The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1880-07-08

communications Never until then will
the nation be secure. San Francisco
sC1sToaicse.
The Yesterdays.
Ever since the days of the Wise Man
of All, great deal Of breath has been ex.
pended in talking to the young about the
waste Of their time, as if It were possible
to drill anything Of the sort into their
minds until it comes to them by the les
sons of experience. You may tell them,
and they may know it by mere role and
routine, that two from three leaves one,
but they do not know it as fact of con
seriousness till they have learned il
through the visible and sensible abstrac-
ton Of two objects from three in their
own hands.
To the young, life seems like the out
pour of an inexhaustible spring flowing
into boundless sea. Should the spring
by any possibility fail, there is yet the
sea to draw from. They do not realize
that the sea is IN the dim confines of the
life to come, and that only the waters of
the running river fed by that spring are
theirs. There seems to them to be so
much time, so boundless a future; that
there is no hurry about anything save
their pleasure and they may pause on
their chief errand to run after every but
terfy, secure in the perpetuity Of the sun
ny season. And all at once, if they cease
the chase and look about them, it is no
longer morning, but high noon; and very
lucky indeed are they if they. have not
chased butterflies to q point beyond high
noon, and where the afternoon shadows
begin to gather. t g.is.s5
As 9 rule, youth is so full Of vitality,
So elastic and 80 buoyant, that the mo.
ments go lightly On the wings off tie
swiftly succeeding thoughts and actions.
It is only the unhealthy youn I'M
healthy morally or mentally, or placed ii
unhealthy circumstances who find any
need of using the process known as kill
ing time, that Thoreau impaled on the
point Of his pen when he said, aAs il one
could kill time without injuring eterni-
ty."
For the most of us, alas! time kills it.
self all too soon. We but just think Of
this subject to be studied, Of this art to
be accomplished, Of this pleasure to be
enjoyed, Of this work to De achieved in
fact, just learn how to enjoy and be con
scious that we are enjoying, we but Just
learn how delightful times isand time
is gone. We have been dallying with
youth and all the sweet properties Of
youth, and suddenly the lock Of HAIR that
blows before our eyes is gray.
A ~ e a.
yer is as beautiful as gold; white is as
strong and good in It's way as black or
yellow. But the truth is that that silver
is the insignia Of the frost Of the grave,
and the gold was the emblem Of vitality
and pulsation; and as one replaces the
other we are tain 10 know that the wind.
which blows from the undiscovered coun-.
try is breathing in our face.
It is not that the gold departs from
the hair or the bloom from the cheek in
itself that gives us thought, but the
knowledge Of meaning behind the fact,
that the vital energy departs with them
and that force which sends us along the
paths Of life as the stars are sent in their
courses. And it is not by degrees, but
usually all at once, that we are made
aware OF our ss-loss, too,o something
more than the round beauty Of early
years, and all the pleasures that belonged
to them, the loss Of the interests Of that
period. We no longer live in them; we
look back on them. We remember how
sweet those pleasures and interests were;
the bitterness is that they are no
longer sweet, and that We do not care
whether they are sweet or. not; that we
have ceased to value them, to take
delight in them, to long for them;
and that we know that while we
once felt we could not live without them,
we now neither reach forward nor back
for them, and that we put forth all our
energies only in preserving the remnant
of comfort and JOY that is left to US. One
last amazement comes to us then, when
it occurs to us for the first time, that we
are really. as,we look back on our past,
beholding another person than ourselves,
q young, passionate, throbbing, happy or
unhappy fool, but one who has no other
connection with our calm wisdom and
attainment and our WEAKNESS than that
of having better acquaintance than any
body else has. There are people who
grow old gracefully, and take the years
as they come; Q little saddened but not
melancholy Perhaps their passions and
emotions decline with their years per-
haps they have children and grandchil-
dren, and in these perhaps they may.
through life, see themselves repeated, and
in whom they thus, forgetfully and 1n-
selfshly, are living their lives over again.
But there are others who fight hopeless
u with fate, and die unrepentant rebels
For this latter class there is only one
comfort, the comfort OF faith in minor
talitY; no other conso lation than the con-
solutions Of religion. For only those who
regard this life as the entrance of the fu-
ture life, and the reinq gushing grasp Of
Its delights as only the rustling down Of