The weekly clarion., 1873-07-10
10 NC LIE E
The Philosophy Of Adhering to this
Mundane Sphere.
People who have Lived to a Green Old
Age Without Any Method

From To-day.
How long do people in general desir,
to 1--we? Few persons know their owr
minds on this subject. When very young
they practically look upon themselves a.
immortal, though if pressed, they may
allow that or course they shall die a great
while hence, when they shall have had
enough Of all that is pleasurable in life.
But coming more closely to the point,
how many years do they allow them
selves Girls always at fifteen, and bows
frequently hardly care to look much be-
yond forty. At that terrible age, when
they have reached it, the matter wears
altogether a new face; years have come
70 be reckoned at their full value, and
they hesitate to fix upon any period at
which they would willingly slip away
from this bank and shoal of time, lest
Providence should take them at their
word They now revel in the glorious
uncertainty Of life; they may die, it is
true but they may also live nobody
knows how long. The heightened career
of the antediluvians transcends their
hopes, and perhaps belief; but Henry
jenkins lived a hundred and sixty-nine
years, anl that halffabulous Hungarian
Of whom Coray speaks only suffered de-
feat in the war with time when he had
beheld the waters Of the Danube flash
and sparkle in the golden light Of hun
dred and eighty-five summers.
LITTLE TRANsCENDENTALIsM.
Talk Of commonplace topics What
is more commonplace than life? ay, or
what Is more commonplace than death?
Yet how much do we know about them
Has any one ever experienced what life
Is, whether short or long? or why it
won't endure indefinitely? or why, in
fact, it should be arrested at all We
say that such is the law of nature ; and
though We know no more about the law
than the law knows about us, that is the
sum and substance Of all we can say
What Is law of nature? Who estab-
lished it, aud for what end? In the act
Of being born, is not the necessity Of
death implied? And if death be ne
cessity, are not the time and manner of
it necessity also ? The soldiers faith
that every bullet has its billet" which
reconcles him to what we call the
chances Of the battle-f field, may have
far wider application.
THE ACCIDENT OF LIFE.
We all love to speculate on the acci-
dents and circumstances of life, and in
secret cherish something like the notion
that by certain arts and contrivances we
may steal Il march, rs it were, upon des-
tiny, and put off the evil hour at least
for while. This is the notion which
has led 10 the fabrication OF books on the
secret Of long life; though when we come
10 estimate what all they say amounts to,
we usually find that we have had our
labor for our pains. We may sometimes
laugh, either with the author or at him
but whether we laugh or cry, our persua-
sions and convictions are pretty sure to
remain what they were at starting. To
write :. good book on long life, two re-
quisites are indispensable which are sell |
dom, if ever found togather; first, the
writer must have gone through what he |
writes about, and have carried along
with him, up to the close vicinity of the |
cypress, the power to think philosophi- |
cally and 10 write well.
No PATH MARKED OUT.
1t is mere impertinence to imagine i'm |
youth that we can forestall the wisdom
which experience often bestows ON old |
age, as some compensation, perhaps, for |
the many drawbacks which are neceSsar-
lily implied IN the mere fact of its exist |
ence. TO he old is necessarily, in many |
respects, to be weak and to be weak: if |
We may adopt Satan's logic, is to be mis-
erable, doing or suffering. Yet, as We
have said, the mind, when healthy, often
preserves its force and clearness in spite
of years.
The soul, dark cottage, battered and de-
cay ed.
Lets IN NV light through chinks that time
has made.
No doubt it is very possible for a
young man to say smart things about old
age, and to lay down fanciful map of
the way by which you may reach it, but
the stuff of experience is wanting, and in |
stead of it, you have only the guesses
and fancies of one of the uninitiated |
The. mind goes on gathering up ideas to
the very verge of the grave, as if it |
looked forward to some other field on
which to make use of them, and never
says to itself, Il know enough" ;" but with
childish eagerness strains after the appre-
henson OF knowledge, attainabe or un-
attaInabie. 1t is in this respect like the
horse-leech OF the Proverbs, whose appe-
tite is Unsuitable. Hobbies, when he
meant to write book, retired, as he used
to say, to read over leisurely his own
ideas; but as he read them over. he
found them prolific of new ones. lust "a
though, if We travelled through sDaee with
the intention of observing ali that is now
visible to us of the universe, surprising il
TO be the whole, we should find at every
step new stars and consultations coming
into view, and convincing MS that what
We at first regarded at the UTMOST limit
was only the beginning.
a coNIcAE vIEw.
Aacotemperary writer on longevity
puts forward the connie notion that space |
may he 4 vast cone Of which few Of us
can expect to reach the apex. But cone
IS o determinate figure, and can there
fore bear rs resemblance t6ass the void
md fofnleas inlinits which obviously
space is.
0n6 element Of long liitae 4 tle repres-
zion l's Nlsa th6t Ke ever regard il as
z he 6y nature breaks IS
Araahlg now 90 ik did q
Th4M MN @hd im the vigorous
Ha|lH Ire rise every
aHI a tie soul. ]
'fNI I ans one
W Df relic8l
#E NNS #SH# Nr&mnam