The citizen., 1899-04-21
Present-Day Thoughts.
BY "NEMo."
{ Written for the Citizen. }

Where for months in the Northern
States there has been chill and
discomfort, the air has now he
gun to take on "A mildcr character.
There is the singing of birds and
the Joy of physical life again, so
that earth and tree and creature
throb with the knowledge that
out of the death and darkness of
the winter there is to come the
beauty of abundan5 life.
We talk of life as a mystery,
but so, also, is death; for though
death seems to end all, yet what
is it but the death of rock and
tree and creature that renders
possible all the wondrouS and
beauteouS forms of life that now
/ SOlace our eyes, weary of dun and
gray tintS.
There is the thought for you,
fellows. Your limbs are strong,
/ your arms are corded and knit,
your powers are super abundant,
YOUR eyes are clear to see, yOur
brains are fresh to think. 1t is
well, for you and the dear girls
like yourselves strong and vigor-
Gus, are the spring of our human
ity. The blithcSOme birds on the
wing are not gayer than your
hearts and the thruSting buds of
tree life shed no greater beauty
over bare woods than do You,
along highways that would be
bare indeed without YOU. But
whence this beauty, this charm,
this gaiety? Its sap, its susie
nance, its power, its glory, is
drawn from the dead and the past.
Those who have been are part Of
the substance of those who are,
and Just as seed time and harvest
have never failed so have new
generations of men ever come for
ward to 90 on with the tasks Of
the dead and to draw inspiration
from the leaves of human life that
have Drowned in the autumn
brce2eS and then fluttered to rest. !
All the glory of the world is IL
borrowed glory; the past is in it;
the present is not sufficient unto !
itself. An unbroken chain con
meets all those who are proud of |
themselves back through the
ages by gradual steps to simple.
ity, back even to Savagery.
Your thrill of pride, therefore, /
shall not be this glorious spring. |
tide, the pride that makes you
feel Self-Suilicient but the pride /
that you are in the race and of
the race, and that some hand be
fore you, feeble aud frail with age
has passed into your stronger
hand the torch of truth and of
life. And You, if You are fit
product of the death possessed |
past, are here to live and to love
and to strive with a might that |
is inherited until Your own hand |
grows weak, and until to a
stronger and younger hand you
again surrender the torch of /
truth and of progress that YOU
have kept blazing throughout |
the years.
Viewed in this way there is
nothing of sorrow or of shock in
realizing that the living must die,
i'll order that the living yet to be
may live. The unwholesome fear
of death inculculated into some of |
us from a mistaken religious view
Is nothing but unwholeSome;
death is the order of things; death
has been the forwarding of our
race. How else would all things
be possible to us, did not the ex.
hauSted and enfeebled give over
into the charge of the fresh and |
the vigorous their own uncom.
pleted work? Death has neither
victory nor sting; each spring
time proves it, each upright glor-
lous youth proves it. This accep. +,
tance of a great truth produces !
no mawkiSh desire to die. but
rather desire to live and to be
worthy of the proud lists of the
grand souls that are gone before
Yet, if i'll the glorious spring |
time of our lives, we quietly
reckon upon death as a factor in
our careers. we can live all the
better and stronger for it. be.
cause we shall be freed from the
fear of death, which by strange
paradox, takes away the very
JOY of living.
So then, you lissom lasses and
sinewy lads, lift your eyes from
the ground and look about YOU:
turn your feet away from that
which is degrading and walk
abroad; open the windows of
your souls to the gentle air of a
glorious universe and learn. The
glory of the tree is that it is
clothed anew in purity and in
freshness tha rlorv of +bo -