The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1883-07-12
MANS Age.

Few men die of age. Almost al
die of disappointment, passion, men.
tai or bodily toll or accidents. The
passions kill men sometimes, even
suddenly. The common expression
choked with passion, has little exag
geration in it for, even though not
suddenly fatal, strong passions
shorten life. Strong-bodied meI
often die young; weak men live
longer than the strong, for the strong
use their strength and the weak have
none to use. The latter take care OF
themselves, the former do not. As il
is with the body, so it is with the
mind and temper. The strong are
apt to break, or, like the candle, tC
run the weak to burn out. The in,
feriOr animals, which lives temperate
lives, generally have their prescribed
number of years. The horse lives
twenty-five, the OK fifteen or twenty
the lion about twenty, the dog ten OF
twelve, the rabbit eight. the guinea
pig six or seven years. These mum
berS all bear similar proportion tC
the time the animal takes to grow to
it's full size.
But man, of the animals, is one that
seldom lives this average. He ought
to live hundred years, according tC
physical law, for five times twenty
are one hundred; but instead of that
he scarcely reaches four times his
growing period; the cat six times; the
rabbit even eight times the standard
Of his measurement. The reason is
obvious. Man is not only the most ir-
regular and the most incorporate. but
the most laborious and hard-worked
of all the animals; and there is nc
reason to believe, though we cannot
tell what an animal secretly feels,
that. more than any other animal
man cherishes wrath to keep it warm,
and consumes himself with his own
reflections.
Rev. Father Ryan, the "polt priest
in his address on ''idealisnl,' delivered
before the literary societies of the
university Of Virginia, said: 1.-The
world is becoming so realistic that it
has forgotten to IA great extent the
ideal, and yet the ideal enters largely
into daily life. The ideal explains the
real. There are moments in all lives
when the real fails to satisfy our ma
otllNl IL 10 blltIl OUt HUNS dlOlu
into the realms He denied that a
being could by evolution come from
a lower to higher plane. He knew
by the something which beats III his
breast that he came from God.
Materialism was never perfect.
1t IS idealism which serves
to brighten and cheer the
cold bleak matter of materialism. as
well as enlighten it. 'My SOUL" said
he, explains the body which contains
it. The body, material, is nothing
but what the soul within makes it.
Men," he said, must die to become
ideals; the living never can become so.
You have chosen" he said. 1.-TWO ideal
names to designate your two societies
those OF Washington and Jefferson.
Patrick Henry furnished the voice,
Washington the sword and Jefferson
he penal three Virginians-to es-
+ lblish this great union. They were
by patriotism, and patriot
ism is born of idealism. One
of the greatest men who had
lived in this age" he contin-
ued, "was a noble Christian gen
tleman, who loved his state as ten
derby as child ever loved it's mother.
In war he gave his sword for her de-
Tense, and when the war was over he
withdrew to the quiet shades of
learning, and as a president of IA col
lege in this state he devoted all his
energies to the education and adj
the young men of the
south. In him was blended the prin-
ciples of both Washington and Jeffer-
son. That man. That noble Christian
soldier, was Robert Z. Lee The
speaker advised the young men of
the University of Virginia to make
him their ideal, to follow, if possible,
in his footsteps.