The Return of Good Feeling [pp. 557-562]

MODERN DISCOVERIES.
does not remain latent: and, indeed, as years go on, he may shelter himself under the old boatswain's excuse, that he has forgotten
more than his juniors ever knew.
" After all there is a good deal of excuse for this sort of ignorance. Art is so long, and life so short, and men are so busily engaged in the various transactions which bring them their meat,
and drink, and clothing, that they can scarcely be expected to pay
much attention to matters of no practical moment. This ignorance of matters foreinn to their daily life, brings little sense of
discomfort with it. The Professor, whom Goldsmith met at Leyden, had passed a long and prosperous life without a knowledge
of Greek, and doubted, therefore, whether the study of that arduous tongue would add to his happiness. Again, we read concerning Woouter Van Twiller, the famous Dutch Governor of New
Amsterdam, that he had lived many contented years in the world,
without caring to inquire whether it went round the sun or
whether the sun went round it. Yet Wouter, so reports the painstakingc Diedich Knilckerbocker, was a sage and prudent ruler of
the island of Manhattan."
ART. VII.-THE RETURN OF GOOD FEELING;
THE most violent and vindictive feuds are those between alien ated friends, and civil wars are the most unsparing, cruel and re vengeful of all-wars. It should be, therefore, no matter of sur prise, that in the late mighty passage of artns between the North
andl South, the laws of civilized warfare were occasionally over looked or forgotten, and deeds perpetrated by the belligerents
more wantonly cruel and devastating, than usually occur in wars
between separate nations. History abounds with instances to
prove, that human nature exhibited only its normal characteristics,
(however odious they may be,) such as it even exhibits when civil
discord excites to the greatest intensity of anger. And such
anger does not subside with the occasion that aroused it. Its dur ation is in proportion to its intensity. Hatreds, heart-burnings, sus picions, jealousies, and thirst of revenge, occasioned by such wars,
long survive the cessation of hostilities. We rejoice to find, in the
results of the late Northern elections, conclusive evidence of a
speedier return to good feeling and amicable relations between
the sections, than could reasonably have been expected under all
the aggravated circumstances of sectional alienation.
The evil passions begotten by the war have wonderfully sub sided and disappeared, and sympathy and friendship have taken
the place of those passions. The North feels for the iniquities and
cruelties committed on the South, in giving to savage, blood thirsty, cannibal negroes, if not the exclusive right to suffrage, at
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