St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1897-01-01
Some Rambling Thoughts.
BY MEMO"
(CopyrightedD

In every hamlet OF the country 'ii9
week there will be shoutngs and no'seto
welcome in the New Year. / cannot
quite understand this almost universal
exultation. 1t is hardly because OF what
we have done, for good many OF US
have accomplished nothing more re-
markable than the making OF Journey
Of 366 days nearer to the end. And then
we howl with joy at the prospect OF 800
more to be spent in an equally alm'sS
fashion. Perhaps it is the joy, eXagger-
ated, Of the child who rubs oil one puz'
cling example from the blackboard ana
then starts again. This suppositIon
brings me to the question of New Years
resolves.
Bv an absurd misfitness this season has
come to be regarded as the favorable
time for making resolutions-a tendency
that results unfortunately, iii keeping the
Recorder of Deeds most busy wriIlng
down the failures and mistakes. TO
lump all good intentions into one day OF
the year, while our careessness OF good
during all the other days has weakened
our moral fibre, is to invite failure, abso-
lutte and nauseating. The time for algood
resolution is the time that any particular
temptation is strongest. Then while
right in the whirl of the struggle against
wrong-dong sincere deep-elt deter
mnation is much more likely to be effec-
tive than if we reserve it Tor the clearing
house day of the year. For at this open
ing of the year, it is not at all unlikely
that many of the temptations that have
assailed us most strenuousy in the year
gone by will be absent, and our resolu-
tons, therefore, will be worse than nse-
less because of their lulling influences
upon our moral senses. We are to fight
hour by hour and day by day, and not
once a year. The sailor cannot temper
ize with storm and say: Rude Boreas,
if you will kindly come clustering here on
the first of January, l shall then be in
harbor with everything snug" No, the
poor fellow must hustle up the whistling
shrouds, hang on by the skin of his teeth
while he clears away the wreckage above,
pull and haul, strain and struggle, till
by supreme effort he makes everything
safe. Learn from him
Then let us not make futile resolves,
regarding the whole category of sins and
weaknesses, against which lite is a con-
slant battle. But il we must resolve"
just to be like others, then let it be ITO
be watchful, unrelenting with ourselves;
to crush the lower nature; to feed the
higher; to scatter seeds Of kindness, I'M
oficiously and gently, day in and day
out" If we die rich, our heirs scramble
for the dross we leave behind; if we die
poor, we are "only paupers whom no.
DOuy OWHS, IL We VIC uSuy OtICi ;
will arise mightier than we but, if either
rich, poor, or learned, we die beloved
then are our lives not in vain, and our
memories shall live at least as long as
those live who loved us. So you money.
makers-as you turn to your vain and
dismal task; you poor folks with another
dreary grind of labor before you; you
students piling up knowledge that will
surely slip from you, glorify and trans
mute it all into beauty and grandeur by
an honest effort to live the Golden Rule
Be not among those who rejoice il
finding out evil-doing and weakness il
others. There are some who seemingly
take more pleasure in discovering {
worm at the heart OF a noble tree than il