The Rutland weekly globe. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1873-1877, 1876-09-29
Orastes and I.

Orestes, who was tumbllng among the
books on the library table.
"For jewel have lost"
"Was it diamond ?" SAID |.
"No; a pearl above all price. 1t was
my belief in human nature! :"
"Oh now, Orettes, | cannot help you to
search for that, for / do not believe you
ever had much of an ownership in it,"
mo; | was an enthusiast, no perfection
let but 1 did believe little in the dignity
of human nature until the last two years"
"Well there has been some reason for
disilIusion. Still one must turn to the
bright spots--one must read of the sublime
courage of those Sisters of Charity over at
Brooklyn the other day, who ran to the
rescue of their poor people, and were
wounded and burned themselves. Think
of delicate woman taking a blind old
pauper from his bed, and carrying him
down stairs on her back 1t is a more beau
tiful picture than that of the sialwart Bo-
hemian princess who carried her lover out
of the courtyard, lest his feet should print
the snow. Pity and compassion are nobler
than love; so do not despair, Orestes-all
lie not lost"
"No; but l do not like to think that yir-
tue hides Itself IN hospitals It Is cusy Tor
a woman to be good when she has renounc-
ed the world and shut out the passions. /
want people to be decently honest and good
who have done neither"
"You are quite sure that one does shut
out the passions in converts, hospitals, and
monSsteries?"
ayes; such passions as ambition, and
avarice, love of splendor, love of show, and
the pride of life."
but people have not often to contend
with all these at once"
"Some had, and have fallen
eyes; and some have encountered all
this, and more, and have stood firmly.
Count up your unwounded and your living
and they outnumber your dead"
"Yet | weep more over one dead char
acter than | rejoice over hundred living
ones"
"rhatis natural, but still it is absurd.
Here we are fighting the battle of life, the
air full of unseen foes, our own hearts trail
tors TO our best intentions, life as much a
scene of combat from the cradle to the
grave as was Waterloo and yet we are as
tsnished that few fall, while we ought to
wonder that any or half of the combatauts
survive"
"No," replied Orestes; 81 do not agree
with you. After all, it is not / who disbe-
lieve in human naturo-it is you. | be-
lieve We are given sufficient backbone,
noble Integrity, by nature, a brain which
has the power to hold the passions in
check. l think we are intended to be
strong, and good, and decent people;
and when, one, two, three of my friends
go down, and that at mature age, after
the passions Of youth are conquered, af-
ter reason has reached maturity, then |
weep, and lose my faith in human ma
ture."
"Your tears, Orestes, l confess, would
be those of a strong man and such arc al
ways wrung with difficulty from the heart;
they are painful TO see. do not feel any
too well myself to-day about the downfall
of character; but think the saddcst part
Of it all is to see pleasure that it causes to |
certain other, not yet found out. Tat, to |
me, is the worst of it. The human heart
is deceitful and desperately wicked, and
am only too glad when l find | have con-
CURED temptation to be happy when hear
that another has yielded to it,
81 never had a temptation to commit GER
tain low and mean crimes" replied Or
estes.
"No, you had not but you have had
temptation, and have yielded to 1t, to be
very carpng and critical, very severe and
very much inclined to look down on the
'elnB you nave no mloQ 10.
"Thanks, gentle critic You are very
amiable this morning. Haven't you lost
somethng-let us say your temper p
ayes, Orestes ! am convicted. l have
lost my temper. First, have lost friend
of twenty years standing, man L knew,
respected, believed in. He has gone off to
the land of dishonor; that makes me sad
and then those friends of his who change
l.x.c .li az ;ptn apapniac fhnU mako m
angry. have not lost my faith in human
nature, however but | am sorry to sec this
exhibition OF its weaker side. Why not
'hate the sin and love the sinner do not
Immediately turn away from the love felt.
cannot suppose the young woman whose
soft hand held last week, whose beauty
l admired, whose amiablity / loved, does
something dreadfully wrong. Shall | drop
hor, discard her, hate her D? Shall | not ra-
Their hold her soft hand and the more, and
try to lead her bsck?'
mo; do not like soft hands that do
di,honorablc things" said Ores.es. They
hold the happiness and the responsibility
of this world in their grasp.
"Ah !" SAID l, ''you are betraying your
self, Orestes. Then soft, fair, honest-hands
are real things-they do exist, and you love
them, Ores.esp I"
"Nonsense | don't want to be snapped
up 30. You said, to begin with, that had
never had much belief in the better side of
human nature. acknowledged | was ear
" disenchanted. | saw behind the hollow
ness of this thing we call respectable So
ciety. saw early that what was vice in
poor Sally Brown at the poor end of the
street was not vice in Miss Ida Mortmor-
cncY at the rich end Of the street. | saw
that II rich mans son did fraudulent
thing it was condoned, CLOSED over, and
called youthful indiscretlon; l saw that if
poor mans son did the same thing he
went to jail for it. | saw Mrs. Cherimoya
firt, and deceive her husband, and lead a
bad life, and be sustained in it; and saw
poor clerks pretty wife utterly despised
and cast out because she yielded for mo-
ment to the batteries of well-bred man
OF the world. saw in fact that vice and
goodness and evil are not positive terms
they do not mean the law of conscience,
or the mandates of God they mean simply
what the Ieigning class means TO call them,
and as long as you are rich and powerful
and influential, as long as you keep on q
mask of responsibility, you can do any
thing evil, aud still be parsonage of i'm
portance, having all the value OF char
gcter."
swell, Orestes, is not that very mask OF
responsibility the tribute which vice pays
to virtuei"
"Yes, 10 measure-the sort of worship
which the high priests of Jupiter pay hin
In "La Belle Helene when they look at the
offerings and say, 'Trop DIES feurs, pal
dagneaux.' So | got to despise social os
tracisms, and to believe that a person who
10 under a ban may be much the best of III
ALL"
"That has happsned before now, l be
lieve." said |.
eyes; we have allUved to see the scale
Jump, and him who Weighed heaviest be
come lightest but, in site of my scorn o
what considered and consider still, tn
snobbishness of human Eilcsm, had
yery great belief in CERTAIN, characters.
have seen some Of them q down, and
have found that forty years olyrtue-nay
fihy--maY be no safeguard, an l confess
don't like it,"
"No, We don't like failure ad disar