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Show 104 TilE GOLDEN HOUR. that agitation. It ·were easy to nan1e one hundred brain ·which have been ct a-thinkiug in thi · country during this generation, and to say ·with truth, if God had only con fit to keep the c h nndred brain out of the worlu, or to have consulted Kentucky as to how he should fashion the1n, there ·woulJ ha \Te been no war now. We should have gone on enjoying our country, our cotton, sugar, anu the rest, as happy a nation of 1narrrrots a ever swarmed in an olJ chce c. bb In the eyes of tho e who have a uouut \Vhothcr that kind of life con titutcs the \vholo dnty and chief end of man, tho Abolitionists can de ·ire no fairer laurel for their brows than that through the1n strean1od such fiery rays of Liberty, that Slavery had no choice but to close up like a deadly flower before unfolding J u tice, or else respond to these noonday fires ·with the cannon. The " Rebellion Record" reports that the first gnu of this war ·was fired last year at Charleston : the Mu o of History will write that the firsf gun was firo<l by "\Villian1 Lloyd Garrison in Baltimore, 1nany years ago; the shell he touched off was a long time on its way, and only lately exploded in the election of President Lincoln, who \Vas sent to Washington as an idea, and who has becu, and will be, treated by the South as an idea. That election was an act of war upon Slave?·y, -all the more jo1·n~idable because constitutional. It is only in crystals that one sees plainly any n1inglcd substance which is inferior. You cannot see a speck of dirt in the heart of a peblJlc, but you can see THE DIAL OF GROWTHS. 105 it clearly in the heart of a pure crystal. It is so with the evil at the heart of this country. The \Yron o·s b which for ages lay unobserved in the stony heart of ab olutism, preserved no\v in the centre of a republic, discolor all the rays shining through it. Our faith an<l courage in the ·c ti1nos will be in proportion to our realization of the fact that our trouble, though it shoul<l end in fail nrc, is a ign not of \voaknc. s so 1nuch as of strength. Were the age n1cancr, it. clai1n would not be, as it is no,v, beyond the ordinary , atisfacLion of circumstances. Ilacl the CYil · \\rhich afilict us a tongue, it would ay : " urcly you have grown Ycry ·ophi 'Licatecl and fa tidious. Read yone school hi.torics over again, and co ,,~hat age \Va ' exe1npt fro1n injn.ticc an<l vwlence, \var an<l lavery. Arc you not nutking in this generation a great deal of noi ·e oYer evil.· tl;at your ancc tors sat very q·nictly under? " Ccrta inly we arc. W c stand upon our vantage a· proudly a· did the young Goethe, of whon1 it is related that, when six years olcl, he plaguo(l hi. 1noLher with questions as to whether the stars \voulcl pcrfonn for him all that, according to orne fortune-telle r, they had prmni cd at his birth. ""\Vhy ," said hi 1nother, "1nu t you have the assistance of the stars, \\rhea other pCO}Jlc get on very well without?" To this the tcrrihlc chil<l r eplied : " But I am not to be satisfic<l with what docs for other people." So Lhc hu1nblc 'L 1nan in Christendo1n to-day puts his foot upon such a government as Jc us and Paul re t ed qui Lly under ; so the poorest A1nerican 5* |
