Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1873-06-19

They eat into temper, health, and morals
alike; they penetrate deeply, take strong
hold, spread their roots, and so on, as GER
tainly as rust honeycombs steel, or acid
acts on limestone
Again: "A sorrows crown of sorrow is
remembering happier things" And this
crown, SO desirable to wear, is within the
reach of almost any one who steadily APP
plies himself to obtain it. There are few
in the present who can fail to remember a
happy past, which by taking pains and
making believe very much,n they can
represent to themselves as much happier
than it really was. All relating to it
should be frequently rehearsed, brooded
on and mourned over But if there are
people whose condition is so obstinately
unfavorable to artificial misery that
in fact they are in the present in
finitely happier, better off, and
more free in action than at any former
period of their lives, they must, in the Ian
guage of novelists, throw veil over the
past, and, having no prospect or chance of
wretchedness in the present, they must
look to the future in which to recoup
themselves of the sorrow which has been
denied them, and the unhappiness which
they have so far failed to obtain. For the
future is necessarily more fertile than the
''has been'-"of all words the most pa
thctic," as an apostle of sorrow has beau-
tifully said or sung-becauSe Imagination
can roam at will but memory, though she
may eYaggerate and color, ought not to be
allowed actually to invent. So take ii
that we are young now, with friends and
relatives around us. We may lose all.
Fathers, our children may die or break
our hearts Husbands. our wives may
drive us either into the Bankruptcy or the
Divorce Court. 1t is advisable to dwell
much on these possibilities and to realize
them in thought; SO that even if circum-
stances turn otherwise, we shall at least
have enjoyed these miseries by anticipa-
ton, delight of which no man can de
prive Us. Again, whatever is uncertain,
old age and death are not If you are
young, reflect that the young mag die; if
you are old, that the old must die. BY I'M
agining lingering, solitary death caused
by some especially dreadful disease, an
ingenious person can easily create an
amount of mental wretchedness little if at
all inferior to the reality. THANK God
1t is no worse" is an expression often
heard on the lips of the votaries of cheer
tulness. Such phrase, or such frame
OF mind as causes it, ought to be decisive
ly discouraged by those who seriously
cultivate unhappiness. If these people
are poor, they find comfort in the fact that
they are not paupers; if they break a
limb, they rejoice that they have not
broken two. You must view things in
another light, and steadily anticipate the
very worst. Think that modification
may, and often does, result from a fracture,
that headache may be the precursor OF
insanity, that a pimple may be the be
ginning of cancer, and that if you die
even that may be an illusion, in which
caseyou will certainly be buried alive. The
precise degree of misery which it is pos
sible thus to induce can hardly be gauged,
but it is very considerable. 1t comes
easily by practice, and is much more
commonly to be met with than is general
ly supposed. There is also to be attained
the habit of rejecting all fresh or acciden-
tai sources of happiness which open
out, as it were, hap-hazard in
life. These obstacles to your success
must be conquered in detail; regard them
with coldness and sour distrust, examine
them one by one, discover or believe that
YOU discover their hollowness or their
t1eeting, temporary, and unsatisfying ma
ture. If, Notwithstanding this severe
ordeal, these advantages are undeniably
real, substantial, and of lasting kind,
little indeed can be done except to close
your eyes, ignore them, and reflect that,
in the natural order of things, decay fol
lows blossom and fruit as sure as night
follows day after the most beautiful Of
sunsets. But if by no eXertion can you
procure sufficient unhappiness of your
own, you may still suffer vicarious misery
IN the persons of your friends-if such
you still possess; apprehend all things,
attain hopelessness, make the worst Of the
present, and look on the black side of the
future There is an art not sufficiently
understood in this country, of posing" in
your wretchedness, and surveying your
sell as it were from the outside. The
French have the word and understand the
knack or trick de Sc poser. II am not
made" says Rousseau in his Confessions
like any other man ! have seen;" and
thence inevitably follows a burst of sense
less plt5e de sol meme, whence by easy
gradations through dismalness to blackest
melancholy. 1t is true that all this will
make people disagreeable, and that it has
a distinct tendency to Sc Utellir ct ets'enIaidtr
may be taken as certain as that two and
two make four So best The assurance
of being thus rendered through advanc-
ing years more cankered and unattractive,
more unfit to love and be loved, will cast
a solid and legitimate gloom on any stray
particles of the happiness which they
have rejected and the pleasures they have
forsworn.-PdU HdH Gazette.