Catoctin clarion. [volume] (Mechanicstown, Md.) 1871-1940, 1885-12-31

To-Day DelnS the Ia'I vi TIE ear, az
has been our custom for many, many
wears, We have looked over our book
with view of ascertaining whether or
not on the morrow it will become nee
sssary that We shonld turn over new
leaf" Our examination has resulted
in bewildering surprise and we for
the first time in our life find it unnes-
sary to "turn over a new leaf We
have examined the pages, now but his
tory, and find that to turn over any
thing short of the whole book, begin
ming the, to us not unpleasant, labor of
remedying many errors not only of
opinion and Judgment, but of overt act
in our business and social relations,
would probably result in nothing more
gratifying than, that, in some one or
more particular fancies, We had bet
tered our existence and that Of others
and of that no assurance.
We shall therefore not "turn over
new leaf but shall simply turn back
ward, leaf by leaf, the last year, rely
ing upon marginal notes, to record the
sincerely hoped for improvement.
Remember then, readers, that we
will not Oh tomorrow register any vow,
or promise, rash solemn, or otherwise.
for the government Of ourself during
the ensuing year, but will rest in the
faith that careful retrospect Of the
past will reveal to us errors to be cor
rected, faults to be rernedied, opportu-
mites lost that should and shall BE-
seized; in word, that the history Of
one year, not necessarily the one just
past has inscribed upon its pages suli-
cient evidence of what we could and
should have done; Of what we might
not and should not have done, to give
us ample room to study, aim Wd en-
deavor to illuminc those rewritten
pages by marked and brilliant con-
traet.
Reader, this has been written for
your guidance as much as has the in
tention been formed for ours.
Our object has been simply to make
plain the too indisputable fact, that the
ideal life of prudence, sobriety, energy,
courage and fast roctitude that You
would inscribe upon the ''new leaf" as
a dedication to the coming year, Will be
in great me ,sure Il waste of life force,
if founded alone upon the conceit that
you have but to will, in order to do
You will either oyerrate your ability to
judge and act anew and end in failure,or
will take unto yourself great credit for
having succeededialoing that for which
you would be censurable for not hay
ing done. Then simply walk alongside
of your old self and you will be amazed
to find gorgeous errors committed, read
lily avoldable: you will be grieved to
recognize opportunities wasted, easily
availed Of when offered anew; yon will
be gratifed to learn that judgments
formed, may, in the light Of later
events, be accepted as reliable guides;
preconceived ideas as to your duty or
your worth as a citizen may by their
success or failure in application, render
you valuable aid in your particular
sphere and it is scarcely to be question
cd that your old self will furnish yon
sufficient experience upon which YOU,
by laboring to improve, may meet near
ly or quite every requirement that will
be made of you during the coming
year.
Now the foundation stone Of this our
sincere, not to say new, faith is, that
one may more readily advance by en-
deavoring to improve by direct com
parison with the dead and gone past of
himself, rather than by setting up some
IDEAL charac'e r and striving to attain 7
thereto aud it is further plrt of this
doctrine that the placing of specified
la.es upon which an entrance upon d
some IDEAL life is to be made, must in q
The nature Of things human, result in {
/ false and groundless pride, as we l.
nave shown, if success comes, or in deg,
if failure, while he that de- Il
srmines to travel over familiar ground,
aking even the shortest step uparara, d,
las the prop Of experience and must NJ
scend above his forloer self, the most
atlsfying result tina. can come to any Z
ne. \