Gold Hill daily news. [volume] (Gold Hill, N.T. [Nev.]) 1863-1882, 1864-02-06
Mistakes.

ing-it is something useful-it Is sometimes
best in many senses to climb up the mountain
heights of the present, and looking over that
ife-path, windingup and broadening through
the years, mark there the mistakes which lie
scattered like the wrecks of noble ships, or
the ruins OF stately palaces, along it. There
is no getting rid of, or round them. There
they are, and we must look them straight in
the face, just as we must look any sorrow,
any care, any misfortune! They are facts
aIf 1 could only live my life over again,
how different the living should be !" You
shall hear many people say this, always in
some minor key, of sadness, disappointment,
regret, or remorse; and this is always utacit
acknowledgment Of miStake-mistake, which
was the result of wrong heart, or a weak
can never be undone, but which must al
ways lie darkling in the past, always trail
their shadows through the present, and ever
drop entirely out of the future.
Somebody has said, wisely and well, that
"a heart which is always right, will never
let the head go very far wrong" This, in a
broad sense, and in the long tug and strain
of life, certainly holds true. But, in linz
tied and temporary sense, there is certainly
another side t. the statement. The finest
and broadest natures-those most informed
with high thoughts, and vague but heroic as
piration-the warm, vital, enthusiastic ma
lures, whose emotions shall yet crystalline
into earest purposes, whose ardor and aspi-
ration shall settle down into earnest, stead
fast working, will generally make mistakes
will come out of them scarred, i<may be, but
wiser, sadder, better.
These are those who easily thrill respon-
siye to all high-sounding sentiment-to all
talk which savOrs of truth, beauty, heroisn I;
these are they who are frequently led astray
by the very best part Of themselves, who be-
licying in all things lovely and Of good re-
mort. in the tenderness Of womanhood, and
the knichtly bravery of manhood, make to
themselves gods and goddesses, and learn
through the bitterness of disappointment and
anguish their " mistake"
How shall it be otherwise! How shall a
soul, Young, alive, fervent, thrilling with fine
sympathies and high resolves, eager to dedi-
cate itself to pure uses and noble service :;
how shall such n soul, seeking, yearning,
striving, not be led into mistake-not be led
into believing that which glitters is real gold,
in worshipping the false for the true, into
hcapmg its pearls before swine, into pouring
its wine and offering its sacrifices at the al
tars of false gods
But the mistakes OF these are better than
that worldly wisdom which is always true to
itself. Those narrow, bigoted, shallow ma
lures, who never pant for larger activity or
higher service, will be pretty, certain to get
on in the dead level Of their life without
making any great mistakes; Ihe narrow Or
Bit in which they rcvolve will never much en-
large itself.
But how is any one to grow, developc, ri
.4l,. oh
perimcnt, vexation, disappointment, mis-
take. As in the physical world, so is it not
in the moral. The seed developes in per-
feet. beautiful order into stem and leaf, into
bud and blossom and fruit; but is not so
with the human soul. That must ripcn un-
der a different process. Through much de-
feat and failure, through much going astray
and return, through much Of apparent blight
and loss must its juices ripcn, and its fruit
grow mellow on the branches Of life.
Then, oh dear reader don't be afraid or
ashamed of change If your opinions are
worth much, they will probably not be first
ones, 1t was MclancthOn made that eXhaus-
tive answer to some of his contemporaries
who accused him of having altered his views,
"Do you think l have lived twenty years
and not learned anything" Don't stick to
an idea when you have proved it wrong, no
matter how firmly you have held it, how fer
vently YOU have defended it. Let it go, as
the full blossom does the calyx,
People who never change their opinions,
who always command one horizon, must Of
necessity be narrow, cramped, ,shrivel2d. They
never make generous mistakes--not they
But what if their whole life should be one
long mistake
Dear reader, we know as well as you that