The times. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1890-1903, 1893-01-29
BURLEsOUES.

the works OF nature. There are no blum
ders. bulls or mishaps or frauds In them'
All is dignlfed, honorable. admirable All
the works of God reflect His character
and tell Of infinite wisdom, OF justice OF
purity, OF constancy of loving Kindness
and righteousness and judgment. The
armament showeth His handlwork. he
writes straight upon crooked lines ana as
there is nothing so constant as change
so over all vicissitudes and varleues' III
vine Providence exercises a control, work
ing on. universal harmony and general
good. There is all to contemplate, all 10
study. all to inspire confidence and call
for worship Of the Great Creator. There
is nowhere anything to laugh at.
1t is only when man sets up on his own
account and chooses to play big on MS
own merits that he misses many ngures
and becomes ridiculous. The Almighty
made him for very high service-lothing
less than to wait upon Him. She Supreme.
He never made man to be worshipped by
his fellow mortals, and He never MADE
the plainest of us TO lick absurd pomp or
crook the pregnant hinges Of the knee
to place and office.
The greatest of all burlesques is con-
scious magnificence receiving the tributes
of admiring eyes. little conscious OF Inc
meditation of that fellow over in the cor
ner-"NVhat an ass, and the most hulnil-
tl,A lar
sequious"
Possibly the chiefest burlesques are
those that spring up among the pomps
and yanities of this wicked world. But
tragic and comic, they abound all along
through life. Burlesques is the very
mark Of the breast, and the greatest carlo
atures often only individualize and strong
w color The special loves. the mean am
bitions and weaknesses Of the conspic-
uous and aspiring that live in the public
eye.
In what is known as the world bur-
lesques are the rule. Nature Is despised
there. and everything worthy finds
cheap or glaring substitute. Comus holds
high carnival. His intoxicating cup and
spirit takes away every natural charm:
The visage quite transforms of him that
drinks,
And the inglorious image OF brute fixes
instead
Was ever such a burlesques as the
Grand Monarch on his last parade. painted
and plumed and stuffed to make a show Of
a mani But in this same high life who
knows What is what and who is who?'
We have burlesqued infancy in the Nai-
vete of the old woman, and almost every
grace that goes by a French name. We
have burlesqded gentility in the airs and
graces, superfluous grandeur of the elc-
CANT gentleman. We have reason and
sense utterly burlesqued IN the name OF
literature, culture, high philosophy. Pa
tiiotism is a common burlesque. We have
the supremest burlesque of love in the
rame of romance, and we have the grim
NEST and most tragic burlesques OF home
life and domestic felicity.
What more absurd parody Of the family
Is there than a father with a heart
wholly set upon his personal ambition
and devotion to wealth, at home, only in
his club, and a mother with her sweet
hearts; children provided for by being de-
MED an entrance into the world.
Finally the world, with the flesh and
the devil on the right hand and the left,
wnat is it but a burlesque, wholesale and
retail? Who wonders that one of its a
wants asks, Is life worth living? Is the
fool world place for gentleman? What
can an honest. earnest, natural mind do
but despise it? And If there is nothing
else to look for. smash the letters that
bind it to its fellowship? The reductio
ad absurdum of a worthy life is des-
perate inebriety or utter misanthrophy
But there is nothing in the way Of ma
ture leading to self-destruction or desper-
alton. The laws of nature and the ways
Of Providence and the terms of our crea-
ton point to growth, TO expansion, to per-
lection, to life; and it is true of the laws
Of nature as we'll as Revelation, (Which.
IL We do, We shall even live in them" and
it is the order of the Highest. They
that despise Me shall be lightly ts-
teemed'-be burlesquc men.