But hush! what is this?  How dark the moral clouds that have been hanging over the country for a period far beyond the memory of man! how black that dismal canopy which is only lit by fires that carry and shed around them disease, famine, crime, madness, bloodshed, and death.  How hot, sultry, and enervating to the whole constitution of man, physically and mentally, is the atmosphere we have been breathing so long!  The miasma of the swamp, the simoom of the desert, the merciless sirocco, are healthful when compared to such an atmosphere.  And, hark! what formidable being is that who, with black expanded wings, flies about from place to place, and from person to person, with a cup of fire in his hands, which he applies to their eager lips?  And what spell or charm lies in that burning cup, which, no sooner do they taste than they shout, clap their hands with exultation, and cry out, “We are happy! we are happy!” Hark; he proclaims himself, and shouteth still louder than they do; but they stop their ears, and will not listen; they shut their eyes and will not see.  What sayeth he?  “I am the Angel of Intemperance, Discord, and Destruction, who oppose myself to God and all his laws—­to man, and all that has been made for his good; my delight is in misery and unhappiness, in crime, desolation, ruin, murder, and death in a thousand shapes of vice and destitution.  Such I am, such I shall be, for behold, my dominion shall last forever!”

But hush again!  Look towards the south!  What faint but beautiful light is it, which, fairer than that of the morning, gradually breaketh upon that dark sky?  See how gently, but how steadily, its lustre enlarges and expands!  It is not the light of the sun, nor of the moon, nor of the stars, neither is it the morning twilight, which heralds the approach of day; no, but it is the serene effulgence which precedes and accompanies a messenger from God, who is sent to bear a new principle of happiness to man!  This principle is itself an angelic spirit, and lo! how the sky brightens, and the darkness flees away like a guilty thing before it!  Behold it on the verge of the horizon, which is now glowing with the rosy hues of heaven—­it advances, it proclaims its mission:—­hark!

“I am the Angel of Temperance, of Industry, of Peace! who oppose myself to the Spirit of Evil and all his laws—­I am the friend of man, and conduct him to the true enjoyment of all that has been made for his good.  My mission is to banish misery, unhappiness, and crime, to save mankind from desolation, ruin, murder, and death, in a thousand shapes of vice and destitution.”