The Farmville herald. [volume] (Farmville, Va.) 1890-1934, 1899-05-05

Jake on mllder character. There
the singing of birds and the Joy q
physical life again, so that earth an
tree and creature throb with Tn
knowledge that out Of the death an,
darkness of the winter there is to com
the beauty Of abundant life.
-
We talk Of life as mystery, but $,
also is death for though death seems
to end all, yet what is it but the death
Of rock and tree and creature that rem.
ders possible all the wondrous and
Oeauteous forms of life that now solace
our eyes, weary Of dun and gray tints
-
There is the thought foryou, fellows
Your limbs are strong your arms are
corded and knit, your powers are super
abundant, your eyes are clear to seer
your brains are fresh to think. 1t is well'
Ioryou and the dear girls like yourselves
strong and vigorous, are the spring of
our humanity. The blithesome 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? It's
joy its sustenance, 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 fail
ed so have new generations of men ever
come forward to go on with the tasks
Of the dead and to draw inspiration from
the leaves of human life that have
Drowned in the autumn breezes and
then huttered forest.
*.z
All the glory of the world is bor-
rowed glory; the past is in it the pres
ent is not sufficient unto itself An un-
broken chain connects all those who are
proud Of themselves back through the
ages by gradual steps to simplicity
back even to savagery.
x~x
Your thrill of PRIDE therefore, shall |
not be this glorious springtide, the
pride that makes you feel self.suflicient
but the pride that you are in the race
and Of the race, and that some hand
before you feeble and frail with ages
has passed into your stronger hand the
torch of truth and of life. And you, if
you are fit product of the death-pos-
sessed past are here to live and to love
and to strive with a might that is in
herited until your own hand grows
weak, and until to a stronger and
younger hand you again surrender the
orch Of truth and Of progress that you
ave kept blazing throughout the years
~
Viewed in this way there is nothing
If sorrow or Of shock in realizing that
he living must die, in order that the
living yet to be may live. The unwhole-
ome fear ofdeath inculcated into some
If us from a mistaken religious view is
lothing bat unwholesome death is the
rider Of things death has been the for
yarding Of our race. How else would
ii things be possible to US, did not the
Exhausted and the enfeebled give over
ntO the charge of the fresh and the
igOrous their own uncompleted work?
)eath has neither victory nor sting;
ach springtime proves it, each upright,
lorious youth proves it. This accept
nee of great truth produces no mawk-
III desire to die, but rather a desire to
We and to be worthy Of the proud lists J.
{ the grand souls that are gone before.
ct, if in the glorious springtime of our
yes, we quietly reckon upon death as
lctor in our careers, we can live all the
etter and stronger for it, because we
nall be freed from the fear of death, v
hich by strange paradox, takes away =
le very JOY Of living.
y
So then, you lissom lasses and sinewy y
DIS lift your eyes from the ground and y
ok about you turn your feet away "
o,, tl,t ,,.l:,l =: 1 900. 4 49,. ... 4 Ill. | II