The weekly clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1863-1882, 1881-01-06
LIVING TOO LONG.
From the N. Y. Times. !

| ASAi tic ~ 4. LINES.
Generally speaking, one of the last
and least of our anxieties is that we NAV
live too long. Throughout youth and
maturity the prospects of longevity is
very apt to be pleasant, for the thing
itself seems desirable-far more 50 in
the distance than if at hand. But even
when 1t Is upon US, with all Its burdens
and lmpotencies, we are prone to cling
to life, as We still call it. though it has.
strictly, ceased to be life, having be-
come mere vegetation. That we should
want to live while we have health, physi-
cal and mental are in possession of all
our faculties are able to do some good !;
are fitted to impart and receive salts
faction, is entirely natural and reasona-
ble But that the wish should continue
after everything that should excite it
has gone appears, or would appear,
strange, were not the fact so notorious.
Comparatively few men are glad to
surrender existence, Notwithstanding the
ostensible loss of its final allurements or
its slightest compensation. The habit
of life may have grown so strong by
continuance that they cannot compla-
Gently contemplate breaking it or the
great hopefulness which incites and de-
ludes us from the cradle to the grave
may yet whisper in their dull ear its fat
tering tale. Be the cause what it may,
old age joined to decrepitude, seldom
has for its sufferers the irksomeness that
it has for its observers. Men, in other
words, do not know, as n rule, when
they have lived too long, and in their
earlier years do not fear old age as they
should. They cannot imagine, while |
vigorous, ambitious, full of plans and /
purposes, that they shall be in time /
feeble, needles, dwelling only ON the /
past, wearisome with endless repeti-
tlons. Their egotism prevents such an
as it prevents their under
standing of their senility, after it has
come, and tbs extreme tediousness it en-
tails upon their kindred and friends.
Weight of years so impairs their facui-
ties, so obscures their Judgment, so
changes their angle of vision, that they
never suspect their dotage. Self-love,
which yields to death alone, misinter-
Drets their wanting nature to their scat
tered intelligence. Through it garrulity
eloquence ; trifes assume inn
Oortance iteration shows like wisdom
ordinary humdrum experience resembles
llustrious history.
Old age is, in its usual aspects, the
'everse of attractive. 1t may beget pity;
'ut it expefs sympathy and annuls in
crest. 1t ought to have twenty times
he terror of death, which is so mystic
ious, so impenetrable as to be invested .
With certain dignity often absent from, :
nd impossible to, old age, Old age,
venerated throughout civiliza-
ion, is very frequently not venerable. a
t needs, in many cases, constant re-
lection and exercise of charity to check
isesteem and hinder ridicule. In and of &
tself, it is neither beneficial nor inter p
sting, and many who claim to honor it
imply tolerate it, and secretly wish the
5hile that it may not be too protracted. q
t may be beautiful and lovable, helpful il
nd inspiring, up to a certain point but =
he point once passed, its late-lingering
harms fade forever. E,
Young old age, to name it such, has ~
IS compensations, even its enticements. "
tut old, old age is dreary and distress
lg enough. If we could see it as it
is before we have reached it, ~
e should most earnestly beg of Fortune y
} preserve us from its privations and -
analties. Should we not rather drop
uddenIy f raaa-a career of high satisfac- la
ion and wide useff6lpess, with promise C
with fI1ruse- bright and o.
than go on to its ample full r
llment and then steady decay, of past a
Thich should satirize our present To Il
lie in the midst of laudable activity, of ii
uncompleted, of radiant W
reams unrealized, may be very sad
ut it is not 1.-THE so sad as to survive b
mes self, to drag about Il superannua- n
ed body after all that was best lit has il
cen buried. Premature death is sure II
} be regretted by many the dead are il
Ike to be idealized for what they have
one. But over-mature life is source
f sorrow that it had not ended sooner.
o live too briefly may be unfortunate,
} live too long is positively calamitous. t