The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1867-08-19
extraordinary way IN which unforeseen

extraordinary way in which unforeseen
circumstances arise to divert the channel
which he would like to mark out, as to
place comparatively small value on the
most deliberate efforts of his own Judgment
to hit on the right courses. Or the point in
his fortunes may be SO critical that he
loses his nerve, and thinks that drawing
lots, or tossing up coin, or the S0rteS
Vigliana, will answer quite as we'll as any
other means for finding out the best
thing to be done. The Roman legend
about Caesar, was that in the midst
of his hesitation there suddenly appeared
a comely and god-like youth playing on q
pipe, until, suddenly throwing aside the
pipe, he snatched trumpet, and with q
mighty warlike blast plunged into the wa
ters of the Rubicon. The miraculous ap-
partition filled the leader with an instant
and vigorous resolution which plain reason
had wholly failed to inspire. There is a
great deal of tigurative truth in this.
People no longer believe that comely
divinities appear to a man in crisis of his
fortune, but the comely divinity is not
without his counterpart. Things no less
unreal occupy his place in critical mo-
ments. In marriage, for example, are not
men and women constantly led to take the
irrevocable step, not by the conclusions OF
reason and judgment, but because they
are beckoned on by seemly apparitions
whom at the other end Of the stream they
see no more? And they do this con-
sciously and deliberately from some sort
of superstition, it would seem, that crisis
| in their affairs is so momentous thing
that at this rather than other times they
ought to surrender their cool judgment to
spectre or fancy.
Considering these and hundred other
infrmities of ordinary human character
it is not little fortunate that there are SC
few opportunities for man to take an IT.
retrievably wrong turning. Everybody IS
pretty sure to miss his way more or less,
but there are so many turnings IN lie IN
| which people can finally lose themselves
! beyond hope of recovery. The fatal turn
ings are there, unfortunately, in abun-
dance, but with most of us education and
tradition and surrounding example make
it morally impossible that we should be
deceived by them. 1t is, perhaps, start
ling to reflect how many people are honest,
say, not on first principles, but simply
through the influence OF tradition. Ihey
have never gone further or deeper than
the tradition, and have scarcely thought
about the principles at all. The same
NAV be said about good many other
virtues of old and established repute.
And so, at crisis in his life, mans con.
duct is vastly influenced by the general
views entertained about similarly critical
iunctures in the case Of other people.
julius Caesar crossed the Rubicon dra-
matically and heroically, but his soldiers
crossed it like sheep. And this is the
style in which the majority Of US perform
the same momentous exploit. We put
confidence in Caesar, or Mrs. Grundy, or
whoever may be our favorite leader, and
plunge in without much thought whether
it is a Rubicon or duck-pond that lies in
front of us. AS ordinary life is common
place from the very nature of things, per-
haps the stcreotyped way of getting over
even the most ticklish places is as good as
any othcr.-Little's Liuing Age.