Dodgeville chronicle. [volume] (Dodgeville, Wis.) 1862-current, 1864-01-21
Tomorrow.

Ihls would be a happy world enough
were men more content with to-day, and
less anxious about tomorrow. One hall
the misery in the world is not real but an
tlcipated misery. A concern for this bug
bear Tomorrow is at the bottom of a
majority of our troubles. And yet, if man
will but glance over his yesterdays, he will
at once see how foolish it is to fret himself
about the time to come; for he will find in
every yesterday miniature grave, as it were
dug by too fearful imagination, in which
is buried all his little store of daily happi-
ness. A prudent thoughtfulness for the fu-
ture every man should entertain; but it is
worse than folly to permit the breadth of
to-morrpw, like a mildew, to blight the flow
ers around our pathway. Let US enjoy the
sunshine while it is about us; and if be-
meath the horizon clouds are concealed, why
anticipate the gloom in which they will en-
shroud US? Truly has the poet asked
''What avails it that indugent Heaven
From mortal eyes has wrapped the woe to come,
If we, ingenious to torment ourselves,
Grow pale at hideous fictions of own?
Enjoy the present; not with needless cares
OF what may spring from blind misfortunes womb
Appall the shortest hours that life bestows
Serene and master OF yourself, prepare
For what may come and leave the rest to Heaven.
This is the only true philosophy. 1t is
often the case that an imaginary evils pro-
ductive of more mischief than the real ca
lamity It has been frequently observed,
in times Of great mortality, that where dis
ease carried off its one thousand, fear de-
stroyed its ten thousand. So Of the minor
evils of life-where the happiness of one is
affected by real misfortune, that, of ten is
destroyed without any just cause. The
truth IS, men are not content with their
every day happiness. They slight the good
they have, in their anxiety for the good to
come. They waste their daily supply of
oil in fruitless attempts to procure supply
for the morrow, forgetting that he who re-
plenishes the cruise seisinexhaustible. Every
man has oil enough in his lamp to light
him to contentment-tha better name for
happiness-if he will but use it Alright. But
he will not use it Alright, and that is the mis-
chief of it.
Some men seem to act as though there
were not evils enough already in the world,
b{sessetting {ss US one very hand, and'so they go to
them at once into so many giants, and then
waste their strength and spirits in battling
them. There is hardly man who has not
a lion in his path, roaring like all possessed
And yet the growl is all that is known of
the lurking danger.
While to some this same "to-morrow" of
which we are talking is pregnant with moth
ing but direful evils, to others it is the great
storehouse Of hopes and enjoyments. The
past is nothing-thc present nothing-th
future everything Neglecting all themeans
of enjoyment scattered profusely around
them, they press on to the attainment Of
some unattainable good. 10 them, happi-
ness like the bird Huma, is ever on the wing
fitting tantalizingly before them, but
never perching so that they can lay hold on
it. And SO they wear away their lives in
one vain endless chase. f