The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1873-01-01
The New Year.

Repentance ought TO be represented with
one hand to the plough and her eyes wistfully
looking back. In this sense she cannot bt
said to be fit for the kingdom of heaven. Sht
forsakes father and mother for the sake of 9
principle, and sacrifices Aeshly delights at the
beck of conscience; but no sooner is the self
denial made than it is regretted, and her peni-
tential spirit yearns after the very iniquities
from which she smarts. ROBBED in sackcloth.
she pines for the pruriencies that she tasted
in satin. Crowned with ashes, she covets the
coronet of roses she has just dashed az nor
feet The sinner with an over-sensitive con-
science is one of the hardest GASES with WHOM
psychology has to deal There is no knowing
where to have him or how to keep him. His
moral nature, like changeable silk, reflects all
hues. One moment you detect him in crime
and the next you find him PROSTATE before the
altar. To-day he is triumphant in vice and
encased with pachydermatous cynicism to-
morrow he is as soft as the answer that turns
away wrath and as pious as an obituary
in the Philadelphia Ledger. It would seem
severe to say that he paves hell with good in
tentons but he certainly tessellates his path
through life with them, and the mosaic is 80
nicely inlaid with good actions and SO finely
variegated with picturesque GROSS purposes
that there is no saying in what bourn,
whether of bliss or bane that path will termi-
nate. 1t is platitude with praying people
that their very tears need rinsing and their
prayers publication. But how much more
entirely this is true of the prayers and tears Of
vacillating penitence! With your man Of
broken promises the rapture of pardon is
sandwiched with the sweetness of sin, and the
cup of thanksgiving alternates with the intoxi-
eating bowl The daily bread for which he
supphcates is not half so relishable to him as
the stolen waters that he has vowed never to
taste again, and the communion Of saints
grows fat and vapid beside intercourse with
sinners. Reporting supinely upon his bed of
roses he envies (or affects to envy) martyrs
who writhe on beds of fire. He sits at the
table of Dives, yet looks forward with trem-
bling hope to the bosom Of Abraham. If he
takes up the Cross he tries to whittle it into o
fairy's wand. Surely the eyes of the Recording
Angel ore red with the effacing tears they have
shed over the weak mans broken resolutions
And when the New Year dawns and the peni-
tent turns fresh page even angelic sympathy
might naturally grow exhausted and consent
to let the prospective catalogue Of new iniqui-
ties remain unblot ted. !. -...,ssa-S----
These consider. IONS do not seem altogether
Inappropriate to New Years Day. day which
may be called the opening eyelid of the year.
Having devoted the past twenty-four hours to
conviviality and congratulation, those Of us
who are yet young land some who are no
longer yOunG become iRtzqspe0tye and
take account Of our moral stock. We invol-
UNFAIRLY attribute magic influence to the
hour, and persuade ourselves that, clean
start being made, the future will take care of
itself. We seek to establish sort of perpetual
motion in our morals, and would gladly be-
lieve that the temperamented machinery,
once put in order and set going, will adjust
itself from time to time without jar or stop
page. How consistent such superstition is
with the manner in which the first day of the
New Year is generally spent it may be interest
ing to consider. Perhaps the good resolutions
that ore invariably made on the I'd OF
January are attributable in some slight degree
to the wine drank upon the first. What is
called the sting Of conscience may be merely q
disordered stomach, just as remorse is fire.
quently another name for dyspepsia. The
convictions of sin and folly which accompany
so many people through the first week of the
new year are linked quite as closely with mem
cries of champagne as of opportunities wasted
The respondent brooder reflects that he hos
made so many calls and so few successes, and
wishes that he had paid less compliments and
more debts. If civilized humanity offers tc
the cynic one sight that is more
refreshing than another. it is tina
of the youthful New Years caller, with
yellow-kidded hands and legs in lavender
gradually iquoring himself up to incoherency;
and the same misguided being twelve hours
after with notebook in hand and memoranda
before him, making careful diagnosis of hi
moral nature, composing an obituary upon hi
animal desires, and drawing up series o
pious resolutions over the corpse of sensua
passion. Probably we have all been through
this process, and those Of us who are not ye
forty will go through it often again. But le
us not sneer too much at the I'd Of Janu
airy penitent If his good resolutions do no
succeed in making him model Of virtue
perhaps they keep him from being quite Sc
bad as he might otherwise become II the,
do not convert him into a prig they proven
his development into o hopeless reprobate
To-day he is picking ont oil the Scripture
texts that denounce strong drink; yesterday
he was just as assiduously cleaning all tina
were in favor of it, He seems to sin in order
that grace may abound, and when retribuior
comes he blames the institutions that made hii
xou M oorv O,,y hacoftino air,a ara like Won nc