Baton-Rouge gazette. [volume] (Baton-Rouge, La.) 1819-1856, 1843-07-08
FROM "STRIFE AND PEACE"
BY FREDERIKA BREMER.

You would raise my look TO heaven out
what is the splendor Of the sun to the eye
that no longer sees? What is the power of
melody to the ear that hears no more! What
is all thatvis beautiful, and all that is good up
on the earth, to the heart that is dead-that is
turned to stone by long, hard Imprisonment!
Oh, my friend, | am unworthy of your conso-
lation, of your reviving words. My soul re-
bells against them, and throws from her, as,
swords, words, words" which have sounded
great and beautiful for thousands of years,
| while thousands of souls have been dumb in
unconsoled misery.
Hope? | have hoped so long, have 80
long said to myself a better day will come.
The path of duty leads to the heaven OF peace
and light, let the way be ever SO thorny. Go
only steadfastly on, weary pilgrim, 60, 60, and
thou shalt reach the promised land. And |
have gone on-have passed through the long
weary days of more than thirty years. But
the way l~engthens itself out, farther and far
ther-one after another my hopes have with
e%red-died away. | see now no goal before
me, none-but the grave!
Love, love? Oh! if you know what an
inexpressible bitter feeling this world awa-
kens in me! Have | not loved, deeply loved
And what fruit has my love borne! 1t has
broken my heart, and brought misery to those
to those whom | loved. 1t is in vain you con-
tend with a belief which has taken deep root
in my mind-I believe that there are those
who are born predestined to misfortune !;
whatever approaches them must share their
misery and | believe that | am one Of these.
Let me, then, fly from mankind fly from every
feeling that could bind me to them. Why
should | cause more sorrow than l have alrea-
dy done.
Hast thou heard, in deep caverns, the falling
of the water-drop, as with its heavy, unceas-
ing, wasting fall, it wears away the ground
Hast thou heard the murmuring of the brook,
that flows gaily between green banks, while
nodding flowers and the bright lights of hea-
ven are mirrored in its waves? Then hast
thou seen the images Of the two kinds Of quiet
| life, which are as different from one another
as heaven is from hell.
May was passing away and June approach
ed. From their nests in the airy, leaf-coIored
grottoes that nature had formed for them, they
sent forth their low pleasant whistle and their
lovely warblings. The woods of Norway were
filled with song and fragrance. The peasant
maiden leads her herds to the Saeter valleys,
singing as she goes.
It is spring; the aged poet wanders through
wood and meadow, in the regions where he
had formerly sung where he had once been
happy. Now his voice is broken, his strength,
his fire gone. The shadow of what he has
been, he wanders through the young world
fresh with new life. The birds of the Spring
gather about him, bid him welcome, and en-
treat him to take his harp, and sing the new
born year, the laughing Spring.
1t is with our faults as with the Charlocks;
where it has once taken root, it is almost i'm
possible to e~xtirpate It; and nothing is more
~disceMaaing to the farmer, than while he sees
the weeds that he has torn up, yet lying about
him, to find new shoots spring from the roots
that are still concealed in the ground. Well
may he wax impatient with the weedy soil
and when this soil is the dear /, the only plea
sure we can know is in travelling as fast and
as far as possible from ourselves.
Among the many noble capacities of man,
is that Of being able to judge and condemn
himself. And if we are justly displeased with
one if we have been injured or offended by
word or deed, we should rely upon this eapa-
city, and let our reliance exert a soothing in
huence over our feelings. For, while we are
resenting the offence, perhaps he who has Of
Tended us is g~rieving in silence /; perhaps be
wakes through tue iuiSb hcuiS VI
to accuse himself before the stern tribunal of
his conscicucc-and the nobler he is, so much
the greater will be his remorse, for those Of
fences of which the tribunals of the world take
no account. He cannot pardon himself, ex-
cept in resolving to make atonement for bis
fault, and, in this painful hour, this hope is his
only consolation.
There is sorrow and care upon the earth
! Il 1870 - - -.l,,a.- l1,rnr an1 innr
| silent, wasting misery. But, God be praised.
these are not all. The cath holds, too, the
good, the beautiful-hearts that have not been
blighted. Life has its moments of raptures,
its years of blessed peace, gay marriage feasts,
and peaceful, holy death-beds.
u The notorious Major Davezac made a
speech at repeal meeting in New York,
l,,,Ir ia (which he caiI ha a raIoirea thar M