Litchfield enquirer., 1863-11-12
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WHOEE NOs 9oOs
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 S.yAtnE. 6S AEoSG LleE a%. How l,hany men are -.here- wao- have. ever -,akesa-into- minds ssss fp;l meaping 9f ,bpss nns Aundred the Oldest iahabitaht?' Figures of arith- imetic are empty symbulse We lleasur8 tineby deeds.I One sammefs, life in busy faiitul lands, seems longer to man 's heart than ceptu- ries at the ozen pole, Yet, though history reco, ds nothing of the labofs of Methoselah, We knew that bis hoarAC CdiAnotl! alonAhep nor sleep,,s They were the same winged p4sSsn- gers that 6utran cashless debtors, and cut ShQrt
 loves dreams. They were the same sxift elves sDl cfadedd Beauty whose fofAed feet trod ,hysdimplss into wrinkles. The fTntn tlat waited & so long oas Methpselah Yas the seape striding skeleton that swings 2 pitilsss scyths finsthe pages of the iNew England Pfiiner. now, but they ayislded shsavier crsps. Eoe there were giants in those days 5;,i4 s.. x; '"'We must.not attempt to measure the aes \ of Msthuselah By1a modern standard. At the same cup efrffa which the hot hastsa oteIlis generation druipsgte its dpgs ip0 thFssscore years, he slipped away calmly for centqEies. He was q slow liver. These 969 years were not spent in Q brief paradise of youth, aid dreary waste of dotagebnaT They madesup one symmetrical lifes equally divided bstveenfba seven ages of mas; Stand back, YopF0 "A AMsnIcA.' whose embryo sinews ache to min gle in the great worlds strife, and c6asiderfo a moment the childhood of Melhusalah, That venerable man must have been subject .o ma tefnal restraints for no less than ninety yearsi He could mot have sought the bonds of wedlock in unseemly haste, for Lamecl,a his eldest son and heir, was born in the one hun dredaand eighty seventh year of his fathers ipigrimage. Modernglo is but powder flash hot, swift self consuming. The lose6f shepherds on the Assyrian plains grew as the tiny fountain grows, from brooklet into broad CT stream, till swelling wide with Slow ih- crease, it burst into the nbonndless lsea9 Mr. Methuselah lived, loved and waited. 7Hecould afford 10 wait ten times as long as Jacob, for the Rachel of his hopes, for the rose-tints in her cheeks were fast colors and among ante. dluyian ladies there were no old, maids of less thln three centuries. .;, ,r..- ,,,.,.,
 '.t'Fe travel through life as modern fashion. Tables make the grand tour tasteing samples of fruit and wine catching brief slimpses6f blue Alps and broad rivers, and promenadinT d moment before the master pieces of Raphael and Titan. But those primeval patriarchs strolled through the world sublimcly oblieiods of the flight of time in the green pastures and beside tho stlll waters, reposing with in. finite delight, and treadng the dark valleys of sorrow with ,inspeakabie calm. For them the boundess riches of Nature, half lost to tho careless eye, were not poured out in vain. They drank deep draughts of beauty, not only from cloud-wrapt mountains and crimson sum se,s, but from things whichdie unseen beneath the tread of hurrying feet. And every one who gives time to the study of nature, finds on earth an Eden still worthy, of immortals redolent of infinite perfume, rnurmuring with ceaseless melody, laden with ambrosial sweets, -!" In the, enjoyment of such simple and tire less pleasures, the youth and the manhood of Methuseleh might have glided away like a dream. At length the summit of his life was reached, and -he trod down slowly to the tomb. Nine times the century plant had bloohed since his birth, and anew bud was orimsouink with the blood of summers whose burstinr he shouldonot behold. The dark destroying an, gels had long swept past him in their ceassieSsi rounds as the hungry sand-billows of the dak ert fly from, the sacred feet of Sphyux. slBhk now that the pride of his brow and the great, nesso his strength had departed, they gather
 like ravens that follow the fainting footsteps of the warrior wounded unto death. Yet, flo fhtt dark and silent river he went idown slowly and calmly as the setting sun, glazing with golden smiles far up to the zenith of his noon. and back to the gates of his morning. oi ssshi91 3i And all the days of Methuselah were nine hundred !. sixty and nine years, and hc died!,-7
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