Still Life in the Country [pp. 535-539]

STILL LIFE IN THE COUNTRY.
must, for God he is just. Yes, I am certain that the time is coming,,and not far distant either, let politics result as they may,
when our present distress'will disappear like a dream, and when
our good old State shall again smile upon her children, clad in the
garments of joy and happiness, full of power and resources to
protect them against every evil. And, as firmly as I believe in
this, I believe also, that you, fellow-citizens, by your present
movement and its consequences, are laying one of the principal
corner-stones, and you will have a right to be proud of having
been the, first to adopt practical measures for the resuscitation of
your native Carolina. God bless her evermore!
ART. VII. STILL LIFE IN THE COUNTRY.
LIFE in our America is, very generally, a state of eager excitement, restless industry, keen competition, bold speculation,
hurry and confusion. The avenues to wealth and distinction, being equally open to all, and men being carefully taught that we
are all equal, it is quite natural that we should be dissatisfied,
discontented, jealous and envious, whilst beholding a very few
monopolizing wealth, power, distinction and high social standing, whilst we are doomed, in a land of professed liberty and
equality, to poverty and obscurity.
Quite natural that, seeing a few of our neighbors, remarkable
for no high moral or intellectual qualifications winning high places
in society, we, the great,mass who are left behind in the
race of life, should feel mortified and self-condemned, and whilst
envying our more fortunate rivals, should be incessantly struggling against our hard fate, and rendered miserable by our want
of success. The poor of Europe are a happy and contented people, because, born to poverty, they early learn that legal, political and social arrangements debar them from materially changing or improving their hereditary conditions in life. They naturally endeavor to make the best of the circumstances that surround them, to cultivate the sources of cheap and simple enjoyments which even poverty leaves to them, and never repine
because others, naturally no better than themselves, luxuriate in
hereditary wealth, power and distinction. They do not feel self
condemned, remorseful, or even dissatisfied in submitting to
what they deem the inexorable necessities of their situation in
life. Having no tickets in the lottery of life, they are not disappointed at drawing no prizes. They study, rather the art of
living as they are, than the art of rising to a higher level of life.
Most of the pain of poverty arises from vain efforts to get rid
of it.
A society of fixed permanent casts and classes, whether so
fixed by positive law, or by fashion and public opinion, is happier, more quiet and contented, than a theoretically free, equal
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