The Belmont chronicle, and farmers, mechanics and manufacturers advocate. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1848-1855, 1853-09-30
Correspondence Of the N. Y. Tribune.
ILLINOIS LETTERS. Nv.
AunoHA, H., August. 1853,

nunureos ol tlmes Wltnln month With
scarcely passing thought; but to-day, as
sat in our quiet room, thinking of the mys.
terry of life, its joys all fringed with sorrows,
its hopes like stars going down one by one
behind the mountains of disappointment, and
wondering how we found courage yet to live,
l looked with new and strange interest on
the tanned face, the furrowed brow aud spirit
less gait of the passer-by. He was a coun-
tryman, coming into town with his team;
the great oxen were painting with heat and
the weight of their load, and the farmer, half
bent with WEAKNESS, covered with dust and
looking even less animated than his cattle,
walked by their side. Here was life in three
distinct forms. Three, say, for felt that
mine, with all its present, past and future,
was as distinct from his, and it seemed to me
then as much above it, as was his above the
animals that obeved his voice.
In rapid panoramic view the spheres SEEM
ed to pass before me. The lowest, animal,
without the curse or blessing of hope, its
enjoyments all Of appetite, its life endured
because life is given and it knows not how
to end it, its use servtude, rewarded only by
what shall continue its capacity for serving,
its end, death. The highest, intellect pre-.
dominant over all that is base or low in the
animal, inspired by hopes at once its bane g.
blessing, its joy to outlive all lesser hopes in
prospect Of that one for which alone it is
glorious to live, the higher and pure future
its use an effort, (alas, feeble one) to exalt
and benefit its kind-its highest reward the
consciousness of right-its end of life the
beginning of eternity-its destiny immortali-
ty. And that intermediate class, thought l,
with its burden of ignorance, and poverty,
and toil-its amless, hopeless exstence--ils
painful drudgery, without the stupidity of the
beast to sink it beneath mental suffering, or
the inspiration of intellect or genius to raise
it above, what can it hope for! what is its
destiny! for what is it living! aLiving for
wife and children!" said gentle voice at my
side-tor in the energy of my thought had
spoken aloud. This was the voice of one
whose experience was deeper than mine
who read my thoughts and answered like a
thoughtful woman, "Living for wife and
chidren!" And they! asked. "The wife
is living for husband and children--only the
future can tell for what the children live."
And his present reward! said 1. "Think;
watch fer his return and read it in his face"
Think! l went back to intellect, and
thought OF all its great achievements, its
trumphs over time and space and ignorance
and darkness, its bright rewards of honor and
renown, its pride in the consciousness Of its
own power-I thought of all it had done, of
all it hoped to do, and wondered that life
cuoh bnpoS nd cuoh could ko
endured. But even while l thought, the
chlliness of isolation seemed to settle down
around my heart; felt that intellect alone
could no more give happiness to life than ice
could give it warmth. Intellect is not hap
piness--ambtion is not happiness-an ice-
berg in polar sea-an eagle on the mountain
hight!
call happy singing birds live near the earth
and have conpanionship, Melt the iceberg,
the power Of the other are not made in vain"
Melt the iceberg! True, there must be a
midler element to soften those dazzling pro-
perties before they can blend with our ma
lures, or their purity from palatable ingre-
dient in that cup of which we are all thirst
ing and painting to drink. But what is this
element! where is it!
"In the heart of the very man you looked
down upon with pity; making light the
burden of life, casting warmth and glow
around the domestic hearth, prompting him
being blest." But without intellect, without
ambition, such an existence would seem a
living death. "He has intellect all he needs
more than you imagine. Mark him well
now, as he passes, and read a chapter from
him." read: the bent shoulders are erect,
the weary step has become firm, and the
face all changed, save the sun-browned hue.
Marvellous change! Where is the compress.
ed and anxious expression OF the mouth,
where are the painfully kitted brows and the
forehead plowed with furrowsl There is more
than contentment in that countenunce--a
deep ppiness--intelligent too, through all
its dust-full of manly integrity of character
--and--do read aright!-ambition! "Yes,
but not the sinful, selfish ambition cherished
in your BOSOM" Why sinful! how selfshl
81 will tell you, by-and-by; read on while you
may"
All! see the solution to it all! The let
teTS III uis udnu, anu thc newspapers III hie
pocket!
"That will solve part, not all. Listen:
That man has labored for years to secure his
little homestead to his family. This unex-
pecled rise in the price of corn has enabled
him to cancel al. his debts, and now he is
free. This morning he had doubtless heard
that the market was declining, as in fact it
was, and do you wonder that his form was
bent and his face furrowed? Now you need
no better token that wife and little ones are
safe than the countenance you have just read.
You saw the papers, they form the link of
communication between him and the world,
frequent and welcome messengers are they
in that family; but you did not observe the
brown paper parcels in the wagon, and that
great bag grown dropsical with tea and sugar,
and calico dresses! In all but food for the
mind they have practised the strictest econo-
my, aud now, while the husband and father
repays his dependent ones for their patience
and self-denial do you ask where is his re-
wardl" No; saw it in his face, full and
complete. How much superior seems his
i L Al