from the circumstances of his temporary being, subject inevitably to much evil, both physical and moral; dependent and helpless; entirely insufficient to his own defence and support; is furnished by hit all-merciful Creator with principles which may remedy, in some degree, this imperfection of his nature, and provide for wants and deficiencies that solitary effort could not supply. He is made a social being; gifted with feelings which link him to his fellow-creatures in the chain of social harmony; and endowed with a broad benevolence, that includes the desire of reciprocating kindnesses with "all his brethren in the world." To the very root of this natural feeling War directs it's pernicious axe. It's existence depends upon the destruction of this principle. It commences with narrowing the sphere of philanthropy; in it's progress it freezes up all the genial charities of our nature; it's maturity is marked by the extinction of every liberal sentiment: and when it quits the land over which it has exercised it's malignant influence, it leaves the social character of the country barren of all that is amiable and virtuous, benevolent and humane.
But still more distressing (because more personal) is the havock which war exercises on the happiness of private life. Here, no pen is able to describe, no mouth is competent to utter, the various forms of sorrow that mark it's presence, and pursue it's march. "Tho' the whole race of man be doomed to dissolution, and we are all hastening to our long home, yet at each successive moment, life and death seem to divide betwixt the dominion of mankind; and life to have the largest share. But it is otherwise in War. Death reigns here withouta rival, and without controul. War is the work, the element, or rather
