American citizen. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 1864-1890, 1872-03-16
ssIF.''

As THE smallest cause. cftentimes LEAD
to the most important results, so the pc
tentialities Of little words are sometimes
incalculable. Can there be a more insig
nificant, a more inglorious, q shabbier lit
tie word than If2 Two letters only, and
no variation of mood, tense, or .declen
sion-no root, even, of respectable anti
guilty and doubtful origin. over which
philologists can quarrel-just mean,
pert, absurd little biliteral, which changes
the whole current of history and the ac-
ton of every mana life.
If. If the Duke dAlva had never been
born, there would have been a new read
ing in history for Spain and the Neither
lands, and a new impulse altogether given
to Europe And if Catharine de Medicis
had been a quiet, gentle, homely bonnie
femme, mainly occupying herself with
| saying her prayers punctually and prepar
ing her children's pottage in the best man.
ner then known, France would have worn
another aspect than that which she wears
to-day. If Anne Boleyn had been a snub-
nosed, cross-eyed, ill-shapen little girl? if
Silent William had been dispossessed? if
bonnie Prince Charlie had come to his
own? well, then, England would not have
been where she is now, and the liberties
we and our fathers have won would yet
be impossibilities. Germs lying in the
womb of time, and nowhere near maturi-
ty or qualification. If Nelson had had a
! fit of apoplexy at Trafalgar? If yelling
ton had lost his self-command at Water
loo2 There were mighty contingencies
hanging on that little word, more mi ghty
even than we have come to the end of yet.
| And SO of private lite as of history.
There is scarcely one of us whose whole
career has not been moulded by an ''if. :"
Hear small history of an eff" as it was
told to us the other day by a poor little
woman, whose face of iilimitable sadness
gave a mournful emphasis that went to
ones heart for pity.
IF my sister Rosy had not called on
Mrs. Jones that day she would not have
seen her nephew Julius Smith, who was
staying there, and on the point OF leaving
England for Australia; she would not
have been kept 10 dine and spend the
evening, or, if she had been, Bobby
Jones would have walked home with her,
and Bobby of seventeen was harmless.
As it was, julius Smith on the point of
leaving for Australia, disguised with En-
gland and all it contained, took on him.
self that escort of two miles under the
moonlight on warm summers evening;
and at the end of it felt inclined to recon-
slider his determination, and disposed to
think, that on the whole, England was
fair place enough for a young man to
make his way in, and that English crea-
tures-when of the stamp of my sister
Rosy-were not the most unattractive in
the world. And when they were married
and had settled down in their Cumberland
home, where Julius had taken a farm, if
poor mamma had not died when she did,
l should not have gone down to them,
and should not have seen julius brother
Tom; so l should never have married
him and gone out to India, and been
through the mutiny, and lost my baby
and my husband, and came into all this
sorrow, and misery, and pOverty-sO mis-
cradle that l wish was dead" And all
that poor little life-drama hung upon that
one small cliff Rosy had not walked
over one summers afternoon to call on
Mrs. Jones, and, to amuse the nephew
who was going to South Australia, been
asked to dine and spend the evening!
Like entertaining angels unawares, we
never know what the If lurking round
the corner of the days events may bring
forth. If we refuse that invitation, we
miss the chance of meeting the man who,
had we met him, would have been the
means of our life's success. He held the
key of the gate at which we had been
hammering SO long in vain; he was the
great railway contractor, and could have
given us the order which would have laid
the foundation of our fortune; he was
the Quarterly editor who would have
been pleased with our idea, and have
gladly accepted our article instead of IS,
and - we should have become in time
the right hand of the editor, and ulti-
mately the editor Ourself; he was the
bishop of the diocese in which was sit
uated the living that inclosed our fondest
hopes and highest ambition, and he
would have presented it to us next week,
puzzled as he was by a crowd of candi
dates, among whom he could discern
none that quite hit the mark All this
hung upon the ''if, IF we had gone!
Again, another time, if we had but
stayed away, we should not have met the
man or woman to whom we owe our ruin.
The clever scamp who swindled us, the
heartless woman who deceived us, the fiat
tering friend who led us, step by step, to
the brink of the precipice, and then push
ed us over; we should have escaped them
| all, if we had only refused an invitation
which did not specially please us, and had
stayed at home, where, at least, we were
safe. The if! what witch or wizard was
ever so potent as that one small word?
and to think of the destinies of a human
life depending upon il, and the fate of an
immortal soul, perhaps, to follow.
There are many of us who pride our
aelves on an orderly and far seeing kind
of life. We lay out our plans and abide
by them, working up to point that we
have distinctly set before us, and for the
attainment of which we bend all our
energies and regulate our actions. Yet
not the most carefully planned existence
| that can be named but owes something to
chance. And the changeful power of it.
1t lies at the root of all organization; is
/ itself the root from which springs up the
/ goodly tree of accomplished facts. There
is not one human being that breathes the
breath of heaven who does not every day
pass along that little word as across the
bridge finer than hair which the souls of
the Musselmen faithful traverse on their
way to Paradise. If Caesar had remained
within doors on the Ides of March, if the
bullet of that young assassin Blind had
struck true and Won Bismark had died
at his feet? They were possibilities that
would have born fruit in fact for centur-
les after-for all the worlds future histo-
r.; but they were possibilities that
touched primarily the mere life of an in
dividual. How many times men have
had cause to say: ''If had gone by that
tain, l should have been in all probabili-
ty killed." and eff that enthusiastically
man, whose slotl and want of business
faculty so annoyed me, had kept his
word ! should have gone out by that
ship, and should have gone to the ottom
with tho rest"
! There was AN If of this kind known To
the writer of these lines, that is none the
less striking because founded on very
! homely details. A certain bedroom had
| been secured out, and the day being wet,
it was not dry by night. The occupants,
man and wife, not liking to sleep in a
damp room, moved into another. In the
night storm of wind arose the stack