But, to the point--progress made in estimating life. A few centuries
ago, a torrent of enthusiasm set in the direction of bearing the cross
into Asia, to fight for glory, and the propagation of Christianity, on
the fields of Palestine. Already the old Roman military character was
greatly improved on. Virtue, (_manliness_, a` vir-_man_) was no longer
supposed to fulfil its highest office in

Parcere subjectis et debellare superbos.

A delicate sense of honor, of the courtesy due to a foe and the
gallantry to the other sex, betoken a type of humanity in advance of
the brute ferocity of the best days of Rome.

But, notwithstanding Mr. Burke's eloquence, and the opinion sometimes
expressed, that the courtly knight of the middle age, realized the
perfection of humanity; we have no reason to regret that the age of
chivalry is gone by, and that the age of speculation, and money-making,
and industrial enterprize has succeeded. The materialism of this age,
with all its faults, is better than the chivalry of an age gone by.
It tends to keep the world at peace; _that_ tended to perpetual
turmoil. The supposition _all rich_, according to modern ideas, is not
so flat a contradiction as the supposition _all glorious_, in military
heroism. As the past age estimated life's supreme good, the enjoyment
of a few _required_ the exclusion of the many from its benefits: as
this age estimates the enjoyment of some, _admits_ the exclusion of
others. Whether the mercantile spirit thoroughly entered into makes a
better man than did the spirit of chivalry, may be doubted; not so,
which best comports with the welfare of society.