Los Angeles daily herald., 1874-11-08
RIND, SOUL AND HEART.

authorship; and, in truth, notJerone-
ously; for so poorly compensated were
the services of literary men, that in
many instances life was with them q
continual struggle for maintenance.
True, others were equally impecuni-
Gus; but as these often lacked the re-
fined sensibilities which are indispens-
able to writers of lofty sentiments,
their peculiar circumstances were less
painful. Again, even though the lib
erality of some wealthy patron occa-
sonally secured to authors comfort
able existence, too often was this sup
port made q preteXt to exact from
them an advocacy of principles ut
terly revolving to their natures. And
was not this pain bitterer than phys
cal suffering could be?
In modern times, however, the
world has advanced so far that it read
lily recognizes the claims of writers
upon it's liberality and maintains them
not only in comfort, but i'll luxury.
Still suffering is often-very often--the
portion of the author. The poet, espe-
cially, pays dearly for the pleasure
others enjoy through his lays Through
one of those subtle effects for which
we can assign no cause, the poet
gifted with genius of the highest or
der, endowed with ability to see
beauty in every .surrounding-yet al
lows himself to become gloomy and
morose, seeing the darker side ofcvery
picture and exciting, the deeper emo
tions of the heart in his Kind, only to
direct them in the same channels
which his own diseased fancies follow.
Certainly there are poets of peaceful,
happy dispositions, but they belong to
the exceptions of the class. In eXpla-
nation of their morbid tendencies in
general, we can only say that excess
i've indulgence of melancholic predis-
positions strengthens and renders per-
manent those inclinations which are
as vet mysteries of mind uneXplored
and unexplained.
Again, by another of those ineXpli-
cable connections, none have the no.
bier, higher attributes so fully devel-
oped as those who have been refined
through suffering, as "gold in the fur
nace.n Thus, as truly pure, noble
thoughts pertain only to correspond
ing natures, the poet, through the
very suffering entailed upon him by
acute sensitiveness, is made more ca
pable of expressing elevated senti-
ments. But the selfish world reads
the productions of genius, enthusiastic
cally praises and sometimes envies;
then, Twist-like, clamors for more.
What matter that the precious thing
would not have existed but for the
agony of some hapless creature whose
very life blood was wrung forth, drop
by drop, in its production =?
Mayhap, far away, on desert, plain
or ocean billow, another bleeding
heart vibrates to the admired refrain,
and walls out: "Ah! that man has
suffered sorely. Though l may never
see his face nor hear his voice, | know
by this token that we are brothers in
feeling.n Thus are two bearts drawn
together. The poet, conscious that by
suffering he was enabled to touch the
chords of harmony, knows that alone
by suffering can they be fully compre-
hended and appreciated; while the
reader, knowing that his own woe re-
spends to the sentiment, feels that an
other's agony called forth the express
sion. Many scott and sneer at Spirit
ualism, yet it is sound, pure doctrine.
Not indeed, the Spiritualism which
manifests itself in mysterious knock
ings and gymnastics of furniture, but
this strong, sacred tie that binds spirits
together, although they be unknown
and far apart. There is a subtle some
Ii. klnt fnc in, n
unconsciously; a knowledge that others
think the same thoughts and have the
same indefinite, ineXpressible longings
for something more than we know.
We see ourselves mirrored, as it were,
in Others. At times this notion of pre-
vious experience is SO strong as to
carry the conviction that in another
life-in some former state of existence
we have lived over the same events,
conceived the same ideas and arrived
at the same conclusions. 1t seems that
they have been recalled to our minds
by the power of association. Probably
no emotion is so batfling-no feeling
so thoroughly teaches the einsuf1iciency
of human power-as this grasping after
some familiar yet strangely novel idea.
| We feel-we ka0W that it has passed
through the mind before, but memory
refuses to follow out the connection,
and pauses bewildered Oh the very
brink of discovery. Perhaps as q
strong will feels when subjected by the
strange power of mesmerism to one
still stronger, so feels the mind when
reaching far back into Obscurity for
something tangible, yet indeiinable.
Probably, of all the punishment laid
upon man for his first disobedience,
| this is the most painful; for it Involves
conjectures relating not only to meta
| physical subjects Of earth, but also to
| the innate longings Of the soul for
immortality and the probability Of its
qualification. But the atonement is
gradually being accomplished, and it
| is not unreasonable nor irreverent to
assume that in future ages man will
| comprehend fully many of those
| things which we now see "as through
| a glass, darlly." The mind shall COM
prehend what the heart feeleth, and
| because of the clear understanding that
| shall then be, all men will be at peace
| and love will be universal. AS lead
| ing to fuller knowledge of the heart,
| may we not ask if much harm is not
| done ut the present time by those who
esteem too lightly the deepest and
strongest Of human emotions-love?
| Especially to the religious is the
| question momentous; for, by maxi
| ing religion and love reciprocal,
souls innumerable might be reclaimed;
whereas, religion now appearing i'll
an austere light, forbidding
great affection, they, hungerlng and