The Lambertville record. [volume] (Lambertville, N.J.) 1872-1968, 1874-08-26
LIEE-A RLESsING.

from the present condition Of happiness or
sorrow ID which We flnd ourselves that whe;l
we are young, gay, hopeful and prosperou
we should believe life 10 be one glad holiday j;
or that when weighed 10 The eaztl with carx,
anxiety 81 xrief w should deem Il u b i
prison-house of SORROW md sppointmept,
But that any one, after impartially viewing
life on . broad scale. apart from personal anss
transient interests, should deliberately depre-
ciate its value, would appear to argue that,
whatever his other attainments, he had at
least failed to discover the true meaning and
significance of human existence.
It is not uncommon for youth in its glad
hopefulness to paint the future in rosy and
glowing colors, and then, with the first shock
of disappointment or SORROW, to cover all their
bright anticipations with thick pail of gloom
and to sink into misanthropy. The more fully
the young fancy had revelled in dream Of
perfect bliss the more bitter is the awakening
to a sense of its mistake. There is always
reaction from one extreme to another and it
is often SO violent that the second excess is
greater than the first. Not only in youth,
however, but In the mature life of many whose
experience has been hard and stern, do we
find this melancholy estimate of lifc They
declare they have weighed it and found it
wanting its pleasures, they say, are tran
sient, it's employments monotonous, its friend
ships flceting, its hopes and plans baffled and
broken, nothing is lasting but regret, nothing
certain but death. Poetry often represents
this state Of mind and lends a charm to it that
it is hard to resist. Byron, with his wonder
full genius and bitter spirit, has thrown
fascination around gloom and misanthropy,
mind, bringing it into sympathy with the dis
cord, rather than the harmony OF life. Even
some religious PERSONS honestly endeavoring
to promote the welfare of their felow-men,
have acquired the habit of disparagings the
present life to extol the future, forgetting that
they are both parts of one grand system,
originated by the same wisdom and love. To
depreciate human life, to account its possibili-
ties narrow, its occupations triAing its en-
joyments paltry, its purposes frivolous, is
surely to throw contempt upon its author and
to extinguish the faith in absolute goodness
aud truth.
Experience, when taken ON broad scale,
forbids any such gloomy conviction. Tho
universal love of life is OF itself guarantee
that life is a blessing We all cling to it,
even when it is encompassed with trouble
ping from us, and we rejoice in the fulness of
vitality and health, which is but life intensi-
fled. The very idea Of oblivion is painful to
us, and suicide is intimately associated with
insanity Our attachment to home and to
our country, the pleasant memories that SO
often cluster round a spot where much Of our
time has been SPENT the strength and sweet
ness Of domestic and social ties and the eag-s
erness with which we renew them after
absence, all utter the same expression. Tho
truth is that all misery is rather negation
than an affirmation it is something taken
away from life to make 1t less, not added on
to make it more. Sickness and pain are a
diminution Of vital force; bereavement is a
loss Of some of lfe's joys; poverty and igno-
rance are the absence Of opportunities even
vice and crime, the worst of all life's evils,
are in truth the fecblenew Of the moral sense,
the absence of high principle and noble inn
pulse, which are the browning stones of a well
developed life. Life itself, in its fulness, is
grand noble and happy 1t is the cutting
away of Its parts, or their stunted growth and
limited development that cause evil and sor-
row.
1t is because grief and disappointment are
the exceptions and not the rule Of life, that
they stand out in such prominence in our
minds. Happiness not of course Of an
ecstatic kind, but that which flows from
peace, serenity and contentment, dwells with
us unnoticed and forgotten. But trouble
excites and stirs us and we wildly remember
it's sting. As the storm and the volcano are
epochs in nature that are ever recorded, while
the calm air and gentle rain come and 90 day
by day unnoticed SO the Affections Of life, the
calamties we suffer, the evils we deplore are
signalized and remcmbercd while the peace
full seasons Of health, prosperity and pleasures.
the flow Of affection, the quiet, restful times
of leisure, even the glad hours of Joy slip away
without observation, and leave scarcely
memory behind.
Life has, however, a still higher boon than
the happiness it SO freely sheds. It'oners the
OppOitunity lOt SShliftAh AhiPtoyStuSAt dulk
constant development of character This is,
indeed, its chief glory, and this should for
ever forbid all sighting comments, all depre-
citation, all indifference. Its very vicssitudes
are instruments with which we may, if we
will, carve our way to higher states of mental
and moral being. To every succeeding gem
Grafton life opens up more and more Of good
to be gained, of progress to be made. Tho
opportunities which liberty and civilization
put into every hand, the educational and
social privileges, the variety of occupation,
the means Of self-culture, and the openings
for doing good to others, ought to lead us to
honor and revere life, to ponder her meanings,
to study her laws, to embrace her opportuni-
ties. to learn her lessons, and to reap her Joys.
--Phiga. Ledger.
"What kind Of sausages Is them /" quer.
led an old lady Of the young man Of litera.
ture and peanuts, as he passed through the
| t~o;,, coIlt,,or basaavou