New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1871-07-30
TFor the Republican,
MUSINGS.
BY HERBERT VERNON.

b1 HERBERT NEhNON.
Shakespeare has compared the world to a
stage, and the men and women on it to
players; and it may be added that the ne
cessities of life are the prime agents in this
universal deception. Master minds have
disdained the dull cares of life. and appear
upon the pages of history with all the
grandeur and impulsive effect of heroes upon
our modern stage; they have stepped be-
yond the conception of the masses, and like
the yawning abyss which grows more ter
rible in the stiffness of night, when time
has cast its uncertainty over their motives,
they appear nObler in the estimation of their
fellOw-men.
The mind OF man, eagerly seeking relief in
the pleasures of the imagination, is too
easily deluded and apt too often to regard
its idle fancies as realities. Who among us
has not reared his air castles All, from the
bitter trials of life we seek repOse in the
peneilings of fancy; youth INDUCES in
dreams of greatness never to be realized, of
a happy home and pure pleasures never to
be enjoyed; even sober age, looking back
upon the past, forms hopes for the future
which, in few years. shall have been for
gotten in the grave.
How different is man in the productions
of his genius, and man in the realities of
life, in his pursuits and his natural i'm
pulses The poet, painting bright scenes
of affiuence and of joy, picturing life as a
succession of happy days, scarce knows
IL - r IL.
The materialist, scoffng and ridiculing its
Fictitious enjoyments, seeks the warm
affection of his wife, the tender endearments
of his offspring. The cold statesman and
subtle metaphysician, the one deaf to the
ordinary affections Of man, and the other
passionless, even austere in his studies,
have alike heart open to sympathy.
Youth is impulsive; ever ready to listen
to the calls of the distressed, comfort the
afflicted and bring peace to the sorrowing.
Sensitive, passionate, quick to take offense,
and quick to pardon,-it is easily wrought
upon by the willy deeeiver. The honeyed
praise of the fatterer, the sophims of the
evil-minded, and the false glare of courage
exhibited by the master-villain, all bear an
unhealthy influence upon its purity. Led
on by delusions, guilt is stripped of its
frightfulness, virtue of its rewards, and
gradually sinking from deceived to deceiver,
one more act is completed in the drama of
life. Years roll by; age has added degrade
ton to guilt, remorse has preyed upon the
mind, crime calls aloud TO Heaven for
vengeance, burrows deepen on the brow,
the heart hardens, defies nature, and finally
seeks rest in an untimely grave.
Such is hte-a scene of peace and happi-
ness. pure pleasures, noble labors, and
great rewards. Turn the page-temptation
guilt, remorse, a horrible death. Here,
virtue nobly battling against temptation;
there, vice deaf to the entreaties of con-
science. All cruel indeed are the realities
OF life, its sufferings, it's troubles and it's
crosses; but when the storm has passed,
how sweet the calm, how consoling the kind
affection of friend, of sister and of wife, If
the trial is bitter, how great the reward.
Then let us, through the days to come, pre-
pare for the future; let US battle nobly,
bravely, successfully and when this life
shall draw to close, we can look back with
the consciousness of having fulfilled our
task in this life and deserved glorious re-
ward in the life to come.