The weekly north Iowa times. [volume] (McGregor, Iowa) 1857-1867, 1864-12-07

| SihNihSos W hlNi hOW EiuSp ditCi pan
universes-and some of you would not b
satisfied even with two little universes.
Let your minds take a Retrospective
glance at what you once were, and theI
send Imagination and reflection toward OF
a tour of observation, and reconnoitre th
future, to see what you will be, and you
feathers of pride and vanity will fall in ;
hurry, and you will sneak off and hide
yourselves like plucked peacock.
Whence your origin? You don't know
Whittier are you bound? You never in
quired Poor creatures, you have all come
into existence without any agency of your
own, and you must all go out of this world
in the same way, unless some of you are
fools enough to attempt to cut your way
into hereafter through your jugulars, OF
swing yourselves across the dark river al
the end of hemp cord and in either case
should say you were taking unnecessary
trouble to affect an object which will happen
to you all long before you are prepared fol
it unless you mend your ways. For my,
self, | came into this world without any
voluntary agency of my own, and if
don't leave these shores until stick a fni,
to my own mortal existence, you can bet
your pile shall be here at the next Presi-
dental election, if not longer.
Yes, my friends, in our origin in this life
we were as useless and as helpless as a nest
OF stale ducks eggs, and our end, our
physical end here on earth will be inst about
as ignoble and inglorious as pile of ;nush-
rooms on dung hill, unless We make our
lives useful to our kind by generous and
virtuous acts while We stay. Some few
friends may weep over our graves, and
heave sigh over our memories, bat all we
shall then have or want of earth will be a
space too small for even a decent lettuce
patch, and thousand of us will require
less room than Dutch gardner would re-
quire for an onion bed {; and all we shall be
worth to the world after we are dead
unless we leave behind US the SAVIOR of a
kindly deeds-wll be less than the value
of cart load Of putrid mackerel, except to
some body snatcher or medical student.
How many of us strut our brief hour
upon the stage Of life, ashamed of our origin
and dreading our end. The gaudy tinselry
of tragic scene or a comic snow marks
our pathway across the platform of Time,
and ere the curtain falls we have disappear
ed behind the side scenes, Of forgetfulness,
and our footsteps return not to the green
room Of memory, but stumble into narrow
space to close our be all of earth.
Of all helpless things, the newborn NOR
tai is most helpless! Of all arrogant be.
ings the vain and boastful man is most
arrogant; and of all miserable creatures
the miserable old man, just ready to pitch
into an endless state of unchansing char.
acter about which he knows nothing, and
for which he has made no adequate pIepa.
ration, is the most miserable and forlorn.
My friends, it is well for Us sometimes
to remember our origin-it may serve to
make us little less presumptuous and
vain,- keep US little nearer the pale OF
human decency, and enable US to feel for
others who are made Of just as good clay
as we we are, though they may not have as
much fine Sleeps wool on their backs.
And unless we are fools or mad, we shall
certainly think of our end what is to be
come of US when our footsteps totter on
the last plank Of this life-stage. Yes, lie,
US look to our end-our latter end-aS vel
as our former end-to both ends! and
above all, let us. see well to the middle
that part of our mundane existence in
which We may bless the world by kindly
deeds and pleasant words-that part which
intervenes between the hour when Reason
spikes accountability upon our actions, and
the day in which accountability comes to q
Gnis here-for as my friend, Will Shaks
peare says, thereby hangs tale" and it's
a monstrous long tale too, and five do no,
make that tale read well in tie book of the
hereafter, We shall sup sorrow from the big
bowl Of forever with great laddle; but il
we use probation properly we shall ground
arms with order and meet the last roll call
without fear. So mote it be.