Burlington free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1827-1865, 1839-03-08

wrinkled face. over which the tears were
now falling. She said, Dear mother and
| father. and all, and James too, if he were
here, ] wish | could tell you how love you
| all, and how happy l I'm in the thought
that you love me, and will learn more and
more to love God The flush deepcned
over her cheeks-faded-returred-fad
again-and her eyes grew dim, and her
lips whi'e-but they still murmured. u
wish I could spread my arms and take up
The whole world, and bring them She
ceased to look or speak; but soon again
opened her eyes on her mother. Kiss me
mother. | cannot speak, but | am quite hap.
py, quite. am going to my husband, and
my poor baby, and God who is all IN all.
Good bye, dear friends -good--good by.
| shall never see Brentwood again-but'-
and she was gone from earth.
CHAPTER VI.
Henry's Papers.
How hard a work is life! The system
of things which | live IN lays on me certain
urccasing tasks, but gives me no sufficient
strength to fulfil them. The strong gIadi-
ator drags me into the arena of struggle
that we call the world, and then and there
it strikes and bruises me. and compels me
to fight. yet with the certainty that | must
be overcome and die. THIS very system
awakens in me the feeling that am fit for
something better. 1t gives me a sense of
peace, which it will not let me realise
Like a divine muse, it sings into my heart
a song Of mercy and hope, and at the same
time. with the ta!ons Of a fury, rends and
strangles me.
| have been twen'y.three years in this
visible world. For seven, partly from the
foolish affection of others. partly from their
selfish carelessness, | suffered evils that |
did no, understand, and nv qualifications
were slight and baseless. Yet, in looking
back even on this early part. it wears a
certain brightness which it never had in
reality pleasures, that were trivial in the
enjoyment, seem in the retrospect sublime.
Whence, then, comes the subllmity? 1t
must be from my present self, from the
creative power Of my feelings and imagi.
able to extend over the images Of the past,
when | would grasp and embody it as an
actual good, fades and vanisIes; only the
Distant shines,t the Near is pale and gloomy.
Thus. all we see Of beauty and bliss is but
the feast OF Tantnlus. which melts when
we approach in the Internal air. My boy.
hood was a time of strong and conscious
growth. But I had the pains OF the pro
cess. and never have known the peaceful
fruits Of it. then enlarged my knowledge
Of Nature and its forms, and increased my
love Of them. But that passion, ardent
and tender at the first. and yielding many
delightful hopes, has always ended in sor>
row. The Nymphs have all in turn shrunk
beneath their waters and into their caves,
and left the enamoured boy to stare at the
blank solitude. The enthusiasm Of youth.
full hope and belief, kindled in the awaken
ing consciousness by the shapes Of Life and
Reality, never finds a future adequate to
its demands. 1t but enlarges the heart to
hold a larger portion of disappointment.
Now that | am a man, | have faculties. in.
deed, which enable me to discern the prin-
ciples Of things, and to embody these in
lively images, and to devise lines of ex'en
sive action. But my heart is wearied and
saddcncd by i'll success; want q field Of
movement Z; and langulsh without sympathy
IIb'U tiOoC Iounu ub'' hlbC u Pupl
whom | must teach, but who will hardly
learn; and employers or patrons who re.
gard me but as the mental groom of their
favourite and costly horse. They would
not give a shilling to save the servant
life: but n hundred pounds 10 rescue thai
Of the animal.
Verify it seems TO me that the Life we
know is all a delusion. We sometime,
pierce the covering, and find blackness ant
hoIlowness within. We arc told, indeed
that inside this, in turn. there is ! know
not what treasure-a gem, a light, an eye
a magical remedy, But NAV not this, too
be n delusion? Who knows? have seer
a French sugar p.um.box with a picture o
{ a watch upon the cover. to indicate tina
there was a watch within; but, on openin!
it. the watch was found to be of painte'
!, and gilt sugar. as false us the outward i'm
age. 1t is the cry OF moralists, and tn,
curse OF our nature, that oil fair things see
by man turn into clay, and lastly he himself
; The adaptation, so often trumpeted, o
man to the system of nature, is, | think, a
best but as the relation of a line to its par
allel. Their very parallelism secures tina
! they shall never meet. Man works o
, wheels, but these will not fit the groove
Q they seem designed for, and can only NOV
outside Of them in the irregular rut whic
they have broken for themselves.
Human life has evidently desires tina
e human life can never satisfy. What is tn
remedy for this evil? Apparently, none
e possible. The very terms seem to involv
a hopeless contradiction. 1t is indeed sale
g that faith 10 God helps US out of the diff
Guilty, and raises man above himself. Bv
when | ask my teacher what he means b
the Deity, receive either no answer {
'e worse than none. One says, the Create
m Of all things. But this tells me nothing
Of the kind of Being who created all. I'll
re rat that turks in the crannies Of a castl
a.. ooI a., buntod ont lo;d ami, E.. l.:l. I....