Virginia free press. (Charlestown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1832-1916, 1849-03-29
MISCELLAN EOUS
TINE AND ETERNITY.


Time and eternity2 What a crowd of
thoughts and feelings-of doubts and fears,
rush over the human soul at these two words ;
so awful in their import, and SO sublime in
thei. very sound, fall upon the ear What a
volume of intense thought imparts itself as
it we're, upon the mind, when it is associated
with the succession Of countless ages that
marks the progress of time, or when it en-
deavors to penetrate the dark shadows that
hang like walls of adamant, before the mys-
terious passage that leads TO eternity and
through which every creature must pass be-
fore reaching the glorious realms Of immor-
tality
With what ease the imagination stretches
back over the thousands of years that have
elapsed since the creation-with what ease
it can grasp millions yet to be measured by
revolving planets; from the mighty source
of time eternity But when it endeavors
to form conception of that which was nei-
Their beginning nor end--when it seeks to
comprehend one eternal immeasurable dura-
tion, cycle or limit,-its weakness and inc
quality to the task, shows clearly that God
has severed time from eternity, and given
it to man, and that lie can never pry into the
secrets of the eternal world, until the Al
mighty shall reveal them to,time When
/, that time shall come When the vigorous
and unfettered spirit shall futter over the
threshold Of time through ,sfs portals Of
eternity, and then soar away to the everlast.
ing from whence 1t came-when that time
shall come, he may feel himself an immortal
being, endowed with god like faculties and
look down upon the shining bodies describing
their domestic circles, with the sensations OF
one who appreciates their gra1dure, and re-
verses the power that produces their sublime
evolutions
If We look back to the dark wrecks Of
mortality that lie in the pathway of Time,
where shall We fnd an object uninjured by
his destroying touch.
The brightest names enrolled on the page
of history-how are they dimmed by the
lapse of cepturiesl Let the minds eye
glance back into darkness of the past, and
! rest upon some of the amighty ones Of the
earth" who have successfully shaken the
world with the gigantic power Of their in
tellect, and are nov sleeping in their silent
graves unconscious of the voice Of fame
that sweeps in dying numbers above them
and is fast sinking to silence amid the mighty
cycles Of Time An Alexander HanDi
bali Napoleon Washington
The mightiest effort Of the most.fertilc
imagination cannot recall their great deeds
and invest them with even a seeming reali
I ty Their names are fast disappearing il
| the interminable gulf Of oblivion 1.-The brigh
glory of their superhuman exertions vii
soon be extinguished in the eternal dark
ness of TIL tomb of buried years. 1t ma,
| be thought that this can scarcely be said o
our good and noble Washington; but til
brightest things of earth are doomed to b
forgotten in the succession of ages Whel
thousand years shall have rolled away will
all their varied scenes Of crime, blood ant
horror, sweeping countless mEriads Of hu
man beings into their graves, raising up IN
Vulnerable aspirants to fame, will be be re
membered as the great founder Of this vas
Republic2 True, his name may be remem
bered, but it viii BE- cold and glittering iik
those Of the heroes Of ancient days is..s
The existence Of Time cannot be said {
have commenced at the creation Of thi
1, world nor IS it certain that both will cease t
be at the same time But period viii Al
rive when 10th shall be destroyed; whe
the earth with its mountains, seas, rivers
forests and plains, shall give place as on
vast empty roid--whens the sun shall n
longer dart his bright rays through Ii
realms Of illimitable space but the radianc
Of Heaven shall illuminate its remotest r
! eions; and Time shall be rolled into Ste
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