Marshall County Republican. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1856-1878, 1878-06-06

had been a great philosopher he would
have comprehended that work consists of
whatever one is obliged to do and play is
whatever one is not obliged 10 do, and
this would have helped him to understand
why constructing artificial flowers or
working on n treadmill is work, while rol
ling ten pins or climbing Mount Blanc is
only amusement"
But our distaste for work is not the only
evidence we have that, as the home Of our
earliest infancy, so the home of the infancy
OF our race has grasp upon us beyond all
else. We are forever making ourselves i'll
by neglect of due precaution against heat,
cold and wet, Notwithstanding our own
experience. linked to that of men for ages,
because it is not natural for us, created as
we were for Paradise, 10 be on such guard.
Our love for wit, humor and laughter, ss
strong as our aversion to sorrow, proves
the kind of planet we were made TO live
in. We have been beggars for six thous-
and years, yet poverty has the same sor-
row to every soul of us as though we had
lost our fortunes but this morning. Dali
ly accidents are occurring, yet each shocks
US as though it were not now rather a rule
than an exception, thus proving that we
were intended for world free from disas-
ter. So many ages of crime, yet every
crime a fresh astonishmentl A lottery
ticket is but a pass into Paradise, we hope.
Men get drunk, hoping to reel back
through its gates, ifbut for few moments.
We are no less insane after all the exper-
fence OF the ages in our expec-
tations. Though We have failed often
before, this new business will certainly
succeed. Our last home was unpleasant,
but this new house, town. or state will be
free from that. What glorious republic
Spain will certainly be this time. Half
the force which impels the arctic ex-
plorer, is that he may find Eden, even
though beyond the ice. Fernando de So
to and his fountain of youth again. 1t
was Paradise Columbus sailed for, just as
all America swarms back over the Allan
tic now. Eden must be in Italy, since 1t
is not on these shores How absurd are
our expectations, as to the people, yet to
be met. We can not get over being made
to associate with perfect persons. Eve
lifted up her first born in her rapturous
hands, cxclaiming: q have gotten the
man from the Lordl'' The man was
Cain and yet, every Eve thinks her babe
an exception to the race. Our new pastor
is sure to eclipse all his predecessors, as
our new President is to surpass Washing
ton. Only Eden can account for our be-
ing so accustomed to ideal excellence
that we cannot stand anything short of
it. If happiness, and not misery, be the
design ofthe Creator, why is the cry so
continually heard, "who will show us
any good!" The world is teeming with
dissatisfied spirits; We find them every
where, fitting hither and thither, seeking
for something that shall bring peace and
delight. Heart sore and foot sore we 60
through the world, rushing eagerly on
after some far off vision of excellence, and
how seldom, do we look into the present
for the realization ofthose blissful dreams
Always thirsting, we still pass UNDECIDED
the myriad fountains, that are gushing up
in our pathway; always hungering, we
still look beyond the rich repasts which
are spread before us every day. You re-
member the old legend of Casper Becccra;
he was fain to carve an image of the Vir-
gin; but he could embody his thought
neither in ivory, bone, nor precious East
ern works, although, with all an artists
ardor, he toiled early and late. One night
baffled, and disheartened, he bowed his
head upon his hands, voice within bis
chamber babe him carve the statue from
the oaken brand that smoldered on the
hearth-and 10 his perfect thought stood
forth, "a thing of beauty, and joy for
ever" The old sculptor found, as we
may find, that the materials for our no.
blest work-our highest happiness-lie
nearest to our own hands. Scripture says
very little about Paradise. 1t was written
to tell us rather how We lost and how
we may regain the same. Yet, all through
the Bible, Eden, signifying delight. and
Paradise, meaning the Garden of God, are
used as the symbols of the highest earth
ly happiness possible to- men. Environed
by towering mountains, delicious maze
and diversity of vegetable and animal life,
enlivened by the four-fold flow Of its riv
ers with many lake sparkling like a bit
of the skies among its hills-bathed in
the perfection of climate, Paradise was the
Creators ideal of the purest happiness
man cen possess on this planet. Poets
feign that angels with sturdy shoulders
so heaved the globe out of its former an
gle to the sun, after the fall, as to make
disastrous change, in season and climate.
In the museum of guesses in science is
the conjecture that the Deluge has so
transformed matters, as that Eden, and
all the land of those days, alternating
with the water of that period, now lies en-
tombed miles deep under the melancholy
wash of the seas. What matters it, if
God has hidden Eden, as he has every
other exact location of sacred events?
What difference does that make, since it
is located so securely and invariably in
every heart, since there is to day in each
one of us, so much of the Eden of old, of
the noble Paradise upon whose unbarred
threshold we stand?