The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1857-12-31

Anu C3lfTe5 U II N PRIZE
A YEAR is but a speck upon the boundles
ocean of eternity, a grain of sand upon the un
measured shore of Time yet thirty years is esti
mated as the extreme average of human existence
and as a twelvemonth is the thirtieth part o.
ones individual life, its Importance becomes much
enhanced. With this evenings setting sun, thu
last rays of the old year fade away. Let it die
The New Year is Fastening on and Tomorrow
dawn will usher it in. Let it come. Old years
like old age, were made to die but when tn
old year is dead, the New Year, blithe and joy
| GUS, steps in and fills its place, just as our chill.
dren come in after us, on the stage where we
have been playing our life-drama. Thus, no mat.
ter what changes befall Time, or that part Of
man which is the creature of Time, his body is
still undisturbed the clock-work machinery OF
the universe above and below, moves on as regu-
larly as before.
New Years Day has always, and in almost
every nation, been regarded as one of the great
divisions of life. Different nations have varied
as to the commencement of the year, as well as to
the usages with which they commemorate its re-
currence. The Jews regarded it as the day on
which God holds judgment, and also as the ami
versary of the day on which Adam was created.
AHe III OucEeQ SdcTilceS 10 CtuuS, u
whom the first month, January, was called, and
the magistrates went in procession to the Capitol,
where they sacrificed to Jupiter. AS the people
met each other in the street, they passed the mu-
tual greeting, =" Annum noUun faustum feHcemque
tibi." The Druids, with a golden knife, cut off
the branches of the sacred mistletoe, and distrib-
uted them as New Years gifts to the people.
Among the Saxons, New Years Day was given
to festivities and they reckoned their age by the
number of merry markings which they had attend
ed. The New Year being the eighth day after
Christmas, was kept by some Christians as the fes-
tival Of Christ's circumcision. And whilst almost
universally celebrated with some kind of religious
ceremony all over the continent Of Europe, in
Britain and America it is usually kept as a day
devoted to social festivity.
Having reached another mile stone in the Jour-
ney of life, let each halta moment, sit down on the
green turf beside the stone, and review the past,
not to moan and lament, but to point ahead to
the landmarks which past experience has discov-
cred. Like the winged lightning, time shoots by
us. and retreats into past eternity. Itbears upon
its rapid wing those precious opportunities of
gaining and doing good, which like the pearls
lying among the coral forests at the depths of our
ocean bays, sparkle to our gaze as we sail over
them, but are far beyond our reach. The past is
gone, but its f%ollies, its failings, and its misteps
should not be let slip too soon from memory. 1t
is well, at the end of the year, nay, at all times.
to recall these, in order to give the present and
the future the benefits of the best of all wisdom,
that which comes from positive, personal expert
ence.
At the close of the old year, one cannot help
realizing that he is something nearer the grave
than he was when that old year was new but
there is, or rather, there ought TO be, no sorrow in
a reflection of that kind, with the man Ut woman
that lives we'll because, as there is no escaping,
or evading, or postponing death. reason, religion,
and common sense combine to enforce such q
course of every day life as will enable us to meet
the int when it does come.
"Iike one who draws the drapery OF his couch
About him, and lies down TO pleasant Dreams"
To die well, live well,-and to live well, make
good use of time. Look after the spare moments.
Spare moments make L the hours,-the hours,
days,-days, weeks, months and years. We
shall never have any regrets for : dying years.
if we make good use of the only portion of time
which we can really call our own, time present.
What makes men melancholy in looking back at
VIZ IN@Ns 80 ~ CAN@hF W 81 DAt'h Iht lSS VI
friends, or the other unavoidable sorrows, or mis-
fortunes of life, but the conviction that they
have thrown away Sd many golden moments Of
existence, that they feel themselves impoverished,
and often very beggars. Time is money said
Franklin-but it is more than money. 1t is life
and death, because the issues of life and death
hang largely upon it. The great majority of
mankind know all this, but it is only the small
minority that are wise enough to convert that
conviction to advantageous account.
During the year now closing, as a nation we
have been highly favored and prosperous. No
plague has visited us, and the usual degree of
health has been enjoyed though death, like an
unwelcome guest, has entered many a happy
home, both of foreigner and native. and left the
sting of his ruthless visit in the wounded breasts
of its inmates.
Though in the industrial pursuits we do not
advance SO fast as older countries, vet even in
these the attentive observer can perceive some
progress. But meager as it is, the foundations of
national prosperity are implanted among us, and
we rest in hope that as each year rolls around,
some new element of national growth will become
patent. Industrial development is the true Off
spring of civil and religious liberty, and these are
enjoyed mere In as great a degree as In any other
country. Even now these privileges are found to
exist in but few countries. But wherever they
are received by any people, the gigantic strides of
that nation in wealth and power, and the eleva-
tion of the great mass of the inhabitants in pros
porous thrift and commanding influence, are mat
tsrs of establishment, fear and reverence all over
the world. England and the United States have
for two generations been the nursing mothers of
the twin children, religious liberty and civil free
dom. They have nourished their infancy, watched
over their youth, and guided them towards matu-
rity. During all these years, these two nations
have been steadily becoming more and more the
arbiters of the worlds destiny. Their fame has
gone over the whole earth, and their lame into
all lands. Whatever has been done elsewhere in
the cause of human progress, has been effected in
sympathy with or necessitated by, movements