The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1879-09-11
The Estimate Of Life.

Life in prospect differs widely from life
in the retrospect. To the young it ap-
pears in the roseate hues of hope. To-
morrow, they are assured, will be as to-
day-but more abundant and joyous.
They live in the future; and health,
strength, wealth, fame and happiness are
among its certain possessions. To them,
life is bright, delusive dream.
The young have their troubles. Dis
appointments, sickness, pain, bereave-
ments, wants, and nameles sorrows may
oYertake them, and niomentarily dissi-
pate their delusions; but their troubles
are short lived. They are soon forgotten
and lost in the recovery of their blessings
and in the anticipation of better times.
. Hard, indeed, must be the lot which
crushes the spirits and extinguishes the
hopes of the young.
Fortunate it is that troubles fall light
" on their hearts. Let them enjoy life F;
they win have ample time, if their days
are prolonged, to endure Affections. /
was once ascending the Ohio River in a
steamer. a heart.smitten widow WIS on
board, who had just buried her husband
in Cincinnati, and was fleeing with her
children from the cholera. which was
raging as an epidemic. She had two
little daughters, bright and cheerful, old
enough, indeed, to know that they had
lost their father; but too young and vol
atile to be long effected by their bereave-
ment. Amid the scenes and excitements
B of the voyage, the sprightly girls forgot
their sorrows and gave themselves up to
the pleasures of the occasion. The poor
mother seemed almost as much grieyed
by the untimely frivolity of her children
as BY the sudden death of her husband.
She tried by every art to repress their ex-
uberant Joy and impart to them her own
gloom and sorrow; but in vain. Nature
would assert its control. Stranger as l
was, yentured to address words of con-
ISOLATION to the afflicted widow. 1t was
cause for gratitude rather than grief that
her young and tender children did not
fully share in her sorrows. 1t was better
that they should enjoy. life while they
might, as, in all probability, their days
of trouble would come, and not be few.
With thoughts like these, her crushed
heart seemed soothed.
To the old, life is not dream but q
reality. They contemplate it, not in the
bright hues of fancy, but in the sober or
even dark garb of experience. How diff
ferent is life from the early anticipation
of it. It was POLITICALLY described by the
patriarch of Uz, four thousand years
ago: 'tMan that is born of woman is of
few days and full of trouble. He cometh
forth like flower, and Is cut down: he
feeth. also as a shadow, and continueth
not" .
Life is short. It does not seem so to
the young. When / was boy, my
grandfather was white-headed septua.
ginarian. It appeared to me to be i'm
possible that I should ever attain to his
age. a small eternity seemed to inter-
vene between his age and mine. / am
now Just as old as he was at the time of
his death; and how swiftly have my days
passed, byl: Life in the retrospect always
appears brief. "The days of the years of
my pilgrimage are an hundred and thirty
years." said the patriarch Jacob, "few
and evil have the days of my life been."
Moses, the man of God, harped on the
same string "The days of our years are
three-score years and ten; and il, by
reason of strength, they be four-score
years. yet is their strength labor and sor1
row;-for it -is-s soon cut off and;we fly
away. How truthfrlly is the life of
man pictured by the inspired psalmist :
GAS for man, his days are as grass: as q
flower of the field, SO he hourisheth. For
the wind passeth; over it, and it is gone" ."
Some improvements have been made in
the hygienic and healing arts; but still
life, under the most favored circum-
stances, is brief and uncertain. No
strength of constitution, no. prudence,
and no medical skill, can expend it much
beyond its usual limit.
Life is not only short, but "full of
trouble" This language is strong, but it
is confirmed by, the experience of every
person who has reached the age of three
score years and ten. Tolls, vexations,
diappointments, pains, losses, wants, and
scarcely found name, enter largely into
the history of every life. Nor are these
all, nor the worst of its evils. Tempta-
ton, ain in innumerable forms, guilt, re-
morse, godly .sorrow, and ceaseless con-
flicts with the world, the flesh and the
devil, ssrnn through the rounds of three
score years and ten." Domestic rela-
tions, the source of mans highest enjoy
ments, are often the cause of his sorest
trials. He shares in the Affections OF
those whom he loves. The sharpest sor-
rows of parents are frequently the result
of the waywardness, folly, vice and mis-
cry of their children. National calami.
ties-derangement of trade, sectional and
party strife, riots, and war with its fear
ful desolations-cast their shadows over
MANY a household, and add greatly to
the bitterness Of individual experience.
All the elements of nature seem to be at
war with man, and commissioned to ag.
gravate his misery. Fire burns his hard
earned property, and turns him out a
beggar on the world. The lair that he
breathes may be fraught with death, and
spread a wasting epidemic over the land.
Water, one of Heavens best gifts, may
overflow the lands, wasting the products
of mans toll, and leaving desolation,
want and sickness in its tracks. Heat
and cold, which minister so much to
mans comfort, may in their turn afflict
and ruin him; These evils may, in some
measure, be avaded, modified, or even
turned to good, by prudence, piety~and
fortitude; but sorrow and suffering, in
creasing to the close Of life, are mans
inevitable lot on earth. s
AS man grows older, he becomes more
profoundly convinced of his ignorance.
In his youth, he hopes to become wise.
In his maturity, he might have been Sc
duced into the delusion that he had at
tanned to wisdom. He must. however,
be exceedingly indocile If he does not
learn before he reaches the age of three
score and ten years that he "knows moth
ing as he ought to know" His highest
attainment is to learn that he is fool.
He finds that everything within and
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