The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1876-03-30
Keeping at 1t.

AASPPAu0oS, Ou9 W1ACu ucu udV6 l1S6u
above the mere sensualities of lifc-above
eating and drinking, and sleeping, and
hearing and seeing-they can come to
something like an agreement upon def
milton which, when formulated, would
read something like this: Happiness
consists in the harmonious, healthy, sue
cessful action OF mans powers" The
higher these powers may be, and the
higher the sphere in which they move, the
higher the happiness. The genuine
FOOLS paradise" is ease. There are mil
lions of men, hard at work, who are look
ing for their reward to immunity from
work. They would be quite content to
purchase twenty-five years of leisure with
twenty-five years of the most slavish
drudgery. Toward these years of leisure
they constantly look with hope and ex-
pectaton. Not unfrequently the leisure
is won and entered upon; but it is always
disappointment. 1t never brings the
happiness which was expected, and it often
brings such change Of habits as to prove
fatal, either to health or to life.
A man who inherits wealth may begin
and worry through three-score years and
ten without any very definite object. In
driving, in foreign travel, in hunting and
fishing, in club-houses and society, he
may manage to pass away his time;
but he will hardly be happy. It
seems to be necessary to health that
the powers of q man be trained upon
some object, and steadily held there day
after day, year after year, while vitality
lasts. There may come time in old age
when the fund Of vitality will have sunk
so low that he can follow no consecutive
labor without such draft upon his forces
that sleep cannot restore them. Then,
and not before, he should stop work. But,
SO long as man has vitality to spare
upon work, it must be used, or it will be-
come source Of grievous, harassing dis
content. The man will not know what to
do with himself; and when he has
reached such point as that, he is uncon-
sciously digging grave for himself, and
fashioning his own coffin. Life needs q
steady channel to run irregular habits
of work and Of sleep. 1t needs steady,
stimulating alma trend toward some
thing. An aimless life can never be hap
py, or, for long period, healthy. Said
q rich widow to gentleman, still labor
ing beyond his needs: "Don't stop; keep
at it." The words that were in her heart
were: If my husband had not stopped,
he would be alive to-day" And what she
thought was doubtless true. A greater
shock can hardly befall q man who has
been active than that which he expert
ences when, having relinquished his pur-
suits, he finds unused time and unused
vitality hanging upon his idle hands and
mind. The current of his life is thus
thrown into eddies, or settled into slug
gish pool, and he begins to die.
We have, and have had, in our own
city some notable examples of business
continued through long life with un-
broken health and capacities to the last.
Mr.. Aston, who has just passed away, un.
doubleday prolonged his life by his steady
adherence TO business. There is no doubt
that he lived longer and was happier for
his continued work. If he had settled
back upon the consciousness of assured
wealth, and taken the ease that was 10
thoroughly warranted by his large pos
sessions, he would undoubtedly have died
years ago. Commodore Vanderbilt, now
more than eighty years old, Is q notable
instance of healthy powers, continued by
use. How long does any one suppose he
would live if his work were taken from
his hands, and his care from his mind?
His life goes ON in steady drift, and he
is a. able now to manage vast business
There was never q time apparently when
his power was greater than it e to-day.
Our Nestor among American editors and
poets, though an octogenarian, not only
mingles freely In society, makes public
speeches, and looks alter his newspaper,
but writes verses, and 10 carrying .on
Ia