The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1857-09-10
DESPAIR AND PREVENTIVE.

sive terror is growing upon him. Let us be al
lowed, Tor q moment, to assume that the reader
Is In such a condition. He is materially in the
contux and conveyance of uptoward circum-
stances, and morally in that apprehensive con-
dition which suffers him to see no other escape
from intolerable evils than sudden death. He
has anxiously reviewed his whole situation
bankruptcy, poverty, disgrace, await him.
Light breaks from no distant quarter. There
is nowhere help. His wife and children will be
dragged with him into inevitable distress. He
sees the whole army of evils marshalled before
him, and all the avenues open through which
they will reach him. He has calculated every
chance, and sees that the dreaded result is Ger
tain. Arrived at this point in his deliberations,
ne has reached the terminus of apprehension /;
and here, consequently, reason may effectively
establish the first bulwark, in the shape of
restraining influence, strong in proportion to
the strength with which the idea is conceived
That idea rests on the basis of previous expert
ence. On many critical and trivial occasions.
he will remember that the events rarely arrived
IN their .foreseen order, and still more rarely
brought their foreseen consequences. Human
beings are always forecssting their lives, and
always finding every episode unlike what had
been forecast. They cannot plan the most
ordinary party of pleasure, with any certainty
OF the result; if weather turn out fine, temper
may spoil it. From pic.nics to ministerial
combinations, men are ever seeing their antici-
pations unrealized. More especially is this the
case with all those castle building schemes, in
which an eager imagination makes the future
plastic to Its wishes. There are times when
the horizon is radiant. The man seems stand
ing IN the confluence of properties. From
every avenue, he sees good fortune approach
ing. He can almost reckon up the items of his
prosperity, and can calculate the sums to be
paid to his account. The days pass, but the
foreseen events do not arrive, at least not as he
saw them. His fortune may be as great, or
even greater, but it is always different. The
order OF events is different, the consequences
unlike those which were foreseen. 1t may be
that the events do not arrive at all. He was
rich yesterday, and to-day the bank stopped
payment. He relied on the steadfast friend
ship Of one who has died suddenly, or has fed
TO A-e-;ee. Onc ny Uue, ali the radlant spaces
on the horizon have become clouded over, and
he is now anxiously gazing for streaks of blue
sky. Yesterday, he was certain of happiness !;
to-day, the certainty has vanished; tomorrow
it will, perhaps, have turned into despair. "My
bosom's lord sits lightly on its throne" says
Romeo; and, the next moment, the news ar
rives of Juliet's death.
This trite experience of the instability of
humsn happiness has an diverse aspect which
should give consolation in moments of affection.
The came uncertainty which attends our fore
castings of success and happiness equally at
tends our forecastings of failure and misery.
The radiance is not more liable to be over
clouded than the darkness is to be irrsdiated.
We cannot foresee truly we can only imagine
something that may occur; and these magma
tons are always wrong, if not as to the event
itself, yet as to the degree in which the event
will affect US. Let the worst he foresees arrive,
it will reach the victim as something very diff
ferent from what he imagined. The crash ar
rives nothing did avert it; it is here, and he
is beggar. His wife and children are beg
CARS. Nay, worse than all, he is disgraced );
deeds come to light which cause him to blush
deeply when revealed, although he blushed but
slightly, perhaps, in doing them. Everything,
then, that he dreaded has arrived True; but
not as he feared it. Now, face to face with it,
the terror vanishes. His strength is greater,
and his sorrow less. Bankruptcy, if painful, is
found to be endurable. Poverty turns out a
comparatively slight ENTHUSIASTICALLY less
than toothache. Even the shame, against
which sensitive pride revolted, is not so terrible
as imagination pictured it, although, being an
intellectual pain, and indefinite in its nature,
imagination continues to exercise control
over it. Men do not look their scorn at him as
he passes. His wife and children do not shrink
from him, but cling with closer fondness, con-
soling him for the neglect of others. The dog
ticks his hand as before. The tradesman is as
cap-in-hand for custom. The heart still beats,
and Heaven is above all. There is no need
for despair. A few years of honest labor may
repair the loss he has sustained. Meanwhile,
those years may be sweetened by such affec-
ton it is in his nature to call forth, and by
such enjoyment as he is capable of. There
has been pain, but there has been more of hap
piness. Nay, even should the shrinking self
love carry its pain to the grave, and the memo
ry of the catastrophe overshadow his remain
ing years, he has still the consolation of having
purchased life by enduring thus much pain,
and has fulfilled serious responsibilities to those
dependent on him. In this simple fact, that
we cannot accurately foresee the future, lies q
refuge from despair.
"The Greeks said grandly, in their tragic phrase,
sLet one be called happy till his DEATH
To which add, Let one till his death
Be called unhappy"
When the wretched Mary Wolstonecrsft
paced up and down Putney Bridge, suffering
the rain to wet her garments thoroughly, so that
they might not prevent her sinking in the
water, her life seemed cherries, and without
ray of hope; yet this hour was, in truth, the
turning point in her existence, and from it
dated the most perfect bliss she had ever
known-a period of welded happiness and
earnest work. Could other miserable creatures
only bring themselves to believe in future
which they cannot foresee, suicide would never
be deliberately committed.
We are fully aware of the impossibility of
giving hope to hopeless mind. We do not
pretend that man can reason himself into
cheerfulness. Melancholy depression results
even more from physical than from a mental
condition. Bot reason, if not omnipotent, is to
some extent influential. In the proportion in
which despair is reflective, hope may be reflect
i've; that is to say, in as far as depression of
spirits results from a review of circumstances,
and an apprehension of future results, it may
be combated by general philosophical conclu-
sion, which shows how inevitably the survey
and apprehension must err, and how unlikely
it is that the future, which seems go terrible,
should turn out as we foresee it. Whenever
man is about to commit suicide, deliberately,
to escape from q network of terrible circum-
stances, q vivid conception of the fact that this
network will really be woven into quite other
meshes, large enough for escape, large enough
1 Or the access of assstance--a conception that
sc.. lat he breads will not be realized-may stay
his hand, and suffer him to await the result
And here another consideration presents itself
Al 4