Charles City Republican intelligencer. [volume] (Charles City, Iowa) 1861-1864, 1862-12-25
" NOT MUCH"
BY VIRGINIA 2. TOWNSEND.

VIRGINIA r. TOWNSEND
My friend, are you one of the dis
couraged and disheartened kind of
folk /? Do you stand sometimes OH
the mountain peak Of the present, and
look over the bilIowy years of your
life as they roll away off towards the
east and the dawn and do you say
within yourself in bitterness and de-
spondency Of spirit, What have they
all been WORTH What gain have
they brought to me, or what good to
others What am | living for, and
what are the thousands of others all
about me living for? Pm as good
as the mass of mankind. | hope Pm
"a little better than the most, but the
world isn't much better off because I
have lived in it as can see, and my
part in it has been mostly aspiration,
aim, and wretched defeat. What a
humbug this life is, any how"
Now, who hasn't, at some periods
of their lives, had Just such thoughts
as these, and the finer the quality of
your spirit. the deeper your insight in
to the purposes and responsibilities Of
life, and the purer your aspirations,
the loftier your aims, the more proba-
bic it is that you have had these sea-
sons of discomfort and despair. .s
For the soul which grubs away
down in the earthly part Of his nature
whose life consists in what he eats
and drinks. and especially in what he
can gee, is not very likely to be much
disturbed 10y any reflections Of this
kind, he never suspects that he owes
the world anything, but because he
does condescend to live in it Though
very probably it would be better off
if he were out of it, the world owes
him a living, and he means to have il.
On those two points you shall find
such an one settled.
But to the man or woman who has
eyes for seeing aud heart and soul
for feeling and understanding, these
hours, which are the damp days of the
soul, will sometimes gather over it, as
the mists gather their gray raiment
over the land, until all the beauty and
comelincss thereof are vanished.
Aud who can look upon his life with
its temptations from which he has not
been kept,-with its evil from which
he has not been delivered who can
behold the mischiefs, the mistakes,
the weakness and the failures, aud
then contrast the life that now is, with
the life that might have been, and not
feel all, and great deal more than
lip or pen can utter!
For you know, or God help you
if you don't, reader, that this living
is hard work We go on struggling,
falling, baflled the little daily cares
eat, and harrow, and vex the best of
us the great gricfs sail down like
mighty icebergs from the night and
cold of the North, and crush and over
whelm us for season, aud worried
and wearied out, we look down upon
the road Of years we have travelled,
and say, What has it been worth 2"
And, perhaps, if out of the silence
the answer could be read, as it will
one day be, from the Eternal Ledger,
we should start up with amazcment
and Joy and gratitude. All, my friend,
we none of us know what good We
may have done--what seed we may
have sown-what hearts we may have
reached-what souls the words we
have uttered, the deeds we have done,
may have touched and helped in just
the right time. .... ...
All, reader, VIC don't know what
these lives Of ours which seem not
much worth. these hard, discouraging,
slow toiling lives, may be doing in
our day and generation. 1t is not
best to be discouraged because we
cannot see the harvest gathered into
garner we can none of us tell as we
go through this befogged, beclouded.
defiled atmosphere of time. jostling
and being jostled against, what help
ing hands We reach which keep others
from falling over fearful precipices,
what stumblers We save, what blessed
sparks our words are, kindling fires
at which, bye and bye there be many
chilled, shivering, half frozen souls
that shall come and get warm and
take heart again.
So, let none Of US go grumbling,
disheartened, despairing through life.
If we have the spirit to do good, let
none of us doubt that the chance will
come Mistakes of head and faults
of heart-wasted time and opportuni-
ties, we have all of us enough to
mourn; but let these make US wiser
and better for the future.
The loving heart and the tender
hand-oh, my friend, if these are your
witnesses here, be assured that here
after there shall be written over the
chapter of your life some fairer, no.
bier title than Not much"