Ellsworth American. [volume] (Ellsworth, Me.) 1855-current, 1858-03-12
Images Of. Truth and FalselpOOsj,

Images Of. Truth und F:llselbO0tI
The Autocrat of the Breakfas
Table, in the March Atlantic employ
; series OF the most striking of Trut
and Falsehood we have been this many
day. Saith he:
Did you never. in walk ing in the fields
come across large fat stone, which ha
lain. nobody knows how long, Jus
where you found it, with the gras
forming little hedge. as it were, al
round it, close to its edges,-and hav
you not, in obedience to a kind of feel
ing that told you it had been lying there
long enough. insinuated your stick O.
your foot or your fingers under its edge
and turned it over as a housewife turu.
cake. when she says to herself, 1T.
d1ne brown enough by this time ~
What an odd revelation, and wha,
an unforeseen and unpleasant surprise tc
a snail community, the very existence Of
which you had not suspected, until the
sudden dismay and scattering among it's
members produced ty your turning the
old stone over. Blades of grass hatten-
Cd down, colorless. matted together, as
if they had been bleached and ironed ::
hidsous crawling creatures, some OF
them coleopterous or horny-shelled.
turtle bugs one wants TO call them ::
some If them softer, but cunningly
spread out and compressed like Lepine
watches Mature never loses a crack
or crcvice. mind you, or a joint in a
tavern bedstead, but she always has one
cf her fatpattern live timekeepers to
lide into it J black glossy crickets.
with their long flaments sticking ont
like the whips Of four horse stage coaches
motionless, slug-like creatures, larvn,
perhaps, more horrible in their pulpy
stiffness than even in the Internal wirggle
of matnrity! But no sooner is the stone
turned and the wholesome light of day
let upon this compressed and blinded
community Of creeping things. than
all Of them enjoy the luxury of legs
and some Of them have a good many
rush rounl wildly. butting each other
and everything in their way, and end
in general stampede for underground
retreats from the region poisoned by
sunshine. Next YEAR you will find
the grass growing tall and green
where the stone lay !; the ground-bird
builds her nest where the beetle had
his hole the dandelion and the butter
cup are growing there, and the broad
fans of insect-angels open and shut over
their golden disks, as the rhythmic
waves of blissful consciousness palsate
their gIorified being.
The stone is ancient error. The grass
is human nature borne down and
blcached OF all its color by it. The
shapes that are found beneath are the
crafty beings that thrive in darkness.
and the weaker organisms kept help
less by it. He who turns the stone
over is whosoever puts the staff of
truth to the old lying incubus, no matter
whether he do it with a serious face
or laughing one. The next year
stands for the coming time. Then
shall the nature which bad lain blanchea
and broken rise in its full stature and
native hues in the sunshine. Then
shall Gods Ministries bull their nests
in the hearts of newborn humanity.
Then shall teauty-Divinity taking
outlines and color-light the souls of
men as the butterfly, y,image of the beauti-
fed spirit rising from tho dust, scars
from tie shell that held poor grub.
which would never have found wings,
had not the stone been lifted,
You never need think you can turn
over any old falsehood without terrible
squirming and scattering of the horrid
little population that dwells under
it.
When we are as yet small children,
long before the time when those two
grown ladies offer us the choice of Her.
culcs. there comes up to US youthful
angel, holding in his right hand cubes
like dice, and in his left spheres like
marbles. The cubes are of stainless
ivory. and on each is written in letters
of gold-TRUrn. The spheres are
veined and streaked and spotted beneath
with a dark crimson flush above, where
the light fails on them. and in certain
aspect you can make out upon every one
of them the three letters l., I, E. The
child to whom they are offered very
probably clutches at both. The spheres
are the most convenient things in the
world they roll with the least impulse
Just where the child would have them.
The cubes will not roll at all they
have great talent FIR standing still,
and always keep right side up. But
very soon the young philosopher finls
that things which roll so easily are
very apt to roll into the wrong corner,
and to get out Of his way when he most
wants them, while he always knows
where TO find the others. which stay
where they are left. Thus he learns
thuswe learn-to drop the streaked and
speckled globes Of falsehood and to
hold iast the white angular blocks Of
truth. But then comes Timidity, and
after her Good-nature. and last Of all
olite-behavior, all insisting that truth
must roll or nobody can do anything
with it !; and so the first with her
coarse rasp, and the second with her
broad file. and the third with her
silken sleeve, do so round off and