Thibodaux minerva. [volume] (Thibodaux, La.) 18??-1858, 1853-06-11

What though we wade in wealth, or soar in fame,
Earth's highest station ends in, '.here les"
And "tIust to tust' concludes her nobeSt song.
DR. YoUNG!
Pride may be considered one of the strongest
passions or emotions of the human mind but
we more frequently see it united with ignorance
than with sense. There is a position OF vanity
and pride necessary to the preservation OF the
human character; but when it is carried to an
extent beyond that medium, it becomes disgust
ing in the sight of modesty and humility, and
never fails to render the professor contemplate
in the eyes of the chaste and interrupted. Adj
versity is necessary to the state OF man, to pre-
vent that redundance Of pompous Independence
and to reduce that plethora Of the soul by which
he forgets the true source from whence his bless
ings flow. Prosperity continued, soon wraps
him up in his own conscious greatness, and dis
dams the humble avocation of offering up thanks
to that Being who has strewed his path with
plentiful abundance, and given him the means
by which he may be happy.
What is man? Is he being OF celestial
origin, and are the destinies of time and eternity
in his own hands? Did he command creation to
be framed from nothing, and did he say, 'Let
there be light" which was Immediately obeyed
Did he snatch that flaming sphere, the sun, from
the dark caverns of chaos, and hurl it, with
ponderous arm, to be fixed for ages in the vast
wilderness Of the universe? | say, did he bid
order and regularity pervade the immensely OF
space !; and did he form those immutabe laws
Which everywhere exist throughout the vast pro-
found of natures arcana? No, he did not. SO
far from having the sceptre Of command in his
hands. he was formed after the great fabric of
the universe was framed. He has but one Cir
cumstance connected with his formation Of
which he may boast, which is that he was made
i'll the image of his great Architect, the Sovereign
of the Universe. Man is but worm. He is
superior to the different orders and generations
which surround him in point of intellect but like
them he falls by the winter Of age, by casulties,
by disease, and by many other frailties incident
to animal matter. He is seen no more upon the
face of the earth. Scarcely has he embarked
upon the tempestuous waves Of time, before the
current turns from the course which he was
pursuing, and finally leads him, with all his boast
ed greatness, on the unknown shore of an awful
eternity From the moment he makes his en-
trance on the stage of action, heis gradually un-
dergoing the process of decay, and Fastening
along, without perceiying his rapidity, to final
dissolution. The particles of matter, or the
atomic portions of animal matter, are continually
changing, and the same flesh which covers his
bones to-day will, in the course of a few years,
be entirely carried away by the astonishing pro-
cess ofnature and be imperceptibly replaced by
a new formation. Thus, he is ever changing,
until the final scene of life is closed, when he is
given up prey to the insects OF the eartll, and
there to be transformed and his semblance lost
in the clods of the valley. How humiliating the
thought! Shall man then presume to be proud
of that body which is destined to befood of loath
some worms Surely not. He is but a traveller
on this terraqueous ball, and already are the
shades of evening beginning to gather around
him, and the dark mantle of night will envelope
the torch Of day, upon which he is delighted to
gaze. 1t is the night of DEATH Soon will lie
cease to behold the dazzling forms of youth
cease to hear the sweet melody of music, OF the
song of the warbler in the solitary grove. Scenes
which delight and scenes which inspire, will be
shut out from his vision forever.
Nor is it lloary age alone which is doomed to
this melancholy catastrophe The tender flower
of youth is often cut down by the keen-edged
scythe Of time and laid in the cold arms death.
No age, sex or condition are exempt, but all
alike are levelled in the dust Let us approach
yon wide repository of the dead, and seek there
for distinction. There is. the tomb of the am
bilious man, whose aspiring soul once plunged
a nation in wo, land whose name is written in
human blood upon the tablet of remembrance,
handed down to posterlty: But bchold-,~here
WIN considered himself superior to his
fellow mortals and looked down with degrading
contempt upon those who considered themselves
equal by the ties of nature. What is presented
now? Let us wrench the firm portals which
lock him from our sight, and search after diff
ference between him and the pauper at his side.
So, it is done All me! what an appalling
spectacle his remains present to the astonished
sight A CHASTITY skeleton is all that is left,
and even that cannot be recognized to have
belonged to SO boastful a being. See, his bones
are beginning to crumble into dust, and then
where will be the proof that he existed ON earth?
None, none will then be found. He will have
returned to his mother earth, and his pride all
forgotten
The clownish ploughman will pass by his
grave unconscious of his greatness, and whistle
his lullaby at the evening hour A short space
is allotted to his relics in this solitary ground,
and the same circumference is given to the beg
gar who slumbers at his side. Miserable re-
Fiction fer the proud man, but alas he cannot
deny it. There in his sight sleeps the skull
which once was filed with as many Utopian
dreams as that which gazes with vacant stare
upon it. Heartrending idea to the proud man!
He there views the state to which his own frame
must be subjected, which he now thinks is too
good almost to tread the earth beneath him. Thus
sleeps great Caesar, and thus slumblers Tarquin
the proud. Their pride could not retrieve their
fall, and their boosted superiority could not es-
cape the yawning jaws Of the grave. Death is
no respector of persons, but devours, without
remorse, his millions at one meal and Stays
youth, beauty, pride and grandeur, nor casts
single glance on his indiscrimnate choice. What
rivers of briny tears have swept their course
from the eyes of relatives, for the loss of their
dearest friends. Pride was carried away in
the overwhelming deluge, and its brother am
bition sank at its side. There is not single
day swallowed up in the vortex of time that does
not carry with it to the vast labyrinth of eternity
the lives of about eighty thousand of the human
family. Where is pride in this deathly famine?
Alas it is destined to fill the famished NAV of
death. The brilliant eye, the blooming cheek,
and the blushing lips of beauty, before whom
the great and the grand have bowed down in
alteration, are all destined to perish in the gloom
of the grave. How strong the admonition to
improve the mind, and prepare it for the enjoy
ment of supernal felicity instead of lavishing on
the frail body of dust the gaudy trappings of
earthly vanity, which vanishes into nothing the
moment that death lays his cold hand on the
warm brow of beauty! Thus we see that pride
is unbecoming such frail mortals, and when life
comes to conclusion, we are convinced of it's
vanity. Let not the proud critic say, as Vol
r r