Spirit of the age. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1849-1865, 1857-01-14
s."
LADIES' DEPARTMENT..
For the Spirit Of the Age.

LIFE. /.
Respectfully inscribed to MINNIE OF MD"
"0f mans m MIRACULOUS mistakes, this bears
The palm. THAT all men are about to live,
Forever on the brink of being born"
YOUNG.
In youth our minds are apt to be filed
with cxtravagant ideas of future happiness.
When first setting out uron the great jour
ney Of Life, our pathway appears to our dis
torted vision anything but what it really
is,-vcrdant plains, gorgeously bedecked
with flowers Of every hue, are spread out
before our enraptured gaze, with not a
stone nor a thorn to impede our progress
our fertile imagination paints in perspective
richly furnished palaces and lordly estates,
titles and crowns sfhonor: nay, we already
in fancy feel our brows pressed with the
laurel wreath, and see our fair names en-
blazoned on the highest pinnacle of Fame's
temple. We already fancy ourselves re-
Yelling in an Elysium of bliss. Our hearts
beat big with hope. All we ask is to be
'Jree'-te be delivered from the parental
yoke, when We will certainly astonish the
world, together with our seniors, by redu-
ducing our great theory of life to practice.
We hate Old Fogyism with all our heart.
"And only wish,
Asduteous sons, our fathers were more wise!"
How we long for twenty-one how
slow the tardy months pursue their rounds!
but how rapid in the meantime prodigious
''castles' rise in the air.
At length "twenty-one' comes taydily
along we leap for joy !-we are FREE
Nothing doubling, we now spring forward
to seize upon the phanthom, Happiness ;
but like the willy Will-o' -the-wisp it as
readily eyades ou, grasp-continuing how
ever, to fit across our pathway but a few
PAGES ahead. Seeing the object of our
hopes yet before us, and apparently with
In our very reach, we are by no means
Disconnected at our failure to possess it at
the hrst attempt; ono more short year, at
most, and we shall certainly be revealing
IN the full fruition of our fondest anticipa-
lions. twenty-five m quickly on, and
VIC again attempt TO possess ourselves of
the prize for which We have been SO long
anxiously striving /; but it again coyly
eludes our grasp, and, like a butterfly in
spring time, fits gayly on before us
Buoyed up with hope, however, we again
eagerly press forward in the pursuit; yet
t~wenty-three finds us no nearer the r~ealiza-
ton of our hopes than when we first set
out. At twcnty-four our air-castles begin
to grow dim and beautifully less by de-.
grees : and here and there a thorn springs
up among the roses in oar pathway; and,
instead of beautiful plains, clothed with a
hoUery verdurc, we find ourselves ever and
anon, like Bunyan's pilgrims, climbing up
the sides OF veritable hills. Notwith-
standing the impediments thrown in our
way, we still perseycre in the pursuit of
happiness-with a faint suspicion, how
ever, thai the poet told the truth when he
wrote
Mar never is, but always 10 be, blest."
At twenty-five, our heated md over
wrought im9ginatioA hAeins G,adnalIuA~
cool GOWN, and our perspective titles
and palaces, and lordly estates, to assume
n position in the background of the pic
ture. We begin now to see things as thew
are, and to realize the truth of what our,
fond mamnlas used to tell us, but could
not make US comprehend i. e, that we
are composed in part of flesh and blood,
aud subject, therefore, to our share of the
Ills to which flesh and blood are heir.
But although some Of our most macni6-
cent air-eastles' have, by this time, top
pied over, and lie a "ruined heap" and
the remaining few grown beautifully
less'-and although we may not, at any
time, have been able yet to possess our
selves of the phantom, happiness, (Which,
by-the-by, still fits on Just ahead y we
still confidently expect to be able aert
year to claim the promised boon. Although
we may have been time after time disap-
pointed, we by no means tire, or once
think OF giving up the pursuit. Nay,
even at the mature age Of thirty, when
man should begin to Suspect himself a
fool we are rs sanguine in our anticipa-
tons of "mortal bliss as ever honest
Sancho Panza was of an Earldom in the
kingdom Of Micomieon.
At length, however, taking a more So
Der view Of things, we begin to learn What
FORT Of n world this is VIC live in
Where all fare as we'll rs thew are able
And scramble for what they can get"
Aud soon, therefore, begin to learn the
use OF the " one thing ncedfulp-gold; and
todeyise ways and means for its possession.
We are, at first, by no means extraya-
CANT IN our desires-a competency" is
all We ask for. Just give me ten thou
sand dollars and | will be happy-supreme-
~ biest. | set my wits to work to obtain
that amount-toil early and late, day and
nlght-when by and by the clittering
pile begins to rise in beautiful propor-
tons" before my enraptured vision I
nave ten thousand dollars. But am / hap
Ply! No, no. by no mcans-I have found
the philosophers stone, whose magic touch
turns the coarser metals into gold, and why
not use 1t! seeing that | can SO easily
double or quadruple the amount | have p
begin now, for the first time to realize
the fact that am extremely Dooy-I have
but the paltry sum of ten thousand dollars.
while there Is my ucighbor Jones over the
way, who is worth at least fifty thousand.
L cannot rest a day nor an hour. nor enioy
u single one Of the blessings of life which
my ten thousand might afford, until | am
worth as much as Jones is. l toll on, stint.
ing my family, and denying them many of
the necessary comforts and conveniences
OF life, and especially denying myself and
them OF all social communion around the
family altar, until l am fifty years old
when on examination | find myself to be
worth over fifty thousand dollars. Am