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Show 18 Ours is full of barbarities. There are many faculties in m-1n c-1ch of which takes its turn of activity, and that facul- ' ' ' - · · · . If t.y which is paramount 111 any pc~·10d, and. .e~~Jts tlse t through the strongest nation, dctcrmtncs the cJv~hty of tha no·c; and each age thinks its own the perfcctaon of rcas~ n. Our culture is very cheap and intelligible. Unroof any house, and you shall liud it. The well-bei~1g consists in having a sufficiency of coffee and toast, w1th a daily newspaper; a well-glazed parlor, with marbles, mirrors, and centrc-tuulc; and the excitement of a few parties and a few rides in a year. Such as one house, such arc all. The owner of a New York manor imitates the mans10n and equipage of the London nobleman ; the Boston merchant rirals his brother of New York; and the villages copy Boston. There have been nations elevated by great sentiments. Such was the civility of Sparta and the Dorian race, whilst it was defective in some of the chief clements of ours. That of Athens, again, lay in an intellect dedicated to beauty. That of Asia Minor in poetry, music, and arts; that of Palest1ne in piety; that of Rome in military arts and virtues, exalted by a prodigious magnanimity; that of Cluna and Japan Ill the last exaggeration of decorum and etiquette. Our CIVIlity, England determines the style of, inasmuch as England is the strongest of the family of existing nations, an~ as we. are the expansion of that people. It is that of a trad111g nall_on ; it is a shopkeeping civility. The English lord 1s a re\lrcd shopkeeper, and has the prejudices and timidities of that profession. And we arc shopkeepers, and have acqUired the vices and virtues that belong to trade. We peddle, we truck, we sail, we row, we ride in cars, we creep in teams, we go in canals- to market, and for the sale of goods. The national aim and employment streams IIllO our ways of thinking, our Jaws, our haluts, and our man· ners. The customer is the immediate jewel of our souls. Him we flatter, him we feast, compliment, vote for, and 19 will not contradict. It was "' it seemed the dictate of trade, to keep the negro down. \V e had found a race who were less warlike, and less energetic shopkeepers than We; who had very little skill in trade. \.Ye found it very convenient to keep them at work, since, by the nid of a Jittlc whipping, we could get their work for nothing but their board and the cost of whips. What if it cost a few unpleasant scenes on the coast of Africa? That wns a great way oft"; and the scenes could be endu.-ed by some sturdy, unscrupulous fellows, who could go for high wages and bring us the men, and need not trouble our ears with the disagreeable particulars. If any mention was made of homicide, madness, adultery, and intolerable tortures, we would let the church-bells ring louder, the church-organ swell its peal, and drown the hideous sound. The sugar they raised was excellent: nobody tasted blood in it. 'I' he coffee was fragrant; the tobacco was incense; the brandy made nations happy ; the cotton clothed the world. What! all raised by these men, and no wages? Excellent! What a convenience! They seemed created by providence to bear the heat and the whipping, and mal<e these line articles. B11t unhappily, most unhappily, gentlemen, man is born with intellect, as well as with a love of sugar, and with a sense of j ustice, as well as a taste for strong drink. 'l'hese ripened, as well as those. You could not educate him, you could not get any poetry, any wisdom, any beauty in woman, any strong and commanding character in man, but these absurdities would still come flashing out, -these absurdities of a demand for justice, a generosity fo1· the weak and oppressed. Unhappily too, for the planter, the laws of nature are in harmony with each other: that which the head and the heart demand, is found to be, in the long run, for what the grossest calculator calls his advantage. The moral sense is always supported by the permanent |
