Los Angeles daily herald., 1874-05-24
SATURDAY NIGHT MUSINGS.

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life that has come down to us stands
out in characters strong as proofs Of
Holy Writ, that the article was not of
his having. Shakespeare was the
most earnest reader of human nature
that ever nature formed. He probed
deeper into the human heart, and
knew more of its longings and throb-
bings-its pains and its joys-than
any or all other students who essayed
to open the book before his day or
since his time, and he said: 'T swear
tits better to be lowly born, and range
with humble livers in content, than to
be perk'd up in clustering grief and
wear golden sorrow" He no doubt
felt that this would be q good having,
at the very moment he knew he did
not and never could have it. His life
was as barren of contentment as the
ambition of Lady Macbeth was tow
ering. We are told that his domestic
era was unbrightened with the sun
shine of happiness-he lived in an age
when his genius found little apprecia-
ton, and from the morn to the after
noon of his brief life of fifty-two years
he fought poverty with the desperate
earnestness that comes of the resolve
to win the battle or fall with his feet
to the foe and his face to the sun. If
this wonderful being-this transcend
a al PC na RI
who of the sons and daughters of men
have been its intimate friend? We
are all children, and will cry for the
moon even when the bright sunshine
is flooding all around us. 1t is the
old, old story-the good time coming
the anticipation of the future-the dis
satisfied present. Was there ever a
cOntented man or woman? Did ma
ture intend that one of her children
should enjoy the felicity of content
ment in this stage of our existence?
If she did, there has been some mis-
take in the finishing touches of her
work. The intent has miscarried, and
the bungling artist to whom was in
trusted the work has made the sweet
bells jangle out of tune. Ambition
and content are as antagonistic as
light and darkness-as deadly enemies
as fire and water-as discordant ele-
ments as heat and cold-as wide apart
as the poles; and who is without am
bition? "Tis common proof that
lowliness is young ambitions ladder,
whereto the climber upward turns his
face; but when he once attains the top
most round, he then unto the ladder
turns his back, looks into the clouds,
scorning the base degrees by which he
did ascend" That tells the story.
Ambition-this thing "of so airy and
light quantity that it is but shadow
of shadow" feeds upon content and
makes us what. we are, rather than
what we should be.
Suicides where it is said woman was
in the case are of frequent occurrence.
But is it really true that a mana
sane man-will hurl himself out of
this world because woman that he
loves does not and will not love him?
The proposition does not seem tenable
on the sane issue. If we place it on
the insane ground it is reasonable
enough, and the fact cannot be denied
that men have become insane through
unrequited love, and while thus have
shuttle off the mortal coil. "Men
have died and the worms have eaten
them, but not for love-" said the phi
losopher who peered deep into the hui
man heart. If this is true, no man has
died from love, but as thousands have
died from the malady created by love,
the cause is the same and the end is
the same. Now, should man kill
himself for love? Is the case improved
by the act? Is not the condition of
things as they were, with the excep-
ton of shifting the misery from one
person to another? The man is dead
and is rapidly resolving himself into
the clod from which he originally
legacy OF unquiet. Should man do
this? Would an honorable man who
sincerely loved woman, thus injure
her? 1t seems incredible that he
should. If man cannot win q
woman's love it is his fault, not hers.
He is unworthy of her love, or she of
his. She cannot love him, or she is
one of those women whom it were bet
ter that no man love. If she cannot
love him, why should he blight her
life with the consciousness that she
has been forced to dip her hands in
his blood? Looking at the subject
from whatever standpoint we may, we
can find no justification for man kill
ing himself for love. The wretch who
broods over his misfortune until his
mind gives way, and in his frenzy
sends the fatal ball crashing through
his brain, deserves the sympathy
which is extended alike to the inno-
cent cause of the calamity. He was
not responsible, and she should not be
held amenable, unless, indeed, she
tOyed with the mouse for her own
amusement, neither knowing nor car
ing for the consequences. If so, she
was pitiless and will live and die re-
morseless. But no sane man will kill
himself because he cannot win the
love of the woman he loves. He will
not pain her, as the act would pain her
if she is a true woman. The drift of
all this Ia that only fools kill them
selves for love. A sane man with a
thimble full of brains prefers to find
some woman who will love him, rather
than killing himself for one that wont.
ThereIis a young man in our office.
He is ambitious. He has little abil-
ity-very little. He is in love-or
thinks he is, which is the same thing.
He is DESTROYS of appearing in print,
and to that end has been haunting our
editorial sanctum for several days
past; breaking in on our afternoon
nap-yea, even intruding when our
editorial brain has conceived and our
hand is executing some erudite article
which shall immortalize us forever!
We did rather like this young man,
and at first determined to stand his
friend and refrain from publishing his