Iowa voter. [volume] (Knoxville, Iowa) 1867-1874, 1873-06-26
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
happy past, which by taking pains and
making believe very much" 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
"has been"-"Of all words the most pa
tifully said or sung-because Imagination
IL "
may exaggerate and color, ought not to be
allowed actually to invent. So take it
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 DID, 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
it is no worse" is an expression often
heard on the lips of the votaries of cheer
fulness. 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 fracture,
that headache may be the precursor OF
insanity, that pimple may be the be-
ginning of cancer, and that if you die
even that may be an illusion, in which
caseyou will certainlyb be buried alive. The
precise degree of misery which it is pos.
sible thus to induce can hardly be gagged,
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 GOODNESS and sour distrust, examine
them one by one, discover or believe that
you discover their hollowness or their
fleeting, 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
self 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 SEEM" and
thence inevitably follows a burst of sense
less pitie de sol meme, whence by easy
gradations through dismalness to blacklist
melancholy. 1t is true that all this will
make people disagreeable, and that it has
distinct tendency to Sc Uiellir ct s'entatdir
may be taken as certain as that two and
two make four. So best. The assurance
of being thus rendered through advanc-
ing wears more cankered and unattractive,
more unfit to love and be loved, will cast
solid and legitimate gloom on any stray
particles of the happiness which they
have rejected and the pleasures they have
forsworn-PdW Mall Gazette