tenants of our solar system that
the zodiac must be expanded. FIVE times
its breadth in order to include their orbits,
bearing with them traces of atmospheric
phenomena and gigantic ecale; and what
is most remarkable, presenting to the
observers eye not the form of an oblate
spurid, but edges rugged and uneven. 1t
has been copjectured by Prof Olbers, Of
Berlin, that these .odies originally unit
ed in one great planet, must by some
strange explosion have been scattered
into space, whenever they CLEAN upon us
now with the light dimmed and mournful
of fragmentary existence:
A doom akin to this may be resting
latent in the bowels OF our own earth.
Sometimes we hear the demon muttering
his mysterious language and rolling his
thunders underground, and then, uu-
chained for season, he riots in earth
quakes or scars upon the fumes of volcan-
ic exhalations.
Pompeii and Herculaneum were buried
in night. Lisborn, with her thousands,
vanished like one of those dissolving
"earth bubbles" to which Banquo COM
pares the wind sisters in Macbeth.
Rivers that have flowed for ages within
their appointed bounds are precipitated
into new channels, or swallowed up in
the vortices Of FIRE and smoke; fertile
plains shiver like glass beneath the heel
ofsome malign enchanter, and the whole
globe trembles as with tbroes of dissolu-
ton.
And yet, in the economy of nature
what are these convulsions but the nor.
NAL vents where through the earth's
overcharged heart relieves itself of the
pestilent humors-the consuming heats
which seethe and boil about the core
of her vitality7 A few days, months,
or years and her SCARED visage assume
again the loveliness of old; from the site
of her lava -burials and the chasms which
show where her sick agony was all but
mortal, "a richer verduce courts the airs
Of heaven and waters more brightly
beautiful flash back the splendor of sun.
light and stars.
The earthquake, the tempest, the pas
sion Of volcanic eruptions, are therefore
but visitors Of mercy. Were it not for
their strong agencies, we too might have
been rolling through the "voids i'm
mense," shorn of our birth.right Of life
and gloryl Desolation for an hour
stability for centuries; the upheaval Of
ancient landmarks to-day, and tomorrow
the'begining of new order of harmon
ious law, which progresses from epoch to
epoch, along pathways Of bene6cence and
love; sudden deaths to hundreds OF
thousands, and the ifullnes of life to my.
riads, perhaps Of generations Such are
the sublime compensations OF Providence.
Who, then, can doubt that our wonderful
physical system, balanced and controlled
blythe omnipotent arm, is but type in
its perfect advancement of that moral,
spiritual and political world within whose
orbit humanity is called upon to act the
drama of it's destiny. In the conceit OF
theoretic reason We may ask: "Where.
fore, 0 God hast thou done thus and
thus ?" Or with the Spanish sceptic's
audacious hardihood we may affirm that
''if God had only consulted US at the
creation, we could have favored him with
hints to his advantages" but, dispite
mans blasphemy and folly, the kind
Gall. Father" is leading him through
processes he cannot comprehend to the
noblest fruition of bis hopes. sit suits
not" says the archangel in "Festus,"
It suits not the eternal laws of God
That evil be immortal!
Yet on this temporary, partial stage of
human action it is often through evil
alone that the highest possible good is
evolved, and in proportion to the magni.
tude of the evil may be the vital grand
eurs of the benefit.
These are truths that we should all
deeply ponder.
The temptation to utter skepticism to
Course God" in our hearts and "die" rises
upon too many with terrible force.
Yet from the depths of sorrow and pain,
if We listen Alright, comes the voice of a
beautiful consolation which seems to say:
"From the ashes of corruption spring the
flowers Of verdure, the rich blooms of
earth, and so in the loathesomeness of
sin and error and all "things evil" lies
hidden away, but slowly gathering its
powers for resurrection, the immortal
"soul of good"