The Newberry herald and news. (Newberry, S.C.) 1884-1903, 1891-10-01
BEYOND
A Beautiful Prose Poem.
lGraenville News. I

lOI0elVllle News.
At sunset the distant mountains are
lighted with glory which no brush
can initiate, no appliance of science or
art can reproduce. Like the confused
and tossing waves of a storm lashed sea
stilled to sudden peace and petrifaction
stand the purple heaps, range after
range, the greater towering above he
less. The undulatIons of the furthest
are marked against background of
softened light in which shades of Won
derful purity aud inefable delicacy
blend and change, giving place to col
oring ofgorgeous brillianee and variety.
In the valleys among the mountains
the purple deepens to black and the
sombre darkness there makes yet more
beautiful the brightness and radiance
above. Mist clouds nesting in the
ravines catch the reflection from above
and CLEAN white as driven snow or
tinged with red or gold or orange or
opal as if the Sun had senta good night
kiss to these children of his as be sank
behind the billowly hillocks on the ho-
rizon.
We may see these things from afar
and in silence absorb into our hearts
and memories their glory and beauty
and radiance. Yet those who live
among the distant hills, so silent and
beautiful and dreamlike to US, look be-
yond for like beauties. Around and
near them they can see only the home
ly, familiar things Of the earth and
daily work and ways.
The beauty and glory o. our lives are
ever beyond US. Where the heights
seem greatest, where the SUBMITS are
crowned with splendor and touched
with celestial light, men climb to find
that the glory and beauty and peace
are not there but illuminate the yet
higher hills beyond. They are ever be-
yond. At the last We lift our eyes and
look higher than any peaks of earth,
for glory such as mortal eyes may not
! know, not of the sunset, not to vanish
/ in the darkness-for light purer and
better than that which falls upon US,
for peace sweeter and more beautiful
than comes to hearts in this world. We
fill our lives and tighten our death beds
with hopes and memories. We see
splendors beyond, before, above US; we
look back and find we have left there
beauty and light we did not know.
It is well for US that the heights be-
yond shine ever glorioasly and tempt
us to their peaks-that nowhere can
| we feel that there is the highest and the /.
best, the place for resting, for cessing
from achievement and progress. It is
good for man to have ever a higher
hope, greater purpose, an unsatisfed
longing for what is beyond. From
those things come the life and move
ment Of the world. It is we'll, too, that
men may carry with them undying
memories, that years and distance lend
beauty and softness and tenderness to
the past and cause all the bitterness
and roughness of it to fade away.
Yet it is in the present we live and
should find happiness and pleasure.
With most Of us where we stand and
look beyond has been beyond for US
and is yet beyond for others. So some
eyes our hills are Leautiful in the glory
of the sunset and the sunrise and make
the horizon where the earth touches
the skies. We do not understand or
feel or know that we are in sea of ra-
diant light and color. We do not re-
member where we are was beautiful to
us once or remember it only bitterly
because we find hopes fruitions barren
and the fulfllment of ambitions disap-
pointing.
| Therefore We fill our lives with un-
rest and keep our hearts hungry and
our souls disturbed. We refuse to enjoy
the fruits of our toll or to take pleasure
in the accomplishments of our desires
because we look beyond and see that it
is higher and brighter there, and look
back, lingering on what we have left,
loving and longing for whatwe did not
value when it was ours. =.
| Only the present is within our keep
ing and control. Beyond we may never
reach; the distant hills may battle as
they lure US; and the past is gone. In
the present there is power and life and
light and beauty if we will know and
use them and be true to our time. We
may and should look to the glory be-
yond and hope and strive to reach it,
but we should not let hoping and striv-
ing Danish what pride we may justly
feel, what beauty there is upon the
hills we have climbed to, however
lowly they may be, however towering
the distant mountains robed il gold
and purple. In most of our lives there
is something of achievement, some"
thing of advance, some work done and
good end gained, and these things
ought to be parts Of the enjoyment OF
those lives as they are parts of their
substance.