Daily national Democrat., 1861-01-01
1851.

ETERNITY hath showed upon the head of
Earth another year, but "the white winter
of her age has not yet come. Still bounds
she forward in her appointed path, like
proud ship over the blue pillows Of the deep,
and knows nor pause nor weariness nor de-
lay. The generations of men perish and are
taken into her bosom Empires rise and fall,
The fortunes of men go up or down, with the
turning Of the fatuous wheel Love, hate,
and all that makes green the heart OF man or
| turns it into bitterness and ashes, glow and
burn and flourish for day, and are buried
with the silent bosoms and the moudering
hearts which they moved, Yet the I'm
wearied Earth, strong as in her youthful
prime when the morning stars sang together
and the angels heralded her upon her way,
goes forth rejoicing in her light, and treads
the boundless deeps Of space. 1t matters not
what the turmoils or the strifes of men or of
the elements may be upon her surface, she
moves onward in her sphere, ohedient to the
great central sun that rules her course.
There is something unutterably sublime in
this unwearied fight of Time AS we lay
the other night, listening to the chaos of the
elements while mighty storm swept over
the city,-in the midst of the bowling winds,
that shook our dwelling to its base in the
midst of the crash of falling buildings and
sinking roofs in the midst of all the wrath
and fury of the wreckful night, the solemn
monitor in the tower still struck the hours,
each stroke distinct in the storm, and pealing
far and free above the roaring of the winds.
ooh Time" thought we, "thou rollest on |!
That tongue of thine, in yonder storm>beat
tower, but tells how pauseless is thy march
Nor hurricane nor earthquake shall stop it,
The ever-moving wheels of that uplifted
counter of the hours are but the emblems of
those grander wheels, whose turnings are the
days and years and the long drawn centuries
Thy interpreter in the tower shall cease to
mark thy fight, and the tower itself shall
crumble to the dust, but thou : thy tower
is the Illimitable; thou windest up the suns,
and the rolling orbs mark thy periods'
The Old Year goes out in tears, and his
white locks are streaming along the hills, as
he moves with neiseless steps to the opening
door of the grim Realm of Shades. We are
reluctant to bid him farewell, but he must go
and so some day must we. The Land o
Shadows must receive us.
1t is our duty to be merry as we welcome
in the New Year, but we must be allowed tc
linger awhile over our parting with the Old
and how shall we better prolong the tender
grief of the hour than by repeating the sub
joined noble words of Geo. D. Prentice, on
a similar occasion:
'Tis midnights holy hour-and silence now
Is brooding, like gentle spirit, DER
The still and pulseless world. Hark on the winds
The bells deep tones are swelling; tbs the knell
or the departed year. No funeral train
Is sweeping past; yet, on the stream and wood
With melancholy light, the moonbcams rest,
Like pale, spotless shroud the air is stirr'd,
As by mourner's sigh and on yon cloud,
That floats so still and placidly through heaven,
The spirits OF the seasons seem to stand, form
, Young Spring, bright Summer Autumns solemn
? And Winter with his aged locks, and breathe
! In mournful cadences that come abroad
{ Like the far wind-harp's wild and touching wall,
A melancholy dirge DER the dead year
S For memory and for tears. Within the deep,
Still chambers of the heart, a spectre dim
Whose tones are like the wizard voice of Time
5 Heard from the tomb ofages, points its cold
n And solemn finger to the beautiful
And holy visions that have pass'd awav
And left no shadow ofther loneliness
r On the dead waste of life That spectre lifts
The cofin-lid Of hope, and joy, aud love-
And, bending mournfully above the pale flowers
Sweet forms that slumber there, scatters dead
Der what has pass'd to nothingness. The year
Has gone, and, with It, many glorious throng
/ OF HAPPY dreams. Its mark is on each brow,
Its shadow in each heart. In its swift course,
1t waved its sceptre DER the beautiful,
And they are not. 1t laid its pallid hand
Upon the strong man, and the naughty form
S Is fallen and the flashing eve is dim.
1t trod the hall of revery, where throng'd
The bright and joyous, and the fearful wall
Ofstricken ones is heard, where erst the song
0 And reckless shout resounded. 1t pass'd DER
The batte-plain, where sword and spear Il shield
> Flash'd in the light of midday-and the strength
D OF serried hosts is shiver'd, and the grass,
Green from the soil of carnage, waves above
The crush'd and mouldering skeleton. 1t came
And faded like a wreath of mist at eve;
Yet ere it melted in the viewless air.
= ltheralded its millions to their home
d In the dim land of dreams. Remorseess Time
Fierce spirit of the glass and scythe-what powe
: Can stay him in his silent course, or melt
: His iron heart to pity? o. still on
lie presses, and forever. The proud bird
The condor of the Andes, that can soar
Through heavens unfathomable depths, or brav
The fury the northern hurricane
> And bathe his plumage in the thunder's home,
: Furls his broad wings at nightfall Il sinks down
To rest upon his mountaineering, ig,-but Time
c knows not the weight of sleep or weariness,
And nights deep darkness has no chain to bind
Ills rushing pinion. Revolutions sweep
- Ger earth, like troubled visions DER the breast
W dreaming sorrow; cities rise aud sink,
+ Like bubbles on the water; fiery isles
r Spring blazing, from the ocean, and go back
10 their mysterious caverns mountains rear
To heaven their bald and blacken'd cliffs and boz
It Their tall heads to the plain new empires rise,
f Gathering the strength fhoary centuries,
And rush down like the Alpine avalanch,
: Startling the nations and the very stars,
, Yon bright and burning blazonry ofGod,
Glitter while in their eternal depths
And, like the Pleiades, loveliest of their train,
: Shoot from their glorious spheres, and pass away
= To darkle in the trackless void yet Time
Time, the tomb-buder, holds his fierce career,
q Dark stern, all-pitess, and pauses not
: Amid the mighty wrecks that strew his path,
10 sit and muse like other conquerors,
+ Upon the fearful ruin he has wrought.
# BRoKE-The reservoir of the "Why-not
IS Company, Placer county, broke on Thursda
c night last, damaging the owners to the a
It mount of one hundred dollars
d TIE snow has fallen at Dutch Flat, Place
county, to the depth of four feet, and tn
signs indicate continuance of the storm
"A r I