The Dawson journal., 1886-06-03
CASTLES IN THE AIR.

which are never realized. A gift
ed poet sings: "Hope springs
eternal in the human breast" and
1t is well that it does, since man
Is continually in need of q friend
and comforter. Hope first in
spires the infant mind, and it is
the staff and support of old age.
Where one life pans in accord
ance with youthful expectations
there are dozens which fall below
1t. 1t is fortunate for the race
that though hope often withers
and crumbles to ashes, it springs
up anew in a livelier and more in
spring form. Like the bright
flowers of summer it withers be-
meath the chilling breeze of mis-
fortune and adversely, yet like
them it springs forth in fairer
loneliness under the new auspices
of more propitious seasons. The
bouyancy and elasticity of the hu-
man spirit is indeed wonderful,
and its capacity to endure the Wis
cissitudes of existence, is the evil
dence of the goodness and CON-
passion OF it's Creator.
Zone bv one the roses fall"
Yet there is comfort in the
thought that they shall bloom
again. One by one are dissipated
into airy nothingness the hopes
and Inspirations of youth, yet all
men are not easily abashed, and
they take fresh courage and press
onward it may be to a more bitter
and crushing disappointment.
The..child thinks, II shall be rich
and honored, or great and good,
when [ become a man or woman,"
but alas! things are not always
what they seem, and the fu-
ture does not always pay what it
promises. Yet after all the dreams
of childhood are delightful, and
its air castles often look brighter
than the starry expanse, and
though they fade and fall as the
years roll on, it is pleasant to re-
member that our minds were once
peopled by such fascinating Wis
ions, and our senses entranced by
spells SO charming. The individ-
ual who has never been cheered
by even imaginary blessings must
have had a very commonplace and
unsatisfactory experience. The
mind that has never been enrich
ed and illuminated by the flights
of fancy has had but q painfully
practical tenure of life. Love is
said to be a painful thrill, and yet
those who have loved have lived
in vain. The maiden who has not
had the horizon of her hopes
spanned by an arch of ideal bliss
has merely existed, without extri-
eating the sweets from the actual,
or reveling in the ecstacies of the
imaginary. And the youth with
out ambition can hardly hope to
enjoy to any great extent even the
practical or theoretical. While it
is net desirable to be ever build
ing and inhabiting air castles, yet
the brief period allotted to this
visionary and chimerlcal sort of
existence is not always in vain.
Those persons who expect to make
their mark upon the generation in
which they live must have q mod
ell and object, and from fine spun
theories are often deduced solid
and substantial facts. The artist
must have an ideal in his mind
ere he is able to produce the OBJ
ject of his genius, and the poet
sings best when under the infu-
ence of the "divine afllatus." The
mind of Franklin was tuned to
high tension when he chained the
lightning, and Newton was very
imaginative when he discovered
the law Of gravitation. 1t is east
er to have great thoughts than to
do great things, bat the great
thoughts are generally precursors
of great acts. So if air castles
serve as a stimulus to exertion
they are not in vain.-Columbus
Enquirer-Sun.