Ashtabula weekly telegraph. [volume] (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1853-1873, 1861-04-20
EXAMINATIONS.
A Series OF
ESSAYS UPON HUMAN LIFE.
cuAprER II.
By TIMOTHY rlrcoNB.

main as good a man as he was before the
loss. Better evidence that man is rotten
in some portion of his character, or rotten
clean through his character, cannot be
lound than real, or pretended, loss of faith
in his fellows. When young man tells
me that he has no doubt that certain per-
sous, publicly reputed TO be good, take sly
drinks in their own closets, aud descend into
grosser indulgcnces when in strange places;
I bat the best men are Eyp0cliles that
there is no such thing as womanly virtue /;
and that appetite and selfshness outweigh
everywhere principle aud manly honor, 1
know that, nineiy.uine times in one hun.
d e he finds a reason in bisown heart aud
lie for his declarations. L know that he
simply wishes to maintain a certain degree
OF seIfrespect, aud That he finds no way to
do this save 10y bringing eyeryl oily around
him down to his own level. A man who
has lost his vir;ue, and is still suffering un-
der the blows Of conscience, is very 10th to
believe that their is any virtue in the world.
Yet there are circumstances in which faith
in humanity is lost, without fault, though
never without dumOge, on the part Of the
loser aud very sad cases they are j re-
member an abused broken.hearted and for
saken wife. who declared to me her belief
that her husband was no worse than other
men (pleuSant for me, wasn't itN-that
there was no man in the world who could
wihstnnl temptation, or who would have
done differently from her husband under
the same circumstances Why was this ?
She had loved this man with all the devo-
lion OF which her warm woman'S heart was
capable (; she had respected him as an em
bodmenL of all manly qualities, he had i'm
personaled her beau ideal If he-the
pee less, the prince-could fall, aud iorsake
aud forget, who would not ? He who had
once been 10 her the noblest and best man
in the world could never become worse
than the rest Of the world Now one Of
the fouest wrongs and one of the deepest
injuries which this man had inflicted upon
h S wife was the destruction of her faith in
men. He had not only blotied out her
fa'h in him, but he had blotted out her
fuilh IN humanity, and, of course, her faith
n lie self. Whu safeguards Of her own vir-
tue fell when her faith in man was destroy
ed, she, did not know but, in her, inrer-
most CONSCIOUSNESS, she must have grown
careless Of helselr-ppsSibIy desperate.
Hardly a mouth passes by in which we
do not hear Of some dcfalcalion, some lapse
from integrity by a man who, through
many years Of business life, had maintained
an untarniShed reputation. | have half u
dozin 81 b ca es my in memory now, and |
do not know what to make of them When
see a character standing to-day above all
repronch, compacted through many years
Of manly, honest, Christian living, over
thrown to morrow, and lrodden in the mire,
| am shocked. If such men fall, where are
We 10 look for those who wilInot? If smell
m D, with worthy nalnres,. and long prac.
ace uf virtpe, aud myriad motives for the
maintenance Of an unspotted character,
yield TO temptation, and are suddenly over.
thrown, what reason have 10 suppose
that my partner, my brother, myself Shall
escape ? lam scared and grow cautious
and suspicious, t. ..rf '
Did You ever think thrt there was one
individual, at least, in The world-ihat pos
sbly there are ten individuals, possibly one
hundred, possibly more-who believe That
you are, as d tnau or woman, just as nearly
right as can be Did you ever think that
there ote people who pin their faith to you,
who believe in you, who trust you, aud
that among those people your own repura;
lion is identified with The reputation of the
race care not how hnmbIe a man may
he, there are always thoss who trust III
him Tlliiik Of The trnst which Il family of
children repose 10 their parents, and Of The
fifth which The parents have in their Child
rcn. Very humble the parents may be-
very enthusiastically as moral guides and
JUICES and authorities but if they were
angels, with the light Of heayen in their.
eyes, they would not he more coniided in
aud relied upon by the little ones who cling
to their knees, So. at oil ages, We garner
our faith in individuals aud so, all men
and women, however humble and unworthy
they may be, become the objects aud recipi.
entS uf this faith. .-..rr .GT --.-r.
h Now, if there lie ten men and women
WHO have garnered their faith in me-Nho
believe in me, through and through--aud
whose faith in all hulpanily would beNadly-
shocked # ] should fall aud Prove 10. them
.tllat their confidence had been entirely mis-,
placed, then ] hold for those ten persons
The reputation OF the human race in nv
hands If You. my reader have attracted
10 Yourself ihe honest faith of thousand
hearts. Then you hold in yonr hands, for
those hearts, the good name of humanity.
Upon The shoulders of each man in the
community tllere rests great Responsible
ity He has not only his own reputation TO
lake cule Of, but he has the reputation of
his race. If all mankind are TO be thought
more meanly Of by mankind, to be less trust.
ed and less loved, because / have been un..
ilu ne, though my untruti touch but one per-
son directly, commit great crime against
my race. Yet this crime is nothing by the
sl,ie Of that which commit ogailist those
Twho have trusted in me. 1t Injuries them
Ito think meanly Of mankihd--t0 have their
confidence shaken in humanity --much more
than it Injuries humanity TO be thought
meanly Of. A man may as well stab me
as 10 destroy my faith in my kind, for the
comfort aud happiness Of my life depend
upon the maintapence of this faith. laot p
+ There are not o few men and women in
this world who are thoroughly conscious
that not only their immediate personal
friends think better of them than they de-.
serve, but that the commuhity-ell who
know them-accord TO them o higher ex.
Icelience Of heart aud life than they really