Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1891-07-22
For the SPECTATOR B
Rest And Unrest.

There are few phases OF civilized life
more eccentric than the untiring and cease
less hum of hustle which is the outward
and audible expression OF the industry
which we are taught to reverence. From
the very beginning the turmoil of life, as
we have made it, Rtrikes upon our ears. AS
it is in the beginning, so is it later on, and
as it continues to be until it IS time for
these same sounds of the age 10 pipe US out
of the world with requiem that differs
not lot from the cheerful orchestra which
welcomed us into it.
A certain measure of activity is wholly
natural. The savage had to hunt Tor his
supper: kill other savsges to save himself
from being killed; and fight his brethren in
order to secure for himself the wife whom
thew also were eager to place upon their
respective hearths as the jewel OF their
cave establishments. But there is pro-
found difference between this occasional
activity of the savage and the methodical,
uuresting activity of the average man OF
our day. His was brisk movement toward
a goal, tor the attainment of which be had
to exercise his bodily faculties in way
that educated them with amazing celerity.
With US it is much otherwise. Machinery
has no little to answer for, as cloy OF ar
rest of the development of some of the best
of our faculties. A century ago the aver
age citizen was surely man Of more stal
wart mind than his descendant Of to day
That this falling off in one direction CON-
mensurates with progress in another di-
rection, is inevitable. The wealth OF The
nation is greater; the individuals sense of
individuality and personal strength in strife
with the world is less.
1t is with no intention of prefering an
Indictment of a capital kind against the in.
ventors of modern machinery that We make
this statement. He who runs may read
the merits as we'll as the demeris of such
Inventions. But it is too much the fashion
with those good, easy, conventional moral
lists, vino have the ear OF the public, to in
sist upon the merits and to disregard the
defects. 1t were honester to consider the
other side of the question; and it were also
better for those of us who are interested IN
this rivalry of animated iron and steel, and
who are unconscious of the mental deca-
dence with which we are in consequence
threatened. There are school boards, it
NAV be protested, to check this menace OF
degradation. But such education is really
Of an erratic kind, and does not make
atonement in the light direction.
Which is the nobler kind OF man ne
who, for eight or nine hours day, teeds
the NAV Of a machine, that it may do the
work which formerly came from human
hands and the human intelligence; or he,
who, far from the whirr of wheels and the
screech of steam whistles, tenda his own
small flock, shears his sheep, milks his
kline, makes his own bread and butter, and
vestments, and cultivates his email, but
adequate patch of grain-land, owns boat
and wrestles with the sea for its own
treasures; who builds his own house, keeps
il in repair, and rears within IT'D homely
walls four or five offsprings as sturdy and
independent as himself? Can there De
any doubt as to the verdict9
The one man is an automaton. Ills
wife, if he have a wife, is in several es-
sential particulars better man than he.-
Her work, unlike his. is of kind that
tests the abilities, ard through the test en-.
larges them. He is but the subordinate OF
machine. She is a responsible entity,
who is taught by experience that her &C
tions are of mere moment than his. Ills
work wearies, but does not teach him. ohe
grows wiser and more capable every day.
The slave cf the machine, when he rests
does but take b-eath that he may subse
ouently the better perform the behests O.
his tyrannical master. But the country
man is never thus idle. He goes from hii
kline to his hocks, from his boat to hi
barns; and his every diverse employment
is, at the same time, q repcse and de
velopment.
As we grow wiser and richer-it is to b
hoped our progress in wealth and wisdom
will be parallel progress-it is probabi
that we shall come to view this need Q
perfect rest seriously. Among the myria
other institutions which our benevolenc
, and the complexity of our civilization WI
are long have raised in our midst, we sha
then. it may be, include "Houses OF Res
for Faded Minds.'' Why should it not 3
go? We provide cabmen, who are slread
the proprietors of rainproof caba, Wit
shelter; and dogs, who much prefer Ill
of nnconstrained vagabondage, with luxur
ous asylums. Is not the nations mind
more import than cabmen and discontente
dogs? And truly it is no very great OK
aggeration to say that the national lnteiie'
is likely to be meDaced with sort
? psralysis, an actual enfeeblement by I'll
, pace it has to run, and the variety OF coz
tortions it has to suffer in its course :.
For the rich there are already mutt
, tude of resources akin to this remedy sue
r gested for the national benefit. Hydr
y pathic and other establishments do gof
! rvor1r in their yay, and thousand waite
= ino nleoes recreate their hu ndreds
thousands. But for tho millions, who's
purses sigh at the impossibility of mo-
|. than days holiday, or moro than two
!. three days abstention from labor. VII
( resource is there
Q Perhaps after awhile it may occnr to
! 10 take this matter in hand. Wor
schemes have boen set before the publ
and have been received with approbatio
Marine.
IS With health and beauty laden.
q A rich and priceless thing,