The enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 188?-1899, 1890-03-12


ments, pat back into the thirties, or the
twenties, or into the teens, what nui.
sance you would be to the others and
what an unhappiness to yourself. Your
contemporaries would not want you and
you would not want them. Things that
in your previous journey Of life stirred
your healthful ambition, or gave you
pleasurable surprise, or led you into
happy interrogation, would only call
forth from you disgusted 30, pshawV
You would be blase at thirty and mis-.
anthrope at forty and uncomfortable al
fifty. The most insane and stupid thing
imaginable would be second journey
of life. 1t is amusing to hear people
say: 81 would like TO live my life over
again, II could take my present ex-
perience and knowledge Of things back
with me and begin under those i'm
proved auspices" Why, what an unin'
teresting boy you would be with your
present attainments in child's mind.
No one would want such boy around the
house. A philosopher at twenty, sci.
enlist at fifteen, an arch@ologist at ten,
and domestic nuisance all the time.
An oak crowded into an acorn. A Rocky
Mountain eagle thrust back into the egg
shell from which 1t was hatched.
Besides that, II you took life over
again you would have to take its deep
sadness over again. Would you want
to try again the grief and the heart
breaks and the bereavements through
which you have gone? What a mercy
that we shall never be called to suffer
them again! We may have others bad
enough, but these old ones never again!
Would you want to go through the
process Of losing your father again or
mother again or your companion in life
again or your child again? II you we're
permitted to stop at the sixtieth mile
stone or tho fiftieth milestone or the for
tieth milestoneand retrace your steps to
the twentieth, your experience would be
something like mine one day last No
vember in Italy. 1 walked through
great city with friend and two guides,
and there were in all the city only four
persons and they were those Of our own
group. We wentupand down the streets,
we entered the houses, the museums, the
temples, the theators. We examined the
wonderful pictures on the walls and the
most exquisite mosaic on the floor. In
the streets we're the deep worn ruts Of
wagons, but not wagon in the city.
On the front steps Of mansions the word
"Welcome" in Latin, but no human be-
ing to greet US. The only bodies Of any
Of the citizens that he saw were petrifed
and in the museum at the gates. OF
the thirty-nve thousand people who
once lived in those homes and worshiped
in those temples and clapped in those
theaters, not one left For eighteen
hundred years that city of Pompeii had
been buried before modern exploration
scooped out Of 1t the lava Of Vesuvius.
Well, he who should be permitted to
return on the pathway Of his earthly
life and live 1t over again would find as
lonely and sad pilgrimage. 1t would
be an exploration of the dead past. The
old school-house, the old church, the
old home, the old playground either
gone or occupied by others, and for you
more depressing than was our Pompeiian
visit in November.
Besides that, would you want TO risk
the temptations Of life over again? From
the fact that you are here / conclude
that though in many respects your life
may have been unfortunate and uncon-
secrated, you have got on so far tolerably
WE'LL II nothing more THAI tolerable. As
for myself, though my life has been far
from being as consecrated as / would
like to have had 1t, would not want to
have tried 1t over again lest next time |
would do worse. Why, just look at the
temptations we have all passed through,
and just look at the multitudes whohaye
gone completely under. just call the
roll OF your schoolmates and college
mates, the clerks who were with you in
the same store or bank. or the operatives
in the same factory with just as good
prospects as you, who have come to com
pleto mishap. Some young man that
told you he was going TO DO a
millionaire and own tho fastest
trotters on Westchester turnpike and
retire by the time he was thirty-hve
years Of age, you do not hear from for
many years, and know nothing about
him until some day he comes into your
store and asks for five cents TO get 0
mug OF beer. You, the good mother Of
, a household and all your children rising
up to call you blessed, can remember
when you we're quite jealous Of the belle
Of the village who was so transcend.
IDENTIFY fair and popular. But while you
have these two honorable and queenly
names OF wife and mother, she became
poor waif OF the street, and went into
the blackness OF darkness forever. Live
life over again? Why, II many Of those
who are now respectable we're permitted
10 experiment. the next journey would
be demolition. You got through, as
job says, by tho skin OF the teeth.
Next time you might not get through al
all. Satan would say; III know him
now better than l did before, and have
for fifty years been studying his weak.
nesses, and | will weave stronger web
Of circumstances 10 catch him next
time" And Satan would concenter his
forces on this one man, and the last
state OF that man would be worse than
the first. Ny friends, our faces are In
the right direction. Better go forward
than backward, even II we had the
choice. Tho greatest disaster | can
think OF would be for you TO return to
boyhood in 1890. Oh, II life were a
smooth Luzerne or cayuga lake, I~would
like to get into yacht and sail over It,
not once, but twice--yea, thousand