The New Orleans bulletin. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1874-1876, 1875-11-14
THE POSSIBILITIES OF LIFE.

by some perversity or other he fails to maxi
use Of There is tide in his affairs which h'
neglects to take at the food. There are pos
sbilities that might soon become certainties
but the happy moment is neglected, and IL
the next what is so generously offered is with
drawn. This is all so obvious and certain
that sensible man will not encourage vair
regrets about it, and if he remembers past
blunders it will only be that he may avoid
them for the future.
The possibilities of life are, of course,
greatest in youth. A young man has the
world before him. If he have high ambi-
ton, what may hs not achieve ? If he have,
which is happily unusual at that season, a
mere instinct for money getting, what wealth
may he not attain ? Love, too, has allure
ments even greater than ambition and the
dreams of early manhood are more exquisite
and more precious than the realities OF later
years. Strange to say, however, the youth
does not always know his own blessedness,
and dependency is more often visible at
| twenty than at forty. The brevity of life too
| is felt more keenly at an earlier age What
the Germans term lteltScinerz, and what we
know as Byronism, is thrown off by every
healthily- constituted man as he advances in
manhood, but in our early days it is cher
ished and petted as if it were something to be
proud of. Nevertheless, there is one ground,
not wholly unreasonable, for youthful des-
pondency.
Oh first entering life we do not know our
own powers. We attemp. higher flights than
our strength of wing will allow, and the SEN
saiion of finding ourselves in the mud when
we hoped to be above the clouds is by no
means agreeable. Imagination, chat forward
delusive faculty" as Bishop Butler daringly
calls it, is SO active aud the judgment neces-
sarily SO weak that some blunders must be
made while the boy man is putting his freshly
discovered powers to the test. He thinks that
all the possibilities life offers may be grasped
by supreme effort, ignorant that everything
of permanent worth must be gained by steady
and painful toll. Wisdom of this sort can
only be won by the discovery of error and
disappointment is perhaps the readest means
by which he may take the due measure of life
Those who will not learn by it blunder on
like Mr.. Micawber in hopeless incompetency.
Some people act as if the prizes OF life were
to be won by waiting They live for the day
that is passing over them, and are satisfied if
it yields certain amount of ease or iollifca-
ton. Good simple souls they know little of
the excitement that belongs to natures more |
finely touched, but pursue their steady way |
with few objects of thought beyond the com
mon routine OF business Like the immortal |
Mr. Woodhouse, they sustain their vegetable
b
mbitiop, on the contrary, although often
forbid torpor. Apathy produces |
nothing, zeal, whether wise or extravag ant,
1oes at least prevent the waters of life from
becoming stagnant.
Sound, sound the clarion, fill the fife!
To all the sensual world proclaim,
One crowded hour of glorious life
Is worth an age without name.
Success in life is earliest achieved by the
nan who is best able to estimate his power.
Disposition and character and circumstances
must be consulted, for to swim against the
tream, and to oppose all ones strongest in
tincts is almost always fruitless effort The
ound man can never fit into the square hole,
nd yet years are often wasted in trying to do
That can not possibly be done. Southey
ried two or three professions before he
wed the life for which nature had
ormed him. Goldsmith, who cut a
oor figure as a physician, was in his own
me inimitable; johnson, an Indifferent school
laster, rose to the first rank as a man of
stters; Garrick, who would probably have
ad but small income had he continued in {
le wine trade, followed the bent of his
enus and became the greatest actor of his t
go. On the other hand, mere inclination is
'metimes mistaken for special qualification, {
I'd man paints pictures or spins verses, or +
wags his head in pulpit" who would have |
I'd happier and more useful life as a shop q
eeper or artisan. c
1t is scarcely needful to observe that the q
,mmon objects Of mbition-wealth, official
gnity, admission into what is called :" So t
ETY." may be gained more readily than the e
wards coveted by the poet, statesman, the t.
fist, and the man of science Wealth is an il
Vantage which no sane person will despise i
enlarges thousandfold the possibilities Of h
"a ~ |
friends; it can not minister directly to our o
CHEST nature but the service rendered by n
indirectly is all but inestimable. "Pover- a
8 unconqueIable bar, has retarded if not n
holly obsructed, the course of men who o
ight have rendered the highest services to d
cir country. The man has no doubt mean Il
ture who, as Burns says, hangs his head tor IL
anne at honest poverty, but in another D
nse he can not help hanging his head and IL
,oping his back also, for the burden is al d
US weighty and sometimes crushing. O.
Poverty ennobles a few men of generous q
,posltions, but, SO weak is human nature, it h
presses most, and takes the elasticity from q,
3. Sufficient means enable man to Guilt W
te friendship, to cultivate his mind to de- B
op whatever faculties he may possess, to
tain the recognition that he merits with
III means he has, at all events, an open
ID, and is not foiled by difficulties at the
" beginning of his journey. Many are n.
possibilities of life to the man with $4,000 III
year. 60
Useful, however, as money is, it is of vastly
J importance than health. A strong frame CO
a strong digestion are almost essential for bc
nbing the precipitous hill that leads to tor p
le or to fame. Almost every professional br
eer demands bodily as well as mental
yer, and in some occupations physical
sngth is taxed to the uttermost. 1t is no on
At matter in these days to do the work de- e
nded of conscientious bishop or success n
barrister, to gain place amongst states
n, or to sustain the pressure that taxes a ou
'ular physician. Professional success tle
ngs immediate profit, SO that reputation
y De estimated by guineas, but amongst
possibilities of life must be reckoned n.
ievements, call them rather victories, which I'm
rd infinite delight, prove, perhaps, Of un- he
service, and can not be judged by any an
notary estimate. The artist, the poet, the aIl
q OF science can either invent new worlds hi,
discover them, and in the moments of in ;no
ration or of discovery the sense of power, the us
izatinO IF what hoe hi thart haa | -"