Portage sentinel. [volume] (Ravenna, Ohio) 1845-1854, 1853-01-12

the Student. ssMy lamp, and leave me-" in the
deep sepulchral tones of the masters voice, sent
the man in sadness to his bed.
! The Student was alone-alone in the true mean
ing Of the word-and that is not when we are sol
itary in our dwellings, but when the world holds
not an object of whom our thoughts can make g
companion. 1t was the saddest and the deepest
hour of night, yet that hour SO mournful and sol
itary to him, elsewhere rang with the carousals OF
protracted revery. His mind glanced for a mo-
ment over the mirthiul meetng-the board crown
ed with plenty-the wine fowing-the charm OF
cheerful voices-and the ringing or merry laugh
ter;-but what were these to him, exceptt to force
on him the contrast between the festal apartment
and his own dark chamber-between hearts over
flowing with gladness in all its varied channels of
jest and joy and the deep despairing hopelessness
of his own soul! --.5.....-
sit is overr' said the Student, s.ths dream OF
earthly happiness, this delusion of human passions
and it is well that it should be So for is not hap
pness another name for selfishness! Witness
myself-have | not been loving, doting?-and
gradually has all creation narrowed round me.
until the great purposes of existence were lost or
nearly so-until the world, to my blind percep-
tion held but my treasure and self Ay, this
is the happiness of the world-the pleasure of the
passions-given to all men-the crowd, the herd
they love and are loved. 1t is the happiness of
the earth, earthly. The passions chain us down
to tbs lower world but, as the links loosen. the
intellect connects us with loftier spheres.
sAnd yet loved her! loved her as miser does
his gold, as spendthrift his pleasure-ay, even
as the pious love their God Science seemed a
souless drudgery while listened to her voice; its
grayest speeulations, its noblest discoveries were
dull and stale to one cheerful word, to one glance
of her laughing eye. One snatch of wild melody
from her lip, one echo of her light footstep, was
enough to win me from that noble philosophy
which mounts the skies, and marks the broad line
of demarcation between the sensual and the sage.
II will be calm, however;-are not the facul-
ties of the mind of higher lineage than the passions
of the heart, and shall they be slaves to its wild
throbbings?"
The Student laid his watch before him--mel
ancholy things whereby we measure life!-he laid
it before him in the dim light of the lamp, his eye
fixed upon its movements, and his hand pressed
upon his own heart
If the rawlings of despair are sublime, surely for
tituele is true nobleness. There stood the Stu
dent calm in his utter hopelessness, the dim light
reflected on his features with his eye fixed on the
silent memento of time, the noble outline of his
figure and the intellectual cast of his head partial
ly revealed. Who can tell, in the five minutes
that ensued, what thoughts passed through the
chambers of his mind-by what discipline the
body was brought into subsection to the mental
monarchy.
II am eaIln, said the Student, '.calm enough
to count the pulse Of dying infancy. am not
beyond the pale OF my own subjection. The tu-
mults Of the body belong solely to the tyranny of
the passions, and 7, who have now nothing to hope,
can have little to fear.
s'And now to my task"
The Student took the dim lamp ant passed from
the dark and gloomy chamber into one sill more
dark and gloomy. Reader, follow not if death af-
fright thee, for it was the chamber of death
The Student had surrendered all human pas
sions, had inundated all human feeliDgs-a stern
pleasure took their place-he was diving into the
deepest mysteries of Gods creations-the nyste-
ries of the human fame-that frame SO 'tfearful
ly and wonderfully made
Ay, thou my body part and parcel of myself,
poor and week, and vain, and impotent, ] am diz-
" when think of what thou art made and those
powers of thought watch are inhabiting within thee
wonder at the strange partnership ''When shall
know even as I am known
Beautifully does light approximate with joy and
happiness the sign and symbol Of woe. How I'M
deceiFing is the instinct Of the child, who trem-
bles to be alone in the gloom of night, the season
for evil Spirits for sadness, and sorrow The Stu
dent entered the deep melancholy gloom of that
lowly chamber with a noiseless step-the presence
of death has greater majesty than that of living
kings, though it be but in peasants dust, for the
impress Of the Makers image lies legibly engra-
ven there. The Student entered calm, composed,
subdued, with the most perfect and the clearest
possession of all his facuties-but we-oh we
shudder to think that there lay fair young girl,
in the cerements of the grave, and that the Stu
dent stood with the long, sharp-pointed instrument
of glittering steel, exempt from all human SYM
pathies, all human passions, and aspiring to ex-
plore those mysteries which occupied the mind of
Deity in the creation, with lofty pleasure that
seemed superior to all the happiness this worlds
gladness.
But stay;-what means this emotion of the
human sympathies, this softening of the heart,
which passes over the features of the stern anato
mist, as he stands with the gttering steel suspen-
ded over the form of that young girl. Does he
think of the violated sanctty of death does he
think of the saerilegious touch of the despoer of
the grave on the sister, the mother, the wife