The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1894-06-21

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vulsed his country. He abdicated
his position and sought retirement
but the impetus OF the
torrent permitted MIN DC
repose. The national convention
assembled. and DantOn was among its
foremost members. =,
A new and grand resolve burst like
the sun upon his mind. In the con
vention he etrove to compose the
fierce dissensiOns to appesse the civil
hatreds of his country. In the club;
and i'm the streets he sought to modify
the fury and Injustice of the people, tC
soften the instruction impulse by di'
yertipg it along channels where harm
would be the least resultant, and to
prepare the way for return to vigor'
nns' constitutional gOvr nment
Strange inconsistency! The man OF
feeling begins to triumph over the
man of party. By his marvellous en-
eroy Danton was enabled to preserve
his country from foreign invasion, but
his attempt to stay the current of the
revolution was destined to destroy
| him.
In such a struggle he was but court.
| ing his own destruction. Inc blade
which he had forged and welded on
| the 10th of AUGUST was slowly turn
/ ing against himself. Never did he
display such strength of will, such
breadth of human sympathy, as when
no longer csressing the fears
and passions of his time, and his voice
assumed the accent of truth, and he
attempted to check the torrent which
he himself had set in motion. Utterly
careless of the lightning which played
about his head, advocating ideas which
he believed would elevate his country.
As has been said, strange and tender
mildness settled down upon his char
acter like moonlight on the features OF
the rugged sphinx. His policy OF mod
Grafton gradually estranged the leaders
of the revolution who, fearing his wide
influence might cause him TO succeed,
formulated hasty and unwarrantabLe
accusation against him which resulted
in his condemnation.
But at the approaching strides OF
death h. trembIed not. With
eye undimmed and soul unawed, he
faced the shadows of the night SO soon
to enyelop him, Insensible to the jeers
and master he once had been, he was
as naughty and Imposing on the seat
fold as ever he had been in the tribune
or the street, when he swayed his au-
dience with passion and death fell
from his every gesture" Sweeping
with a defiant glance the theatre OF
his greatness and his fall, with no re-
ligion but his PRIDE no faith but pos
terity, invoking no god but his own
ideal, N Judgment but history, un
convicted and unrepentant he passed |
into the tomb and eternity.
His death did not belle his life nor
his time. 1t was the lament
able result of the chilling !
atheism of the age. His memory is an
enigma before which we must forever |
withhold our judgment. For 10 his
life, strength and weakness, truth end |
error, high resolve and culpable deed
wero so strangely mingled that we
know not whether to call it crime or |
virtue.
But there are Christening and i'm.
mortal lessons which rise like warning
angels from his tomb. The cause of |
his stormy life and tragic fate may
with justice be ascribed to the utter
absence of religious feeling or control |
though brilliant and his death though
fearless were destitute of any moral -,
force or efficacy. For it is impossible |
that the principles of any man succeed, |
if they derive not moral depth and |
duration, an infinite holiness of |
thought and action, from an unalter>
able belize in the idea of God. 1t is |
a law unvarying and eternal-written |
on leaf and stream, in cloud and star
whose obligation no senate or no peo.
pie can disregard, the disobedience of |
which is punished by the severest retri-
button. And so the acts and prin.
ciples OF Danton bore no Empress of |
intinity.n They were in essence hui
man and by nature perishable. And |
they followed their author to die with |
him when God abandoned he
stood upon the platform of
the scaffOld, "the distance of a line
from death and eternity"
But it is not for us to Judge him |
There are deeds of men which find no
solution in the absysses of the human
heart and which must ascend to the |
final and uaappealable Judgment of |
God, Danton carried the secret of his |
conduct to the grave, and in the ig
norance of his true intention we must |
pause.
MIR. JESSIE ANDREWS,
The representative of the Athnaeum
society, chose as his subject A Study, |
and stated that
This might not aptly be styled the |
'age of reason" On every hand we
see monuments, time worn and an
cient as man. crumO'ing into dust. |
Cold, soulless reason, proceeding ac-
to laws which are the enema
lions of God Himself, hews to the |
center, letting the chips fall where
they may. Monarchs claiming divine
descent tremble before its on
slaught, society in its forward
march hesitates at its com
mand and religious superstitions,
that once held the world in awe. own
its supremacy. Peerless and without
a rival, we'll has it been said,
within the brains most secret cells.
A certain lord chief justice dwells:
A sovereign power, whom one and a
With common voice we Reason call"
Such is the mighty monarch that we
must obey. But just as the conscious.
ness of the existence of an all-wise.
I