Mower County transcript. [volume] (Lansing, Minn.) 1868-1915, 1879-07-17

al, life. But while the chief object OF
,ur creation is the successful perform
,ncc of the work allotted by the Giver of
all Good, We are not to be deprived Of
enjoyment. God has provided US with
numerous pleasures, many of which can
only he obtained Ivy persons of high e.
tate but some are common to all classes.
among which are the pleasures afforded
by memory. They are varied as the cx-
perience Of man. When wearied with
the stern realities of the present, how re-
frcsh,ng it is to revel amid the pictures
of memory. We tread with reverentlal
awe the ground, which, hallowed bv the
purest affection, contains the ashes OF
our falhers. As we view the sacred place
what flood of recollections rushes DER
US Of the happy days gone by, and our
mind is filed with emotions giving rise
to good and noble thoughts. The weary
traveller, returning from foreign lands to
the home Of his childhood, finds that
time has left its mark upon the walls and
covered it with moss and ivy, the only
sound that greets his listening ear is the
chlrping of the birds or the rushing Of
the leaves, but while he gazes upon it with
melancholy wonder, memory, his faith.
full and never tireing friend, transfers
him in her phantom ship over the vast
ocean Of time from the present to the
past, and he sees before him, instead Of
the wreck of the present t, his happy home
of the dear old by-gone days; he sees
the smoke curling from the thatched roof
in misty columns towards the blue dome
above; he sees the orchard with its we'll
remembered trees, where he,a merry,light
hearted boy, had carved his name; he is
surrounded by the beloved forms and
faces that were long ago called from their
home on earth 10 better one above:
Memory next brings him to the days Of
early manhood; how wildly he recalls
the happiness of those days; he lives
over again the sad hours of his departure
from home and friends; he now wakes
from this dream Of the past and takes
up the burden of life, til ankful for the
pleasures of memory. the man over
whom many rolling seasons have passed,
whose cheek has been turrOwed and
whose hair silvered by successive dreary
winters, is able to call each scene to his
mental eye endeared by tender remem
brances and which come 10 him like the
refreshing rains OF heaven on the parched
and dropping plant In memory's dreams
the loved, the beautiful, the dead, rise
from their graves, clothed not in the gar:
ments of the tomb, but in all the fresh.
ness and radiant beauty of life. Again
We clasp their hand, again we bear their
sweet voice and their precious words
neIrts. -.a,s~-' .,>s>.l- .ralieve our aching
and see how all the knowledge we pos
sess has been obtained, little by little
how step by step we have mounted the
ladder Of knowledge pushing success
fully onward until we now stand tri
umphant on the topmost round, looking
hopefully into the unrevealed future
Although memory has its pleasures il
has also Its pains. Who has not expert
enced the painful memory of early follies
Who has not, ut times. found crowdinq
on his recollection, thoughts, feelings Of
scenes, forgotten perhaps by all but him
self, which force themselves inv0luutari
ly upon his attention. But the pains OIL
memory may, in great degree, be done
away by so living that when years have
rolled by and in fancy we wander bach
through the halls Of time we shall fine
nothing that we could wish to have blot
ted from existence, then, and then only
we Can enjoy the unalloyed pleasures OF
memory. LOTTIE E. MORGAN.