Ashtabula weekly telegraph. [volume] (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1853-1873, 1859-04-16

ed by nerce suns ana muscles Knit by con-
aict with the evils Of the passage, will end
abundant entrance and hospitabIe Service
The machinery which propose to adopt
for my purpose is simple enough. 1t is the
habit of the mind to condense into diminu-
tive, agreeable and striking forms, the re-
suits of experience and observation in oil
the departments of life AS the carbon,
disengaged by FIRE in its multtudinous Of
Gees, crystalizes into ditmond thai flashes
fire from every facet, and bears at every
angle the solvent power Of the mother
flame, SO great clouds of truth are evolved
by human experience, which are crystalized
at last into proverbs, that fash with the
lights of history, and illuminate the dark
ness which rests upon the track of the fu-
ture. The proverbs Of nation furnish the
index to its spirit and the results of its
civilization. As this spirit was kind or un-
kind--as this civilization was Christian or
unchristian-are the proverbs valuable or
worthless TO US. / know of no more un-
worthy sentiments, no more dangerous
heresies, and no more mischieYous lies than
are to be found among the proverbs that
have received currency, and q permanent
record in the world but here aud there
among the ignoble paste shine noble gems,
and these, as they may seem worthy. pro-
pose to use as textual titles for these new
"Preachings" of mine choose them be-
cause they are the offspring of experience,
because they are instinct with blood and
breath and vitality. They have no likeness
to the universifed deductions of reason
They are not propositions, conceived in the
understanding and addressed to life, but
propositions born of life ITSELF and adj
dressesed to The heart. They were not con-
ceived in the minds of the great few, but
they sprang from the life Of the people,
/ give the people their own.
Precisely what these essays of mine are
TO be, | cannot tell because do not know.
only know that there is an inexhaustable
realm of practical truth around me waiting
for revelation. There are multitudnous
thoughts, now trailing upon the ground,
that point their tendrils tipped with in
Stinct, towards this pen of mine, striving to
reach aud twine themselves around it that
they may be lifted into the sunlight of popu-
lar recognition. / have got my spindle and
my distaff ready-my pen and mind--never
doubling for an instant that God will send
me fax Toward the soul which places it.
self in the attitude of reception, all things
flow. For such soul are all good gifts
fa0hioned in heaven The sun shines for
it; the birds sing for it; up toward it the
flowers swing their censers and watt their
odors. Into it in golden streams flows the
beauty of star-sprinkled rivers. The roar
of waters and the splash of waterfalls give
healthful pulse 10 its atmosphere. Iuto its
open windows come the notes of human Joy
and human woe in the triumphs and tho
struggles of the passing time. Past its
open door Memory leads the long process
sion of its precious dead, who look in with
sweet faces and whispers of peace In front
of it, Imagination marshalS the forces of
the future, and it thrills with the bugle-
blast aud trembles with the drum beat of
the laundering host. For perception were
all things made, and to the door of percep-
ton all things tend so that the soul that
throws itself wide open to all that is made
for it shall ind itself fall t .....
When q soul thus receptive places itself
in the attitude of expression, it has but to
move its lips aud the words will how The
mind that has become treasure house of
truth and beauty speaks o world into ex-
stencc with every utterance. Expression
is its instinct and its necessity. This ex-
preston may not always seek the shape OF
language, but it will assert itself in some
form. The patriot reveals the secret of bis
soul when be gladly dies for his country.
and sacrifices his life upon the alter of his
inspiration. The Sister of Mercy tells the
story of her love and devotion, unseen and
unheard of the world, in midnight minstra-
tions to the comfort of the sick and the dy-
ing. The modest mother expresses the
love aud life she has received from God and
the things of God in tutelage of the young
spirits born of her, and the creation of a
bright and graceful home for them We
give what We have recived-that which is
within US will out of us. Expression is
the necessity of possession.
The form which expression takes depends
upon natural tendencies and aptitudes, aud
habits imposed by circumstances and op-
portunitieS. l suppose that to every man
who writes a book, or is in the nabt of
writing books, there comes at the conclu-
sion of each effort sense of exhaustion
Then, through days, and weeks, months,
he walks contendly, taking in new food
without method, without design-anything,
everything-regaling bis SensiOilities, min
istering to his appetite for knowledge, ex-
ercisinG his sympatnies. absorbing greedily
all the influences evolved by the life around
him, till there steals upon him, iusensibly
the desire for another installment of ex
preston IN the habitual way. He is arres'
ted in fits of abstraction into which he has
fallen unawares. He finds a child on his
knee without knowing how it came there.
He passes friend in tho street without
seeing him. He will not be content until
the pen is iu his hand, and bis mind has APP
piled itself to the work demanded by It's
condition.
But about the fax that God sends to
such a man: this would all seem to be pull.
ed from the earth, softenc1 by sun and rain
and broken and hackled by natural pro
oesses. True: aud, yet, imagine there are
few thinking minds in the world that are
not aware Of double process by which
expression is arrived atone entirely in
voluntary, lying deep down in the con,