The western Democrat. [volume] (Charlotte, N.C.) 1852-1870, 1858-03-16
CHEERFULNESS.

profound philosophical penetration, has for
some months past been contributing to the
Editors Table, of Harper's Magazine.
He favors us in the December number with
an inimitable essay on Cheerfulness, in the
course of which we find the following re-
marks upon that idle sort of conversation
Which has been aptly called ''tattling -
but of all the expedients TO make the
heart lean, the brain gauzy, and to thin
life down into the consistency of cam
brio kerchef. the most successful is the
little talk and tattle which, in some
charmed circles, is courteously styled
conversation. How human beings can
| live on such meagre fare-how continue
existence in such famine of topics and
on such short allowance Of sense-is
great question, if philosophy could only
search it out. All we know is that such
men and women there are, who will go on
dwndling in this way from fifteen to four
score, and never a HINT on :heir tonbStones
that they died at last of consumption of the
/ head and marasmus of the heart The
! whole universe of God, spreading out its
! >plendors and terrors pleading for their
| attention, and they wonder "where Mrs
| Somebody got that divine ribbon to her
! honnetn ~ The whole world of literature,
through its thousand trumps of fame, adjur-
! ing them to regard its garnered stores OF
emotion and thought. and they think, Its
! high time, if John intends to marry Mary,
for him to pop the question:" When, to
be sure this frippcry is spiced with little
envy and malice, and prepares its small
| dishes of scandal and nice bits of drtractIon
! it becomes endowed with slightly veno-
NOUS vitality of soul, to carry on the
machinery of living, if not the reality of
| life. Seriously, however, this leyity OF
| being, whether innocent or malevolent.
| which thus splits the mind up into ships
| and splinters of thought and leaves 1t va
cant of substance and sap, is it not one,
out of many nobler causes, of the rumored
| lack of cheerfulness in American women!
"a fact of which we know nothing EXCEPT
| from the mrlodious wall, alternating with
melodramatic shreks, that comes up from
so large portion of our best feminine lltera-
| ture. The men of course, are great rascais
aud deprive women of their rights, and
circunscrbe the sphere of their influence
and hypocritically sonnetize Desdemonas
of the kitchen and Imogens of the nursery,
and are, besides, as superficial as they are
wicked-all that is freely granted; but still
IL mt
| tic rulers at least of social life, can make
| it a little better subserve its great purpose
! of educating and enriching the mind with
out any loss to its more festive grace and
! airier charm ;"
In the course of the same essay Mr..
Whipple exposes the fallacy of Shelley s
assertion, that most men
.sAre cradled into poetry by wrong,
| And learn in suffering what they teach Ill
song"
..Writers who adopt this creed" he says,
forget that such experience. passed
through the dissolvng imagination OF
robust natures, comes out in the form OF
beauty. are apt to get up an anguish to
sing about; to make their particular griev-
ancp their whole stock of trade ; and, men,
dicants for sympathy to pass around the
hat to collect such coppers of compassion
and small change of tears as tender hearts
can spare to relieve theirpuny and puerile
miseries If any good friend to them and
to good letters would just hint that the
greatest poets are the most cheerful they
would as quickly affect vivacity as they
now worship gloom. Sterne states thai
whom he visited Paris, in 1897. he feune
that every French woman of fashion wen
through three stages first; coquette
then, as her charms began to fade.
deist then, as she caught a glimpse
the grave. a devotee. One lady, wh'
ouoht. he SAYS, to have been a deist TO
some five years before he had the homo
Of making her acquaintance. expressed
to him her fear that she was beginning
to doubt the truth of the Christian religion
Stcrne locked in her face where beauf.
was palpably on the wane, and as IT h
were overcome by its loneliness, SAID
"Nadam it is too soon-tOo soon - oi
1, everioyed dropped the deist, reasSumed IL
! coouette. and reported ull over Paris tina
the Reverend Mr. Sterne had said more to
/: revealed religion in half an hour than
the cyclopadi~ts had ever SAID aSah>
If. Now the affection of misery III ha
the sentimental poetry that spoils til
! spirits of its readers is capable OF a COZ
Q version as instantaneous as the affectatie
d of deism in Sterne's fadded coquette fo
If .tbis much is to be said for human nature
that men will adept sense as readily as noi
IS sense, provided it fatters their vanity
a we'll"
How late is it!'
: look at the boss and see if he is drum
>" vet; if he is not, it can't be r:uch aft
r eleven O'Clock"
/ .Doas he keep rood time!"