The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1851-02-13
For the National Era
FRAGMENTS.

f" Life is real life is earnest y but how much
Of it's bright realities do we lose amid the shadows
of earthly existence We become engrossed on
every side with the cares of the material world TO
whose Influence we have so far yielded up, that
we live almost solely for that part Of our being
which terminates within its limits. Ia this mate
rial life there must be change continual COM
bination and dissolution Of elements which must
interfere with whatever is dependeat on it alone
Then, because we meet with disappointment in
our highest endcavors, we complain of this earth
ly life and the changing scenes Of time--perhaps
with assumed fortitude and resignation we re-
nounce the world and its pleasures --speak Of the
usefulness of our life here, Of hirh eudeavors
thwarted or brilliant hopes bligh,ed, and dwell
with longing on the imagined joys of more hap
Ply future existence | have known those who
have yielded temporarily 10 such feelings, nj
though such instances belong rather to the de-
parted ages of religious asceticism. They have
become too exclusively busted with the things of
time to be thus affected by their mutations
There is truth in the words of the preacher, that
the tribulations of this world are to chas,en us.
They come to the soul when most needed-that
is, there is an undue clinging to earth when they
are most deeply felt as aflictions--a forgetfuluess
of our high destiny which brings us down within
their power. To a soul conscious Of its full be-
lng-reellng tnat TINS earthly existence IS but an
infantile step in the grand progressive life which
is opening out before us, the rude shocks and
,riasJ 2. Smesre known TO be in accordance WITH
the mutability of earthly things, and at every en-
counter il but strengthened TO renewed action,
conscious that it is actually progressing, and thus
fufhlf1ng It's mission here If one bright hope is
thwmted, in which our whole being may have
been enlisted, let US rise above the shackles of
earth, and remember that we have the fitness of
life before us to live throughout all eternity; and
that, as we now rise up or sink, shall we enter at
q higher or lower scale on the next stage of pro-
gressive being 1t is useless to yield up or grow
weary of time, and idle despair hope for rest in
better world, for, without bold endeavor whether
successful or not-we greatly deceive ourselves,
We can meet with no fowery future which we
have not assisted in creating for ourselves. IL is
idle to expect to be translated miraculously to
world in which we can act more in accordance
with our ability, or enjoy happiness more suited
to our desires, than we have done in this. This
is our probation. The life we bave lived-wheth-
er true or false-whether cheerful or depending,
rising above difficulties or sinking beneath them,
devoted to good or prone to eyil-whether our
being has developed or lain dormsnt-is the true
text to what we shall be hereafter. We know not
how high, how refined, we shall then rise above
our present existence, but the comparative text
ure Of our being in that higher state is decided by
our actual life here,