The Kansas herald of freedom., 1858-09-04
TenaciiY 10 Life.

Men cling to life with an unyielding
grasp; and many, whose greatest annoy.
ance is the thought that it will one day
escape them, are yet constantly inveigh-
ing against it as thing almost intolerable. |
They complain of the path as thorny,
rugged and wearisome, but ever tormented
with the fear that they shall too soon
come to its termination. 1t is sweet
curse, both too long and too short. The
days, the months and the years, they
charge with tardiness, and wish them
ended-tax invention to the utmost to
manufacture wings for the lingering mo-
ments-and when they have fled, regret
that they made such speed, and wish them
back. The moments, when passing, move
too slowly; when passed, they have gone
too soon. Such is inconsistent man. He
impatiently wishes to-day would give
place for tomorrow, and yet every sue
cessive morrow advances him a step to-
ward the dread termination, anxious to
try every untried day except the last, i'm
patient to make acquaintance with every
portion of life except its close, in hope to
find each successive day more propitious
than the past. He quarrels with life be-
cause it does not bless him, loves it be-
cause it has a blessing for him, and clings
to it in hope to evoke that blessing, but
seeks it neither with the esprit nor with
the understanding" We must under
stand what life is, and what it proposes to
do for us, in order to make the most of it.
They who cherish it for its own sake, as
an end and not as means, do not under
stand its nature and design. 1t cannot
satisfy the vast desires of the immortal
mind. They call for more than would
ten thousand times exhaust its resources.
Men trifle with life by trying to elicit from
it donations of enjoyment which it can
not give, because it has not the means !;
they quarrel with it for being so destitute
of beueyolence as not to give them what
it does not possess, and cannot command.
This is like complaining of drop Of
water, because it is not the ocean or GEN.
suring mole-hill because it is not the
universe. The man who should mistake
the portico for the parlor, and then curse
it because it is neither spacious enough
nor warm enough to satisfy his expecta-
tions, would justly incur ridicule. Life
is but the portico of our existence, and he
who mistakes it for the whole ediice de-
serves not to be ridiculed, but to be re-
garded with some graver emotion, for,
indeed, he has made disastrous mistake.
He will find it too narrow to satisfy the
nfnitely-expanding desires of the soul,
and cold enough to freeze up its ardor.
Childhood looks forward with anxious
expectations to youth; youth, dissatisfied,
pants for manhood; disappointed man.
hood speeds on to old age for the prize,
and despairing age looks back consciously
upon the whole course of life, and is
vexed that his "wood, hay and stubble,'
were not "gold. silver and precious stones
And yet man is unwilling to part with
life, because he has made it his treasure
and has no treasure beyond. But to him
who regards life as merely the infancy ol
his existence, and uses it well, its best
quality is, that it has a termination, fol
that termination is his introduction into
a priceless treasure, which he has spent
his life in accumulating. The man who
has acted we'll his part, can hail with the
liveliest emotions of joy his exit, which
leads him out of field of labor and care
into boundless field of unsullied enjoy.
ment.
1t becomes mortal man, then, to be wise
to take life for what it is, to remembel
that it has an end, and compel every pc.
riod of it to make donation of happi
ness to the last hour, to seize upon every
day as it passed, and say to it as did the
patriarch to the wrestling angel, al viii
not let thee go except thou bless me-"