The morning star and Catholic messenger., 1877-07-22
OUT or SIGHr OUr OF MTNO.

OUT or SIGHT 0Ur or MIND.
| D1skGREEkBEE TRAITS AMONG THOSE WE
LovE-soME THINGS ABOUT OUR BEST
FRIENDS WHICH WE CANNOT BUT DEPRR
CArE-TIME AS A HEALER.
That cynical old proverb-one of the
kind which disbelieves in human nature
and 6nds more to blame than to praise in
the conduct of life-makes being out of
| sight synonymous with being ont of mind,
| and reduces the sentiment of affection,
fondly said to be eternal, to the humilia
! ting chances of temporary association.
Well, there is certain truth in this
| there always is o certain truth in every
| thing dissgreeable and disheart tening; bat
it is not the whole truth, thank heaven,
and that perplexing converse to be found
in all proverbs comes to, buttress mp our
faith or the one eide after 1t has been
knocked down by this axiomatic batter
ipg ram of distrust ON the other, and tells
US that absence makes the heart grow fond
er, and by implication distance lends en-
chantment TO the view. Thus we are
4" shuttlecocked between the two in
manner which helps to confuse the un-
certain aud to distress the weak, accord
ing as they accept the sorrOwful dictum of
distrust, or take comfort from the hope
fol assurance of faith. We may take it,
however, that both views are false, and
both true that with some shallow and
impressionabie souls absence incl1das-
fefeetfuipess through Inability to retain
and facility to receive alike; with others
it increases love, and being out of sight,
far from efAcing the remembrance of the
dear picture, only softens- the harshef
lines and beautifies the less lovely features,
adding q golden haze of tenderness and
regret, through which everything becomes
glOrified and perfected.
IDIosYNCRACIEs OF OUR FRIENDS.
We have friends whom we dearly love,
but whose personality affl cts us with var
ious forms of nervous distreas. Ole is a
right good fellow, with all the solid vir-
tues, il not many surface graces. He saved
man from ruin, at the cost of no small
risk and sacrifice to himself aud he tor
gave him his gross ingratitude afterwardsj
out he has no love for a well supplied
bath, and he takes snuff as if his salvation
depended on the number of ounces con-
suIned in the week. Another is affection
ate and generous, but burdened with
peccsnt liver, aud irritable accordingly.
We never know when he may not break
o1t into a storm of angry accusation, which
| it takes all our appreciation of his sterling
| value and all our personal attachment for
him to bear at the time and forgive after
| it is over but he took bis widowed sister
| and her children into his hoRse, and, be-
cause be bad not enough for all, gave up
| the one on whom he had set his heart, and
| for the hope of whom he had toiled hard
and endured much, that he might do his
duty by his sister who had married against
his consent man who had never been his
friend, and who had made things unpleas-
ant in the family all the time he had
belonged to it. a third tries our patience
and exhausts it by perpetual contradic-
ton, with or without reason; but with this
perpetual contradiction he has power OF
work which makes him a true intellectual
Hercules, and q manly capacity for endu-
| rance as heroic rs his capacity for labor.
| A fourth is vain and arrogant, but with
solid good sense when fairly appealed to,
and au excellent judgment, calm, compre-
hensive and impartial. That ugly little
mask of vanity, which after all is only a
mask, drops off when his deeper nature
| end nobler intelligence are required to
act, and when we are away do we not re-
member the good advice whicth he has
more than onco given us 2 the pitfalls from
which he has rescued us the safe ways
in which he has placed US the "good
things" that be has shown and made pos
| sible to us Z and, remem bering these fair
offices, do we not forget all that silly van
ity and pride which in the moments OF
actual contact, worry and offend US 7 A
fifth has a distressing habit of endless talk
a sixth one as distressing Of almost On
| broken silence; a seventh is sbaky with
| his h's, and not always imPeccable in bis
pronouns, having indeed very hazy ideas
about the use of the noninative and cred
ulous as to the universal proprie5y OF the
accusative and an eighth is familiar before
folk, and what proud people disdainfully
call " pushing" but all are conspicuous
| for good qualities and virtues which we
may call ancborable for want Of a better
name, virtues that we can rely on and
trust to, and for which we love, prize
respect and endure them.
ANNOYED BY THOSE WE LOVE.
For it is endurance. We cannot blind
| ourselves to the fact that are bored
and more than bored-revolted, annoyed
irritated-when we are too much in the
society of these people, whom yet we ain
cerely esteem and faithfully love. But
in absence we forget these non-vital de-
fects, aud dwell only on the good that ia
in them, not on the bad that appears. We
remember tho kind things that they have
done, the storing worth hat they have
proved and the personal hydrophobia,
with tho his and the familiarity, the in
cessaut talk and the exaeperating con