Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1884-06-26
What We OutliVe.


There is French phrase which sums
up in six words ones whole experience
OF life: Tout passe; tout casse; tout
lasse - Verything passes, breaks, IA
tigues-in time. 1t is q question Of
time only. We outliye everything in
turn-from the fresh delights OF child
hood, through the deeper joys of ado
lescence and the grave satisfaction of
successful maturity, down to the very
peace of old age.
First of the links which fall from the
golden chain is that phantasmagoric
and unreal state we call childhood
that state which makes it's own world
apart from the reallife going on around
it, and lives in shadows and dreams,
created by Imagination, acting on and
through ignorance. The griefs which
were so violent then as to almost break
our heart would now be no heavier
than thistledoWn, no more substantial
than cloud. The joys which made
the glad earth childish paradise ten
anted by cherubs for playmates and
angels for guardians would now be in
tolerable if they had to be endured.
1t is all oUtliYed, and we stand on the
burial place Of that young past differ
ent in all save name and continued in
diViduality.
In youth the doubts and fears which
so terribly affected us are now as vague
and unsubstantial as are the former
sorrows of childhood. Before we knew
our power or had measured exactly the
place we should occupy in the history
E 10
what an infinitude of these doubts and
fears distracted US! We were SO I'M
certain of ourselves, if we were sensi-
tive and without much assertion: or if
Of the more sanguine kind, we made so
many bold fights which ended in ignO-
minious tumbles into the gutter before
we learned the exact strength of our
pinions and what we could do and what
we could not! The invitations to high
places which gave us so much anxious
consideration about the correct shibbo-
leth-the triumphS which were pain
rather than pleasure because of shyness
and modesty - the bright, burning
hopes which seemed as il they would
60 on forever like the sun and the stars
and which ended in smoke and in
smudge!
And then our love affairs! The
sleepless nights we have had because
she was cross or he was cold; because
she tlirted in the corner with Tom, or
he gave his arm to the supper-room to
Jane! And again the wild unreasoning
delight when the idol of the moment
Winked its precious eyes and gave a
sign of understanding our prayer! It
ho. oil 4
our love for Tom or married Jane
which certain cynics say amounts to
much the same thing. At all events, if
we have married, we have outlived
fear and know the best and the worst
of our portion.
In like manner, if we 90 on long
enough, we outlive the proud Joy Of
fulfilled ambition. The honor which
we gave our life TO gain becomes to us
a mere pinch of dust, q mere name,
when our vitality has waned and we
care no more for things of the world;
when pleasure itself has fallen from us
and we want only rest and peace. We
need only 10 go on long enough to come
to this: Tout passe; tout casse; tout
lasse!"
Nhlle, however, any energy lives in
us at all, and before we come to the
last sad stage where we are but living
mummies, held together by slender
thread of life-there are certain things
we do not and ought not to outlive-
these are: Love of truth. love of beauty,
love of humanity. We love our kind
best when we love all that is beautiful
and good most: and without love of
our kind, life is q grim and CHASTITY sat
ire. We need never outliye these
things while the poor frail machine of
the body does its work. And with
these we shall always find wells of hap
piness and floods OF sunshine whatever
our outward circumstances may be-
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