Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1873-01-01
pailu Nrltnrbrf gonrnal.
GROWING OLD.

Tho departure Of youth manifests itself
a. enthusiastically in the habitudes Of the
mind a. In. the gray hair and failing
strength---In youth, We live in the future.
We Sse1visions and dream dreams. We
build castles Of enchantment, which we
furnish and people with a vivid imagina-
ton. We picture the fairest bride, the
fastest friends, and the most fowery Of
pathways. Alas, how does experience
disappoint us, and show us the vanity of
human wishes, rs we find one idol after
another rudelv shattered or wisely with
held! Our thoughts are now mainly in
the past, and we are buster With memo
ries than with hopes. We dream not SO
much of conquests to be achieved as OF the
golden opportunities now passed beyond
recall, OF the rich treasures of time and
talents we have wasted. We think less
Of our merry companions and the favora-
BILE impressions we make than we do of
the contemporaries who are one after an
other passing away from us; less OF our
conquests in love, now that smiles are
scarcer than kisses were then. than OF
some whom we have sighted in that old
er time. Have we ever noticed, in FORM
ing one Of an assembly of people in our
youth, how every one seemed mature
compared with ourselves? Now, when
We look around us. how greatly do the
young seem to preponderate When we
remember the rose-tint Of romance with
which the freshness and vividness of ey-
cry new impression tinged our early days,
and now find that existence Is no longer
. dream. but a reality. and that there is
80 little to look forward to, is 1t any Won
der that we cast a lingering look behind ?
The character of our life IL fixed. and our
occupations and associations promise to be
in the future very much what they now
are. Do we notice how much more rap
idly each succeeding year seems to pass
away? Cannot we remember how, in
our childhood, the term Of q year appeared
interminable, and We thought that we
could compress into that great space
almost any amount of work and play ?
But as We get older, how is it that. with
all our industry, time seems too short for
the work we take in hand? We become
80 en2rossed, that holy days and holidays
are alike Invaded; and after all is done,
how much Is left unfinished, how many
schemes remain untried7 ut is solemn
thought connected with middle life," says
eAS &Ato eIO4ueHt 4. w AboUeIlSoi, tua'
lies last business Is begun in earnest
and It IL then, midway between the era
die and the grave, that a man begins to
marvel that he let the days Of youth go by
50 half enjoyed. It is the pensive autumn
feeling, It Is the sensation of half sadness
that we experience when the longest day
Of our year is past. and every day that fol
lows u shorter, aud the light fainter, and
the feebler shadows tell that nature is
fastening with gigantic footsteps to hei
winter grave. So does man look back
upon his youth. When the first gray
hairs become visible, when the unwel-
come truth fastens itself upon tue mind
that man is no longer going up hill, but
down, and that the sun Is always wes,er-
ing, he looks back on things behind.
When we were children, we thought as
children. But now there lies before us
manhood, with its earnest work. and then
old age. and then the grave, and then
the grave, and the home. There is sec.
ond youth for man, better and holier thar
his first, If he looks on, and not back -
7insley's Magazine.