Gold Hill daily news. [volume] (Gold Hill, N.T. [Nev.]) 1863-1882, 1870-04-16
IN LIFE.

There is no more prolific cause of
pining and discomfort in life than that
found in looking back upon past mis-
takes. The word eff" is on all our
lips in accounting for the various evils
which beset lis, and we are fond OF
persuading ourselves and Others that
could certain crises have been decided
differently, our whole course Of life
would have been one Of unmingled
success, instead Of the partial failure
that it so frequently appears. This
melancholy view is not wholly erro-
neous. None can tell how weighty
NAV be the results Of even trifling ac-
tions, nor how much Of the future Is
bound up In everyday decisions. We
can never calmly review u past life
without being conscious OF having
fallen far short of the ideal with which
we started, and compared with which,
the reality seems indeed but a confused
medley of unfinished beginnings. The
great errors men make in this revision
is in attributing their failures to cir
csmstmces, instead Of to character.
They see the mistakes which lie on the
surface, but fail to trace them back to
the sources from whence they spring.
The truth Is that crises are the occa-
sions for bringing out predominating
points of character. They are tests Of
the nature and qualities Of the man,
rather than causes Of future success or
failure. Chances are lost and oppor-
tunities wasted; advisers ill-chosen
and disastrous speculations undertaken;
unhappy attachments formed and ILL
assorted marriages contracted, but
there is nothing properly accidental in
these steps. They are to be regarded
rs the results of unbalanced character
as much rs causes of future misery.
The disposition of mind that led to
these errors would, under other cir
cumstances, have led to different, but
not less lamentabie, results. We see
this clearly in judging Of others. We
attribute their mischances without
conjunction to the faults that we see
in them, and sometimes even make
cruel mistakes in the investigation;
but in reviewing Il own course, self
love draws a veil over u imperfec-
lions, and we persuade ourselves that
unavoidable mistakes or unfortunate
circumstances are the entire AUS oi
all our misfortunes. This spirit Of
mind soon leads us to implicate also
friends and connexions, and where
blame is inevitable, to throw it upon
others, rather than to accept our full
share. If a mistake is acknowledged,
the responsibility is shifted on our adj
visers, and even where admitting de-
fccts too glaring to be entirely ignored,
they are usually blamed upon defect
i've education, and the guardians of
youth are made the sole offenders. 1t
is true that no circumstances are al
ways favorable ; nc training perfectly
judicious; no friends wholly wise yet
he who is ever shifting the blame OF
his mischances upon these external
causes, is the very man who has the
most reason to trace them to his own
inherent weakness or dement's. 1t is
questionable whether the habit Of look
ing much at mistakes, eve Of our own
Is a very profitable one. Certainly,
the practice of moaning over and be-
wailing them, and charging upon them
all the evils that atflict us, is most in
furious to our future course, and the
greatest hindrance to any real i'm
provement Of character. Acting from
impulse and not from reason, is one Of
the chief causes Of these mistakes, and
he who would avoid them in the fu-
ture. will submit all his sudden i'm
pulses to the searching and penetrating
ordeal Of his best reason before acting
upon them. Above all, the steady for.
nation of virtuous habits the subjec,
ton Of all action to principle rather
than policy ths stern and unflinching
adherence to rtght, Us far and as fast
rs it is discovered, are the best safe
guards against mistakes In life. II
these are cultivated and observed, we
shall look back upon past errors, not
TO bemoan them or to blame others fol
them, but only as n means Of avoiding
them In the future, by controlling the
evil and developing the good points o
our character.
M T.,ox- rr.x rha hill Nvhipl,