The Massachusetts spy, and Worcester County advertiser. [volume] ([Worcester, Mass.]) 1825-1831, 1830-01-20
From the Spirit and Manners ofthe Age.
FRAGMENTS OF THE ANTEDILU-
WAN DIARY.
BY MISS JEWsBURY.

FRAGMENTS OF THE ANTEDILU-
WAN DIARY.
BY MISS JEwsBURY.
Reflections of JNethuseLeh IN has youth-i,l
middle Gge-amd IN old age.
To-day am hundred years old. How
blissful are the feelings of boyhood! My
senses are acute as the tree with the shrink
ing leaf My blood bounds through nv
veins as the river pours through the valley,
rejoicing in its strength. Life lies before
me like another plain of Shinar-vast, un-
occupied. inviting-I will fill it with achieve
ments and pleasures In about sixty years
it will be time for me to think of marrying
my kinswoman Zillah, will, by that time,
have emerged from girlhood she already
gives promise, hear, of comeliness and dis
erection. Twenty years hence, will pay a
visit to her father, that | may see how she
grows; meanwhile, | will build a city to
receive her when she becomes my wife.
Nearly three centuries have passed since
my marriage. Can it be? 1t seems but
yesterday since sported like a young an
telope, round my fathers tent, or, climbing
the dark cedars, nestled like bird among
the thick boughs-and now am a man in
authority, as well as in the prime of life. l
lead out my trained servants to the fight, and
sit at the head of the council. beneath the
very tree, where, as an infant, my mother laid
me to sleep. Jazed, my youngest born, a
lovely babe of thirty summers, is dead: but
| have four goodiy sons remaining. And
my three daughters are fair as their mother,
when | first met her in the Acacia grove,
where now stands one of my city watch
towers. They are the pride of the plain,
no less for their requirements than their
beauty. No damsel carries the pitcher from
the fountain with the grace of Adah, none
can dry the summer fruit like Azubah-and
none can fashion robe of skins with the
skill of Micah. When their cousin Maha-
leel has seen another half century, he shall
take the choice of the three.
My eight hundredth birth day And
now feel the approach of age and infirm-
ty. My beard is become white as the BIOS
SONS of the almond tree. am constrained
20 use staff when journey the stars
look less bright than formerly the flowers
smell less odorous; have laid Zilah in
the tomb of the rock; Micah is gone to the
dwelling of Mahaleel; my sons take nv
place at the council and in the field; all is
changed The long future is become the
short past. The earth is full of violence ;
the ancient 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 peo-
pie; all is changed. The beasts of the
field, and monsters of the deep, growl and
press on US with unwonted fury traditions,
visions, and threatenings 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 l.
in very deed, trod this earth nearly thou
sand years? 1t is false, am yet a boy
have had dream:-a long, long busy
dream; Of buying and selling; marrying
and giving in marriage; of building and
planting; feasting and warning sorrow.
ing and rejoicing loving and hating
but it lis false to call it life. Go to-
it has been a vision of the night; and now
| am awake, will forget it. "Lamech
my son, how long is it since we planted the
garden of oaks beside the river? Was i,
not yesterday" "My father, dost thou
sport ? Those oaks cast broad shadows
when my sister carried me beneath them in
her arms, and wove me chaplets of then
leaves" Thou art right my son; and am
old. Lead me to thy mothers tomb, and
there leave me to mediate. What am
the better for my past being? Where will
be its records when am gone? They are
yonder-on all sides. Will those niassy
towers fall ? Will those golden plains be-
come desolate? Will the children that cal
me father forget? The seers utter dark
sayings upon their harps, when they sing
of the future; they say our descendant:
shall be men of dwindled stature; that the
years of their lives shall be contracted tc
the span of our boyhood; but what is thai
future to me? | have listened to the tale.
OF Paradise-nay, in the blue distance.
have seen the dark tops of its cedars.
have heard the solemn melodies of Juba
when he sat on the sea shore, and the sounr
Of the waves mingled with his harpinr.
have seen angels the visitants of men
have seen an end to all Professionalism !,
the future to me?
IMAGINATION. There is now in the Maisor
do Sante, IN Rouon, patient, who is fully i'm
pressed with the belief that he wns killed n
the battle of Austerlitz, at which he was. il
fact, present, and received a wound. If hi
health is inquired after, he answers. g Yon mr.,
asking for NJ. Lambert, but M lambert Is n,
Ill III.