The Evansville journal. [volume] (Evansville, Ind.) 1866-1870, 1868-06-15

! plete guide book for travellers along
the Journey of life. When I began
| this paper a racked my brains to
find some virtue that school has
/ forgotten to canonize,g but in vain
every one has been counted
on your essay Tosaries. Let me urge
you, therefore, as you stand at the
door Of action, to let the principles
you have learned b. carried into prac-
tice. Life is earnest and fearful. The
rattle and hustle of surface existence
so deafen Us that We do not hear the
mysterious voices that warn and
threaten. If we will only look, the
great meaning of life towers above Us
like a Mount Sinai. awful with the
presence of God. We may say that
great living consists In fidelity to
little ever day duties, and yet we will
tire of doing right In little things if
we do not often stop and look above
and beyond then. When we turn to
them again they are little and COM
mon-place no longer. In u daily
duties, We need the stimulus of great
thoughts. We need often to ascend
the delectable mountains and gaze
upon the glOries afar off; and then VI
can descend into the valley of work
with ready hands.
There are old truths hat come to
us sometimes like new revelations.
Immortality seems an overwhelm-
ing fact, and not the stale word we
have heard repeated from child
hood until it has become almost
meaningless to US. God gives US
nightly glimpses of the universe as
hints of eternity. You have often,
doubtless, as twilight faded, watched
the wonderful, mysterious worlds ST.
lently gather In the heavens, till space
seemed crowded with the great con-
greg@tion, and your souls have be-
come drunken with the conception of
measureless v~astneSs. The glare OF
street lamp and window die out.
Your personality sinks into nothing
ness-loses itself IN immensely. But
the next morning the sun rises and
puts out the stars. The earth, with
its roof of blue and f~reseoing of.
clouds, its crowded streets, its cares
and worries and pleasures, is the uni
verse to you again. So there are times
when we can look into the vast arch
of the future just outside of US, seem
ing to bend down and touch the hori-
% of the present. yet stretching up
into boundless, infinite nights, until
the soul becomes giddy and reels.
But the son of sense soon RISES, the
lights Of eternity fade out, the earth
becomes great again. and Our vision
is shut in by our interests and cares.
(And let US be thankful for the broad
daylight of material life.) No soul
ever grew strong and brave by forever
gazing into the great unknown.
But may not such visions help US to
work while it IS called to-day? Should
we not always remember that eternity
hangs over u.s. though hidden by
sense? But nothing is Insignificant.
Every moral act has a soul as well as
a body. The body may be an ephem-
era that is born and dies and is for
gotten In an hour. But the soHl
pauses to give US its blessing or its
curse, and then wings its way to eter-
ity to await US there.
As women, we need to remind each
other of these truths; they are famil-
lar even to triteness. but we forget
them in practice. What women need
more than the right to vote and the
power to legislate, is to step up into
grander living. Our thoughts and
ANS should be broader. 1t will have
to be confessed that we are not as
earnest as men are. We fill in our
time and think we are busy and use
ful, but we are satisfied with the ac-
complishment Of too little.
81 We have our short round of duties.
We perform them, and think we have
done all that is required. It is prob
able, however, that we are on the eve
of a reformation. Let US hope that
this clamor for suffrage is a leaven
that will work out into different re
suits than those which are aimed at. 1t
will be for women of your age, culture
and position to determine whether
the work shall progress in a healthy
direction, in the growth of thoughtful,
energetic, retiring women, or result In
monstrosities of manly women, and
womenly men, or die away, and women
still be permitted to loiter and fritter
away life, without pointing at them
the finger Of blame.
We want a higher standard of in
tellectual cultivation, which we look
to you to help raise. The majority
of young ladies read merely to be
entertained, and consequently seek
that which requires the least mental
exertion. No effort Is made TO re-
tain what is read. aud memory be-
comes slipshod and slatternly, and
finally grows so idle that she has to
be scourged before she will go to
work when desired.
But beware, lest you use the warm,
crimson currents Of the heart to feed
4he male puiselesS brain Nothing Is