The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1903-10-18
THOUGHTS ON A HILLTOP.


sophie Reflections.
W. III. Sanders. in Marion ChroI Gle.
L had an experience the other day that /
suppose may serve for the column or so that
am asked for as well as anything else that
L might present. L had been wandering in
the country for an hour or more and had
lost my bearings for the moment, but kept
on until suddenly came to a hilltop over
looking the city of Marion, my own home.
Here was picture, though / shant at
tempt to describe ii. Let your imagination
do that. Think first of a sunny day, with
1dst enough of haze TO temper the glare
into softened light; in the valley the city;
beyond the city the Mssissinewa, and be-
yond the river hills again; hills and trees,
and this on day after Jack Frost had
been among the leaves just often enough
TO leave the finger-marks and the handi-
work OF his inimitable fancy.
L say in the valley lay the city. not that
saw much of it, for it was empowered in
frees. Here and there was spire here and
| there steeple. here and there a tower and
here and there the glimpse of home cud-
| ding in among the trees.
Here was scene of serenity and tran
| quillty. Not a sound was to be heard ex-
| cept here and there the chuff-chuff of dis
tant locomotive, and not a moving object in
/ sight save here and there trolley, car
| gliding across a street.
| Not person was to be seen, and yet 1
| knew that within the range of vision were
| tWenty-0dd thousand human beings Think
| or 1T twenty thousand human hearts; a
| million heart-beats minute under this un-
| ruined canopy of sunlight ana haze and
leaves; dynamic force enough TO move the
| world.
| Here the frightened pulse of the child Just
come into the world and there that of the
| gray-haired veteran just leaving it to sink
| into final rest; here the hopes and fears and
! here all the variations to be played by the
vicissitudes of life upon the heartstrings Of
/ human beings.
| thought of this and then / said, here in
| this bend of the river between these hills
and among these trees and in these millions
i OF heart-beats is all the human nature that
| mother nature ever gave birth to, and here,
too. is all the struggle that ever was.
Here is the same battle of life that began
| when life first appeared; the same battle of
life that has been fought out on every field
| of hope and endeavOr in all the earth; the
| same battle of life that has been on since a
| hunger and to thirst, 10 tremble with cold
| or to burn with fever, to start with expect
| ancy or to shrink and cover with fear.
Then thought of this struggle and the in
tensity of it as L have seen it here and else
| where for many year; the struggle not
merely for food. clothing and shelter-fOr the
| battle of life among men has come to be
much more than that-the struggle for this
| and that, and the struggle for more and a
| little more; not merely, for an abundance
for rainy day, but for little more than
somebody else has; the struggle for petty
| place and for puny prestige.
| Then said here in these millions of heart
beats is being re-lived the heart history of
| the entire human race from the day of the
| first man unto this day; here in these ex-
| periences for twenty-four hours is all the
history that is worth Knowing; more his
no., hos lxao~ xx~rft& L.. nnlr-
| Be familiar with the impulses and instincts
| of twenty thousand hearts for twentyfour
| hours and you know all the impulses and all
| the instincts that have animated men and
| women since nature first crowned the ham
| diwork of ages with a human being.
| For here all the lights and all the
shadows; here are all the joys and all the
sorrows; all the pains and all the pleasures;
| here all the tempta tons, all the resistances
and all the Weddings; here all the motives
| that have moved man TO noble endeavor and
| all the motives that have made him beast
| or a devil.
Here are both the good and the bad, the
| wise and the foolish.
| Here are all the heroes and all the hero
! ines that the historian ever wept or rejoiced
over: here is all the vanity the ecclesiastes
wrote about or felt; here are all the men
| that Shakespeare ever described or ina gined
| here. too, is the spirit of the fairest and
| noblest women that big fancy ever looked
| upon with love or admiration. Here, it Is
| true, is HOmerS TherSites, hateful and i'm
| pudent, but here, too, is the spirit in which
the gloomy minded Dante might have found
| his Beatrice.
Here is the spirit that marched with the
| legions under julius Caesar; here the ambi-
| ton that ruined CrOesus the greed that
| drove Crassus to destruction; the supersti-
| ton that quaked with fear i'm the Parthian
mountains, and here, too, the same temer-
ity and iconociasm that entered the sacred
| groves on the Isle of Anglesey and put the
Druids to the sword more than eighteen
| hundred years ago
Here are still the sins of the ancients,
but here, too. in these hearts. are all the
| deeds of light
Here, too is mentality; here is genius un-
developed. Here is one of the keenest minds
| that ever demolished heresy: here man
| living the rest of his life in Greek philosO-
ply, for, after all, he says there is nothing
| new. Here, too, is a mind that 1 would as
soon go to for analysis of what call an
abstract thought as to Plato or to Socrates
Here are the best men and women that
| ever lived; the best friends and the best
neghbors-my friends and my neighbOrs
Sail the seas and tarry in foreign lands
| if you will TO study customs, but to study
| human nature it is a useless waste of time
and energy, for here, between these hills
| and among these trees, is all the human
| nature that is or ever was; human nature