The Pascagoula democrat-star. (Pascagoula, Miss.) 1878-1920, 1888-08-03
ENNUI.
.llustl ated London News.

word-for which the English Ian
guage has no precise equivalent
indicates ii state of mind quite in
comprehensive to the man who
works with a purpose. 1t seems,
indeed, incredible that in a world
SO teeming with objects of interest
any person can be found who suf-
fers from a disease like this. Think
for a moment what the man admits
who confesses he is troubled with
it. 1t means that his mind is va.
cant; that his heart lacks sympa-
thy; that he has no ear for the
harmonies of nature; no eye for
her beauties; the man delights him
nob nor woman neither, that to
him literature is barren, art unsat-
isfyins and science without attrac.
ton. 1t means that he has no
knowledge 10 acquire, no sense of
of the beautiful TO cultivate, no
JOY i'll meditation, no character to
build up, no duties of citizen to
perform, no spiritual field to plow,
no charities to dispense-and, in
short, that he has no great object
in life.
This state OF vacuity is so intel
cradle that the man who is consci-
GUS of 1t flies to amusement, and
often to doubtful pleasures. 1t is
IN a great measure to ennui that
we owe the fatal passion for gam
bling, and the still more fatal, be-
cause more widely spread, passion
for drinking. The man who finds
nothing TO interest him i'll life can,
at any rate, pass his time or kill it
by the help of betting and brandy.
And il is probably ennui, also, that
encourages those strange but inno-
cent hobbies which lead one man
to devote his life to the collection
Of play bills, another to accumula-
ton of sticks, a third TO fill his
house with old chairs, and a fourth
centre his interest III autographs.
The effort TO escape from himself
in ways like these is always vain
effort. The man feels that he is
bored, ard asks if life Is worth llv-
ing.
Twas doing nothing was his curse,
Is there vice can plague us worSei
1t is ennui that drives women
INTO society, that encourages indis-
criminate noyel,reeding, Irritation
and scandal. Some great sensa
ton is wanted TO break the monot-
ony of life, and what harm it may
produce they are not careful to ask:
and yet they know and feel all the
time that there is nothing so weari-
some as a round of pleasure, no
yoke so CALLING as frivolily. Ennui
clings to them like fatal molady,
which is increased by The means
they take TO escape IRON it. There
must have been people who sui
fered from eunui in Seneca's day, |
for he writes that men complain of |
the shortness OF time, yet have
more than they know what to do
with that they spend their lives
either in doing nothing at all, or in
doing TO the purpose, or in doing
nothing that they ought to do,
Truly does Addison say that people
with no true business in life may
De regarded as dead; and Sin that
lun ber," he writes, II compre-
lend all persons, of what title or
liguity soever, who bestow most
If their time in eating and drink.
ng. 10 support that imaginary ex-
stence of theirs which they call
ife; or in addressing and adorning
hose shadows and apparations
Vhlch are looked upon by The vul-
.ar as real men and women" You
ee that Addison is alludlng TO the
fleets Of ennui, although he does
ot use a word which was not in
ogue in his day; and johnson
'nting of the same class of per.
Ons who have no pursuit worthy
{ the name, says that they play
trough life with the shadows of !
usiness, and know not, at last,
that they have been doing.
Let but a man have a worthy
bject to pursue, and he plays with
hadOws no longer. EnnuI is a ,
'ord not 10 be found in the die
iunary Of men who have a clear
i'm before them, and follow it
'ithout ialtering. Even the miser,
rho devotes himself 10 money
though his aim
nay be - does at least escape
rom one evil. But when the end
ought is a wise one, not only does
nnui become impossible, but the
ense of something accomplished,
T IN progress of accomplishment,
eeps the heart light and the spir-
Is equable. "Come what come
nay," the man says TO himself,
the path | have TO take Is clear,
nd, despite a thousand obstTuct-
ions, shall be followed 10 the end"
'his was the feeling that animated
that sent forth Columbus
hat prompted our great voyagers {
Then they left their English homes
D search Of unknown lands; that
lied the lives Of men like Gordon,
livingstone and Henry Martyn {
Tiih a Divine Inspiration that I
Il Nelson 10 die gloriously at Ira
ilgar, aud sustained the calm
Ourage Of the duke
England's greatest son,
He that 7ained kundrcd fights. !
Nor ever lost an Engiish gnu.