Then all nature smiled, and we
scarcely thought of the future in the happy consciousness of the present;
whereas now all nature seems to frown, and we eagerly long for the future
to escape the endless vexations and miseries of the present. Our trade,
which lately bloomed like a Neapolitan spring-day, is now covered with
clouds and sifted with ashes, as if some angry Vesuvius had exploded its
contents over us and shot the hot lava-tides among our snug vineyards and
cottages. May we not also, in this case, as in that, draw some consolation
from the knowledge that the stars are still shining behind the smoke, and
that the sun will assuredly come up to-morrow, as it has come up on so
many morrows, for so many thousands of years? Convulsions, by the very
fact of their violence, show that they are short-lived; and though we, who
suffer by them directly, are apt to derive the slenderest solace from the
philosophy which demonstrates their transientness, or their utility in
certain aspects, it is nevertheless profitable, for various reasons, to
make them a subject of remark.
In a season of great public calamity, moreover, everybody feels that he
ought to participate in it in some way, if not as a sufferer, then as a
sympathizer, and, in either capacity, as a speculator upon its causes and
probable effects.
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