The Superior times. [volume] (Superior, Wis.) 1870-1912, 1873-01-25
Turning Over Il New Leaf.
From Inc Januarv GALAXY.


There Is q WouGruus difference III
people, as regards tie propensity for
turning over new leaf. It is odd
that, for the most part, they who have
power OF viii and self restraint enough
to keep good resolutions, are least in
the habit of making them, aud appear
most content to live on q lower plane,
without aspiration while, on the other
hand, they who are most sensible of
personal shortcomings, and most ap-
preclatiye Ct better modes of living,
oftenest break good resolutions. and
seldomest reach the standard they covet.
Thus sturdiness or stability of character
is frequently earthly by instinct. and
incapa.le of that volatility which, on
It's part. can never walk steadily on
ward, but Is always on a series of
excursionary skips and hops upward to
a higher life, whence it IS regularly
founders and tiops down. bruised but
not tanned, to the clay. Goethe says
that persons quite unstable and inca
pable of al improvement "fre-
quently accuse themselves III the
bitterest manner, confessing and
deplorlng their faults with ex-
IRENE righteousness though they
possess not the smallest power within
them to retire from the course along
which the irresistible tendency of
their nature is dragging them for
ward Nobody need be down hearted
at this dictum. Some men seem to
be governed by fate, because they have
no will worth speaking OF, or at least
give no proof of any, while Others ap-
parently have q viii free Of fate. so
strongly does 1t act on circumstances
but It it be answered that this strong
and free viii is Itself a form Of fate, ct
least it IS one the poesessors can Meth
er fear nor complain Of
Many lads have such practical views
Of life, joined with such self-consclous-
ness and self-esteem, rs to mature it at
once. They imagine themselves grown
men before their boards are out IN
their elders they see only their peers,
and hence feel the burdens of life al
ready i'll youth. These are they who
become famous betimes-great traders,
money lenders, railroad builders. sol
dlers, lawyers, Journalists, at the dawn
of active life. Their opposites waste
each New Year III wondering what VIII
happen when they grow to be men;
when the opportunity comes; when
lite really opens wide. Humble and
timid, they fancy all other men to be
wiser or stronger than they. At thirty
they hear with wonder what yonder
stalwart, thoughtful man, whom, in old
habit. they address with de-
ferential "slr, is only thirty years old,
toe. At forty, they still cling to their
conoiliatoly, deprecatory ways-feel
like boys lodging about bewildered
men, though manhood has
them twenty years.
1t comes upon them like shock
TO find their hair whitening, and people
them as 9 the old gentle
man, while their feet are too palpably
sliding on the downhill stretch Till
then, they had never thought them
selves mature for a career, nor suspect
ed that they had reached the now or
never OF life till it was years away in the
past. Such men take an aroma of the
cradle with them to the grave, only
quitting their first childhood when they
entel the second ever are they dream
ing of the possible future, and propos
ing to turn over the new leaf.