Herald and news. [volume] (West Randolph, Vt.) 1878-1943, 1901-02-14
A Glance at the Present.

From the present, we look back with
a shudder to the Puritanic era. We
thank goodness that we did not live in
that sombre period, when it was
considered sinful to smile, or joke, OF
display levity in any degree. We read
the old "blue laws under which, for
one thing, it was forbidden a man TO
kiss his wife on Sunday. and marvel
that any people in any age could have
chosen so to live IN the shadows.
From all we know Of the age, it seems
dark and funeral. We find it
difficult to comprehend how men and
women with warm blood in their veins
could have so thoroughly mastered
their natural impulses and choked into
the background the spirit of joy, mirth
and light-heartedness that God inn
plants in all of his living creatures.
Now, with this picture fully before
us, let us imagine the other extreme.
Contemplate people, an age, without
any seriousness whatever; living but
for the passing hour; reasoning only
on the surface to whom appearance is
everything, merit little or nothing
dancing in the sunbeams while they
last; making no provision for the
darkness that will precede the morrow;
giving no thought to the great
problems of life; intent only on the
joy of the present; pursuing pleasure
for the mere sake of pleasure; gay,
thoughtless, light-hearted, light-headed;
laughing derisively in the face of
sorrow; incapable of deep emotion
turning aside from all walks that lead
to sober reflection and calm considera-
ton. Would you like to live in such
an age as thatp You answer "No,n
that while it might be preferable to
the days of the Puritans, it is not a
just and proper conception of life, and
as far from it in one direction as the
much-revlled Puritanic period was in
the other.
But is it not fact that we are living
in an era not many degrees removed
from the one last described And is
it not fact that the tendency OF the
present is carrying us nearer and
nearer those very conditionsp If the
Puritans were too serious, are not we
of today too frivolous? Is not the
general trend away from a proper
appreciation of the duties and
responsibilities of life Do we not
lead, or try to lead, the butterfly
existence too much? Has our rising
generation true conception of life's
opportunities and a determination to
make the best possible use of them?
The era of Puritanism succeeded and
came as protest to the excessive
frivolity of the days OF the Stuarts.
The pendulum is swinging the other
way now. We fear that it has passed
the golden mean," which is the
delight of theorists. If so, there is
danger, lest it swing too far.
What are some of the signs of the
times? Mankind is striving in every
possible way to ''have fun The
whole end and aim of many life, to
judge from appearances, is to get the
greatest possible degree of pleasure
out of it. Men and women make life
one vast playground, or seek to do so.
If they labor, it is very often simply
to afford them the means of pursuing
the lines of diversion that give them
the most personal satisfaction. Wealth
is sought merely as the means to this
end. The heaven that many picture
is one of idlers, with no duties to
perform and only round of pleasure
TO follow. Consideration of serious
things is banished as boresome. at
is not pleasant therefore it should
not be INDUCED in. ''On with the
dance, let joy be unconfned.r It's
questionable to be solemn. Society
has plenty of use for the clown, but
none for the philosopher.