Breathe In. Breathe Out!

Some would say the following quote from a popular magazine article is emblematic of our age. It reads in part:

“It is a gloomy moment in history. Not for many years has there been so much grave and deep apprehension. Never has the future seemed so incalculable as now … the political cauldron seethes and bubbles. It’s a solemn moment, and no one can feel an indifference. And yet, the very haste to be rich, which is the occasion of so much widespread calamity, has also tended to destroy the moral forces with which we are to resist and subdue the calamity!”

Some would say that quote sounds like an editorial in yesterday’s newspaper. In reality, it’s from a “Harper’s Weekly” magazine article dated October 10th, 1857 — almost one-hundred-and-fifty years ago! “A seething political climate — grave apprehension — the hasty pursuit of riches destroying the moral forces of society.” Sound familiar? As the saying goes, “everything old is new again.”

We…