Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1873-04-04
n y.sN.KE PusLOSOPHBR.

philosopher from Warner "Back-log Stud
ies," Is lire-like and full of interest.]
confess I have soft place in my heart
for that rare character in our New England
life who Is content with the world az he
finds it, and who does not attempt to appro-
pirate any more of II TO himself than he
absolutely needs from day TO day. He
knows from the beginning that the world
could get on without him, and he has new
| er had any anxiety to leave any result be-
hind him, any legacy for the world 10 quar-
rel over.
| He is really an exotic in our New Eng
| land climate and society, and his life Is
perpetually misunderstood by his neigh
| bors, because he shares none Of their un-
easine:s about getting on in life. He is
even called lazy, good nothing, and
"shftless"- final stigma that we put
upon person who has learned to wait
without the exhausting process of labor
ing.
| made his acquaintance last summer in
the country, and have not in long time
been so we'll pleased with any of our spe
cies. He was man past middle life, with
largo family. He had always been from
boyhood of contented and placid mind,
slow in his movements, slow in his speech.
| think he never cherished hard feeling
toward anybody nor enviod any one, least
of all the rich and prosperous, about whom
he liked TO talk. Indeed, his talk was a
good deal about wealth, especially about
his cousin who had been down south and
"got forehanded' within few years. He
was genuinely pleased at his relations good
luck, and pointed him out to mo with some
pride. But be had no envy of him, and he
evinced no desire to initiate him. infer
red from all his conversation about "piling
it W" (of which he spoke with CLEAN of
enthusiasm in his eye) that there were mo-
ments when he would like to be rich him
self; but it was evident that he would new
er max e the least effort to lie so, and doubt
If he could ever overcome that delicious
inertia of mind and body called laziness,
sufficiently TO inherit.
Wealth seemed TO have far and peculiar
fascination for him, and suspect he was a
visionary in the midst of his poverty. Yet
suppose he had hardly the personal prop
erty which the law exempts from execu-
tion. He had lived in great many towns,
moving from one to another with his grow
ing family by easy stages, and was always
the poorest man in the town, and lived on
the most niggardly of its rocky and BRAN.
ble-gr farms, the productiveness Of
which he reduced to zero in a couple o.
seasons by his neglect of culture. The
fences of his hired domain always fell into
ruin under him, perhaps because he sat or
them so much, and the bowels he occupied
rotted down during his placid residence !,
them. He moved from desolation TO desc
lation, but carried always with him thu
equal mind of a philosopher. Not ever
: the occasional tart remarks of his wife
about their nomadic life and his serenity
in the midst of discomfort could ruffle hi
smooth spirit.
He was, in every respect, most worth,
man, truthful, honest, temperate, and,
need not say, frugal, and he had no baC
habits-perhaps he never had energy enougl
to acquire any. Nor did he lack the knacl
of the Yankee race. He could make shoe
or build house, or doctor a COW but
: never seemed to him, in this brief exist
|
0 He was an excellent angler, but he rarel.
I fished, partly because of the shortness G
the days, partly on account Of the uncer
+; tainty of bites, but principally because th
!, trout brooks were all arranged lengthwise
: and ran over so much ground. But no ma
1 liked to look at string of trout better tha
: he did, and he was willing to sit down in
: sunny place and talk about trout fishin
h half day at a time, and he would tai
= pleasantly and well too though his viii
e might be continually interrupting him b
l. a call for firewood.
If should not 90 justice to his own ideas {
l. himself If did not add that he was mo!
70 respectfully connected, and that he had
= justifable though feeble pride in his fam
= lily. 1t helped his self respect, which n
ignoble circumstances could destroy. II
= was, as must appear by this time, mo-
1t intelligent man, and he was well-inforu
d ed man that Is to say, he read the week.
II newspapers when he could get them, an
5, he had the average country information
20 bout Beecher and Greeley and the Prussia
Q war;" ("Napoleon is gettin' on, amt hep
It and the general prospect of the electio
ID campaigns. Indeed he was warmly, or RI
y ther luke-warnly interested in polite
l. He liked to talk about the inflated currel
J. cy, and il seemed plain to him that his col
c. dltion would somehow be improved if "
g. could get to specie basis. He was, In fac
ct little troubled by the national debt;
le seemed to press on him somehow, viii
his own never did. He exhibited more al
| 4. Al ~
In than he did over his own-an evidence
s. once of his disinterestcdness and his patti
1T otism. He had been an old abolitionis
~ and was strong on the rights of free labo
n though he did not care to exercise his pr
IN ilege much. OF course he had the prop
a. contempt for poor whites down south.
no never saw person with more correct n
of tions on such variety of subjects. /
IN was perfectly willing that churches (beil
o; himself member), and Sunday school
Id and missionary enterprises should go ol
O. in fact, do not believe that he ever oppo
ho ed anything in his life. No one was mo
in willing to vote town taxes and road repai
re and school houses than he. If you cou
es call him spirited at all, he was public spl
re tied.
And with all this he was never very we
rs he had, from his boyhood, "enjoyed po
n health" You would say he was not m
ut who would ever catch anything, not ev
,e- an epidemic; but he was a man whom d
Id eases would bo likely to overtake, even
ay slowest of slow fevers. And he wasn't
he person to shake Off anything. And J
e. sick ness seemed to trouble him no me