The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1866-09-13
Wasted Time.
Alone In the dark and silent night,
When the heavy Thought OF q vnnlsh


When the heavy thought OF vanished
When evil deeds come back to sight,
And good deeds rise with welcome cneer..
Alone with the spectres OF the pas.,
That comes with the old years dying chime,
There clooms the shadow dark and vast
The shadow Of Wasted Time.
The chances Of happiness cast away,
The opportunities never sought,
The good resolves that every day
Have died I'm the impotence of Thought
The slow advance and the backward step
In the rugged path we have sirifrn ~. W ',,,
How they fnrrow the brow and pale the up,
When We talk Of the Wasted lime.
What are we now' what had we been
Had we boarded time rs the ihiser soia'
Striving our need TO win,
THROUGH the summers heat and the winters
Shrinking from nought that the world could
do:
Fearing ucught but the touch of crime;
Laboring. struggling all seasons through,
And knowing no Wasted Time.
Who shall recall the vanished years.
Who shall hold back this ebbing tide
That leaves us remorse, and shame, and tears,
And washed away all things besIde'
Who shall give MS the strength, that cen now,
To leave forever this holiday rhyme,
To shake OF this sloth from the heart and
brow,
And battle with Wasted Time'
The years that pass come not again,
The things that die no life renew,
But O On from the rust Of this cankering chain
A golden truth is glimmering through
That to him who learns from errors past,
And turns away with strength sublime,
And maketh each year undo the last,
There is no Wasted Time.
BENEFIT OF BEING KNOCKED ABOUT IN
THE WoRLp.--It is good thingfor young
man TO he "knocked about in the world"
though his soit-hearted parents may not
think so. All youths, or if not all, GER
tainlv Observation-Disclosures Of the sum
total, enter life with surplusage of self
conccit. The sooner they are relieved OF
il the better. If in measuring themselves
they discover that it is unwarranted, ana
get rid of it gracefully Of their own ac-
cord, well and good if not, it is desiraplc,
for their own sakcS, that ii be Knocked out
of them. A boy who is sent TO large
school soon finds his level. His will may
have been paramount at home, but school,
bovs are democratic in their ideas, and II
arrogant, lie is sure TO be tlraShed into
RECOGNITION of the golden rule. The world
is a great public school, and it teaches
new pupil his proper place. If he has the
attributes that belong to I leader, he will
be installed in the position OF a leader If
not, whatever his own opinion Of his abill-
ties may be, he will be compelled to fall in
with the rank and file. If not destined to
greatness, the next best thing to which he
can aspire is responsibility but no man
can either be truly great or truly respect
able who is vain, pomponS, and overbear-
ing.
BY the time the novice has found his le-
gitimate social status, be the same high or
low, the probability is that the disagreed
bic traits of his character will be Sottencd
down or worn away. Most likely tue pro-
cess of abrasion will be rough, perhaps
very rough, but when it is all over, and he
begins to see himself as others see him,
and not as reflected in the mirror of self
couccit, he will be thankful that he has run
the gauntlet and arrived, though by rough
road, at selfknowledge. Upon the whole,
whatever loving mothers may think to the
contrary, it is a good thing for youths to
be knocked about in the world it makes
men Of them.