Cincinnati daily press. [volume] (Cincinnati [Ohio]) 1860-1862, 1861-05-30

Goodness.
Goodness is the only heroism in Life.
It is the combination Of all virtues, and
the highest moral beauty.
And yet, strange to say, Goodness is the
least attractive, the least valued quality In
the World.
There is no encouragement, no compensa-
ton for Goodness in Life. On the contrary,
every inducement is offered TO crush il out.
1t is thought a weakness, a defect The
World laughs and jeers at the man or woman
who tries merely to be good.
"Good is a simple sentimentalism," says
the wording, 'and no one who is wise e'er
seeks to practice it.
ATTACH myself to Good, and Evil will fol-
low thee. Success will always retreat and
Fortune frown.
"There is no fame for Goodness, no glory.
The path that leads to it is lowly, through
devious and darksome ways, over poisonous
thorns and beetling rocks, where death and
danger Turk.
"Avoid Good as a pestilencel 1t will en-
slave thee, and henceforth Ambition can not
arouse thee with her loudest voice r.
Much of truth is in those -utterances;
more than the heart would willingly be-
lieve.
Good is beautiful, but its beauty is
too fine for the ordinary sense; and the
careless eye is drawn frOm it to some re-
splendent III.
Good is not appreciated, and therefore not
understood.
They who follow it as O guiding star are
believed deceitful, virtue to prac-
tice vice.
The best Being, Time has seen, was cruci-
fed, and would be again, were He to return
to Earth.
The selfish and vicious World was not pre-
pared to comprehend q mission such as His
and He persisted because He loved and
sought to benefit humanity.
Since that period, all who seek TO walk
with Good, as with q spiritual sister, are mar
ty1s, though the cross they bear, and the
crowns that pierce, are insensible to sight.
Who conseerates himself to Good, is the
priest of humanity, the devotee to purest re-
ligion.
He will see the low, the mean, the vile
preferred to himself; praised where he 10
blamed; welcomed where he would be re-
jected.
he will be defrauded, abused, misrepre.
sented. His good acts will be employed
against him his disinterestedness declared
an Interior motive.
Suffering will be his lot through all Times
changes.
He will lose faith in humanity, perhaps,
but not in Good for that is an eternal prin-
ciple, and no evil can harm it ever.
Good is God, and the only God.
of all worthy forms and creeds Good Is
the nucleus, and who doubts or repels Good
is the only possible atheist.
While man loves Good, he 10 secure and
true, though he distrusted all his fellows
and despised his very brother.
Perhaps there is no compensation in Life;
none for s~ufferingi none for saerifcei none
for love.
But for him who has set his soul toward
Good; often failing to reach it, though ever
striving in its divine direction, there must
be some reward. 49,
Even through the night Of despair the
memory Of Good rendered will CLEAN as the
brightest star,
Detested, Stunned, hated for imagined
deeds of which he could not think without
ablush, the good man can say: 81 have not
deserved this; and yet it is the lesson the
:. World teaches.
T. 81 have denied myself for others.
b. ~ have assumed cheerfulpess when I
made q sacrifice that weighed upon my
heart, and called that 'trihe', which was .
portion of my soul.
set it be sol
mature is ever cruel to those who strive
to elevate her.
aShs strikes the lips that offer TO suck the
poison from her wounds. no -csrr Id ~
"But there will come a time says Hops.
"when all will be otherwise; when Goodness
will be rewarded with Goodness; when the
) pure impulses Of the heart will be sacred,
|. and love the religion Of the World"
J Would it might bel
But Hope is a syren to whom all listen
: only to be betrayed.
! Goodnsss viii always be Goodness bat
its disciples, we fear, win ever experiences
the fate of Him who died for those that slew
! Him. ea sf url F1rds alu
I Goodness is a violet blooming beneath the
; hedge; and the rude. hand Of the World win
I always tear II from It's stem, even after it hp1
been blessed by the rising od0r ofits prayer
II 800 .sJUEIU5.