The Marietta journal. [volume] (Marietta, Ga.) 1866-1909, 1886-09-30
OPPRESSION MAKES THE MAN.

large majority Of the worlds population
have holy horror of anything that dsturbs
the even tenor OF their ways. They earn
estly desire to sail through this world on
ilowery beds Of ease, with no external or
internal connections to jostle them Every
since our grandparents, Adam and Eve,
tasted Of that forbidden fruit whose mortal
taste brought death into the world and all
our woe, with loss Of Eden, man has been
trying and toiling to secure to himself a
state of absolute ease. This is the undorly-
ing principle on which the improvements
that the world has made rests. Our steam
engines, gins and looms, our railroads, tele-
graph and telephone systems, our myriad
mechanical contrivances and inventions of
which we are justly proud, and which crown
the now gray -haired nineteenth century as
the king of ages, were all made for the pur-
pose OF accomplishing the most with the
leas, labor, and with Il view of supplying
our wants, our necessities and whims with
out labor or exertion on our part to obtain
them
While man is trying 10 attain this much
desired destiny, would it not be well TO com
pare his present restless condition. with
that which he earnestly seeks. If man was
10 get 10 a point where he could get all his
wants supplied without working to obtain
them, he would with his present nature be
thoroughly miserable. The hardest aud
most unSatisiying work that man could do
would be to SIT with folded hands, in a cush-
toned chair during eight or twelve hours
aud do nothing Ii the world was to get in
to a state where its inhabitants could live in
absolute ease and without WORK its condi-
ton would be very much like that Of stag
nant pools Of water on level swampy ground
from which poisonous malaria rises
II q man never feels these disturbing in
iiuences, he remains as he ought to remain.
"A dwarf
On the other hand let him feel the pangs
OF poverty, let deep and lasting sorrows fix
themselves upon him, let cruel wrongs and
prosecutions be brought to bear upon him.
LEI Eim be under the necessity Of ;oiling 10
get the meaH- 18th which to educate him
self, aud h. develops snio Elnnt and be
comes the leader of his people
When overwhelmed with poverty and do
nestle iniehctY Milton. blind as the bard
OF Scio's rocky isle wrought OUT aud dicta-
ted that admirable poem, Paradise Lost,
aud rryeled in brighter visions of Para
disc to he regsined
1t took the Same depressing Influences to
! cause blind Homer to write his wonderful
llhad, and to-day the poet truthfully says:
Ten cities mourn the great Homer dead
Through which the living homer begged his
bread
i required deep conviction to change
Psul tom one of the btterest prosecutors
of Christian. 10 become one of the best
writer's in the New Testament Ii was at
the time OF Engands greatest political dis
turbanceS that her rarest characters were
developed. Then Hampden bearded tyran-
ny on the throne then Blake enthroned
Brittania Mistr s. of the Seas then Bish-
op and Sherlock set forth the beauties of
Chr siianity with such force that the ndo-
lent Charles foused himself to listen and the
iastidous Buckingham forgot to sneer
then Dryden Srote his powerful satires.
then John Bunyan rose from his obsoGrits
10 claim The Pilgrims Progress as his
production Henry Clay, the peerless
statesman OF America, was born during one
OF her fierce wars. aud during his entire
brilliant career met with aud ia MoSl cases
baiiied the most determined opposition.
Our own Alexander II Stephens was feeble
and sickly during his whole lite
So it is with the people OF this day. let
them meet poverty and sorrow, and let them
be under the necessity Of meeting and com
batting strong oppo,itions, and it makes
mon Of them
Plant zee n place where no winds
will shake it aud It's rsG,s v III not penetrate
the ground TO great depth hut hlau, the
same upon mountain where il will be shak
en- and disturbed and its roots will firmly
taSten themselves among the rocks and the
storms of a century will tail to blow it down