The Clarksburg telegram. [volume] (Clarksburg, W. Va.) 1874-1926, 1898-04-15
.MANHOOD'S DECOMPOSITION.

. Ns~S sAAS 0Rha4O0 VA WV " az AAssN~
! many troubles and few comfort
ers. AS every man is born of a
woman, there seems to be no
chance for prolonged life or
escape from trouble among men.
Old Samuel johnson, throwing
bouquets at himself says: Lilies
. short summer, man q flower.
He dies-alas how soon he
dies !" Samuel does not say
what sort of a flower a man is,
and We may conclude with the
summer girl, that "A man is q
daisy Good Edward Young
has it that "At 80 a man suspects
himself a fool; knows 1t at 40.
and reforms his plan" This
would be encouraging II true as
to reform ; but it often happens
that old fools remains old fools i;
and there is no fool like an old
fool. He is q picnic for the
guyer, and a soft SNAP for the
unholy. Alas what is man that
he should be proud ? Liebig, the
greatest chemist OF the century,
writes Science has demon.
strated the fact that man, the
being which performs the great
wonders, is formed OF condensed
air and solicited and liquid
gases, that he lives upon con-
densed as we'll as upon uncon-
densed air. and that by means of
the same mysterious agent, he
moves, or causes, to be moved,
the heaviest weights with the
velocity of the wind. But the
strangest part of the matter is
that thousands and millions OF
these tabernacles of condensed
air are going on two legs. des-
troying other forms of condensed
air which they may need to build
up their own wasted tissues or
for shelter or clothing, or, on &C.
count OF their ego.ism and fanci-
ed power. destroying each other
in pitched battles, using imple-
ments which are but other forms
of condensed air. the material of
which they themselves are form,
ed or composed. Chemistry sup
plies the clearest proof that, SO
far as concerns this, the ultimate
and most minute composition
and structure, some of which are
so infnitesimal as to be beyond
the comprehension of our senses,
man is. to all appearances, at
least, composed of materials
identified with those which com
pose the structural being of the
OK or the dog, or even the lowest
animals in the scale of creation.
Solomon seems to have entertain
ed the same idea. See Ecclesi-
astes, iii, 10: "For that which
befalleth the sons of men be-
falleth beasts; as the one dieth so
dieth tile other yes, they have
all one breath, SO that man hath
no pre.eminence above a beast.
Solomon, with all his wisdom,
and with all his wives. must have
been an authority on beasts.
When young people are weary
of listening to a young clergyman
or a young lawyer, who talks
fast and says nothing, who scat
tiers wordy chat without a kernel
of thought. and who thinks volu-
bility is eloquence, they say, He
is q bag of wind He is con-
densed air and liquid gas. Lie
big says so. and he tells no big
lie. When man dies that Of him
which is liquid mingles in earth
with its kind the gas of him es.
capes in the air; the salts and
phosphates ofhis bones get away
on time and become something
else before resurrection calls.
And yet man is proud, and puts
on airs, or rather, shows soma of
the gas of which he is made.
There are no gold nuggets and
no diamonds in the composition
of rich men. The best of them
are made of pretty poor and
cheap stuff. This is man of
whom the palmist said, Lift
not up your horn on high speak
not with a sttn neck, for promo.
ton cometh neither from the
east, nor from the west, nor from
:, -. 90 :. A.. :.de.n I.