The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1896-04-02
SALTWATER, MINNESOTA, APRIL g. 1896.

STILLV
quate to the sufferings does not make
the suffering less, while the light dis
paragement thrown upon it increases
it's intensity.
On the other hand, the troubles of
youth are simple and mostly in the
present, while those of maturity are
complex, and are extended, by means
of the imagination, far into the future.
The cares and responsibilities of life
increase with years, and bring with
them hosts of fears, disappOintments,
vexations and perplexities, of which
youth knows nothing. The joyous
freedom and abandon of the young are
unknown to maturity in our present
era of civilization. Even so hopeful
and buoyant nature as Goethes felt
this, when he said:
"The natives of old Europe are all
badly off. Our affairs are by far too
artificial and complicated; our diet and
mode of life want nature, and our So
cial intercourse is without love and
benevolence. Everyone is smooth and
polite, but no one is bold enough to be
candid and true, and an honest man,
man of natural learning and senti-
ments, is in a very awkward position.
1t makes one wish to be born in the
South Sea Islands, as a socalled
savage, if it were only to get pure and
unadulterated enjoyment of human
life."
A very large proportion of our trou-
bles comes from the habit of extend
ing them in our own thoughts. When
the anguish of child is over he gladly
forgets it and yields himself to the en-
joyment of the hour, but the man
broods over it, fears it's repetition,
suffers it again and again in imagina-
ton. Looking forward he magnifies
every shadow, and ponders upon trou-
bles that may occur, and the conse-
uuent affliction that may come upon
him. Very seldom are such fOrebOd-
ings realized in their fullness, but even
when they do come to pass the strength
to bear them is greater than he had
imagined, and their power over him is
less. The very worst to which he has
looked forward with so much dread
loses it's terrOrs as it approaches; while
much that he has feared passes him by
1t is strange that those who dwell SO
persistentIy upon the fleeting nature
of all human happiness should never
: so much as allude to the equally tran
STORY nature of human misery. Both
are largely dependent for the length OF
their stay upon the welcome we give
, them, the grasp with which we hole
. them and the beliefs we cherish con
> cerning their permanence.
|. Another marked difference between
Q the troubles of youth and of manhood
e is in the hold which petty worries
f have upon the latter. The daily per
/, plexities of business, of domestic life
e of social obligations, of all sorts o
/. claims, just and unjust, made upon tn
r. purse, the time and the powers, tn
e perpetual decisions that must be mad
# promptly, the stupidity, or unpunctu
y ality, or negligence of those who ar
'r acting conjointly, even the very al
e rangements for recreation, which S
d often defeat their own end-all thes
r, and hundreds of similar annoyance
e. that seldom press upon the youn
n must be borne, to greater or less dt
" gree, by every grown man and woman
IF 1t is quite true the young as we'll as tn
lg old may by fretfulness and disconte1
SIS convert the small details of life int
n constant sources of irritation; yet
ne cannot be denied that as years go Q
n, these petty perplexities multiply an
to demand an increasing self-control
he bear or to conquer them. At the san
81 time the very power to do this may
e. gained in the years between childhoC
e- and manhood, and that is perhaps tt
ar chief lesson to be learned by the cor
by parison. Whoever has not cultivate
lg, this power, and brings the weakness
a his youth to grapple with the complt
I'd. troubles and difficulties of his ma
le- hood, is, indeed, pitiable. The way