Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1875-09-23

out-uooI sCcHc, Uut uleTe Is no uOQDt tIal
the last generations surpass all former
ones in appreciation of the heavens and
the earth. Our century is the one that
most loves the hill and dale, the lake and
sea. Happiness will be sought more and
more each year in the great garden of God
that Eden of blessedness, the external
world, The Dutch painters formerly
| painted only indoor pictures, the feast,
the domestic circle, the ale-house, the
| brawl. Now they have discovered the
mountains and the clouds, and morning
and evening, and their art has risen to a
new height. The pursui. of pleasure
should thus be transferred from prison
to universe, where each hour of enjoy.
ment should add to the capital stock of
physical and mental life Pleasure must
be in harmony with Gods law-must be
at His right hand.
But thus far we are thinking only of the
less spiritual forms of happiness, and of
forms that await the lecture of the physi-
clan rather than the lecture of the clergy
man. But in these forms of action we
perceive the universal law, and that law is
that the pursuit of happiness should be
also the pursuit of progress. Pleasure
should be development. Happiness is
not to be halt, but music of the regular
march. We dare not love books that con-
tain no valuable lessons of fact or of duty,
because, if we do so, our love is divorced
from our progress and we are entertained
to-day by something that Injuries to-mor-
row. The happiness of reading must be
OF a reading that adds to the heart that
reads, or else to-day's pleasure is to-mor-
rows misery The 10000 novels that
work only upon the lower sentiments and
upon contemplate fondness for " trea-
son, stratagem and charms" and the TO-
600 columns of sensational matter in the
newspapers, cannot be called literature of
happiness but a reading that cheats the
soul The readers that run only to such
books are like the long line of confiding
mortals who 90 day after day and deposit
their earnings in faithless bank The
readers of this form of literature never
draw out but after a few years they find
The sensational bank closed, and interest
and principal alike gone. No one should
call himself a reader, or be honOred with
that title, who reads such forms ofthought,
for not any of the elements Of literature
are to be found in such a dreary wilder
ness of ink. As our games for amusc-
ment should be out in the pure air, or at
least be such as add to the hearts power
and to the whole store of life, so our
literary pleasures should be inwoven with
the progress of the mind. Not only
should man smile and laugh, but he
should so laugh and smile that the future
will be sweeter
To avoid the painful reactions of the fu-
ture is an end worthy of constant thought
II ic ~ aurtu1 abnat II | an, To lo,r to .un
that pleasure which will leave me full of
tears hereafter. What we all want is to
believe fully in the future and to prepare
for it. When man goes out and borrows
large sum, and then at once acts as
though he were blessed with fabulous
wealth, the well-informed spectators place
him down among the simple ones of
earth, for they see to the end of the ninety
days, and see the very home or business
of the man forced away from his posses
sion. In the pursuit of pleasure one must
see the future in all its reality, and cut
out the present fabric to that future image.
The man who drinks, the man who loves
the glutton's feast the idler, the spend
thrift, are minds from whom some demon
from the pit has stricken the sense of flu
turity. They have lost the power to com.
prehend ten or twenty years They are
limited intellects, like color-blinded per
sons, to whom only two or three forms Of
light are visible. Some naturalists have
found that the raven and the crow can
count as high AS three, but cannot 90 be
yond that number. II three men 60 into
hiding place and two come away, the bird
perceives that one remains, but if six 90
to the place and five come away the poor
bird feels that all are gone and enters the
grain-tield with a sense of perfect security.
1t would seem that there are human beings
who cannot perceive the future, whose
brain can comprehend three months, or a
summer time, and all beyond that bound
airy Is blank. In the pursuit Of happiness
what an element it is to be able to hold
in the heart all the probable coming years
of earth, and to love them equally, and
thus to shield those to come from the
pelting storm of sorrow. The world
is covered over to-day with exiles,
with invalids, with criminals, with
broken hearts seeking peace, who in their
once glowing hours only forgot the days
to come. They did not take up the whole
of life and say :" will love it all equal
w." but they took some OF its early years
and, to pamper their bad taste, mortgaged
all the days of life beside. Look now
where you may you can see persons over
whelmed by these terrible reactions. Some
have sought death; some are wandering
in disgraceiul exile; some are. trying TO
brave public Indignation face to face and
by forced smiles to hide sorrowful spirit;
but in some shape they are to be seen
everywhere, telling us that that only is
happiness that loves equally all these
earthly years. The impotence of modern
men to become rich has spread out until
it has become ii general Impotence, and
hence a general dlstrust of the future.
Men would think of the next thirty years
if they fully believed in them, but men
have made the world 90 so fast that they do
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