ree discussion will gradually eliminate error,
and out of the multitudinous rays of different colors, diffused
throughout society, will eventually come that perfect combination which
constitutes the clear, pure, homogeneous light of truth. And even
pending the early struggle and confusion which attend the inauguration
of a free press, divergencies of opinion, ever tending to harmony,
cannot become so great as to produce fatal effects. The rebellion of the
Southern States of this Union could never have happened, in the presence
of universal education and of a free press, whose emanations could have
penetrated as widely as those which reach the people of the opposite
section.

In view of the high functions of the press and its immense influence in
the nation,--its perpetual daily lessons, falling on the public mind
like drops that wear away the hardest rock and work their channel where
they will,--it is of the first importance to comprehend the power behind
this imperial throne, which directs and controls it. Does it assume to
originate and establish principles in government and morals? Or does it
aspire only to the humbler office of propagating such ideas as have been
sanctioned by the best judgment of the age, of illustrating their
operation, and making them acceptable to the people? The fugitive essays
and hurried comments on passing events, which fill the columns of
newspapers, do not ordinarily constitute solid foundations on which the
principles of social or political action can be safely established. The
men usually employed in this work of distributing ideas, are not they
who are capable of building up substantial systems by the slow process
of induction, or who can, by the opposite system, apply great general
truths to the purposes of national prosperity and happiness. They are
far too much engaged in the active business of life,--too deeply
involved in the strifes and turmoils of mankind,--too thoroughly imbued
with the spirit of the passing hour, with all its passions and
prejudices--to be the philosophic guides of humanity, and to lay down,
with the serene logic of truth, the bases of moral and political
progress. The inevitable sympathy between the editor and his daily
readers--the action and reaction which constantly take place and
insensibly lead the journalist into the paths of popular opinion and
passion--these are too apt to render him altogether unfit to be an
oracle in the great work of social organiza