American Republican and Baltimore daily clipper. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1844-1846, 1845-03-22

CONFINEMENT. Few men are contented
with their condition in life. Rich or poor
healthy or dseased-each has some real or
imaginary grief which makes him discomfort
ed with his lot. The ma jority of mankind
pass through life dissatisfied and grumbling,
and it therefore gives us real pleasure when we
come across man advanced in years, who is
cheerful and happy; and such an one is found
in Gran. Thorburn, who, in Il late letter to the
editor of the Boston Courier, gives the follow
the true philosopher, who, like Mr.. Thorburn,
enjoys the blessings Of life with thankfuness TO
Providence, and takes its reverses with submits
sve resignation. More than three score and
ten years Of age, Mr.. Thorbum enjoys elast-
city of body and mind, and, what is better, re-
fers the blessings of health and vigor of intel
lect which he possesses, TO the "kind mercies Of
a bountitul Providence" We commend the
annexed extract from his letter to the consider
alton of all who would be "healthy, happy and
wise" It is as follows;
"For my own part, think have received
more of the kind mercies of bountitul Prov-
dence than falls to the lot of most men. Dur
ing the fifty years | have been in America
have not been confined by sickness one day.
have three sons and three daughters, not one
of whom has given me a sore heart; | have
twenty-six grand children, two Of them unmar-
ried. am now in my seventy-thiId year; my
health as good, my personal feelings as COM
Portable, and my heart as light as it was when
in my twentieth year. | read without specta-
ces, In fact, my spirits at times are so buoy
ant that am obliged to let off steam by writing
some abstract, unconnected, and incoherent
ideas-Eke Goblet and his pigs, for instance;
else think sometimes the boiler in my small
carcase would burst with pure delight There
is another item among my mercies OH which
| Though old) look back with delight; that is,
the pretty Yankee girl who became my wife
was the first young woman in whose private
company had spent ten minutes; yes, and the
! first ,chose lips / erer tasted You will laugh at
this; be it so, better laugh than cry-the mer
~ man lives as long as the sad-so says Solo
mon and, were to begin my life anew, would
Just manage my treaty of peace with the lasses
after the same mode and form. This little soul
of ours is curious little article; heart and flesh
may fail, (though in my case feel it not,) yet
in the pleasures of memory the soul is as much
alive in retrospect as it was fifty years ago
! In my mind | have sometimes compared the
soul to the boiler, and the limbs, eyes, and
ears to the machinery the machinery wears out
| by using, and wont answer the impulse of the
first moving cause; yet the fire and the steam
are the same. The man of eighty, whose eyes
are dim, whose ears are shut, and whose arm
has been struck with palsy, by the impulse of
the soul he may try to raise his arm; it won't
answer TO the motions of the soul, because the
machinery of the arm is dead, though the soul
is as much alive as when first breathed into the
carcase of clay. Seeing me as active, lively,
and young in appearance as was forty years
ago. am asked by my friends how live?
never was drunk in my life, and | never eat
enough; seldom sit ten minutes at table, and
could eat as much more were to sit till my ap-
petite was cloyed.'