Bellevue gazette. [volume] (Bellevue City, N.T. [i.e. Neb.]) 1856-1858, 1857-07-09
The Red River OF Life.

physically, the human organism 10 an
aggregation Of solids and liquids which
are continually changing into each other.
the solid melting into the liquid, the liquid
congealing into the solid whilst both
stand so related 10 the air, which is the
breath Of life, that they are continually
vaporising into gases, and gases are con.
tinually liquefying and soldifying into them.
When Hamlet exclaimed
"Oh that this too,too solid flesh would melt,
Thaw, and resolve itself into dew"
he was pieferring request, which was
granted before it was preferred, and
which is every moment receiving fulfill.
men, in each Of us. Blood is liquefed
muscle, sinew, nerve, brain, and bone.
Bone, brain, nerve, sinew, and muscle,
are soldifed blood and at every moment
flesh is becoming blood, and blood flesh.
The current in our veins is at once riv.
er of the water of Life, feeding and sus.
tanning all that grows along its shores,
and river of the water Of Lethe, quench.
ing in oblivion everything that il touches.
Like the Nile, or the other great rivers Of
the world, it is at the same time wearing
down hills and building up continents; but
with this difference, that whereas the
Nile is only destructive among the noun.
tains of Abyssinia, and only constructive
in the plains of Egypt, the blood at every
point in its course is simultaneously add
ing and abstracting, Those wondrous
crimson barques, or blood. .cells, which
navigate the arteries, are keen traders,
and follow the rule of the African rivers,
where sales are effected only by barter;
but they add TO this rule one peculiar to
themselves, which neither civilized nor
savage man cares to follow, namely, that
they give away new goods in exchange
for old. Here the trsfickers on the red
river deposit fresh brain particles, TO re-
place those which the immaterial spirit
has sacrificed to the expression Of its
thought; for Jeremy Taylor taught q
great physical truth, when he declared
long ago, that whilst we think thought
we die" The eloquent preacher saw
death near us at every moment, and near.
er at each than at the moment before;
but death is in US at every moment, and
it is not merely iphilst, but because we
think thought we die. Alas! that we
cannot be content with such innocent self.
slaughter, which the river Of life in our
veins forgives into resurrection in every
case, as fast as it rippes along. II can.
not help us, if we oyerthink ourselves,
and die before our time, but during life
its mariners. deal in all vital wares. As
fast as the blacksmith wastes his muscles
by each blow, they barter, against the
spent cordage Of his arm, new fesh.par.
ticles to make it strong as before; they
restore it to its integrity the exhausted
auditory nerve Of the musician, give tho
painter new retina, and the singer a
new tongue. Wherever, in a word. the
million lamps of life, which keep up its
fame at every point of the body, have
burned to the socket, they are replaced
by freshly trimmed ones nor is il here
as with the barter of Aladdin's lamp.
The new lamp is, in this case, the magic
one; the Genie has departed from tho
old.-Edinburgh Essays.