The Jeffersonian. [volume] (Stroudsburg, Pa.) 1853-1911, 1872-08-01
WHITTIER ?

VI dSOHys HOarsc with despair, .-a-..-.-
Seems to rise from the surgng pillows,
And then dies away on the air. rst. .
A face is turned upward, moment, saI
Death-white with hunger and pain;
lis gone-swept away-and forever
Our wonder and pity are vain: ..-
Another; another; another 4 ss5l yer q.
! "A child, with skelton face; TrV m.
4 man whose looks are of Murder; saw
A lady, in jewels and lace. 4sHr'
The pillows surge onward, forever,
| In the streets of the city below; ...
Each forehead impressed with it signet
! OF heedlessnesss crime, or of woe.
Standing tins, gazing and thinking
How strangely unreal it .eemsl ..s "
Like the dim and shadowy visions,
The phantoms that come in our dreams.
These eager and restless faces,
These forms that 60 hurrying BY; [tion-
Whence come they? what are they! we ques-
And ,chither Oh, whittier? we cry. e.
The problem of Being-how vainly
10 solve the enigma We try
We dre-who shall tell us whence came ue.
And are ue '-and whittier We cry.
All things in existence have purpose, .E
But existence, that only, has monet
We live, we love and We perish Fe
For what? is the question, when done.
We ask the stern Past for its moral;
Its records We eagerly scan; -..f -..u
From the clouds of a thousand ages
No answer is given to man. rs
Say, is it-0h can ii b., merely
To pant meath the burdens of life,
To long for the unknown, forever,
To weary of useless strife?
At last, OF the sun, and his shining, eaf p.
To sicken, and then to grow old, ssf p.
To fade like the leaves of the forest, as
In the autumn, pallid and cold?
To lie down. at last, with hands folded;
So grateful the grave-res; to find;
Bequeathing to others the garments
OF labor that We leave behind?
Is it merely to plow new burrows 1sfEaa
In the ocean of Time, for graves? Eu
Ii is merely to strew it, forever asaas
With wrecks, for the hungry waves7 sac
Or, is Being itself a delusion?
Have Matter, Existence a cause? 4, e..
Do we dream that We live, and dream only,
Bewildered and bafied, we pause.
As circles are seen, in the water,
To vanish, when wide they are grown,
Our questions grow vague, when we struggle
To reach, and to grasp the unknown.
Our life is a strange hidden pathway;
Ii, midnight, from birth to the grave,
No star to illurnne the heavens, sasGif1 .
No CLEAN OF the light which we crave.
Like children, afraid of the darkness,
In fearful, -badowy land a..
A realm full of terror, we wander;
Mid phantoms We shuddering stand.
We grope in the blackness; we tremble;
We stretch out our hands, like the blind;
We feel for forni-alas, enly
A terrible void do we find!
4 cry, full of anguish, we utter
or dread uncomfortable woe; -s
We wake, standing still at the window,
While the crowd hurries onward below. 4
Above the strange murmur now rises
An utterance solemn and clear -
"Poor mortal, how weak is thy vision!
Blind mortal, how dull is thine ear!
These voices, that seem 80 discordant f
These wailings that trouble thine ear,
Are strains Of harmony, perfect; -
How il il thou failest to hear? n So ae.
Ask not the stern Past for its moral!
The page you so eagerly scan,
Is but part of record, eternal
One point of an infinite plan.
b" Canst thou understand what the angels "a
Desire to fathom in vain? 5sF u3u
Or grasp that which needeth an endless
Duration, to render it plain?
No longer, then, seek to unravel a
The scheme in eternity laid
Enough, to believe the Creator as
Will cgre for the world He hath made.
"Be patient then Mortal, be patient;
Thy doubts ard thy questionings cease;
Repose from thy struggles, and calmly
Await the glad time of release"
The voice dies away into silence,
But the waves, in their ceaseless flow,
Still echo, "Be patient" "Be patient" 4
As they break Oh the pavement below.
sci M. G. NJ.
Some idea of the immense exodus Of
people from the United States to Europe
this season may be had from the fact the
number of cabin passengers who have left