The primitive Republican. (Columbus, Miss.) 18??-1852, 1851-04-03
For the Primitive Republican.
ADS;
FROM THE LIPR-WOOF OF Hal HAWKINS, ESQ
CHAP. I.

FR0M THE LlFE-WUUF UF Hal HANklND, k6Q.
CHAP. /.
Acoss1p ABOUT NoTHING-IN-PART1cULAR: DESIGN
ED AS PREDATORY.
Life is enigmatical There's no use trying
to deny it. Dash through it, as we may, it
has its riddles-some, easy of solution, like
many, given to newspapers, by the loungers
in literature-others, are cousin-german to
that of the Sphinx of olden memory, and in
the words of that best of books, are "hard to
be understood" Now as one of those in
comprehensive forked bipeds, commonly des-
ienated as human beings, ambles leisurely a
long the path of his mortal existence, he sees
at every step of his journey, something worth
his attention something noble enough and
profitable enough too, to engage his mind for
the present and to induce him to attempt that
very difficult work called thinking, and of
which, modern preacher affirmed, but little
was done, by this present generation; yet
most of us let the present take care of itself
We either become tourists in the future, with
its s.cloud-land' and "dream-land, " or we be-
come regular pilferers from the past.
This NOR, with such persons, is a down
right prison-a complete bondage, and in the
true spirit of those who worship, that vari-
ously-defned, and Git to be feared) but-lit-
Misunderstood, abstraction, liberty, they de-
clare their independence, and begin the en-
joyment of their freedom, by quitting their
prison house, the present. This course of
conduct, so reprehensible to many matter-of-
fact, cent-and-dollar personages, is not SO OBJ
iectionable, after all the ado made over it, by
professors of domestic economy, and by the
loyal obeyers of the maxims of good and wise,
but iable-to-be-mistaken, DIR. Franklin
That is to say, it is not so bad, but that it
might be worse The truth is, we think it
more probable to ''muse Ger the past, or to
dream in the future, than to loafer in the pres
ent; which latter is an evil, to which young
men of my age, habits, ETC., have a striking
proelivity. Beside, an imaginative homilist
would draw from this dissatisfaction with our
NOR, an eloquent illustration of our immor-
tally. In fact, this propensity to revisit the
scenes that are gone-thisliving over ''hours
that ,eere," and this going ahead of hours
that are, is in proof, that we poor mortals,
\ damned as we are, between the eternity which
is gone, and that which is to come, have with
in these hampered natures of ours, capacities
for the Infinite. The tones that steal up,
from other years, through which, we have
YEARLY plodded, and the voices that come
pleadingly to US, from the future, are witness
es, uttered by the soul, of her own immeas-
urableness the far-sounding echoes of
her own mightiness. But, ahem I am be-
coming sentimental in my advancing years!
Now the writer of these pages, makes con-
fession of the fact, that there rests on his un-
Outstanding, conviction, that it were better,
\ perhaps, for him to let by-gones, be by-gones;
and if he must write and print Ga disease
you know, with some remote descendants of
Solomon draw something profitable from the
present This he acknowledges; yet this is
4 just what he is not going to do-at least, on
" SO far as the present may link itself with
some Thread of his past life. For this
conflict between judgement and inclination,
or rather for this ascendency of the latter
over the first mentioned, and much-dwelt-up-
on faculty, he has one or two, sage reasons
to offer
FiIst then, the title. given to these verita-
bic chapters, requires me to have as little to
do with the present, as may be. Threads
from the Iife-Woofo Of man, of course
implies that what has been, must furnish the
material, and not what IS being. The ever-
present with such an one, is 50 inwoven with
the epey.titture, that not until it is actually.
lad away with the web already woven, does
it form a part of ones "Life-Woof. While
it has connection direct with the nor Of one 5
existence, i IS without form and void
just as the world was, during that period, a.
bout which there has been, such cosnlo-
e phical fright long ana hard VII md #
Webster tbeug dslarzeI, IN those da5A of
s. 7alegieal anetlleI sagafe diatufb an0A
q he kln'seaaaF vail now eiiVs he credit ioi
go e relief lounsI Hdi|able plses Il
n srt the aboFsi respect Is Il 1sa. Shd stl
M Serf sssoTs 4,,assSslSss s3 W. s. ~