The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1894-11-29

we wish many happy returns of this
day.
WE LOOK upon enforced silence as
one of the heaviest crosses with which |
our prison life is afflicted, and think we
could bear patiently all the rest, were
we only allowed to listen occasionally |
to that Ito u.s. sweetest of all music
the sound of our own voice. Have we
ever considered that this enforced
silence, apart even from the fact of it's
necessity in an institution of this
kind (Which no reasoning person will
controversy is not only misrepresented
when spoken of as cross, but is actu-
ally one of the greatest of blessings, if
we will but view it as philosopher
should The monks of the Middle
Ages, who formed the connecting link
between the wisdom of the past, and
the enlightenment of later years, and
who carried within their cowled pates
learning and wisdom sufficient to have
made them individually famous. had.
among other notices posted conspic
uously upon their walls this one, BOyhttni
est Tacere-it is good to be silent and
thev lived and died in the belief that
the silence which their secluded life
allowed them was indeed one Of the
greatest of blessings. Why did they
consider silence of such inestimable
benefit? These men were not fools, if
we except a certain religious eXaltation
which may have pushed them to eX-
cesses: on the contrary they represented
all that was highest in the arts and
sciences: eruditiOn with them had been
pushed as far as it is in the province of
finite man to attain, and they numbered
scholars of that, or of any age. What
then was their reason for setting so
great a value upon what we are prone
to consider one of the worst cOncOml
tants of our intra- mural life? 1t is
because they considered silence as es-
sential to the end Of their vocation
the pursuit of knowledge, the develop
ment of the mind, the constant. unre-
hitting search after the hidden mystic
ries ofscience. They knew, none better,
that time wasted in frivolous chatter
was time lost; that once start the tongue
wagging upon whatsoever subject,
there was an end to serious thinking,
and an unhallowed waste of the few
precious moments Of their brief eX-
istence; and they recognized the fact
that however beneficial social converse
might prove, in the end speech was
but silver, Silence golden Could we
do better than emulate their example,
and become converts to their belief?
We have never given Silence affair trial
but during the twenty, thirty, or forty
years of our life have gone on babbling
like the unceasing brook, full as noisi-
ly, and clearly to as little purpose. In
all that we have uttered during that
time, among the millions of words we
have spoken. where is the one we can
recall. to which we can point with pride;
where is the single glowing thought we
have originated and clothed in language
that will be known and remembered
and loved after we shall have ceased to
live? And we murmur because we
are restrained from adding still further
to the monument of vapid utterances
which has hitherto marked our paths
in life! The years which we are COM
PEELED to pass in durance may be turned
to good account if we will devote them
to study and reflection, particularly the
latter: and nothing is better adapted
to sober reflection than this constant
silence, even though it be compulsory.
There is such thing as making of ne
cessity virtue, and here is our oppor-
tunity if we will but seize it. BY de-
voting our period of bondage to honest,
serious thinking, we may find hidden
within us springs of whose presence we
have been as ignorant as the veriest
stranger; yet whose waters may prove
} rarer than anything we have ever
given to the world; and when once
" more the seal of silence is lifted from
our lips, the world may be the richer
for what we say; for we will speak as
: though those lips had been "touched
> with burning coal''
4 WHAT memories surround this day
: Looking back into the past, with al
y its reflections of joy and pain. the ups