The Camden journal. [volume] (Camden, S.C.) 1836-1851, 1849-01-10
From the Home Journal.
THE CLOSING YEAR.

| IL IS UleianSnOlV TASK W IeChoH Will tiis
departed year. To trace back the curious
threads of affection through its many coloreo
woof. and knot anew its broken pIaces.-tc
number the missing objects of interest, the
Head and the negecled-to sum up the bro
ken resolutions. the deferred hopes, the dis.
solved phantoms of anticipation, and the
many wandcrinss from the leading star OF
duty this indeed is a melanchoIy y task but
wilhal, n profitable, and, it may melmes
be, pleasant and soothing one. 1t is
wonderful in what short courses the objects
afihis world move. They are like arrows
feebly shot. A vear-a a brief year, is full OF
Things dWindled and finished and forgotten,
Nothing keeps evenly on. Wha, Is there in
the running calender Of the year that has de-
parcd which has KEEP, its peace and IFS
magnitude! Here and there all aspirant for
fame still stretches after his eluding shadow;
here and there an enthusiast still clings to
his golden dleam-here and there (and a as!
how rareIy) a friend keeps his truth, and a
lover his fcrvor-but h:'w many more, that
were as ambitious, as enthusiastic, as loving
as these, and cold, and false? You may
keep record of life, and as surely as ii is
human, it vii be fragmen,ed aud disjoint-
ed history, crowded with unaccountablencss
and change. There is nothing constant.
The links of life are forever breaking, but we
rush on still. A fellow-travcIer drops from
our side into The gravc-a guiding star OF
hope vanishes from the skv-a creature of
our affection, a child and al idol, is sna,ched
from us-perhaps nothing with which we
b,gan the race is left to us. and vet we do
not halt. "Onwald-sli,l onward is the
eternal cry. and as the PCS, rccedes, the bro
ken lies are forgotten, aud the present and
future occupy us alone
There are bright chapters in the past.
hnwcscr. II our lot is caprIcIous and bro
ken, it is also new and various. One
friend has grown c"o, but another is better.
We have encountered one mans prcjudl.
ccs, but, in so doing. we have unexpectedly
naiiered the parliaIies of his ncighb"r.
We have neglected recorded duty. but
deed of charity, done upon impulse, has
brought up The balance. In an equal tenn
per of mind, memory, to a man OF ordinary
goodness Of heart. is pleasant company. A
careless rlymer, whose heart is better than
his head, says;
u would not escape from memory's land,
For all the eye can view;
For there's dearer dust in memory's land
Than the Of rich Peru.
clasp the frtter by memory twned,
The wanderers heart ard soul TO bind"
1t was a good thought suggested by an
ingenious friend Of mine, To make ones will
annually. and remember all whom we love
in it in the degree of their deservnes.
have acted upon the hint SINCE and truly it
Is keeping a calender of ones life. ! have
little to; bcqueaih indced--a manuscript or
two. some half dozen pictures, and a score
or two nf .thunbed and choice authors
but. slight as the poor memen'oes are, 1t is
pleasant tn rate their difference, and write
agains, them the names of our friends, as
we should wish them left if We knew VIC
were presently to die. 1t would be salts
fving thought in sickness, that ones friend
would leave memorial to suggest us when
we were gune-that they would know that
we wished To he remembered by them. and
remembered them among the first. And it
il is Pleasant, too, while alive, 10 change the
order of Appropriation with The ever-varying
evidence Of affection. 1t is relief to vcx
alton and mortified pride To erase the name
Of one unworthy or false, and il is delightful,
as another gets nearer To your heart, with
the gradual and sure test of intimacy, To pre-
fer him in your secret register.
i'll should live to he old. doubt not it
will bc pleasant thing TO look over these
little tcsamcnts. 1t is difficult now, with
their kind Offices and pleasant faces about
one, to realize the changes of feeling be-
tween the first and the ast-morc difficult
still to ag:ne against any OF those familiar
names, the significant asterisk which marks
The dcad-vcl If the common chances of hn.
man truth, aud the still more desperate
changes of human life, conlinue--, is mel
anch"lv to think what miracle It would be
if even half thus list. brief and youthful as it
is, should he, twenty years hence, living and
unchanged
The festivities of this part Of the year al
WAYS seemed to me mls,imcd and revolving.
| know not what color The reflections Of
others take, but TO me- it is sinpl the feeling
If escapc--thc released breath of fear often
a period OF suspense anil danger. Accident,
misery, death, have been about US in their
invisible shapes, and while one is tormentcd
with pain, and another reduced TO wretch
,dnrsS, and another struck into the grave
beside US, we know not why1nr how, we are
still living and prosperous. 1t is next toa
miracle that we are SD. We have been on
he edge of chasms continually. Our feet
lave tottered, our bnsoms have been grazcd
~ the th ck shafts of disease; had our eyes
,een spirit. keen we should have been dumb
with fear at our peril. Ifevery tenth sun
,rr,,,, r. tho