The Wellington enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 1867-188?, 1884-03-26
How shall we Meet the Springl

How shall we meet the spring? This
would be an easier question to answer if
we knew how the spring, in this latitude
would meet us-whether halfway, or, in.
deed, at ALL For in this matter we are
not guided by experieece. Hope springs
eternal in the Northern breast. And we
allow ourselves to be deceived by many
artificial conditions we have created.
Lulled into negligence by appearances,
man leaves off his overcoat, and next day
sends for the doctor. The doctor, who
has all seasons for his own, regards spring
as his harvesttime. He saves more lives
then than in any other season. And lives
are worth saving then, for the man who
gets through spring is likely to be good
patient all the year. There never was a
notion so without foundation as this, that
doctors do not want patients all the year.
This faith in spring is beautiful trait in
human nature. We always expect that
this spring will be early and will be mild,
and fifty years of disappointments do not
sour us. If the winter is hard and heavy,
we say that is sign Of early spring; if ii
is open and tolerable, we know that we
shall have an open spring. More than
this: our memory is colored like our
hope, and as we go down in years we say
that in our youth, spring was early, mild
and jocund. No trout rise so readily and
are so gamy as the trout Of our youth-ex.
cept the trout we expect TO throw
fly 10 this spring This is the
nature of man. No wonder that the
Psalmist exclaimed, What is man that
Thou art mindful Of HIM! This is de-
licious feeling, this tender sympathy in
the renaissance Of all things, this sentl-
ment we feel about the voice of the frog,
and the first flush Of pink and green on the
trees, and the southwind. For some days
everybody, however old, is possible lover,
and for some hours everybody is poet.
He experiences sensation that the poets
never have fully expressed, and that he
can not put into words, or even into music,
The song of a bird swinging on spray of
apple blossoms comes nearest TO expressing
his emotion. 1t may not last long, but
while II does last II is like taste of para.
disc. This is one of the compensations OF
our climate. The people in the tropics
know nothing about this sensation. They
are not born again annually. They know
nothing Of the joy in contrast and change.
Consequently they produce no poetry, no
literature; they invent nothing; they make
no progress" And they are not unhappy
WeLshould go forth to meet the spring, as
the poet says, with stout heart We
have had long rest from the innumer
able insects, from the busy fly, and the
expectant worm. We shall go forth Il
SOW, and TO fight all these enemies with
new courage. Science Is on our side 4
name all these destroyers Of our labor
and our peace, and TO describe thei
habits. We feel a consciousness of super
iority in this knowledge There is al
excitement in taking up again the lifi
arrested for so many months. There is
perennial charm In the colored Easte
eggs, although we know by experienc,
that they will not all hatch. II does no
matter. Hope is thousand times bette
than fruition. In the spring everybody
requests his mother to wake and call hin
early.-Charles Dudley Warner, in Har
per's Magazine for April.