Weekly miners' express. (DuBuque, Iowa) 184?-1849, 1848-02-23
WASTE or MIND.

human race die before they reach the age OF
ten years. And that of the remaining half,
20 feWsrench the age of three score years
and ten, that mean length Of human life is
cut down or reduced to about thirty-fve
years. Inherited diseases, disasters, priva-
tions, neglect, and malpractice, sever tie
thread before il has spun half its length
After all and every deduction is made, how
much life is sacrificed to ignorance--to the
fact that the material part of man 'lords it
over the intellectual Some brute pas
sion, linking US to beasts sao,n,aiia geans
homo--drves tho vehicle Of life across the
stage, and the consequences is, to use a new
illustration, the passenger--intellect--is GUS
ted from his seat in the body, leaving the
vehicle smashed and useless. But the num-
Der OF abbreviated existences has its counter
part in the number of premature dead souls
Tho waste of mind, bow4vast! What de-
vastation Of human mind!
We were reading the other day of a tribe
of S0uth-Africans, who excayate cavity
in the earth, stick over 1t few bushes. and
there live. Live! no, vegctate-that's the
word. When impelled by hunger, they run
down some animal, strip and devour it, aud
betake themselves to their hole, to doze a.
gain. till forced to repeat the process. But
why! Havn't they minds! Could they be
Millions, Bacons, Washingtons, Franklins!
Wetread on delicate grounds but why could
they not! Not because they havn't minds.
Give them the ideas and training of civilz-
alton, unearth and polish these mbedded
and becrusted intellects, and why shall they
not shine! II, as Gray says,
Full many gem ofpurcst ray serene
The dark. unfathomed caves Of ocean bear;'
IRE there not gems of as pure ray in the
holes Of South Africa! Certainly. They
shine. They only need trimming and
lighting. and though: shall send its ray a.
broad.
We have always been moved with ten
der regret. whenever we read 'the elegy in
the country church yard and we have be.
lieved that there were no more buried minds
In Stoke Pogeis, than in any other country
village, or city either. Millions village
Hampdens, and Cromwells, are not confined
10 one spot. We know not how plentiful
they are. How many gems have never put
forth. in the refreshing luxuriaEce of the
tropics, simply, because they fell not in a
well-fitted globe. That little ragged urch-
in, an unlocked cub, guiltless OF soap, is a
very repulsive case to contain mind. But
tbs there; and, in thousands of cases, there
will remain undeveloped and unknown, ex-
cept as 1t plays truant in shrewd tricks and
vulgar witticisms,
lis melancholy theme, rendered more
60, by the fact that knowledge is so free
considering the pleasure Of the toll so
cheap. All those troops of idlers. that saun-
ter by you on sunny day, might expatiate
untiring in the aerial regions of thought,
and float on easy wing far above their pre-
sent earth-worm grovelling; might glow in
sympathy with the loftiest intel1ects and
from the heights Of mental elevation, difec,
the winding files Of generations to more
green dales and Arcadian dells.
When we see felow-rnan, content to
travel his perpetual round in the same path,
covered with his own dust, satisfied if he
can
Thick the out and line the inside
and, when the harness is flung off at night
wishes no higher bliss, than to doze in his
stnll till another day puts him in the ever
lasting traces--ncver knowing the pure
pleasure Of securing fresh idea, never re.
joising in being called father 10 some orrei
nal c0nception--when we see him, we dc
mourn over him, as the Improbable servant
who has buried his own talent in the earth
and has gone to trade entirely on 6orropeo
capital.
We'll. our readers may think we have a
mouruftl time it. NE do, sometimes.
There's enough in this world to make any
man mournful, who looks out On life thro
q transparent. colorless medium It has ts
pleasurs. But they are not where the ma
ny seek them lin money getting, pleasure
hunting. and liLertinism. They are shut
knf,x e.
found in students closets, flow from vel
disciplined lntellects and wisely -trainet
hcarts. Comparing what man might be, i,
knowledge and mental power, and what he
might do, exploring the domain of science
with what lie il, and what he does ,.oi do
who disscnts from the exclamation, what ,
waste Of mind: Cabinet
.UcricGn I'r0gress.--A correspondent O
the New Orleans picayune in speaking o
the "advnnce of utilization and til,
s'narcl, q Improvement says: "This ha
become quite an American town. and il
proof Of the flct, he adds:
zone hears English spoken at every step
i e becoming quite fashionable with In,
natives. was surprised at hearing SO ma
~ Mexicans speak it. Some, too, are lear
ming the sirongesfparts the language, sucl
80 eathes and other delicate phrases.
4 was very much amused the other day /,
hear = beggar boy, who had heretofore beg
ged ~ Cas.iliian, but DESTROYS Of keeping
pace with the marchof Improvements, had
evidently been taking lessons Of some vol
untces, and now be begs in pure English,
llus-ttive this Door, blind b'hoy bit; for
Re sis one ne The J'hoys. and DIN his eyes II
lie II ANYTHING elsets Hero rnu $40 ~