American Lancaster gazette. [volume] (Lancaster, Ohio) 1855-1860, 1859-02-10
Henry Ward Beecher on the Departed
Year.
"wo spend our day, a. a t.lo isat Is told"


'wo spend our days as talo that Is told"
We copy from the New York Lndepsn-
dent, OF last week, some Of the picturesque
paragraphs of . characteristic article from
the pen of Henry Ward Beecner. They
are pleasant recding just now:
And thus, saith the
Palmist, we, spend our days! As tale
that is told Years. with all their vast
variety ofincident, are remembered vague
ly--they are thin and dreamy The pres
snt glows and even burns with intensity.
But it is quenched when few days are
past! Days come in with form, and sound
and motion, as the coming in Of crested
waves. Like them they brade upon the
shore Of the present; they cover it with
million evarescent gems; they desolVe and
flow out in undertow, and are lost again
in the black dep!hs-wbile new days. like
new waves, foam, sparkle. and break. as
did they.
One by one come 10 us days and years.
Coming, they have individuality But
receeding from US, they loose all separate
ness, and the past sOne undistinguishable
whole.
Who can analyze and separate the years
of his childhood! From birth till one is
four or Eve, the unriper brain receives few
impressions that last. Itis all blank. AS
in a, printed book, at either end. are bound
up many Blank leaves, without print or
writing on them, so is human life, at eitb.
er end, begun an ended with blank years.
preserving no record-7leaving no mark
But then come the youthful days---full
of romp. Of hunger of growth, Of childish
exhilerationl How do they seem to you
now? Are they separable? Can you
thread them, and paint them by memory?
Only one or two things peculiarly remain.
The days are huddled together. The
very years are heaped in a mass; and you
think back on twenty years as If they were
but hand-breath.
II is as with landscape to traveller
Having journied all day. at evening reach
ing some high hill, he sits down TO trace
his path. The grass at his feet is plain
enough, and the ants that run express up
and down every stalk have brisk distinct
ness. The near bushes and the trees are
so plain that the. boughs. and separate
leaves, stand out in their individual forms
But, as the view receeds gradually, he loos
es all these; and little farther of, leaves
" upon leaves grass is matted upon grass
and is no longer form. but only color
Yet farther, and trees begin to fade; tree
stands upon tree, and at leangth whole
forests are to the eye but faint clouds
with not one distinct line, and hills art
rubbed out. and all the inequalities Of th,
way, which the complaining foot felt il
travelling, the eye no longer disserns. ant
only here and there single peak OF
mountain remains clear an individual
against the all.toundiqg sky!
Thus is it in life. Our nearer hours
report themselves; and days only, moi
hours, are dissearned; the N days lapse, aud
weeks or months are long aerial distances
in one line, whose continuity is measured
by no prompt object. At length, }eat
only can be seen. and not even these final
ly. For. as sailors, leaving the hsrbor
carry with them for long time etho sigh
of shore, but sailing still, lose first the Low
water lines, but cling by the eye to tb
higher masses. which in time, in the eve
sailing, fade and sink, leaving nothing bu
some hight lifted far up like Teneriffe
which, after the night is passed, is al
gone, hidden by the bend of the earth ser
face so, even high topped years are shu
down from our memory by the bend o
the sycles Of Time. =.
Who are the members ofyour father
family? Beside your brothers and sisters
who dwelt there? Who visited? Who
came and went? Who were the neigh
, bors? These things were vivid realitie
to you when achild. Whatare they now
Mere marks. AS a lahdscaps artist paint
III the foreground figures with limbs ant
features clear, but 10 the far off distance
when he would paint figure, takes hi
brush and spots down mere dash
formeless color.mark; or to US are the iv
ing things of the neighborhood. Some, I
} be sure. stand up and remain! but mil
, lion are forgotten, where one remains.
Who went with you to the village school
l Call the roll! Who were the successive
r teachers--Popes Of the ferulel
3 Who were the girls? Who were tn
boys? Then, when the uprorions scho'
broke forth 10 tumult q: dismissal, il be
asked you you could have given every name
No,O, call them up! Who sat by you o
the right! who on the left? Who were i
: the first classes? who were in the second
J These we're the important things then.-
: Who was whipped? and who was neVt
! once struck These to you then Wei
q more important than the roar of Europea
:, revolution. the burning of Moscow, tn
' battle of Wat, rloo, hut what do you r'
member of them? Some memories 81
more tenacious than others. A few wi
f reproduce much; more, some; most, b'
! little ifsny.
I How much can you recall from Il
s church? who went with you? who s
about you? who were the old men? WI
!. were in their prime? and who, like you
a self, were young? Aud il these livin
4 and throbing realities are faded out, it wi
. be useless for me to ask after the sermon
n They were gone before they were tnisht'
They fell from your dissolvingear as flax