Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from The Past and the Present: A Discourse Delivered Before the Erosophic Society of the University of Alabama
When it is considered, that all the arrangements of this mighty scheme end, hso far as we can judge, in this existence, with man; that every revolution of mind and matter brings about some change in the condition of his life'; that, as if to seize upon the moment Ofsuch change, still further to benefit his race, providence has endowed'ihim with capacities of thought and language, superior to all animals it would seem that he would present, in every age, some distinguishing trait of mo ral beauty. That there would be something apparent in his nature, at all times and under all circumstances, elevating him, in the pride of mental power, above in animate and brute creation; that his constant occupa tion would be to cultivate his nobler faculties, refine his intellectual gifts, and raise his moral far beyond the influence of his physical relations. But, alas in nu folding the map of his history, we are humbled at the vlew of man's varied condition sometimes in the height of civilization sometimes in the depths of misery. The race, whether regarded as societies or individuals, appears to have reached certain eleva tions, only to decline; From the rudest assemblages ofrobbers and outcasts, they have advanced to im proved societies. Again these have become slaves of barbarians or remnants of scattered tribes. We have seen them rise great in the arts Of war and peace, a chieving splendid victories, attaining-unlimited power, only to violate the rights of their associates, and waste, in the extravagance Of a prodigal ambition, the bloodg of millions of men. We have seen the mass, at the bid ding of one, no way their superior, except in fancied station or impudent enterprise, driven, in war, to the slaughter, like herds Of unresisting cattle; in peace, expending the labors of their generation, to sustain the glare aud consequence Ofa few interested rulers. Why this l Is it possible that man is placed on' the earth for these purposes only? Is war his natural element; a contest with his fellow men his pleasure l Are fraud, hypocrisy, sensuality, his'chief qualifications? Surely not. The triumphs of vice and crime over virtue, the success of falsehood over truth, the advantage ofpow er over justice, are but convulsions of the moral world, fruitful in the noblest moral reformations. Man, the object of all revolution, constantly improves. In defi ance of his, opposition, nature vindicates her laws. Notwithstanding his destruction, all is life; independ ent Of his sloth, all is progression.
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