Samuel Griswold Goodrich [pp. 736-739]

73 Sane GrsodGorih OTi
Or blossom opens with delight;
And glittering in the clear cold skies
The froien rnountain-tops arise How like to thee, so proud and cold
In thine own selfishness enrolled!
How like to thee the lava tide,
That turns the rooted rock aside,
And crowns with flame the mountain brow
That late was wreathed in silv'ry snow!
So these, by passions fiercely toss'd,
Canst change for flame thy brow of frost.
Alas! when youth's first promise shed
Its crowning honors o'er thy head,
A tear was thine for every grief,
A ready hand to yield relief All noble impulses were thine, They lured to scan this heart of mine,
That out of its abundant store
Invested thee with thousands more.
Of life and love the dream wert thou,
How changed thy every nature now!
How sad the change! the vision pass'd!
Illusions sweet, could ye not last r
Wily wake me from that dream of bliss,
To desolation like to this'?
Thou dost reproach my grief, my tears;
Would that the agony of years
Had, like the stone in grot concealed,
Left naught by tears to be ievealed;
But cold, and desolate and lonie,
Each tear had hardened into stone.
An orphan, life was naught to me,
Save in its deathless love for thee And wisdom, knowledge had been sweet,
Acquired lowly at thy feet.
Thou might'st have moulded every though
And every wish within me wrought,
To suit thy code of truth and right,
And I h-d known no other light.
Alas! we rear on earth a shrine
And cease to worship the divine;
And cold and dim our shrine must be
Ere turns the heart, O God, to thee.
But thou-the work is all thine own Thou dost but reap what thou hast sown The heart, though broken, still is thine
The agony alone be mine.
Raymond, MUississippi, 1841.
TRURO.
SAMIJEL GRISWOLD GOODRICII.
Those events which attract most attention, are
not always the most important. This is not only
true of the phenomena of nature, but of those of
society. The thunder-storm that sweeps over the
land may be the theme of universal remark, while
it is really less efficient in results, than the quiet
sunshine, which is stirring the elements of animal
and vegetable life, in a thousand forms,-however
the process may be unseen and unregarded. The
success or defeat of a party in politics, though it
shake the country to its foundations, often leaves
less decisive traces after the lapse of a few years,
than the invisible march of some moral or mental
reform.
movements in society of the greatest consequence,
however they may have been lightly regarded in a
national point of view. While the gale has filled
the sails and been the chief object of attention, the
unnoted current has been setting us forward on our
voyage, and has actually done more to change our
position, than the storm with which we have been
contending.
The great result of this silent progress, is summed up in two points-a more enlightened state of
public opinion, and a higher standard of morals.
Without going into the means by which these results have been attained, though they are often expressed in the cant terms of "'march of mind," the
"spirit of the age," &c., we may advert to the
temperance reform, as one fact, in evidence of our
position. We know it is common to speak of the
degeneracy of the times-but in reality, there is
no such degeneracy. Let us test it as we may,
we affirm that the moral and intellectual standard
is higher in the country than at any former period;
and it is sufficient to prove this, that public opinion,
without the aid of laws, or government, or money,
or the allied powers of political parties, has made,
and is making, successful war upon the most deeply
rooted vice in the world-the drinking of ardent
spirits. What is the basis of this reform, if public
opinion and public morals be not more elevated
than before l
Among the several streams which go to make
up the great tide of advancement in civilization
here, is the improvement in the means of education; and among those who have been foremost in
this work, is the author of Peter Parley's Tales.
The importance of his performances is the greater,
that they were commenced some years since, before the people were waked up to the great effort
now making to render common school education
universal; before it was announced in the ringing
tones, of one of the master-spirits of the age, to Europe, that the Schoolmaster was abroad; and while
juvenile literature was yet regarded with contempt,
and as beneath the attention of the philosopher and
philanthropist; while Mother Goose still spread
her wings over the nursery library, and it was supposed that whatever was hatched for it, must have
something of her cackle.
There are some persons, and those too among
graduates of colleges, who mourn over the change
of books for youth-who lament the disgrace into
which Mother Goose, Tom Thumb, and Jack the
Giant Killer, have fallen. But this mental obliquity only shows, that there are persons, whose
minds are so perverted by a false start in education, as never to have enjoyed the exercise of that
good old-fashioned guide to truth-common sense.
The public generally appreciate the revolution to
Thus it is, that, while within the last fifteen years,
public attention has been chiefly engrossed by political and commercial revolutions, there have been
739
Sairtuel Gristvold Goodrich.
[OCT69tlt,