Year: 1859

| much it's creature. In the despotic government,
, Of Europe VIC discover the awkward contrast bt
tween institutions thousand years old and inver


tons Of to day and the great effort of their ru
ing classes is to monopolize the use Of these ne'


agencies aud thereby increase their own powe


ten fold. All the mochanice Of the nineteenth


century concentrate in the army of Louis Napolt


OF. Russia is pushing the railroad and tclegtnr


towards Asia to pour down her armed million


with greater dispatch upon it's enfeebled barbarism


The Prussian government has captured the CON


mon school, and made every teacher policeman


to aid in the manufacture of Prussian citizen


Even in England the new powers of life are eal


ously retained by the few, and only by falterinI


steps do the ignorant masses come into their in


heritence. But in tho United States of America
these wonderful agencies are the possession of the
people. Every man and woman Of the ruling race
has the nominal right to use them and only ignor
ance or indifference is shut out from their enjoy
ment. Who, then, should understand tho relation
of man to his modern invention if not the citizen
of that country which is itself the most surprising
invention of these latter days?


Do We, indeed, realize how much in our circum
stances 10 new? Truly, man is here, with his old
nature the same creature in all essential faculties
and aspirations, as in the garden of Eden. But
how novel are his surroundings A thousand ma
terial forces aid him in his work. lie cultvates
the earth by machinery shoots his own will and
intelligence through an army Of wheels and spin.
dies, each of which is better manufacturer than
himself; and is driven about the world with a
sDeed hat mn kna tha IF hpa tridi
lous.


His house is fashioned by stroke of every arti-
sans hammer since Tubal Cain for the genera
tions have treasured their best ideas of convent.
ence under his roof. What marvellous labor
saving machine is our whole system of American
business. merchant in a counting room op the
banks of the IIu ison sits with his fngers on the
pulse of the worlds commerce.


We have oil the old literature reprinted at our
hands; yet the people are educated by tho com
mon school, the journal, the lecture. the caucus
the convention, and free discussion on every theme
a travelling college tina: keeps up with their
haste. wherein, che who runs may read" What
thing is social life when the increase in home
convenences and means of communication expand
neghborhood to nation, and We need not per.
sonal contact to know the condition of our beloved
every hour. New IDEAS OF amusement are rapidly
coming in conflict with the old. Our systom oil
government is q capital invention; for the ballo.
in America mears all that king court, army, no.
bilty. revolution mean abroad. One hallot with
brains behind it will do what Caesar died to accom-.
plish ard one election day in New York may
change tho reading Of history. What an invention
is the Protestant Church, founded the voluntary
system, divorced from the government. A world
of ecclesiastical trash is superseded by the simple
idea that every man shall worship God according
to the dictates of his own manhood. And truly
what is this Republic, with its fiery energies, tear.
ing its way from the Atlantic to the Pacific, trans.
forming the wilderness it goes to fruitful States,
but the latest invention of man to aid in that
Christian civilization which is the kingdom of God
on earth I Hers, then where the inventive spirit
has done its utmost, is the problem between man
and modern inventions to be solved,


Now, there is astonishing confusion Of thought
among our people in regard to what may reasona,
bly, be expected from this gigantic array of Amer.
lean inventions. Millions Of our population are
to-day behaving as if our new circumstances were
to create millennium and OF course, the land is
full of demagogues, lay and clerical, who find it to
their own advantage to persuade these confused
millions that they are already in q Paradise Of
Freedom But the thoughtful moral teacher must
insist that This magnificent array Of eontrrances can
nerer do more than furnish ne,o opportunities for
true manhood. Every new invention is q new op.
portunity, and every new opportunity imposes
new obligation.


al .st &c Ar,a "a 81
comparison with the savage in Nebraska, has an
incompatible advantage in his circumstances but
this advantage finds its compensation in his fearful
increase of moral obligation. The Indian can use
all his opportunities for nobility, and sleep hall
the day in his wigwam the citizen can only use
his privileges by seepless vigilance and the ex-
ercise of energies unknown to the red man. New
opportunities do not make new men, or create a
new civilization they only call man to arouse
from his slum5sr, and put forth faculty hith,
e.to dormant, and fix his eye on higher excel.
lence, and climb up them as up ladder scaling
new heaven.


And the awful fact about this matter is, that there
can be no laborsaping machine for the manufacture
of character. Man is called to-day 10 do and be
what was never before conceived of excellence and
power; a new word is around him-a world of
slopes ascending to higher eminences, wandering
off into q horizon of SUBMITS flushed with glory
as of angelic lands but, alas he can posses his
new kingdom only in the old way, just as Adam
and Eve went out the gate Of Eden and saw the
earth before them. and began that energy of moral
manhood and womauhood which is the sovereign
power oil creation, must the Young American pass
out the gates of his infant innocence, and earn a
spiritual position by tho sweat CT the brow and
the soul. There is only one way to be great and
good, and that the old way. Spite Of all modern
inventions and opportunities, the essential eonfict
of life is the same. Perhaps we sneer at the old
Theological Devil; but it is just as hard for US to
resist evil as for those who believe in him. We
scorn the monks, and hermiss. and ascetics Of the
old days, yet under our broadcloth ond satin aud
.I.I- fos AhA hAnA tA.tl