The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1913-04-14
FLASHES


Beautiful and ugly sweet and bitter happy
and sorrowful. the flashes Of memory come to
MS. We cannot forget with striving and
eeaselcss watchfulness. with prayer and right
living and earnest communion with the Higher
Power and high things, we may make the at
mosphere az our hearts so clean that evil and
uncleanly thoughts. entering there, die quickly.
The memories Of many kinds we may repress
and force down fer the time. We can bury them
with studious care and with all the strength
of our Wills command them to death. They
were born to live while We live. They people
.nicsly all the infinite realms and the illmitable
recesses of our souls. No grave We may dig for
them is deep enough to-rostrain them; no weight
of years or cares or changing interests and
purposes can crush the life from them No
Sacissitudes will bear them away; no foods OF
tears will drown them; no laughter or song viii
Danish them Perhaps when the invisible IN
discovered, mysterious thing within Us, which
none ever saw and all know, siEnaied by tho
final heart throb leaps out for It's journey to
infinity it carries with itsall the gathered mem
cries.
Through the intricately tangled and many
stance. across the gulf Of long time. from be
meath the weight of accumulated occupation, the
memories flash up. They come TO us in the still
darkness and drive away the sleep We seek
They come as we wake and sweeten or cloud
the day just beginning. They come amid our
merriment. while evening lights sparkle, In our
busiest moments tn the crowded street, in the
silence and beauty Of the country. A sound,
a look word a picture will rouse them from
long glumber and call them up vivid and strong
tn grieye or gladden. us with their tenderness
or THAR sting OF all the millions Of them put
away In the wonderful storehouse of the mind,
many ACQUIRED almost unconsciousIy. anyway
wake at moment.
n is instructive to try sometimes TO recall
the very first dim memories, those standing out
disconnected coming strangely from amid the
rnists of our earlies. childhood. The smallest
incident the highest word may become with
q child memory to be part Of It's life, to live
with IT, maybe to be- called to new life when
the life is ending long after those who plant
ed il have been dead making a smile or a pang
when the mists from which recollection struggled
are replaced by those which gather at the last
in which the thought wanders-the closing twi-
light beyond which Is the great mystery. No
philosophy or psychology has explained why
' the early memories live so long and return so
clearly Many Of them are Of little things-the
getting Of room, the aspect Of landscape a
single sentence spoken by, we do not know who.
or why, or when flash of some fragment Of
scene OF an occurrence everybody else has for
gotten. taken as If with an instantaneous cam
era and vet iBdclibIy impressed Things i'm
portant which We learn laborously We lose SO
that we cannot end them when we seek them.
although they finger somewhere. Things I'M
important and trivial are ever present and ready;
and those We long 10 forget obtrude themselves
most persistenty. It happens many times that
when we Try 10 summon the happy and bright
memories the sorrowful and the black rush on
us unbidden. .eThe echoes Of the slenced laugh
Ter Of the lo6g ago for which We yearn are lost
in the hated sounds Of diseord; the strains Of
foolish old songs nobody sings now bat which
we love. are driven away by the ringing in our
ears of harsh and bitter words We can neither
kin nor govern the memories dwelling within
Reading from the most valuable Of all books
--ourselves-we learn Of our duties and respon
abilities and what VIC learn may we'll brighten
us Anyone of us my put in the soul OF a
child memory which win be living fifty years
after We are dead and may embitter or sweeten
a life When We fix an impression on any hui
man heart or mind we are creating something
that will live for good or i'll, In making mem
cries for others we establish memorials Of our
selves end heritage to be left behind us when
we have gone Each one OF us must help in
the building or tie sappng Of many charac-
ters We are being taught now how 10 guard
the bodies Of our children against contagion
and are learning eagerly. Yet we fix within their
souls memories which will be curse or blessing
to their maturity; which viii comfort har-
row them in their times Of trial TO come, and
are careless which We give. We let them hear
household strife small lies, and cutting
things said to and Of people. We let them
see sordid and malicious motives, ptiful de-
ceits, false pretences. ostentation. pride Of
purse tawdy display Presenting fair fronts
to the world, we forget that our children are
behind the scenes and know the fraud Of It all.