The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1892-03-10
Living Pleasant
ON the New Orleans Times Democrat

was regarded as q snare aud a pitfalI-
pleasure as a crime. The toiler kept
well in mind that
In Adams fall
, We sinnad all,
and never so far lost sight of the idea
that labor was the primal curse as to
work cheerily. The main object seemed
to be to Danish from existence all that is
sweet and comforting The Puritan.
with his chilblained feet and frostbitten
fingers, denying himself, on principle,
the warmth of fire in the house of wor-
ship, typfies the spirit of the age
There was some fitness in this; for the
theology of that time was more than
austere. 1t was the sin that was chiefly
dwelt upon, not the atonement The
pulpit shook to the thunders of warning
and denunciaton. The preacher .sus-
pended his hearers over 1.-The pit of helln
most mercilessly, so that their excited
imagination already inhaled the sui
phurous fumes and heard the roaring of
those sempiternal flames. Small Won
der that sensitive minds were unhinged,
| vi tnstU " tllOSt lutldI-
choly life became a burden and death an
unspea,able menace. The Puritan Sun
day appears to us more as day of wrath
than day of rest. 1t is astonishing to
read of an old-ti,me clergyman who cited,
as an instance of Inmate depravity,n the
disposition of children to eat green APP
plies; and when member of the choir
| ,Io1 i
nounced unfit to sing the praises of the
Most High,
Strange as it may appear, there are
people in our more easy going age who
regret the passing away of these harsh
views of life here and hereafter. A cor
respondent of a New York paper writes
| in complaint of the ''limpness'' ofmodern
theology, and quotes approvngly some
of Jonathan Edwards expressions of
opinion upon the subject of eternal pun
ishment. One of these passages gives an
edifying picture of the blessed ones
chuckling in righteous glee, as they
| look down, from their own safe and COM
Portable position, upon the poor souls in
torment: ''The view of the misery of the
damned will double the ardor and graft
tude of the saints in Heaven. The sight
of hell -torments will excite the happi-
ness of the saints forever. 1t will give
them more lively relish of their own
happiness"
The average modern man is the child
of his century; yet here and there we
find persons cast in antique mould, who
are i'll at ease in their own era If our
civilization permitted it they would
prosecute others-not for the love of
cruelty, but because they feel honestly
assured that their belief is the best and
should, therefore, be followed. Another,
but a gentler, survival of the past is the
human being who has inherited the
martyr spirit, though the occasion there
for has ceased to exist. He spends his
life in meaningless, unhelpful self-saeri
flee which is only waste of time and
energy. He has a genius for making
himself uncomfortable. and seems to
imagine that he would be robbing a
problematic sufferer of something, should
he indulge his natural inclinations and
desires.
1lc COiloiCelS 1t Uuby W CllOOSc Us Ills
portion the uneushioned chair, the hard
bed the fireess room; and would be
capable of depriying himself of q winter
overcoat, on the ground that the South
Sea Islanders have none. He is beset by
a gloomy conviction of his own unworth-
iness which warns him away from the
harmless enjoyments of existence. But
II ic Op!xr If
egotism, which is forever seeking occa-
sion to beat its breast and cry ''Meacul>
pa!o We suspect such a one of having
too much Ego in his Cosmos" like the
ape in Kiplng's story. 70 mortify the
flesh without ceasing is to keep it con~
tinually present in the mind. If spirits
of the evil appear to tempt the wan as
celtic, i'll bis desert Solitude it is himself
WAC has summoned them.
An honorable man must entertain so
many necessary scruples that it seems a
pity ito load life with unnecessary scru-
ples.' The inability to enjoy is a curse,
not a virtue. The moralist who is for
ever calling attention to the skeleton
beneath the living flesh, is usually so
UuSy lOf utdUl tiidu lie lOSeS
sight of his duty towards life. "Memento
Mori' is already writ large upon the
| things of earth, and needs not to be I'M
derscored by any mortal hand. No one
but a selfish voluptuary, or an irreclaim-
able lotos eater like Daudet's Sidi Lak>
dar, would expect uninterrupted lease
and perpetual PASTURE but it is only
| Il. u 4 /,
spots and clear streams, we tramp
footsore along the worlds fnty high
way. Man, after all, is ''a poor creature
that wants to live" and he has right
to all the innocuous pleasure that his
| brief term affords. 1t is his right also to
enrich himself with beautiful things,
and the sound of beautiful music; to
have merry hearted friends, and to laugh
many an honest laugh-in short, to Give
pleasant" and to help others to the same
state of existence.
! A writer in one of the recent maga>
zines seems apprehensive that the Com
forts of life" are multiplying to rapidly
and that the world will shortly become
entirely too pleasant place of abode
Duo 1t Is oiily 10 pe HopeU tnat lnCuefh
improvements may continue to increase
in number and widen in scope, and that
cunning science which created them may
find means to counterfeit whatever draw
backs they may develop in their course
of usage. Anything is valuable that
saves time and labor and prevents the
precious vital energy from expanding
itself through a thousand unimportant
channels. Marvellous as some of the in
ventions of the day appear, their future
promises the release of man from much
of the exhausting drudgery that must
now be carried on-from the tread-mil
toll which wrings youth and strength
and hope out of the worker. When the
details of human life are rendered easier