Virginia advocate. [volume] (Charlottesville, Va.) 1827-1860, 1830-01-08

FsoN TifE SrrEIr AND M,SxRrs or THE A O..
/, fAAGSnAas oE AN ANrEDiLUvlAN. DIARY.
I BY MISC JEwsBUET
Reflections Of .it,haSa'ca IN his ,iou:h ia miid
! Nc dgeLGnd IN oid O%r
To-day am an hundred years old. Ilo'
blissiul arc the feelings Of boyhood My sense
| are acute as the tree with the shrinking lca
! My blood bounds through nv veins as the rive
pours through the valley, re- ocng in It's strength
Life lies before nae like another plain al Shina
vast. unoccupied, inviting. will fill it will
achievements and pleasures. In about s:xt,
years it will DC time for me to think of marrying
my kinswoman Zillah will by that time hrv,
| emerged grlhuod; she already gives promise
| hear, of comlincss and discretion. Twenty
years hence will paya visit to her father, that
| may see how she grows meanwhile, will build
a city 10 receive her when si,ol Incomes my
wife ~ .atlt
Nearly three centuries have passed since my
marriage. Can i. be: Ii seems but yesterday
since l sportcd like young antelope round my
farther tent or, climbing the dark cedcrs, ncs-
tied like bird among the thick boughs-and
now am a man in authority, as well IS in the
prime of life. / lead ont my trained servants to
the fight, and sit head OF the council, beneath
the very tree where, infant, my mother
laid me to sleep Jazed, my youngest born, love-
" babe of thirty summers, is dead; but j
have four goodly remaining. And my
three daughters are fair as theii mother, when
first met her in the Acician grove, where now
stands one of my city watch-towers. They arc
the pride of the plan, no less for their acquire
ments than their beauty No damsel carries the
pitcher from the fountaihl with the grace OF
Adah, none can dry the summer fruitlike Azubah
and none can fashion robe of skinsswith the
skill of Micah. Wien their cousin NIahalcel
has seen another half century, he shall take the
choice .ofthc three. - hs'
My eight hundrcd,h birth day And now
feel the approach of age and nirmity. My
beard is become white a blossom of tho Ill
mond tree. j am constrained to use staff when
Journey, the stars lock less bright than former
ly, the flowers smell less odirterous have laid
Zillah in the tomb of the rock Milcha is gone
to the dwelling of Mahaleel my sons take my
place at the council and in the field; all is
changed. The lorg future is become the short
and the honorable are sinking beneath The young
and the vicious. The giants stalk through the
length and breadth of the land, where once
dwelt quiet people, all is changed. The
beasts of the field and tho monsters of the deep
growl and press on us with unwontoned fury
traditions visions, and threatnings are abroad.
What fearful doom hangs over this fair world
know not it is enough that am leaving it :
yet another five or eight score years, and the tale
will be complete. But have ], in every deed,
trod this earth nearly thousand years 1t is
false, am vet boy. i have had a dream-a
long, long busy dream; of buying and selling
marrying and giving in marriage; of building
and planting feasting and wanting; sorrowing
and rejoicing; loving and hating, but it is false
to call it a jfe.i Go to-Iit has leen vision of
the night; and now that l am awake, will for
get it. :" Lamech, my son, how long is it since
we planted the garden of oaks beside the river:
Wasit not yesterday ?" e Ny father, dost thou
sportS" Those oaks cast broad shadow when
my sister car,ied me, beneath them in her arms,
and wove me, chapIets of their leaves" ..Thou
art right, my son, and | am old Lead me TO
thy mothers tomb, and there leave me to mcdit-
ate. w NAT am inc better Tor my past length
Of being Where will be its records when
am gone 1hey'are yonder--on all sides Win
those massy towers fall? vii! those golden
plains becomes dcsoate9 VIII the children
that call me father, forget The seefs utter dark
sayings upon their harps, when they sing of the
future they say our defendants shall be men
dwindlod statue; that the years of their lives
shall be contracted to the span Of our boyhood !;
but what is the future TO me / have listened
to tho tales of Paradisc-nay, in the blue dis
lance, have seen the dark tops of its cedcrs-
L have heard the solemn melodies of Jubal
when lie sat on the sea shore, and the sound
of the waves mingled with his harping. have
seen angels the yisitants Of men.--I havc seen
an end of all perfcction-wIat is the n,.nrc to
me'"