Vermont farmer. [volume] (Newport, Orleans County, Vt.) 1870-1877, 1876-04-14

The heart ache and the thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to its contamination
DoVouty to be wished"
Hamlet's sigh for restful peace sent our
thoughts straying back to the beautiful young
"Mocaria" of Euripdes, who voluntarily
offers her spotess life a sacrifice to appease
the gods-so long ago rose this passionate
desire that the grave should end ALL
ooh that thore may he nothing IL again
Beyond the grave we wake once more 10 pain,
What hope will there remain TO u.s. To die
Is Of all Ills the surost remedy"
Something of this old Greek longing croeps
into our own hearts between its fever beats.
Oh for rest after lifes 6tful fever to
sleep well :" rather repose than Paradise
This old impassioned conception of the
Greeks of the self-immolation Of the purest
runs down through all the centuries till she,
"the blessed one, sat at the foot OF the cross
her heart pierced with many wounds, and
with uplilted eyes she saw in her adorable
son its final explanation aud consummation.
God himself became his own victim thus
were conscience and the emotions Of human
| ity at last reconciled. Self.immolation for
the good Of others in other words, lore, un-
selfish, pure seems to run at the root OF all
religions, of all aspiration. To love purely !!
ah that is the life the unloving merely
breathe. Duties are loves disguised and
the way is clear by which we mount If We
can first put the foot on the arrant coward
self who lures US with his pathetic voice.
We ask Of the kind face that had so many
long years looked into sick and dying faces
what was the innermost secret it had learned
Of life and death? The reply came slowly
| ~ IN nj 10 I'd
faith in merely nominal piety; greater sure
ty that beyond the scientists and their hu.
man confines Of laws there extends shoreless
Infinite, unknown and unknowable!" Said
he, "a thoughtful physician who goes down
to the very gates OF death with his patients,
less than others, can say he knows Of tho
| Beyond he turns to face a mystery He,
more than others, knows the effect of the i'm
aginaton upon the dying; before him sur.
face conventionalities crumble away, and all
shams are thrown aside; he comes very near
the naked soul in its supreme hour, and unto
him is gospel preached not Of the theolog.
ioal schools"
One must be sick to appreciate doctors.
To us they had in some indefnable way been
always too suggestive of bread pills and hum
buggery. We were homeopathic" because
we liked our powdered sugar and dough in
small quantities We imagined them as
occasionally interested perhaps in some curl
Gus phase Of disease, or on the alert to
experiment as to the effect of certain drugs
on cats and mortals and opened our eyes in
a lazy surprise when grand royal old face
looked in upon US questioning slowly. The
| ! "a ola l,,rl N
if he wanted to dissect US. The eyes were
searching and kind that looked quietly back
into ours. We wished the fever would 60
away that we might study the iaco-sick or
we'll, we like TO study such faces. Certain
heads and faces bear such impress Of power
they make you comfortably sure of immor'
tality. They enter room, you are con-
scious Of grand presence are impressed as
with some emanatiOn Of purity, truth OF
beauty. Others may enter, crowd, I'LL a
room, aud you know you arc alone still
What is it, this thrill of kInshlp with i'm
mortals Doctors, We take it, must be very
good or very bad, aud cannot, like the clergy
vacllate between an orthodox head and an
indifferent or heterodox heart. Think what
life work to minister to suffering-Only
to suffering; to become the contidant Of sad
secrets, to know sickness OF soul that nc
medicine can touch, to bear around with
you the burden of others pain, to know nc
time your own, sleeping or waking to be
called forever TO sustain, to abstain, to min
lister unto What labor of love And if al
last God pronounees "well done, good and
faithful servant" what riches Of reward
} We are glad of this for the sake of the kind
wise face, with its circle Of gray hair, and a
bit of sadness hidden away back Of the eyes
We know this man will drop down some day
in the harness; he will never rust out
After half century Of busy work he viii
leave no fortune behind him. but in a thous.
and hearts a tender thrill of love shall
waken with his name, aud the memory o.
his face with its rugged lines of patient
sympathy aud quiet endurance shall be t.
many lives a perpetual sermon. Behold
how much better than riches is such an i'm
mortality !-R NJ w. in Washington ID
CO. Chronicle.