Martinsburgh gazette. [volume] (Martinsburgh, Va. [W. Va.]) 1810-1825, 1824-09-30


psrse,
"onc hopeless, dark, idolater Of chance"
SrcLUDeD in the bosom of the High
lands, there is little cluster of houses
overshaddowed by a few old oak trees
which rear their knoity boughs the giants
OF the wood. The name OF this village
may have never reached the ears Of the
inhabitants of this magnificent city; or,
il heard, only been lisienet. to a moment,
rs something distant and dream-likc, and
Then forgotten. There was scarcely a
ny connection between this busy town,
rafting and busting, as the occupations
Of IFS numerous citizens might be heard
far off, like the faint and continued roar
ing of the distant ocean; and the pretty
village on the mountain side-a world
within Itself, marked By its own petty
iogs and sorrows, tri0mphs, AID defeats,
and hearing a few solitary objects of
20 ID and evil, the noble minded and the
. mean, in the narrow and contracted spi-
rit OF its silent beauty. There were no
political braws and newspaper dissen-
sions in that tranquil spot--no flashing
equipage rolledin It's pompous sptendour
along the winding road; aud the voice
of drunken reyeiry, oryou'hful disspa-
ton, came not discordalt over the ru-
raj scene; but Echo, in her silyery
sweetness, caught only the melody of
the grove the music of the sparkling
brook little murmur of the village
sehool-where youth were gently led o
yer the rugged paths Of learning, and
the cawing OF the jet-black crows as they
wheeled aud sported about in the azure
serenity of the summer Sky.
Among the jewellers in this vale of
peace, young Harry Ransom was con-
spicuous for the fluency and power of
his conversation, and the sharp pertness
OF his wit. He was as wild and reck-
less a being as ever trod over the gras-
sy mountain in the unguided career of
buoyant youth. His honest father was
the village cobIer, well-meaning, good
natured. so-so sort of fellow, who
either knew not of, or cared not for his
sons extravagances. His wife, of talk
alive memory, bad long Wondered in
that slumber which no woman's tongue
could break, and Henry was, as the
Irishman remarked, both master and
mistress Of his fathers house. lie
was to have been bred up to the cob
bling establishment of his surviving pa
rent; but he brooked not the lowliness
of that situation-and shrewd friend
remarked, that he "reckoned iial Ram
som had better attend to his own soul,
and not trouble himself with the soies of
his neighbors" lie came and went
therefore at his own undisputed plea
sure, sure of always finding a good meal
at home; and in the restlessness of his
rowing spirit, he wandered up and down
the gigantic mountains, penetrated into
all the dens and rocky caverns he could
fnd-with his gun and trap he searched
out the shadowy secrets of the still for
est, till, with tired frame, he returned
in the evening, tumbed into his straw
bed-awoke- his luncheon. and
sailed forth to pursue the same course
of contempiative rambling. He had
been taught in his earlier youth to read
and write well; and some athestical
books by some remote chance, falling
into his hands, he Gevoured with avidty
their dangerous contents, read all he
could find and imagined more. In his
solitary wanderings, he had full time to
ponder over the wonders Of human life,
TIL at last be arrived ut that stage of re-
Election frequent to those trusting too
implicitly in their own strength of mind,
during which he began to doubt the ex-
istence o: God.
Miserable is the blindness of the men
tai eye-terrible is the darkness which
shrouds the soul in its mysterious gloom.
Better would it be to live in all worldly
pain with blessed futurity awaiting
your approach, like sweethappiness and
love, prepared for the weary wanderer
over the ocean of darkness and storm.
than feel the consciousness of present
being, bewiIdered with the whitening i
dea, that that being must end. Better
that we were drenched in long ages of
agony, triumphing over the gloomy de-
ISOLATION of the heart, If it may only end
at last, than to think that the Joyous soul
can be hurled from its blessed and beau
tiful career OF hope and life into that c
teInal lethargv, that dreamless slum-
ber-thal annihiation of thought, feel
ing, and affection, never again to be a
Weakened into their delicious existence.
SHch an idea to an aspiring r,ind would