Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1876-05-24
simmer HOLIDAYS.

]
for the annual flight from their tolls, and for
their rest among the mountains or 10y the
sea. This restless and fevercd generation
needs more than any Of its predecessors the
healthful and enrolling influence Of solitude
aud rest. Apart from any purpose to devote
a mouth or two each year to pleasant and
renovating leisure, there are few men or
women who are not the better for IT, 1t has
genial influence, to lay aside the pressing
aud irritating cares Of busy life, and spend
few weeks in travel or in loneliness. When
carewon people take the steamer or the cars
they usually lay oil the burden Of their
anNieties, and become serene, cheerful and
/ kindly. The communion with nature in her
grand mountain Businesses, or by the shores
Of the ever laxative sea- the intercourse
of strangers aud friends ON terms Of perfect
friendship, with no professional or business
iealousies or objects to consult the curious
watchfumess Of the crowds of eager faces
bent on pleasure and recreation the journeys
by land or sea; the social aud brilliant sven
of tourists, give change Of scene, Of thought,
Of feeling and exercise which tends to win
mems minds from their fretfnl cares, 10
soothe their irritated nerves, and 10 dissirnte
their troubles The most efficient thing
which hard driven men can do, to tone up
their moral, intellectual and physical powers,
is TO take a months leisure in the summer,
aud L" lie down in green pastures or by the
side Of the still waters"
There is no question that this is an active,
busy, tumultuous generation. We do more
work in day than our fathers did in a week.
Whether the work is wiser aud better is not
the question. That it is exhausting and
impairing admits Of no doubt. The intel
lectua faculties and the moral both suffer
from the incessant turmoil and hurry in
which We live. All departments Of labor
and business, all professions, all institutions
of education, reform and religion, are driven
at break neck speed. There is no rest in
churches, colleges, universities, are demand
ing some tribute Of thought, care, self-denial
or labor, all the time. When mans work
is done in his own shop, Office garden, there
still opens before him an endless vista Of
labors in matters Of public concern. The
incessant strain upon the intellectual moral
and physical powers is generating a new
class of ills and diseases, and increasing the
violence and extent of the old Not a day
passes but some eminent name is inscribed
on the roll of those who have suddenly died
| from overtasked eueges. Men 20 till they
drop dead, and then their friends wonder at
the mystery Of the Providence, and keep on
the same fearful course themselves, driving
the spur aud rowe deep into their own sides
until they, too, fall in the same way.
1t is good thing, then, as well as neediul,
to cease for one month in the twelve, to be
merchants, lawyers, physicians, ministers,
laborers housekeepcrs, and drudges of one
sort and another, and become men and
women of leisure aud repose to cultivate the
humanities and the amenities Of life and
unpack aud lay Off the wearing burdens
which cut into the flesh of the body and the
texture Of the soul, and make men mere
dray-horses or machines, or still worse, un.
hinge their moral power, jangle their nerves.
devote them to irritability, to paralysis or to
death. The summer holiday ought to be a
binary occupations should be banished, -,nd
the usual habit and course of life should be
completely Invaded and overthrow. II
ought TO he sort of Sabbatic month, in
usual recreation be allowed. But othe
work aud other play which would bring tn
tension on other powers work and play il
scenes and circumstances far different frou
these which are common, would give rest t.
the spirit the brain and the body.
We have often spoken of our own state
and especially its GENITAL and northern parts
as specially fitted for the enjoyment of tn
summer holidays. A month or two spent il
the heart of Vermont will enrich the mem
DRY of the hard-worker Of the city for years
II is true there are no cathedrals here wortl
inspection no fine residences no galerie
of art; no famous historic places; no awfu
grandeur and chaos of mountains but ther
is an infinite variety of changing loveliness
not unmixed with things that are sublime
there are the lights and shadows which pla
over river aud mountain field and LAX,
and make the landscape of Vermont equa
10 anything this side heaven There ar
pleasant glens and lovely hill-tops, NOT in
accessible, that once sought, will thereafte
have everlasting associations, and will lea
one TO think as the Oliver Goldsmith o
America once said, If heaven is half a
beautiful, one might be willing to go there,
Even the head of one of the colleges col
nected with the University at Oxford, as h
stood on the hill behind the capitol of tn
state and his heart beat TO the music of tn
manifold beauties that glanced on his eye
exclaimed, There is nothing in England
nothing in Switzerland or Italy, that ca
equal it," A summer in Vermont la
Astounding compensations,
Tn CASE on WINsLow.--A geutlema
living near Boston, and having friends 4
! Inu1on who ara nrnuaintpd with T. 1