Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1874-01-09
The Philosophy Of Discomfort.

Is there any one so akin to the dull and
barren fallow that he has never felt the
warm breath of desire tanning his slug
gish spirit--a desire for something better
and higher than his daily life affordsS
1t may be that these longings are but
transient CLEANS, that come and go, mas
querading, in fret, a grumble, or frown
and so discountenanced at their first ap-
pearing. For few can rightly estimate
the uses of discontent; which, like the
pains of growth, are often the surest indi-
cation of expanding life. This spiritual
hunger of the soul finds little favor; for
the cursory observer sees in 1t nothing
but source of weakness, meet 1t when
he will; kind of moral blight, which
neutralizes the joy we might have In the
present, and depreciates the good still In
our possession. Have we not all expert
enced its spelling influences a thousand
times in our pleasures, when some discon-
tented companion takes off the edge OF
our enjoyment by his regrets for what
cannot be had, and his groundless ex-
pectations of what cannot be realized?
Or worse still, if in our undertakings we
light upon a discontented coadjutor, who
never fails to tinge our very successes
with the shadowy hues of disappoint.
how heavily the work will drag
unless some spell can be discovered
to Danish the chronic frownl Thus
experience itself goes far to confirm the
worlds verdict, and denounces this hun
ger of the soul as a potent destroyer of
our happiness, noXious weed to be up
rooted, whether we find it in ourselves or
others. But this is only true when that
which is needful as a stage is crystalized
| into state, when the distaste for the
| present which should serve as prelude
to some period of transition and adj
vancement, settles down into an abiding
condition. If, on the contrary, we can
look beneath the fretfulness in which the
unsatisfed heart has disguised itself, and
give to that vague longing more adequate
expression, shaping the young desire
and concentrating the wandering dreams
we have quickened into life power
which shall control its destiny and point
its course; we have placed before it the
magnetic needle, from the weakness ol
discomfort we have evolved the strength
of aspiration.
AS exhalations when they burst
From the warm earth, II chilled at first,
| II checked in rising from the plain,
| Darken to fogs and sink again.
But il they once in triumph spread
| Their wings above the mountain head,
Become enthroned in upper air
And turn TO snnbright glories there.
For when desire is trailing on the
ground the whole nature languishes; We
were born to look upward and onward
Were aspiration crushed within us, We
should remain as sterile as the clods oI
the valley, shut up from the heavenly in
fuences ofthe morning dew and the mid
day sunshine Alas for the harvesthour
it must come unblest to the toil-worn la
borer. While discomfort may herald in
despair, desire allied with hope can lifl
the curse itself from labor's brow. But
let US not fashion our ideal from the dust
and clay, or defy the earthworm and the
mole. No man can rise above that which
in his secret thought he fain would be
No mistake is so fatal as that nobler oc
cupations can ennoble US; no aping OF
humility more odious than that spurious
contentment which pursues its way with
ever-lowering aim. When we hold the
bow let us not stay our hand at the third
arrow; for there is an underlying truth in
the angry words of the dying Elisha
Not only will God regard the measure Of
our desert, but the measure also of ouI
desire.-Tinsley's Magazine.