The Evansville journal. (Evansville, Ind.) 1834-184?, 1847-01-07
From the Louisville Journal.
THE NEW vEAp

into the world. and the old year is dead
Another wave has sunk into the dead levelof
the tide of time. Another year has gone
"wiuh the years beyond the food" and with
the less dim years, over which hover, like
stars, the memories OF Thermopyle and Mar
athon, Of Christ born for the salvation oil men,
and of the mpershabIe glories of nations
and humanity. The past has received into
its bosom another year, and is richer with its
added memories and buried hopes, its pene
irating SORROWS and beautiful affections,
which are not dead but still haunt the heart
with no noble membranes, so beautifully
called the hopes of the fnture-.lJe born of
deah! So the world goes on, with another
year given to memory and yet another born
to hope. OF memory and hope is wrought
the life of man. These complete the circle
| ofhis existence. For, 10 him, by an.unaier-
able law Of his being, the present is nothing
but as the realization of the past or the prom
Use of the future. This day is the dividing
line between hope and memory, The future and
the past, on which men pause, as the travel
Ter upon some emlnence, 10 review their past
labor and mark out course for their future
progress Eeui. ist.aak .as'..I.r5
Therefore is itnot altogether a day OF un.
mingled rejoicing. Ii is with the soul a
twilight hour of thought, at once hopeful and
Retrospective, in which It lies beneath the
shadow of The past and the brightness of the
future. 1t looks back with sober pensive-
ness and forward with pleasant expect alton.
The hopes of the past. which have failed TO
be realities, and yet like calm and fading
stars, in still and moveless Heaven; whilst
new hopes glow, like first spendors of a ri
sing sun, along the horizon Of the coming
time. ReveFently then, should the soul be
bowed as in the morning prayer of one, who
feels that day Of great labor and high ex-
pectationis before him. $50 q 81 -9.lag Il
Hope aud memory Jhoa who ST Il its5ff
secrated TO you! This is your festival, aud
thought goes solemnly back into the past
and with the eagerness OF prophecy far on
ward in the future. Memory and Hope tits
Of you that we would speak to-day, n1sJl
A deed is done, and The hour of its accom-
plishneht passes. But il leaves record Of
what man can or may do under similar cit
cumsiances Ii is the ascertaned effect OF
the combination OF certain powers; and IS
monitory or inductive in its influence. This
is what men call lesson, a thing,whcll rises
like star frsm that which gave i; birth ana
points brilliantly TO rphat 1cds and yetmay be!
No deed, or fact, is preserved unless lis les
son IS worth remembering. If it is such, ii
is sure 10 find fitting record. Virere forteS
ante AgamemnonG, SC, is but a false sentl-
ment If great men had lived before Ag
memnon they would have left useful lesson
for ther kind; and their deeds would have
Icreated poets, orators, and historians 10 give
them fitting commoration. They are no
dead becase they had no poet. They are
dead, unsepulchred in oblivion, because there
was no redeemng moral in their lives. Hat
any one of them added single iola TO thu
wealth of human thought, he had this da
been memory among men. Had ne glvel
the world a great experience, had he bee
an Agamemnon; had he left TO future ages
lesson of mighty will, indom,able patience
and lofty purpose, he would have made tc
himself poets, historians, and orators.
Hence it is that men commemorate tn
past From the grave of things, that were
:" they seek experince-the flower upon tn
tomb. The Assyrian, the Median, the Pc
|
sian, the Macedonian, the Roman, the Call
empires WERE What then? Why nothing
, They were but the splendid phantasmagor
l. of dream, if they left no lessonto the worl'
lThey offered magnificent spectacles to ii
. view. Their armed phalanxes vexed tn
world with sword and torch, and the a
4 rustled with their banners and was shake
with their trumpet calls. And yet to-day +,
but mere spectacles, they we're forgoite
a among men. What brought these vast hos
together? What radical, social evils dro'
them from the hearth to the battle-held?-
What excited them 10 this wild and insa
- bic spirit of conqust2 And why did pow
{ which had its foundations broad and deep
hundred conquered nations, and which W
cemented by the most brilliant achievement
I'd ever wrought by mere human valor, fat
away like the insubsIantial creation oil
IL; dream? These are the great quesIio
+ which the history of those times resolve
or and from them, therefore, we have great IL
sons.
So il is with individual life. The pi
re- would be nothing 10 us were it not for
surviving influences and permanent lessor
That we have done so and so, is nothing.
But that our past conduct has affected,
does afect,our happness,is an important ia
Ire That we have our own dragons teeth,
nothing; but that armed men should ha
us sprung from them is pregnant with thou!
aud action. That those we love have &c
- down into the silent grave would be nolh
were it not Tor the pleasant communion,
going love and hopes OF which de