Fremont weekly freeman. [volume] (Fremont, Sandusky County, Ohio) 1850-1853, 1851-03-15
aIistsIIoneons. $.
IIafcd,s Dream; or the sChance world

IIafcd's Dream; or the sChance World
BY REV JOHN TODD.
At the foot of one of those gigantic noun
tains in Asia, which lift up their heads SO far
above the clouds, that the eye of man never
saw their SUBMITS, stood a beautiful cottage,
facing the east The mountain stream leaped
and murmured on the north; the verdantplain
where the bright-eyed gazelle sported, lay
spread eutin front; the garden and the olive
yard filed with every flower and every fruit
which an oriental sun can pencil and ripen, lay
on the SOUTH while back on the west. rose the
everlasting mountain. Here wealth and shades
and fruits, such as were found nowhereselse.
The sun shone upon no spot more luxurent-
the moonbeams struggled TO enter no place
more delightful; the soft wings Of the breeze
of evening famed no such abode in all the
east The howl ofthe wolf was never heard
here; the sly fox never came here TO destroy;
and the serpent's hiss was never heard here.
This cottage was the home of Hated, the
aged and prosperous. He reared this cottage;
he adorned this spot; and here for more than
four score years he lived and studied. During
all this time, the sun had never forgotten to
visit him daily; the harvest had never failed,
the pestilence had never destroyed, and the
mountain SIRENS had never dried up The
wife of his youth still lived TO cheer and bless
him; and his son and daughter were such as
were not to be found in all that province. No
youth cnuld rein the horse, hurl the javein,
chase the lion, or delight the social circle, like
his son. No daughter of kings could be found
SO beautiful and perfect and joyous, and form
SO symmetrical as hers.
But who can ensure earthly happiness? In
one short week, Haired was stripped af all his
joys.
His wife went to see new white peacock,
which il was said neighbor, who lived mile
off in that ravine, had just brought home
She took cold, and quick fever followed !;
and on her return Hated saw that she must
die. Before two days were gone the old man
was standing at her open grave. He gazed
long, and said impatiendy dy-'Cover her--cover
the only woman ever loved!'
The son and the daughter both returned
from the buriel of their mother, fatigued and
sick. The nurse gave them as she thought, a
simple medicine. In few hours it was found
to be poison. Hated saw that they must die
for the laws of nature are fixed, and poison
kills He buried them in one wide deep
anu ~ SeStlcA SsS IL III llIdL SIdtt ne
buried his reason and his religion. He tore
his gray hair, he cursed the light of day, and
wished the moon turned into blood and above
all. he blasphemed his God, declaring that the
laws which he bad established were all wrong
useless, and worse than none He wished the
world were governed by chance, but as this
was Il hopeles wish, he wished that at his
death he might got a world where there was
no God, to fix uualterable laws. He arraign-
| ed the wisdom of God in his government over
this world, declaring that his plans were weak.
and worse than none, and that it would be far
better to have no God in the universe
In the center of Hafed's garden stood a
large and Beautiful palm tree Under it was
Hated sitting the second evening after closing
the grave over his children The seat on
which he sat had been reared by his son. On
the leaf of the tree which lay before him,
were some exquisite verses written by the
pencil of his daughter. Before him lay the
beautiful country covered with green, sprink-
| led here and there as tar as the eye could see,
with the habitations of men, and upon this
great landscape the shadows of the mighty
mountains were now sitting. In the east the
moon was just pushing up her modest face,
and the gold of day was softening into the sill
yer of night. While looking on all this, grief
began to swell in bis bosom; his tongue muir
INJURED his heart was full of hard thoughts
of God, which nearly amounted to blaspbemy.
As the night deepened, Hated, as he then
| thought, fell asleep with heavy heart When
he supposed he awoke. it was new spot
The mountain, the landscape, the home were
all gone. All was new.
As he stood wondering where he was he
saw aecreature approaching him, which, at
first, be took for babboon; but on its coming
nearer he discovered that it was a creature
some what resembling man malformed, i'll
shaped and monstfous.
He came up and walked around Hated as
he would superior being, exclaiming, beau
tiful creature
Shame, shame on theei' said Hated; .dost
thou treat a stranger thus with insults?-
Leave off your jests, and tell me where am,
and how l came here?
4 do not know how you came here, but
here you are in our world that we call chance
aOorld; because everything happens here by
chance
.Ah! is it so? This must be delightful
This is Just the world for me. OH had al
ways lived here, my beautiful children would
not have died under foolish and iuexorable
law! Come, show me this world-for long
to see it. But have you really no God, nor any
one to make laws and govern you just as he
sees fit
don't know what you mean by God; we
have nothing of that kind here-nothino but
chance; but go with me and you will under
stand all about it,
As they proceeded, Hated began to notice
that everything looked queer and odd. Some
of the grass was green, some red, some new,
and some dying; some grew With the top