Cincinnati daily press. [volume] (Cincinnati [Ohio]) 1860-1862, 1860-10-29

Tore unterrestrlal and unatt0inable. it has
Is simulocra and a strange phantasmagoria,
ar different from the real; its varied forms
falsely so baptised in the turbid waters of
pleasure and agitation.
The destiny of mortals is inscrutable, but
every hours experience proves il is not hap
piness: this and that may be ssymptotical,
hut they will never touch each other, though
extended through ages imagination can not
reach.
The error of man is search for happiness,
thereby led into myriads Of miseries; when
to avoid disappointment and suffering should
be his dearest care.
The best of human satisfaction is negative.
When not in pain, we taste of peace when
freed from anxiety, we are at rest.
Paradox though it be- oblivion full and
entire is our highest Joy. Consciousness,
Memory and Thought are the inexorable
Furies that lash us ever with their scorpion
thongs. Teach us the potent spell that can
banish these, and the secret of coptentment
is revealed.
"Let me be as chaos" said Hafiz, "and the
siroccos of life may blow unheededl'.
The streams of Earth, as of Hades are
three. We shudder at the murmurs of
Phlegethon, and we tremble to cross the
Styx. But If we plunge into Lethe, our af-
fctions are forgotten, Beneath the dark
waves there is NO shining Alden; but the
gloom Of Tartarus falls only on the surface
of the food
Novalis hath truly said; "Life is disease
of the spirit" Death only, physical and
psychical is its cure. While we are and
think, we suffer. Rest is nonentity alone.
Buddhism is the true philosophy. With
all its gloominess, its terrible satire upon
creation and existence, it discloses wisdom,
the awful knowledge we strive to. hide even
from ourselves.
The Brahmins teach that the highest
Heaven is the Nirvana, only to be gained after
every form of suffering, every sense of pain,
has been undergone.
Annihilation is the hope that cheers them
and their disciples on; is the sole reward for
centuries of sad experience, and ages of
supremest wo. Through all the Upasian
years they fight the forlOrn battle back to
the first beginning, to the fated, forced and
detested birth.
Horrible as the creed may seem: it is the
Oldest and most noetic of the world, and
they who hold it, the most learned of their
race.
late mystery as this; but Reason that ban
quets at no royal table, and closes not his
eyes when Horror stares, compels us to say:
"Too true"
Unbelievers though we be, do we not in
practice assent to the teachings of the Hindoo
priests2 Is not the source Of our every as
piration, our every act, forgetfulness of self2
Do we not labor to break away from the
ghastly phantom ever at our elbOw-the alb
horred shape that Memory assumes2
Every excess, every violation of the law of
our being and of Nature-the only sin pos
sible in time-is an effort to leap beyond our
own selt-cOnseiousness.
The history of every character, written or
unwritten, is the struggle with the demon of
the dead Past, who holds us with a hand of
burning iron, and Kisses whispers of oldeu
agonies in our tortured ears.
The moments, rare as they are, we stand
in the radiance of the living Present, isolated
| from the Past and the Future, we are blessed
| by the abstraction.
There is no need of mirth nor music, love
| nor beauty, fame nor fortune then. The
absence of care and sorrow and freedom
from recollection and regret compose our
| Paradise-we ask no higher here or here
after-all in nothing is complete.
And yet those are who think they would
be wretched if they could not live forever:
| philosophers have said the soul is startled al
destruction: they would rather suffer and
exist than die, as vegetation dies, and be al
peace.
We will not say such natures know moi
| themselves, for they are mysteries to US. The
| intense vanity and boundless egotism that
are the parents of the wish, we can not COM
| prehend. He who has lived to truly think
and feel to have his hopes spring up like
Cadmus's teeth; to see his holiest sympa.
thies return, as from the deluge did the dove,
without leaf Of verdure; to watch his no.
blest purposes and purest deeds fall fruitles:
at his feet; to know his sacred argosies o.
heart are wrecked upon the shore they were
designed to fertilize-will believe as we, and
realize in the Nirvana all the spirit needs.
What gentler balm, what sweeter cordial,
what filter recoppense, when all existence't
throes are over, than lifelessness complete
than full oblivion, sleep unending death
eternal2 1t is little, sure, to ask that we
may one day be restored to that unconscious
state from which a cruel fate coerced us into
life and woe. We were better in our non
existence, for only there there was no pain
If man has suffered years, that seem like
ages, to no purpose, but to suffer more, anC
Graves thereafter the poor boon shared by
each atom of the universe, it proves how
worse, million times, than worthless hu
man life may be, and how Annhilation ma,
become benson to all. JUNIUS.