The Rhode-Island Republican. [volume] (Newport, R.I.) 1809-1841, 1835-01-07
THE NEW-YEAR.

If1E NEW 1EAK.
Since the publication of our last number another
of the years of Old Father Time has expired, and
is now numbered with the years beyond the flood.
While we offer the usual greetings of Happy
New Year" to friends and patrons, will avail
ourselves of the occasion, to make few reflections
upon this important subject.
The past year with its seed time and its harvest,
its storms and its sunshine, hopes and its fears its
Joys and its sorrows, its and its pleasures, its
promises Of veal and its Inenaces of woe are gone
and with them too are gone millions of our fellow
men, the old the young the rich the poor the beau
tiful and the homely-al gone to that bourn whence
no traveller returns. What then is time to and
what is the lesson which it teaches The past can
be recalled and the future is entirely beyond
our reach. Seize upon the moment it flies.
That which thy hand findeth to do, do quickly.
Wait not for opportunity, it is the suggards apology.
Trust not to fortune, it is the characteristic of the
fool Resolve to be useful nop that your reflections
may be happy tomorrow. Cultivate by all means
habits of industry, temperance and benevolence,
that we may possess within ourselves resources for
happiness which the fowns favors of the world
cannot destroy. What is time to us, who now tread
the stage of human life, if we fail seasonably per-
form respective parts in its ever changing
Let deceive ourselves by the fond anticipa-
ton that there is reserved for us in the of flu
turty some fanced boon ofhappness richer than any
we have yet enjoyed. Leave the future not to take
of ITSELF but to be taken of when it arrives
Sufficient for us is proper employment of the time
present. This it is, which taught in human means
can do it, will the greatest possible amount OF
the worlds comforts, and the worlds enjoyment
How long shall man continue to deceive himself and
prove the deadliest foe to his own happiness How
long shall he continue to shut his eyes to the lesson
of experience and the accumulated wisdom of ages
How little do we know that which we are
How less what we may be The eternal surge
OF time and tide rolls on, and bears afar
Our bubbles; as the old burst, new emerge,
Lashd from the foam of ages while the graves
OF Empires heave but like some passing waves"
Such was the song of one who like the past year
has run his course and whose ashes now mingle
with the clods of the valley What is time to him
What is it to Napoleon--to Caesar or Alexander
What to the millions of the human race, who in
ages past have gone down to the tombl Less than
dream--it is nothing. Nation has succeeded ma
tion empire followed empire, rising and falling in
perpetual succession, till like the of the
they dash are broken and lost the distant shores
of the continent. Let then course be onward
With the past we have nothing to do further than
to derive what advantage may from the lessons
of experience. In the present have certain in
terest and in it all that is certain valuable in life
is involved. Let us then to n sense of oul
situation. Let take just views of our nature anc
our capacity. Let us resolve at once to shake of
the dross from the mind well as the body. lie
us look upon ourselves men, the highest orde
of created beings of which we have any knowledge
Let us awake to a consciousness of the obligations
we owe not only to each other, but to Him wh'
created us and let far lose sight of th'
great end of existence, viz. happiness, as tt
surrender the body slave to habits which will dc
stroy it, or our minds notions, which may confus
and bewilder it in its search after truth Anon!
things certain on earth can be more so, thar
that the mind of man is the gift of that Being VIII
gave it existence.