The western Democrat. [volume] (Charlotte, N.C.) 1852-1870, 1859-06-28
For the Western Democrat.
BUILDING AIR-CASTLES.

This is very common and certainly very
pernicious habit. 1t is the growth OF leisure
hours. One who tolls daily with head or hand mas
no taste or time to indulge it. Practical persons
never cultivate it, because it units them FOL the
plain unvarnished realities of everyday life; and
because, it may be, they do not generally have an
Imaginative turn Doubtless it is to the lmaglna.
tive class that this habit mostly attaches, and
especially though not exclusively by any means,
to the young. Many boy has spread himself In
vacation in "the rosy time of the year upon
sunny hillside, and breathing the free, sweet air,
felt dreamy langour steal over him as he watched
the white caps of cloud float lazily along, saw
hundred fanciful images in them, and an unspeak-
able beauty in the fair, deep blue Of the sky, and
then no doubt he built castle or two but they
we're soon torn down; and there was an end of it.
If by an unlucky chance he carried this habit into
the school-room, most probably 1t resulted In the
teachers cutting short the growth OF some proms-
ing switch in the immediate neighborhood of the
schoolhouse and with tanning the lint of his
roundabout in the neatest imaginative manner.
For by the time the young castle-bulider has begun
fairly to sketch to himself the outlines OF his future
brilliant career his vacant eye, lstless expression
Of countenance, and untouched book betray him,
and a rap of the teachers rule upon the table
startles him into seeing dull schoolroom, and the
dry text of his Latin Reader, of which he has not
translated line Poor fellow, he was fast be-
coming a great man; he an orator, statesman,
dramatist; he was tickling his vanity Delightfully."-
with the feather of his goosequlll, when the rap
recalled him to an unprepared lesson and present
" to recitation and the sad actually OF whole
some fogging.
MANY man is a castle-builder, and alb! how
MANY women. He who cultlvates this habit mas
his home in the air, anywhere, everywhere, except
| lust in the particular spot where he happened at
the time to be; and he is surrounded by entirely
different persons, characters, things, circumstances
than those that are about him. lie is thus neces'
sarily morbidly sentimental in proportion as this
habit grows upon him, and consequently unhappy
Dissatisfied with things they are, he valnly I'M
apnes thousand things that are not, and feels q
certain sense of regret that they cannot be as ne
wishes 1t is evident that such person has tie"
actual cares or troubles if indeed any at ALL but ne
is hunting, with the keen wish of sportsman,
host of imaginary ills. Is it not equally apparen
that long indulgence of his favorlte propensity
gradually units him for business, for happy socla
and domestic relations for the " small sweet cour
tesies of life" and fritters away a naturally hn
} intellect until it cannot grasp the merest trfes
He cannot be a man Of fortitude, he is too en-
ervated He does not strive to brace his nerve
to bear up against misfortune when 1t does come
but takes refuge instantly in some handsome cast
5 in the air. He erects every day the baseless tat
rio of splendid air-palace in his lmaglnatiJ
e which vanshes into the most hopeless lndlstlnc'
ness at the first touch of the real. He IL tim
d finds his favorite amusement the boon companlo
of Incidence, mental inactivity, Observation-Disclosures
an increasing love for novel-readirg, chronic il
temper and the very antpodes OF cheerful bustlin
go-aheadtiveness patience, courage under reverse
a and wholesome mental and physical employment
X. Y. Z. &c