St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1891-01-01
THE NEW YEAR.

In one of PLATo's dialogues, after a
drinking bout which lasts well on to-
wards morning, most of the particl-
pants drop off to sleep about the table
as best they can. But when day comes
and they one by one awake. they find
that SoCRATEs-so great was his endnr-
ance-had not slept at all, bnt through
the long hours of the dawn had been
debating most vigorously with ALcIBI-
AIDES, and had proved in his peculiar
method to the young man that good
writer Of tragedies must, of necessity,
be aso good writer of comedies.
AS we remember the Dialogue, his
course of reasoning is not given, but it
is not very difficult to see what he
meant. The dividing line between the
pathetic and the amusing is so fine that
no one can tell quite where the one
ends and the other begins. Through
everything that is glad and joyous runs
thin, small. line of the melancholy;
and in every gloomy scene, whether we
are part of it, or look upon it from
without. there are touches Of the hui
morous and the absurd. The same mis-
hapS which bring tears when they be-
fall the hero in the melodrama make us
laugh when the low comedian is the
victim. 1t is very easy to laugh until
we cry, and not much harder to cry
until we laugh.
The New Year is type of happiest
things in life, because it means the
death OF the past and the renewal of
hopes for the future. THOMAS CAR
LYLE, who groaned much over little,
used 10 report principle of his fathers,
which was never to think about thing
that was disagreeable and was ended.
This was creed which made for hap
piness, and the explanation Of the high
spirits which go with this season Of the
year is that we all insensibly feel inn
PEELED to do something of this sort our
selves. We balance our books, charge
up what blows and disappointments we
nave received to profit and loss, and re-
solve on letting that which is gone take
care of itself, to live in the possibilities
of the time to come.
The sad thread through all this is the
thought that year past means one less
year for the future. If years are good,
there can be but little pleasure i'll re-
fleeing on their flight. And really the
consultations Of advancing age are very
few to one who feels that life is worth
the living. The victory over death is
achieved only by the unselfsh. AS we
grow older, if we grow old as we
should, we find that in each time of life
there are many pleasures and amenities
which are suited to it, and which it shares
in their full measure with neither the
age which precedeS, nor that which
comes after. The qualifications of one
year are not those of the next; but they
are all good. and well deserve to be eX-
perienced. He lives most happily who
tastes to the full the glad things OF each
time as he comes to them. who does not
tarry and try to live over what is dead,
but who unselfishly leaves the things
which are behind to the great mass
coming on equipped for their en-
joyment. If we lived perennially
through the pleasures of tweu-
ty, we should leave no room for
the great new army OF men Of twenty
who are growing up in the world. nor
should we ever know the happy expert
ences and achievements which come in
the second and third decade thereafter.