Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1886-10-21
CONCERNING GR.' EFF.
Great and Small sorrows IN Thef Various
and Peculiar Manifestataon

II L
much as it may be mastered to that end,
like love, which is Eo: to be para led
but reserved, and, when uncovered II
all. only in some sanctuary. Indeed
grief is part of loves experience, and
why, then, to be paraded more than
loves joys? Nay, but TO be modestly
draped. Nevertheless, grief is more to
be allowed IN public than the uncover
ing of raptures of affect on- And this
by common consent; for the most deli
cate minded, who would hide a caress
under curtains, will not rebuke tears
harshly. 1t is understood that the one
may be restrained If there be a right
sense to do it, bat the other not always.
! For kiss or an intent look, Or other
| signs of love, may be locked resoluteiy,
but tears rush too quickly for command.
But some signs of grief are deliberate
and then offensive; among which |
could count the wearing of mourning
! clothes, which every way are bad, for
| they reinforce what time should as
suage, and hem the heart in the marble
| courts of death. when it should retreat
inward to the dwelling-room of MEM
DRY; also, they make our woe an in
| truder On social cEeerfulness-
black spot on the bright colors of COM
| pany. But chiefly, mourning vesture is
bad as an ostentation, for it courts no
tice of a tender privacy, and blazons on
the body what should be hidden in the
| heart. Grief often shows itself in a way
| sadder than the grief, because the grief
! is little and the show large, which is a
debasement. Nay. by observation at
| funerals, often / have been persuaded
| that the manner of grieving was set by
convention, and the amount thereof as
signed, and the mourners but servitors
of the fashion. For 1 have seen plainly
many things done because they We're ex-
pected, and even lest the neighbors
should suspect a lack of due grief
which, indeed, is rightly to be suspect
ed in such case. for. as johnson says.
that whenever there is real misery there
| is no recourse to the mention of it, so
wherever sorrow is very sincere there is
no anxiety to have credit for it. Also
this cant or flourish of grief leaps to
view. like a compressed ball, rebound
ing. in quick transitions often 10 be met.
| which shock a sincere heart; for though
the natural rebound of the heart is to be
praised, quietness and righteous cheer
fulness are enough, but hilarity verges
to profanation; yet after many cries
and abundant tears, much Grape and
| flowers and words, / have beheld the
funeral baked meats set forth, and all
the company seated with mirth which,
| though it had strong wings to rise with,
had but heavy and unclean body to my
thinking.
Is grief or JOY the more poignant?
! Both will kill, as many instances show;
but jov destroys in one way only, grief
in two ways. For both kill suddenly in
the same manner, which is by shock.
But whereas JOY, if it kills at all, must
kill suddenly. for in itself it is strength
ening and gives elasticity to life. grief
not only kills suddenly by shock. but
also slowly may wear out the life; for it
depresses vitality. Grief is the more
poignant, we NAV conclude, because the
signs of it less easily are controlled.
Also it is not so easy to accustom one
self to pain as to pleasure, whether bod
ily or mental; for pleasures mingle and
succeed each other, and no one of them
can continue very long without blunt
ing the sense to it; but torment is
more like to stand alone, and the ache
is no anodyne for itself, until. by sheer
fatigue, we sleep.
Little gr.efs IF indeed small annoy
ances. disappointments and the like.
should be called by this name, which has
a certain holiness in it) enforce them
selves on us more than little pleasures
do; for we treat joys as we do wonders.
St Gregory says: The normal mani
festations of nature, which are full of
| maryels, deeper than we can investi-
gate have become cheap from custom
in the ewes of men. Hence it comes to
pass that dead man raised to life would
cause all men to spring up in astonish-
ment, vet every hour one that had no
being is born and no man wonders:
though it IS plain to all without doubt
that It is a greater thing for that to be
created which was without being than
for that which had being to be re-
stored So it is with our pleasures;
being multiplied and repeated daily,
it is the same as if they occurred not at
all. For as the body or soul grows
blunt to any one of them if too long
continued. so we become insensible to
all of them together by the consistency of
the benefits. Perhaps among five hun
dred men who walk home at night. two
or three will look at the sky piously;
but if no stars having ever been. they
were to burst forth suddenly as now
| II1cN Suiilc every tiit
would fall on their knees. This shows
two things: 1. That pleasures must eN-
coed the pains in number, for rs pains
must enforce themselves, if they were
more, or even as many, we should be
unhappy continually. ?. That it is not
wise or well to lose benefits in the wide
showers of them, SO as to miss the
sounds of the drops thereof: for thereby
we lose a vast deal of life, as he loses
flavor who takes delicious draught at
swallow, and tastes no more Of it
than the first contact with the tongue.
Both Joy and grief are expressed by
tears; by laughter also, though the
laughter of pain has dreadful ring in
it, while tears look the same, however
she'd Why do these two signs belong
in common to joy and grief? This |
can not tell Yet | observe that great
joys and great griefs verge on each 9th
er, or even lap. The keenest joys have
margins of pain, anxiety, dread; the
keenest grief an attendant of satisfac-
ton in the feeling which so can be ag-
grieved. as l have observed in lovers;
for the woe of loss or the pain of separ-
alton must rest on the JOY of love.
Hence. perhaps, it is that the express
sions of verv great bliss or sorrow verge
to each other; and it is notable that
only very keen Joy weeps. and terrible
grief laughs--St. Louis Globe-Denao
crdt.
SWiNDLiNG SCHEMES.