The Richmond palladium. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1855-1875, 1869-06-15
PLEASURES or OurY.s
BIZ s. s. alLLETrs, p. D.

uttered by Edmund Burke over the loss ac
Of bis son, and which j. embodied ia
paragraph in, "A Letter to Q Noble Lord.
The eloquent out burs: Of his indigna>
ton st the thought OF his wounded honor
gives place to the melody Of .. subduedl
and manly grief, while he speaks with
pride of one who WAS made public
creature, and had no. enjoyment what
ever. but in the performances OF some
duty 9@s- t3GaeIFa 7e So fA4s Io .
Let it be granted that fathers pride
added som ething to the exquisite finish
of the portrait, and yet who can fail to
admire the lofty ideal which he foDd'y
believed his son to have exemplifed?-s
1t is certainly q high reach OF attain-
meut for any man when il can be said OF
him that he has mo enjoyment whatever
but in the performance OF some duty.
It implies Ioftiness Of aim, strens tll
and cheerfulDess of self denial, and a
measure of devotion to the welfare OF
mankind, which are the proper and gen.
uine outgrowth of Christian conviction
alone 1t seems the full realization of
compliance with the counsel which
Shakespeare puts into the lips of the
disappointed, dying Cardinal Wolsey:
Let all the ends thou aim'st at be thy
Country,s
Thy Gods. and Truths. Then, if thou
falrst, thou fall'st
A glorious martyr
To find enjoyment in duty seems 10
some impossible, il not absurd. They
would feel far Lore confident of finding
an oasis on the desert. They would as
soon think of extracting the materials OF
an Eden from Alpine cliffs and SHOWS.
This stern daughter of the voice Of God
-as Wordsworth apostrophizes duty
is no favorite Of them. Their satisfac.
tion-and Of what multitudes is this
| true-must come from the qualification
of some sensual appetite or some EARTH
| ly craving. Higher aspirations. il they
ever existed, are extinguished, and they
live and act, think and toll, for self
alone. t sz7az3s tAzs@a ~
| But how does even the providential
constitution Of the world, to say moth
| ing of the revealed law Of love and mu-<
tual obligation, utter its perpetual pro
| test against such An abuse7 The unis
verse is mutualiy balanced-sy stem agt.
systems, world agt. worlds, one particle
/ agt. ali ether particles--till not q single
atom exists that can be left to itself, ise
| lated and alone,-till, in the words Of
/ the poet, s@ss1S
/
/ fly; ei -5s9 a.1ssrsfxs, s..
Planets and suns run lawless through
| the sky -ss ns
| And the social and moral systems find
, their emb! em in nature. The law of
| love here answers to the law of gravi-
/ taiion there Give it absolute suprem-
/ acy, and perfect moral order is estab-
| lished and maintained. Yet it never
l. 4, 80 kl,sr :.tr
| there reigns that aim or purpose which
finds the highest qualification in the1dis-
charge of duty alone. eu 5sH - 81
/ It may be that skeptical disposition
/ toward duty exists in some minds in
such strength as to lead them TO regard
the epithet, pleasures Of duty as sim
/ ply extravaeant. They can read poems
like Akenside's Pleasures Of Imagina-
tion,' or Rogers Pleasures of Memory
or Campbell Pleasures Of Hope, with
some confidence that the thing set forth
in the title is not pure felton, But
pleasures Of duty would seem to then,
almost as much q misnomer as the de-
lights of pain. They would regard the
very term as &. root out of dry ground,
without form or comliness.
And vet we believe that it remains.
and would be possible, for genuinely
Christian poetic gather up out of human
experience illustrations that might be
wrought into Pleasures of Duty to en-
rich his theme and enforce his argus
ment, compared with which all that the
genius of Akenside. Rogers or Camp
bell has gathered or wrought out would
be almost like an Arabs tent to Solo-
mons temple. A halfsheathen poet like
Pope may have caught q half glimpse of
I he tkry- ho
And more true Joy Marcelles exiled
feels,
Than Cesar, with Senate at his
heels
But a h1lf heather poet will not suf-
fee here. One is needed who can enter
into the smypathies of the Christian sol
dies enduring hardships for the Master s
sake and glowing in it; who can go back
and sit down With David Brainerd 10 his
Iudian cabin, or with Judson in his pri
son, and share their heavenly. com nun
ings and high hopes; one who knows
something Of the conscious peace Of the
good SamaritaB and the reflected smile
Of duty done, filing the heart with ght
and peace. Such . poet. in the portrai-
ture of spiritual realities, would simply
bring to view what actually exists. Int
remains OOScure0 from vne Applehen-
sion Of thousands by their own binding
impulses OF mistaken apprehensions.- -
n. Y. Observer.
The New Orleans times thinks there
is nothing remarkable in the fact of the
young woman in Des Aoines, Iowa. ap
prenticing herself TO . timer. 'consider-
ing woman's proverbial love for soft
solder .llss ssas