Brownlow's Knoxville Whig. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1866-1869, 1869-01-27
The ShOrtness Of Time.

olive as long as you may, the first TWEEN
ty years of your life is the longest half of
it this was said by one of our modern
writer's and l doubt whether any thing
more true was ever said by any man.
Don't you fnd-you that have reached
middle life, and you that are approaching
middle life-that time passes much more
quickly than it used TO pass Don't you
find, when the evening comes and the days
work is over, that it seems only few mo-
ments since the days work began? You
may have been very busy but when you
return home to your children it appears
very short time since you left them in the
morning OF course there are exceptional
seasons, as when health is bad, or when
heavy grief presses on you but, on the
whole, is it not now subject of constant
remark that the days pass with incredible
rapidity2
And don't you remember when the case
was very different? Don't you remember
how long tho day used TO be- when you
yourself were child-what o crowd of de-
lightful interests multiplied and diversified
the hours-and how extensive the prospect
was when you looked toward the future
The fact is, you and your children are liv-
ing lives of different lengths i'll the same
space of time The day is far longer to
them than to you. They feel as if time
would never end You feel, when you think
of it, as if its beginning and its ending were
almost the same. When they lay their lit
twelve hours play-their toys broken
their excitement about trifes at an end
their merry laugh, their eager quarrcls, at
length brought to a pause-those twelve
hours have made, to them, very large
period in their existence Your toys too,
perhaps, arc brokon-you too may have
been occupied with trifes your laughter
may have been thoughtless-your quarrels
inconsiderate your longer your more
responsible day, has bocu far shorter than
theirs.
II might not DO very difficult 10 explain
this Our sense Of the lapse of time does
not depend entirely, or even chiefly, on the
duration of the time itself When impress
sions are vivid, forciblo, and fresh the time
seems long. When the events of our lives
are monotonous and unitorm--if only mean
while we are in diligent occupation-tho
time seems short. Any man may test this
for himself by comparing passages of his
own experience. The first few days spent
in now place are longer than those that
succeed them but soon the novelty is past ;
and then the stream moves on, quietly and
rapidly as before. And no one, on the
other side, needs 10 be reminded that days
of anxiety and watching, whom the mind is
consciously ON the stretch, are irighttully
long. At the battle of Waterloo, for in
stance, can you not imagine, if you romom-
Der tho circumstances Of that engagement,
how different was the length Of that sum
NOR day to the great captain, on tho one
hand, on whom rested all the suspense and
responsibility, and to some private soldiers
in the ranks, on tho other, actively ocou-
pied, and with nothing to thinl, OF bat TO
bo prompt and to obey
How desirable then 70 make sure OF dong
something in the present which really will
bear good fruit in tho future
uAh me
here s no lost
Our Time Is fleeing
What rein eau curb cur hoadstFoug huuTs
They post away they pass, We know not how
Our Nov is zone before say No"
Time nast and future none OF oars
Thst hath a. SO, NJ being,
And this hath ceased 10 be
What IT, Is only ours how short tine have no
tHaVsrr We.