No human
effort, on a grand scale, has ever yet resulted according to the purpose,
of its projectors. The advantages are always incidental. Man's
accidents are God's purposes. We miss the good we sought, and do the
good we little cared for. [The author seems to imagine that he has
compressed a great deal of meaning into these little, hard, dry pellets
of aphoristic wisdom. We disagree with him. The counsels of wise and
good men are often coincident with the purposes of Providence; and the
present war promises to illustrate our remark.]
Our Government evidently knows when and where to lay its finger upon its
most available citizens; for, quite unexpectedly, we were joined by some
other gentlemen, scarcely less competent than ourselves, in a commission
to proceed to Fortress Monroe and examine into things in general. Of
course, official propriety compels us to be extremely guarded in our
description of the interesting objects which this expedition opened to
our view. There can be no harm, however, in stating that we were
received by the commander of the fortress with a kind of acid
good-nature, or mild cynicism, that indicated him to be a humorist,
characterized by certain rather pungent peculiarities, yet of no
unamiable cast.
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