Norwich bulletin., 1916-12-30
Sunday Morning Talk
MORE STATELY MANSIONS.

We are through with Christmas shopping and it is time now for bit of New Year thinking: Another year is at the door. The hanging up of our fine, new calendars is an even of no importance to nature herself. The huge sidereaI clock whose face is the whole vault of heaven above us makes no sign and strikes no signal as the last minute of 1916 gives way to the first minute of 1917. Cosmic forces ignore our human divisions of time.
 But in the life of man, even of the average man, the new year does make a difference. We are reminded that this old planet is on the move and is car rying us with it. '"Tirne. like an ever rolling stream, bears all it's sons away" The fact is forced on one that he is journeying toward the sunset, wheth- CT he will or no.
 Oh. wonderful stream is the river of
 time,
 As it runs through the realm of tears;
 With faultless rhythm ard musical
 rhythm, With a boundless sweep and surge
 sublime,
 As it blends in the Ocean of Years How the winters are drifting like
 flakes of snow,
 And the summers like buds between; And the year in the Sheaf-so they
 come and they go
 On the rivers breast with it's ebb and
 flow
 An infinitely hopeful feature of the new year is that so many people make 1t the occasion of a fresh moral start. Bound1ess mirth has been aroused over the making and the breaking of reso- lutions. Yet, in spite of all the filings of the cartoonists and the funny par agraphers, these same resolvings in a million hearts represent the finest fact under the midwfnter sun.
 We grant that thousands will swear off some bad habits only to swear on again at a later date. We admit that Charles may tumble from the swater wagon to which he had climbed, ere two short months have passed; that Clarence's temper may explode again disastrously in sofe week previous to February 1; that Susan may be dis covered munching chocolate candy for hidden by ths doctor; or Ellen be seen with her nose in novel when she had solemnly pledged herself to a better programme of reading. Yet, after all this and much more is granted, the old plan of making new resolves on Jan uary gets our vote. In the first place. one indicates thereby that he has given his conduct sufficient thought to real ize that it will bear changing. In the second place. out of all the welter of failure there is pretty sure to remain a residuum of sobriety and industry and altruism that will make the effort undeniably worth while. It was, perhaps, The Chambered Nautiius'' of Dr. Holmes poem that The genial Autocrat may have written greater verses than these resembling the life of the little shell fish of the sea; but none. surely. bearing sound CT moral suggestion.
 Who among us does not desire bet ter tomorrow than yesterday has been It were a black outlook for us indi- vidually and for the race of which we are members unless the great majority long to be and to do better. Are not We pledged to progress as part of our human birthright? It was Henry Darwin's famous Descent of Man" with his own stirring Ascent of Man." showing therein that downward, but upward. The past long centuries of development that have given man his edect physical posture, transformed the arms and legs. and given him articu- late speech, have also transformed and elevated his desires. Progress, to be sure has not been uniform and un- broken. The waves recede down the beach sometimes as at present in the ghastly strife of nations. But the ti- dal movement is onward. The coming age will be as good as we individuals make it. The elevation or the Trace becomes personal prob lem. Let him who is minded to do his part sing, in the spirit Of Nautilus" Build thee more stately mansions, O my soul,
 As the swift seasons roll, Leave they low-vau1ted past, Let each new temple. nobler than the last, Shut thee from heaven with a dome more vast.
 Till thou at length art free. Leaving thine outgrown by life's un- resting sea.
 THE PARsoN.