Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1889-05-15

Live as long as you may, the first
twenty years of your life is the longest
half OF it." this was said by one of our
modern writers, and we doubt whether
anything more true was ever said by
any man.
Don't you find-you that have
reached middle life, and you that are
approaching middle lIfe-that time
passes much more quickly than it used
to pass? Don't you find, when the
evening comes and the days work IS
over, that it seems only few moments
since the days work began? You may
have been very busy; but when you re-
turn home TO your children it appears u
very short time since you left them in
the morning. OF course there are ex-
ceptional seasons, as when health is
bad, or when heavy grief presses on
you; but, on the whole, Is it not now Il
subject of constant remark that the
days passes with incredible rapidity?
And don't you remember when the
case was very different? Don't you re-
member how long the day used to be,
when you yourself were a child-what
a crowd of delightful interests multi
piled and diversified the hours-and
how extensive tue prospect was when
fact is, you and your children aIe liv-
ing lives of different lengths iu the
same space of time. The day is far
longer to them than to you. They
feel as If time would never end. You
feel, when you think of it, as if its be-
ginning and its ending were almost the
same. When they lay their little heads
on the pillow, weary with their twelve
hours play-their toys broken-theiT
excitement about tritieS at the end
their merry laugh, their eager quarrels,
at length brought to a pause-thoSe
twelve hours have, to them, a very
large period in their existence. Your
toys too, perhaps, are broken-you too
may have been occupied with trifies-
your laughter may have been thought
less-yOur quarrelS inconsiderate-but
your longer, your more responsible
day, has been far shorter than theirs.
1t might not be very difficult to eX-
plain this. Our sense of the lapse of
time does not depend entirely, or even
chiefly on the duration of time itself.
When impressions are vivid, forcible,
and fresh the time seems long. When
the events of our lives are monotonous
and uniform-if only meanwhile We are
in dilIgent occupation-the time seems
short ANY man may test this for him
self by comparing passages of his own
experience. The first few days spent in
a new pace are longer than those tslat
succeed them: but soon the novelty is
past; and then the stream moves on,
quietly and rapidly as before. And
no one, on the other side, needs to be
reminded that DAYS OF anxiety and
watching, when the mind is on the
| stretch, are frightfully long. AT the
battle OF Waterloo, for instance, can
you not imagine, If you remember the
circumstances of that engagement, how
different was the length of that sum-
mer day TO the great captain, on the
one hand, on whom rested all the sus-
pense and responsibility. and to some
private soldier in the ranks, on the
other, actively occupied and with MOTH
irg TO think OF but TO be prompt and 10
obey.
How desirable then to make sure of
doing something in the present which
really will bear good fruit in the fu-
tureI