Lancaster gazette. [volume] (Lancaster, Mass.) 1828-1830, 1828-06-17
MORAL.
FOR THE LANCASTER GAZETTE.


"When consider life, it's all cheat
Men fooled with hope, yet favour the deceit;
Trust on and think tomorrow will repay
Tomorrow Is falser than the former day."
The truth of these lines is almost too
obvious to admit of illustration for the
hopes of man, as far as this world is con-
cerned, have bloomed but to fade. A desire
to look into futurity is one distinction OF
thinking and immortal being. 1t was this
which gave the oracles of the Pagan world
their force and their influence; it was this
that afterwards led man to astrology, and
hope to read in the motions of the stars,
switch are the poetry of heaven" some
glimpses of the fate marked out for him. 1t
is still this desire which leads the lovers of
lingering superstition to the haunts of the
gypsey and the fortune-teller. How much
both of happiness and anxiety has it caused!
The lover hopes the possession of his object
will bring to him unmingled felicity, and life
be one long summer day-dream of delight.
The mother bends over the cradle of her
infant, and marks in her Imagination the
first dawn of an intellect which may hereaf-
ter obtain influence and distinction. She
thinks not of the thousand ills that may as
sail its being, of sickness that may impede
its exertions or crush its intellect Of tempt
alton and sin which may sully its purity and
destroy its hopes; of that tyrant power
which may snatch it from her embrace, Just
when promise is frightening into perform
ance. The benevolent man forms schemes
Of charity and of good to the human race,
and forgets amid his dreams of utility how
often he will be Disguised with the ingrati-
tude, or his heart sicken at the helplessness,
of mankind. The ambitious man looks for
ward to the conquest of obstacle after
obstacle, until he thinks "that one step
higher will set him highest" thoughtless
that the attainment is difficult, and its joys,
when reached, scarcely worth the effort.
The scholar spends years in the pursuit of
knowledge, and POUNDS new institutions of
literature, thinking that every one will press
to him for instruction-as to a worlds last
hope Of renovation and Improvement. 1t is
all in vain. The lover and the parent-he
whose heart is warmed by the delights of
benevolence, or the hopes Of ambition, or the
pursuits of learning-each, and all, are alike
fated to disappointment. Each pursues his
object like the boy who chases the horizon,
every moment thinking he is nearer his end,
until he falls at last painting and exhausted,
the meeting of the earth and sky far as ever
from his reach. Every ones hope is like
the beautiful reflection of the setting sun on
the summers cloud, bright and glowing
while it lasts, but soon to fade into twilight
and shadows. have spoken only Of hopes
of happiness disappointed. But there is,
besides these, to diminish our enjoyment,
the fears of coming evil-evil which, though
foreseen, cannot be avoided. Human effort
cannot avail US, for we are in the hands Of
an Omnipotent Being the attainment of our
hopes, the avoidance of our fears, alike be-
) OAAO SuA ANoS4Is II tI14o UC 6OJ WlSIG Is QUIZ
refuge from the evils of deluded hope
where but to the only hope which cannot
fail us-the certain anticipation of the chris
tian's heaven. There the soul may 60 on
in new plans of benevolence, without fear
ing disappointment or fatigue. No power
can battle its pursuit. World after world in
the unknown region of unlimited space may
there rise to its knowledge; law after law
of the divine government may there be de-
veloped and explained. Order after order
of immortal spirits press forward to its ac-
quaintance. The pure beings Who once
lived here, too, and added SO much to the
welfare of mankind, may there recount their
former disappointments, and triumph at their
present success. AS to the soul itself
- above or hope or fear,
1t lives all passionless and pure"