Shall the Spartan Virtues of the South Survive the War? [pp. 145-150]

SPARTAN VIRTUES OF THE SOUTH.
ART. IV.-SHALL THE SPARTAN VIRTUES OF THE SOUTH SURVIVE
THE WAR?
WE agree with Mr. Fitzhugh in his protest against a return to the regime
of fashion and luxury at the South, already but too plainly indicated in every
quarter. In regions scourged but twelve months ago by the demon of war, it
is not difficult to-day to find all the fashions of Paris flaunted, and balls, dan cing and dissipation in constant vogue. Let us hold on a little longer to the
hardier virtues of the war and indulge occasionally at least in its black broth.
WVhat Mr. Fitzhugh says in a vein of irony of the nobler and happier life of
the savage and the negro, must be taken cum qrano, as we have seen that phi losopher disport himself in the courtly saloons of the Capital in other days, im bibe tile wines of France and puff the regalias of Habana and occasionally
indulge himself in a broad cloth suit, which however never retained very long
its finish. He has taken to the pipe now, and naturally enough
Compounds for sins he is inclined to,
By damning those he has no mind to."
EDITOR.
CIVrILIzED mankind might learn some useful lessons from savages
and semti-savages, that would enable them to live more happily and
contentedly with less of labor. The all-absorbing pursuit of wealth
that occupies and harasses the mninds of most of the civilized by day
and by night, and leaves them no time for observation and reflection,
no time for the cultivation of intellect, and little for social or
family intercourse, is unfelt and unknown by the savage. I-e practi cally adopts the maxim, "sufficient for the day is the evil thereof,"
does no a,tttemnpt to accumulate and hoard up for the flture, which
he may never live to see, nor to provide against inevitable misfor tunes nor evil~ that may never arise. IIe trusts that by confining
his vwants to the actual necessaries of life, he may at all times, by
a few hours daily light labor, be able to supply those wants, or if he
should live to extremne old age and become weak and decrepid, that
his children an d his grand-children will take care of him and provide
for him as he earned and provided for them in their infancy. tie is
never harassed or rendered miserable by the cares of the rich nor
the hard and excessive labor of the poor, as civilized people are.
Being too wise and sagacious to attempt, like the white man, to
take a bond of indemnity from fate, or to insure himself against the
fiuture; when misfortune or death befal him, he meets them with dignified fortitude and impassive serenity. Living on plain and simple
food, indulging in no luxuries, laboring little and taking a plenty of
wholesome exercise, his diseases are few, rare and simple, and he is
neither troubled with the many pains and aches which often torture
the life of the rich, nor exhltusted and prematurely worn out by the
labors which shorten the lives of the working poor. He is too
sensible to become the fool and the slave of fashion, to acquire artificial wants, and to work twvelve hours a day, not to sustain life and
health, but to jeo(pard life and to destroy health in the vain pursuit
and rivalry of fashion. What matters it to him what the fit, the
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