Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1853-02-09
For the Spectator.
A Discourse.
BIZ A. A. SowERs.

JOB 2rd, 2-3.--.and job spoks and sal
. let the day perish, ,chereia | ,cas born.
There is a worldly habit of viewing th
life and especially of depreclating its valu
against which, in this discourse, wish
;. contend. 1t is the view Of life which man
of the heathens entertained and which be
ter became them, than those who hold til
+ faith of christians. "When We reflect
saws ole of the Grecian sages, 'on the de.
! tiny that awaits man on earth, we ought
bedew his cradle with our tears" Job
contempt of life, So energetically expresse
in the chapter from which the textIs taker
was Of the same character. We may OF
serve, however, that Jobs contempt of lif
consisted not with the views entertained b
the children of the ancient dispensation, an
was emphatically rebuked, IN common wit
all his impious complaints, IN the sequel Q
that affecting story. The birth Of chill
. among tie Hebrews was hailed with JOY
and its birthday was made festival.
But there are times and seasons, event
and influences in life, which awake in many
sentiments similar to those of Job, and
which require to be considered.
The sensibility of youth, sometimes take'
this direction. It is true, inaeed, that t
the youthful mind, life for while is filled
with brightness and hope. IT IS the prom
Used season of activity and enjoyment, O
manly independence, of successful Business
or of glorious ambi,ion-the season of no.
bic enterprises and lofty attainments.- =.
There is time, when the youthful fancy
is kindling with the anticipations Of an ideal
world, when it is thinking Of friendship
and honor of another sort, than those which
are commonly found in the world when
its promised mansion is the abode of per-
feet happiness and its paths as they stretch
into Life, seem to it as the paths that shine
brighter and brighter forever.
But over all these glowing expectations,
there usually comes, sooner or later a dark
eclipse; and it is, in The FIRST shock of dis
appointment, before the season of youth Is
yet fully past, that we are probably expos
ed to take the most opposite and disconsc.
late vfews of hfe. At is here that we find
real, IN opposition to Fictitious, sentimen-
tafism. Before this great shock TO early
hope comes, the sentimental character is
apt to be afectation, and afterwards it IS lf-
able to be misanthropy. But now it is
genuine and ingenious sorrow, at finding
life 80 different from what it expected
There is painful and uhwekcome effort to
give up many cherished habits Of tliaking
about it. The mind encounters the chill
ling selfishness and wickeaness oftbe world,
and il feels the miserable lnsufficiency of
such polluted scene to satisfy its long
Tags after happiness; and lite loses many
of the brightest hues that had gilded its
morning season. Indeed, when we take
into account, the unwonted and multiplied
cares of this period, the want of that famil-
iarity and habit which render the ways
and manners of life easy. the difficulties
and embamassnetits that beset the youthful
adYenturer, the anxiety about establishing
character and taking place in the world,
and, above all, perhaps, the want of a self
discipline; when we take all this into the
account, to say nothing of the freshness of
disappointment, we may well doibt wheth-
the period of entrance into fife, is the hap
piest, though it is commonly looked upon
as such. Ii is not perhaps, til men pro-
coed further in the way, that they are pre-
pared either rightly TO estimate OF fully to
enjoy it. And it's worthy ofnotice in this
connection, that those diseases which spring
from mental anxiety, are accounted by
physicians to be the most prevalent be-
tween the ages of twenty and forty.
Manhood arrives at conclusion unfa-
yorable to life, by different process. tits
not the limited view occasioned by disap-
pointment, that b.Ings it TO think poorly of
life, but 1t assumes to hold the larger view
taken by experience and reflection. 1t
processes to have proved this life and found
il little worth. It has deliberately made up
ITS mind, that life is far more miserable than
happy. It's employments, 1t finds, are te-
dious and its schemes baffled. Its friend
ships are broken or its friends ere dead
It's pleasures fall and its honors fade. It's
paths are beaten and familiar and dali. 1t
has grasped the good of life, and every
thing grasped loses half Of its charm in
the hand Of possession, every thfngis shrlv-
elled and shrunk into insignifcance.
Is this manhood, then, sad OF sentimental
No, farthest possible from it. Sentiment,
it holds to be ridiculous; sadness, absurd.
It smiles in reoklessness. 1t is merry IN
despite. It sports away life, not worth a
nobfer thought;o else it wears away hte,
not worth nobfer aim, than to get tofera-
bly, thrcagh it. This is worldly man.
hood, and no wonder, that It's estimate of
The value Of existence is low and earthly.
Poetry has often m4nistered to a state OF
mind, loftier indeed, but of like complex
ion. "Life," says the Grecian Pindar, sis
the dream of shadow" What says the
melancholy Kirk White
''What is this passing life?
A peevish April day,
A little snow, little rain,
And then night sweeps along the plain,
And all things fade away
The melancholy of Byron is of a dark
complexion; one might lnded anticipate
that his misanthEopy, as well as gloom
would repel every reader; and yet critic
has observed that this is the very quality
which has caught and held the ear of the
sympath;sing world. If the world does
sympathise with it, it IS time that revealed
religion should lift up its voice against it
One may Justly feel, indeed, for the suffer
ings as we'll as perversions of that extraor
dinary mind, but its skepticism aud scorr
must not be suffered to fling their shadow
across the world without rebuke or remon
STRANGE. Its sufTerings, indeed, are strik
ing proof, which the christian teacher nigh
we'll adduce, OF the tendency of earthl,
passion and unbelief to darken all the wa,
| of human life The nulpit. also. + must al