Ashtabula weekly telegraph. [volume] (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1853-1873, 1861-06-22

spend quiet evening in the chimney corner
and dream Of the realm that was opening
before me. Such a moment as this come,
really, though not always consciously, e
every man aud woman. To-day, we nr'
children tomorrow, we are not To-day
we stand in life's vestibule tomorrow w
are in the temple, awed by the sweep oI
the arches over us, humbled by the cross
that fronts us, and smitten with mysteries
that breathe upon us from the choir or
gaze at us from the flaming windows.
Manhood womanhood have their infancy
entirely distinct from the infancyof childhood
The child is born into the world simple.
animal life-less helpful than q lamb, or a
calf, or kitten. There is no power in it.
and but little Of instinct There is no form
OF life, bursting caul or she'll that awakes
IN vital air to such stupid, vacant helpless.
ness as baby. 1t is ont of this lump Of
clay, with its bones half hardened, and its
muscles little more than pnp, and its bruin
no more Intelligent than an uncooked dunn
ling, that childhood is to be made. And
| this childhood consists Of little more than
a weILdeVeloped animal organism. Nature
Keeps the child playing it p ay in
the open air-impels it 10 bring into free
and joyous uSe all the powers of its little
frame--and when that is done, and the pro
creative faculty has crowned ALL the child
is born again, and comes into new infan.
| cy-the infancy of womanhoud. Here a
new life opens That which gave sa,isfac.
tion before, gives satisfaction no longer.
Love takes new and deeper channels Am
bilion likes its eye upon other and higher
objects. Fresh motives address the scul,
and urge it into new enterprises Great
cares aud responsibilities settle slowly down
upon its shoulders, and it braces itself up
to endure tLem. 1t npprehends God and
its relations to Him, and TO its fellows it
confronts destiny it arms itself for the
conflicts OF life ; it prepares for the strug-
gle which it knows will issue in a grateful
success or sad disappointment in short,
it grows from mans infancy iuto mans full
estate.
| Now the reason why mother looks with
a sigh upon her children, and says that they
are seeing the happiest days of their life
is that she has never become a true wo.
man. She has never grown out OF tie in
fancy Of her womanhood. She has never
comprehended what glorious thing it is
to be wOman--she has not comprehended
what it is to be woman at all. What can
be that woman's ideas of life who thinks
and declares that the haPpest moments of
her experience we're those which were those
which were filed with the froIic of animal
life ? If felt like this, should wish that
my children had been bora rabbits, or squir.
rels, or lambs, or Aittens, because they,
having enjoyed the pleasures of the animal,
will never awake 10 the woes of another
type of life. The real reason why any man
sings from the heart. ...-
10 would were boy again"
is, that he is 'stuck'-to use homely but
expressive word--between boyhood and
manhood, and, not feeling up to his posi-,
ton, has very strong disposition TO back
out of it. The man who really wishes he
were boy, is either painfully conscious of
the loss of the purity of his boyhood or he
has the eowardly disposition to shirk the
responsibilities Of his life. The romantic
regard which We all entertain for the sim.
pie animal content and JOY of childhood, is
a very different thing to this. 1t was Mr..
Meals loafer that really wished he were a
pig and it is loafer always who would
retire from mans duties and estate, into the
content either of childhood or kittenhood.
1t is very natural that man should be
blinded and panied by passing from shad.
ed room into dazzling sunlight. 1t is
serious thing to leap from u luxurious,
enervating warm bath into cold water
All sudden transitions are shocking; and
God has contriyed the transitions of our
lives so that they shall be mainly gardual.
1t is not TO be wandered at that many men
and women, by having the responsibilities Of
men and women thrust upon them too early,
are shocked, and look back upon the shady
places they have left and long to rest their
eyes there. 1t is not strange that men
recoil from a plunge into the worlds cold
waters, and long TO creep back into the
bath from which they have suddenly risen.
But that man or woman, having fully passed
into the estate of man and woman, should
desire to become children again is impossi
BILE. 1t is only the half.developed, the badly
developed, the imperlectly nurtured, the
mean.spirited, and the demoralized, who
look back to the innocense, the helpleSsness
and the simple animal joy aud content of
| want no better evidence that o persons
life is regarded by himself as a failure,
than that furnished by his honest willing
ness to be restored TO his childhood. When
a man is ready to relinquish the power of
his mature reason, his strength and skill for
sef.support, the independence of his will and
life, his bosom companion and children, his
interest in the stirring affairs of his time,
his part in deciding the great questions
which agitato his age and nation, his intel
ligent apprehension of the relations which
exist between himself aud his maker, and
rational hope of immortahty-ithe he have one
for the negative auimal content aud friv.
olous enjoyments of child, he does not de-
serve the name Of man. He is weak,
unhealty, broken-down creature, or q base
paltroon. ..s., ...... ..
Yet know there are those who will read
this sentence with tears, and with comp
laint. know there are those whose exist
ence has been long struggle with sickness
aud trial-whose lives have been crowded
with great griefs and dsappointments-whC
sit in darkness aud impolency while th'
world rolls by them They have seen nc
| joy and felt no countent since childhood
| aud many Of them look with genuine pity