Texas in 1850. By Melinda Rankin. Page: 65 of 196

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TEXAS IN 1850.

" righteousness and truth which only exalteth a nation"
shall be known and felt. If Texas is to be built up in
moral beauty, skill and wisdom must lay the plan, and
every one who feels an interest in seeing the building
completed in elegance, must put a hand to the work.
Firmness and decision are necessary for the performance
of every important undertaking. A concentration
of purpose can achieve the noblest ends.
A model for imitation of great and important plans,
carried out for the good of posterity, is presented by
the example of the Puritan fathers of New England.
Here it may be observed, that the reader must not
too hastily judge, that the author is attempting to eulogize
her own country. We are willing he should set
down liberally to the account of national attachment,
but, it is our professed intention to be candid and
impartial.
An extract will be inserted which may seem to exhibit
the achievement of important purposes, planned
and matured under the most disadvantageous circumstances.
Though great and splendid actions are not
the ordinary occurrences of life, but .must, from their
nature, be reserved for particular and eminent occasions,
yet that system is essentially defective which leaves no
room for their production. They are important, both
from their immediate advantage and their remote influence.
They illustrate the age and nation in which they
occurred.
They raise the standard of human excellence, and by
showing what man has done, exhibits what he may do.