The Washington union. [volume] (City of Washington [D.C.]) 1857-1859, 1858-05-02

METROPOLITAN MUSINGS.

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Madame de sevigne says in her charming way, that
she might he very wise person IL she could but live
about hundred years would doubt be delight
full to be French lady, witty, fascinating, brilliant and
surrounded with worshippes for two centuries and the
pleasure would be enhanced by the power to accumulate
wisdom in the indicated by Madame de Sevgne
IT, indeed she not disappointed in that particular
as Dr. Dove thought she would be- by the failure of the
receptive power. There to be a law governing the
requirement of human knowledge, which limits the ag
gregate possession of each mind to certain quantity
all surplus either spilling the measure, crowdng
equal quantity out through the crcvice of fogefu
ness Southey maintained that although the mind might
retain its faculties unimparcd for length of time pro-
porionate to the greater length of fe it by
follows that its capacity would be enlarged and he cites
Horace Walpole proof, he having lived forty years
after he said what manifesty true my mould has
taken all its impressions and receive NO more. /
must grow old upon the stock have. 1t is quite true
that 1.-THE most industrious students time before
they reach the confines Of scnty forget much they
learn = an aphorsm of Grcta Hail. which probably was
the parent Of tho vulgar assertion of having forgotten
than somebody else knew and which is
also found in the Table Talk of Hazlitt who for once
agrees with Southey and says Aer eight or ten years
author may go to sleep What write at present costs
me nothing, but itcost great deal twenty years ago.
notwithstanding this unusual agreement Of the Eng
h doctors upon the nutility Of longevity for the ac
quirement OF knowledge must confess to hearty sym
paihy with the desire of the French lady only should
prefer to modify it by living hundred years now and
another hundred by-and bysay about the year Three
thousand do not desire to dsparage the fact of my
future life in spiritual state but have no sympathy
with those people who express such extreme haste to
leave this state Of mortality confess that although my
experiences in it have not been without the usual
standings Of trouble, very well satisfied with this
life and content to continue in it long possible
do not however much desire its extension beyond
the average limits Of mortal Duration do wish to be
permitted to peep into the affairs OF the world few gen.
eatons hence, and to walk the streets of mcropo
Titan city, not unobservcd spectral yisitan frightening
any who may get a chance glimpse of me- but living
feshly, gossipny Mddle-Agcd Man
Pythagoras and Posterity.
think am not the only person who harbors this de-
ne Of being citizen of the Universal Republic which
will Of be the only form of government 10 few
hundred years 1t is doubt very pleasant to have
cur present facilities but when the revelations of
steam, electricity, photography, and other marvel
ions things which are yet to he dug up as scion
the nuggets, perfected am afraid we shall be
counted sad old fogies by the fast young humanity Of
those days. 1t such feeling, am satisfied
that rise to of the prominent doas of the later
pythsgoreaDs The old PHILOSOPHERS born Of men
tai desires and spiritual warnings for which divine
interpreter had then been furnished and this natural
wish to overlap the limits of human life gave rise to the
theory OF neutrality-suspicious., rather caused its repro
duction by the disciples of Pythagors for its origin
Egyptian II tho very lauable desire to know what
re should think and say and do how should dress and
eat and dance, which prompted the belief That the soul
was sort Of circulating medium, psychological cur
rency which to be handed about in form or
other for indefinite periods theory which in day
has caused mediums -ought not to write media 7-to
circulate very extensively the Union and psycho
oy whose currency good specie to certain tame
foxes and professors who mad rs March Hares.
retrospective glance over life that has arrived at
middle age furnishes such panorama Of physical and
mental progress that pity for ancestors is tenn
psd with little envy Of our posterity. Think Of those
poor old people who century ago had railroad steam
ooat gns-light, magnetic telegraph, daily Union mo
BRADY or McIees to photograph their portraits 'plug
nyles dead -mbbts, or uniformed police to parade
pennsylvania avenue with a graceful abandon which,
ded to extensive consumption of cigars deudcs for
gn visitors into the belief that the republic has large
"'oe Of generals who, having military duty vile
away their time upon the steps of hotels aud in the nl
meous barrooms Of the city. Think of the bcnghtcd
condton Of those who the fast young Of 175s
nnk Of your great grandfather that requires sep
aase paragraph.
Your Great Grandfather.
mink, say Of your great grandfather! To be more
aennte and precise, will address myself to my young
psnd Par Venue, r whose painful devotion to his eye
sas is only equaed by thct of lite Banaclc, whose
smaces reported to be of the latest Paris Style
a"ght him. am afraid, by the Grisettcs, and whose
an' attempt at of hcwold smirk is, like the
or attempt to cultivate moustacbe that boy face
'i'''"re, which would be comic IL it not painfully
aSSesuve Par Venue, my boy, that swngger of yours
oe tolerated in this cosmopolitan republic, which
'0"s no aristocracy but dollars but you and know II
~ acquired not at the Tuillerics, but at the Jardin
must dgress here, to say confdenalIy aud with the