South-eastern Independent. (McConnelsville, Ohio) 1871-1871, 1871-05-26
The Shortness Of Time.

LIVE as long as you may, the first
twenty years of your life is the longest
half of it." this was said by one of our
modern writers, and 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 moments since the days work began?
You may have been very busy, but when
you return home to your children, it ap-
pears a very short time since you left them.
in the morning. Of course there are ex
ceptional seasons, as when health is baa
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 rapidity?
And don't you remember when the case
was very different? Don't you remember
how long the day used to be, when you
yourself were child-what a crowd of
delightful interests multiplied and diversi-
fed the hours-and how extensive the
prospect was when you looked toward the
future? The fact is, you and your chill
dren are living lives of different lengths
in 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 little heads on the pillow,
weary with their twelve hours plsy-their
toys broken-their excitement about trifles
at an end-their merry laugh, their eager
quarrels, at length brought to pause
those twelve hours have been to them
very large period in their existence.
Your toys too, perhaps, are broken-you
too may have been occupied with trifes-
your laughter may have been thoughtless
your Qaarrels inconsiderate-bu your
longer, your more responsible day, has
been far shorter than theirs
It might not be very difficult to explain
this. Our sense of the lapse of time does
not depend entirely, or even chiefly, on
the duration of the time itself When i'm
pressions are vivid, fOrcibie and fresh, the
time seems long. When the events Of our
lives are mOnotonous and uniform-if only
We are in dihgent occupation
the time seems short. Any man may
test this for himself by comparing passages
of his own experience. The first few days
spent in a new place are longer than those
that succeed them; but soon the novelty is
past, and then the stream moves on, quiet
iy and rapidly as before. And no one, on
the other side, needs to be reminded that
days of anxiety and watching, when the
mind is consciously on the stretch, are
long. At the battle of Water
loo, for instance, can you not imagine, if
you remember the circumstances of that
Engagement, how different WAS the length
Of that summer day TO the great captain,
On the one hand, on whom rested all the
suspense and responsibility, and to some
private soldier in the ranks, on the other,
actively occupied, and with nothing to
.hink of but be prompt and to obey?
How desirable then to make sure of do
ing something in the present which really
will bear good fruit in the futurel