Windham County reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1901-1906, 1903-05-08
GMindham County geformler
BRATrLEBoRo, FRIDAY. MAY 9, 1908
The Life Worth Living.

IneEc are ul0ny AAhohSAp
of what constitutes successful life
and many different ways are taken to
achieve success. People strive for
wealth and with that they hope to OBJ
tain the things that make life pleas
ant and to WELD power over others.
Or they think to gain that power and
riches in addition by the cultivation
of mental gifts.
Success in all these lines and nu-
merous Others is often achieved. Men
get millions and sometimes they use
them and the power they give for
good: but oftener they use them to OPP
press others and to their own physical
and moral deterioration. And men do
great things in science, art and inven-
ton and make their names famous the
world over. But if these things are
all they do, if they devote all their
powers to these purposes so that their
very lives are embodied in them, they
are left empty handed indeed when
Death comes and they have to lay them
all down. For wealth and power and
the works of the brain are not treas
ures that we can carry across that
mysterious Boundary Line to which
we must all, sooner or later, come.
But, happily, in this world there are
some who quickly see beneath the
froth and glitter of things and catch
the real meanings of life. They real
ize that of all this great world holds,
nothing is or ever can be truly their
own except their own Selves. They real
ize that any real and lasting power OF
influence or good life may hold for
them will come from within themselves
and not from without. And so first or
all they cultivate themselves. They
build up character with patience,
faithful work, honesty, modesty; and
they crown it with lovingskindness for
all their fellow beings.
Such men and women live the only
life worth living. Sometimes they are
successful in worldly matters and some
times they are deemed failures. But
however this may be, they have fund
of happiness in their hearts on which
they may draw limitlessly. And they
give it out with lavish hand into the
lives of others. Thesource of happiness
is within them and it flows out freely
in words and deeds that sweeten the
world.
When Death comes to such lives it
does not rob them Of much. Their
treasures are the love and gratitude OF
other human hearts, the recompense OF
kindly thought and action. These are
the only treasures the world gives that
do not shrink from immortality.
1t is such life that has just passed
from earth with the death Of DR.. James
Conland. He worked, he struggled, he
suffered as other men do: but through
it all he kept true and brave, gentle
and kind. He did his share of the
worlds work and he did 1T we'll, but
his noblest achievements were the char
acter he built for himself and the kind
ly influence he exerted over the lives
of others.
Surely he goes forth well equipped,
full handed, happily, for Death cannot
despoil of such treasures. His was a
life worth living, the cultivation OF
that
'rarer, better, truer self
That watched to ease the burden of the world "
which, the poet says,
"Shall live till human Time
Shall fold its eyelids and the human sky
Be gathered like a scroll within the tomb
Unread forever"