



Produced by Ron Swanson





THE SOUTHERN LITERARY MESSENGER:

DEVOTED TO EVERY DEPARTMENT OF LITERATURE AND THE FINE ARTS.


Au gré de nos desirs bien plus qu'au gré des vents.
                                      _Crebillon's Electre_.

As _we_ will, and not as the winds will.


RICHMOND:
T. W. WHITE, PUBLISHER AND PROPRIETOR.
1834-5.




SOUTHERN LITERARY MESSENGER.

VOL. I.]  RICHMOND, APRIL 1835.  [NO. 8.

T. W. WHITE, PRINTER AND PROPRIETOR.  FIVE DOLLARS PER ANNUM.




We regret that from the late period at which the sixth number of
"Sketches of the History of Tripoli" was received, it has been
impossible to present it to our readers this month. It will appear in
our next.




  For the Southern Literary Messenger.

INFLUENCE OF FREE GOVERNMENT ON THE MIND.


Human society, from the nature of its formation, is governed in all
its multifarious movements, however majestic or delicate, by mind.
There are no changes, nor revolutions in society, that do not
acknowledge its influence. It is the all-pervading, all-exciting cause
of human action. Its power on the social system is similar to that of
gravitation in regulating the magnificent and rolling orbs of space;
the great centre of attraction, holding together and preserving in
harmonious order the thousand relations of life. Physical force, which
to the superficial eye appears to have swayed the destinies of mankind
in all ages of the world, will be found on examination to be only a
mean, enabling it to wield with greater skill and force the sceptre of
its power. The conquering legions of Cæsar or Bonaparte would have
been a useless pageant, deprived of this active, governing principle.
This exciting principle of society reaches its maturity and power by
gradual developement. In the first stages of civilization its strength
is that of an infant, afterwards that of a giant; and the spheres of
its action are as various as its powers. We behold it soaring on the
shining wings of imagination to the fields of fiction; calm,
comprehensive, searching in philosophy and science; animated and
exalted on the noble theatre of eloquence; pure and humble in the holy
aspirations of religion. Such being the nature of mind, we are led to
the irresistible inference, that the state of communities or nations
will be low or elevated in proportion to its neglect or cultivation.
The conceptions of mind form the mirror of national character. If
there be a want of mental cultivation, as a consequent, the numerous
attractions which hold in harmony and union the relations of society
will be destroyed; and general darkness and misery prevail. On the
contrary, if there be an expansion of mind, these ties so necessary,
so sacred, will receive new strength; and a universal joy, and beauty,
and brightness, pervade the whole social compact.

Many and various causes tend to the development of mind. It varies in
every nation and under every form of government. We read of the
majestic melancholy, the lofty passion, the stern intellect of the
_North_; of the mental effeminacy, of the exuberant fancy, beneath the
sunny skies and amid the olive groves of the _South_. We read of the
effects, natural advantages and impediments; how inaccessible barriers
may raise their Alpine heads, and prevent the light of one nation from
beaming on another; thus destroying the interchange of kindred
thoughts and obstructing the growth of mind; how nature's works, her
forests, rivers, lakes, groves, and water-falls in their original
grandeur and sublimity; how art's works, shining in their new
splendor, or fallen from their primitive state, cities and towers
lying in the crumbling embrace of time, stir up the sympathies,
enliven the emotions, and arouse the imagination to high exertion; how
the resources of the earth, her rich mines, her quarries of marble,
stimulate the spirit of improvement in the arts and sciences. We read
too, how the mind wastes away under the influence of despotic
institutions, and how ignorance reigns shining in purple and gold;
lastly, how the mind attains its full developement, and is ever active
in its native strength, and power, and greatness, under