The Portage County Democrat. [volume] (Ravenna, Ohio) 1854-1868, 1859-11-23

| looked up without seeing the roots that grow
over them) look out upon us and an invisible
J multitude stand in gale and portal to welcome
us, and airy voices speak again the old words
| which men do not hear except in childhood
and in the house. 4 si.1
One pities spirits that have no bodies Poor
things what modification it must be to fit
about like shadow, or so unsubstantial that
men can look through you and not knowtb
yon are there. 1t may be all well enough in
August to wish oneself cloud, riding 10 fleece
high up in the cool air. But when one has
in Autumn and Winter heard his own foot
steps awhile, grasped substantial hands and
clasped forms that be could feel, he feels nat
ural pity for poor misty spirits that cannot
condense enough 10 be palpable to the senses.
But what poor, shivering, restless. rapping
sprite is without the body, that is living man
without house. He cannot take root. A.
man at hote! is like a grapevine in flow
er-pot, moveable, carried round from place to
place, -docked at the root and short at the
top. There is no where a man can get real
!. root-room and spread out his branches till
/ they touch the morning and the evening, but
10 his otcn house. If could should be glad
to live in the house that my ancestors had
4 lived in from the days of the food. That
cannot be, for in ascending the line of ancest-
ry, 6nd the people but not the houses and
it is more than suspected that some of them
never owned one. My fathers house 1t is
La vi, hhad IT frapa md
canvas are there, but strangers have possess.
ed it. The room where was born, where
my mother rocked the cradle and sang as ang-
. els do, where she died, where all my bovish
frolics began, and life spread ont its golden
dream they are all overlaid by other histo-
ries. We planted pleasant things in the old
house, but the Assyrians came in and settled
down in them. The educating power of
house cannot be over-estimated. 1t is doubt
!, fol whether civilization would not totally
change its character. if mon should cease to
live in their own permanent houses. One has
the advantage of a house and household-
the other not A family without house is o
/ camp merely fortified for the night /; but
family in house of their own, are family in
& j 7raHr Hg-aE D.
> permanent forti6catiou. 1t is well called 3
J household, as if it was fort and citadel, into
!, which men may run all their lifelong and be
t secure. A nation of men on wheels would
remain Calmueks forever.S A rolling stone
g gathers no moss. .ss-4sf..s era 20 2. 7s.=S
: H. THE TABLET do not believe that
e we think enough Of that purifying power which
n domestic affection has to elothe and hide all
e the animal necessities of our physical nature.
It 1t has always seemed to me very strange
e thing that man should be an eating animal
e have wondered that he was not made like a
.s its eating for it, and serves up to its daily
Al wants digested sap. Or that he was not an
b Epiphytes or air plant, collecting food from
d wind and atmosphere For (imitating philos.
: ophers when they would confuse knowledge)
It eating per Sc is very gross operation for a
spiritual being. The mouth is but MILL
f. therein go perpetual grists for grinding. The
e eye hath certsin nobleness, as it is the sun
D, of the head, and shoots forth beams of light.
o the ear takes in-but it is only impalpable
re sounds The nose is a recipient, but only oi
IN such parts of things as are too ETHEREAL for
lg4 form and which ezhale in odors. But the
ell mouth is a strange aperture into which men
is cast in untold substance, and il hath never
ID yet been filed. Nor do believe that any
le man can quietly watch the steps of eating
at grinding, and swallowing, as a mere anima
l. act, unclothed from associations, without feel
j. ing more disgust than be would at pigs ban
: quet from the noisy trough. s.le-E saT
n. T. And vet, if there is one word that is uni
d. versally significant of love, peace, refinement
Ie social amenity, friendship, pure society, joy
rs it the TABLE. Such power hath the hear
tn to clothe the most unseemly things with it
tb own sweet vines and fragrant flowers that We
nd have not only forgotten that eating is an ami
". NAL act, but we have come to associate every
en- thing that is sweet and beautiful with it. W.
ar no longer think of appetite, but of love. 1t i
nd not food, but society, that we have. Wecov
su- er the merest animal necessities with sucl
nd sympathies, tastes, joys, conversations, an
DIV gayeties, that the table, the symbol of appetite
in has cleared itself from all grossness, and stand
in the language of the world, as the center q
~ social joy-a feast becomes sacred hospitality
:, festival is religious observance.
al Ill Next in the house is the CHAMBER =
60 Naturally it is the ,Oaste room six or Sc,
e'r en- hours of every day men are breathing corr
~ ses the face discharges expression; the brai
ae' gives up thinking life has gone only tn
~ animal lies there, pusating, breathing, snorin
' helpless as an infant-unnoticing as
W statue i; all gone, all vacant, empty, useless
,eN Looked at without educated associations thel
Gu is no difference between man in bed and
- man in coffin.
md And yet, such is the power of the heart
redeem the animal life, and clothe all rude an
ora uncomely things with its own leaf bearir
;cb branches, that there is nothing more sxquisit
of ly refined and pure and beautiful than u
chamber Of the house in the house. Sleep,
The has sprouted up with all the flowers of poet
,er- The couch From the day that the brio
lace sanctiies it to the day that the aged mother
rt is borne from it, it stands clothed with digni
rear and beauty. Cursed be the tongue that da
eed speak evil of the household bed By its s
mo- oscates the cradle, not far from it is the cr
s of In this sacred precinct, the mothers cbamb
10Y lies the heart of the family. Here the CHI
ting learns its prayer. Hither night by night g
Wind gels troop. 1t is the Holy of Holes. @
ly ". The KITCHEN. Let US not see in Il