Juliet signal. [volume] (Juliet [i.e. Joliet], Ill.) 1844-1???, 1864-01-19
VOL. 81 NO. 80.
Looking Baek-

~ Looking Back.
Who does not cling to the past-tO dayl
when We were what We are no longer e
who that has taken weary steps on tn,
nigh road to mortality, does not love tC
plunge beneath the lava and ashes of life.
volcanic throes and disenter the buried
images OF childhood, Of days when exist.
eoce was full OF fattering auspices,
! "Hhen the heart promised what the fanct arevp
and the most delusive dreams Uora N.
shape of realityi
The visions of the past rise before M
softened aud mellowed by the bues-tbs
ldeallzing touch of memory. By pone
nours catch hctious radiance in thar
night. Their hOvers we're brighter. their
grass greener, their waters more sparkIino
their gala days more exhileratins. thar
those OF any possible present or hoped for
If there were dark shadows. or haysb
eoloring. those pictures, they dissolve ont
OF the violet mists Of remembrance. Tina
who hings the veil of oblivion over the
WeariDess that has gone, foods the mind
with reflected light Of vanished pleasures
and joys. :"
Few are sths beings to whom looking
nack can bring no comfort When life IL
dismantled Of the gsrlands of youth-tbe
gems OF beauty-the drspery of imseina-
tion, memory restores what years bavs stol.
on. The spirit bruised by the blows Of
sorrow. and bowed with weight of cares.
looks back upon the days when opepiny
me showed, through the rosy lens Of hone.
the long vista Of pathway amid pleasant
groves, and bowery shades and musineIv
gathers the fallen blossoms Of the past. 70
cover some dark, sOul-prostratine pit,fall
of the present.
Ihe frame may cease to know the puIss
OF rejoicing, and yet recollections Of de.
parted gladness will bring back smile to
the faded cOuntensnce. q happy thrill 10
the heavy heart. Most truly saws the
poet
sand often, glad moro
We wear face OfJoy because
We have bSen glad of yore"
we have beard the love of looking back
condemned. The lips of the worIdi1 vise
have said, "close the page, seal the book.
and not look back upon what has been .but
ever forward to what shall be-" Bnt ia
not the future corrected by the pastf-
What are the painful lessons of experiences
worth If we do not contemplate their teach.
iDgs?
Nothing that can keep the mind impress
sible, that opens it to mild aud touabin0
influences, is harmful. and retrospectio5
has a softeniog power over the most flint
like natures. '-"'
Hearts that seemed almost dead TO hone
or feeling have leaped and pslpated at the
sound OF some old strain, some ballads IA
mliisr words. Eyes that were dimmed bv
Oft shed tears have kindled at the sight or
some withered lower,some faded relic that
eonJured up the shapes, the voices. thu AZ.
pirations of other days.
Many a wife who has seen the choica of
her youth lasping from virtue until her
heartturned inseDsibly against him. and
the band which should have been stretched
out 10 lure him back into the paths of hon.
or was paralysed, has felt her dead affec>
tons vivi6ed and awakened By the remem
orauce of the happy hours of her besrotbal
her bridal days, evoked BY some olden
token. some letter foil of loving words
which CHANGED to lie turned over in the
search after other things. Her tenderness
has been rekindled and her strength re-
Eewed by these trifes which forced her 10
look back, and thus attuusd the Earring
strings aud brought sweet order OUT of the
WHO contuelon Uf the brainl
One of the most beautiful and melting
illustrations of the benifcent wonders'
wrought by looking back,i given byMoore
in bis excellent allegory of paradise and
the Peri, when he portrays a man, whose
soul Is heavy with manifold crimes. watch
ing the gambols of an innocent child. At
the sound Of the vesper bell tie bow starts
up from his couch of flowers and sinks upon
his knees, his hands fervenly clasped and
bis pure brow and eyes lifted b avenwsrd.
a long silent string vibrstss. in the heart
of the wretcbed man. be recalls the DAYS
when be knelt with a prayer upon his
lips that were as sinless as those of that
little chi'c-his whole life of guilt rises in
review before bim-the fgst tears o. peui.
tence queuch the evil fire of his ewes and
wash his guilt stained cheeks-he kneels I
be praysl
Who can doubt that the soul has eternal
memory Every man carries about biu<
invisible tablets, which are bis shook of
life." The work of every day is indeIibly
engraved upon q new page. The records
may seem to be Oblitered 10 this world. but
every line must be read in that sphere
where there is nothing covered that shall
not be reVealed-nothing hid that shall not
be known.
But even on this earth the leaves long
closed, the book long sealed, NAV be sud.
denly opened By some marvellous and in
sxplicable ageucy-by sudden shock of
life peril-by strong mental excitement
by the spiritualziDg effect Of long illness
or by the sound of the approach of the
Great Suumoner.
TO those who foster the habit of looking
back, the chronicles of the wonderous boof
furnish key to the enigma oftbe tangled
threads 10 lice web, and The foyer of Di-
vine Providence is everywhere revealed in
their mysterious unUindiug.