Year: 1859




Christmas, New Years. Independence with
all anniversaries of pleasant events Poets, in
verse and prose- try to recall their joys and help
us live over their sweet experience. 1t is well
10 revive the memory of such periods, for vir-
tuous happiness always gains in the retrospect;
and what was at first agreeable in the enjoy
ment, takes to itself new and brilliant hues Of
association as il retreats towards our past till it
becomes a rosy land of mystery and joy in the
horizon. Who has not often caught himself
lingering over day night of peculiar hap
piness specializing on his feelings at the time,
wondering that he was not happier at that pro-
pitous moment lowering over it till its facts
became SO interviewer with the sentiment sug
Kested by them that he can never again know
exactly what he experienced, or how he felt
In all this We see the benevolence of Him who
has bribed our acts and associations that every
Joy He confers shall increase Thousand fold,
ax We leave it behind us.


But there are poets enough to sing the bright
aide of life. We desire to vindicate period so
much abused, that doubt not the hlsts
reAder will turn from the title of our column
with disgust, though perhaps. some quiet mem
Der Of the household, propped in her cosy chair
may run her eye along the lines, and feel thrill
of gratitude that the Ohio Farmer has not for
gotten the invalid in its weekly visits or pos
aibly, the good man of the house, grunting and
fretting under twinge of the % rheumAtics,
may be persuaded to give his wife five minute 5
q peace while he reads defence of The Sick
Day


Thus the violent contrast between the world
without, and within, is not felt for subdu-
ing atmosphere envelops the sick one, through
which everything, in passing becomes changed
and the toll of the great, raging community,
falls as softly the tired soul, as floating down
upon the uptur;Ied cheek, and matter becomes
sI,ritunized, that the arctic world is great
panorama, for the instruction of the mind rath-
er- than actual sphere of existence. But
sickness never brings such bitterness or punges
In such despondency as when it steals into the
heuxc at night. and the busy man woman
who fell asleep amid the whirl of tomorrow $
projects. is dragged through troublesome dreams
and restless slumber, to the morning of the
sick day You wake, and just the day $
hopes and labors rushing pell-mel into
your mind suddenly sharp wrench of pain. a
sinking lsnguor, strange fear of irrititbility-
arrests your attention. At first You resist, try
- get up, perhaps do get up, but after half All
hour of - firing up, the engine don't move,
aad you reluctantly yield to the conclusion
that :. the train don't go that day Then Is
the time that :. tries mems souls How can
you endure this interruption .-you can t, won t
be sics You despise yourself for being shut up
in the house like Il woman. You wonder what
the world out doors will do without you you
try to road. but the words run together; try
to talk, but your brain won t 'gc off; - try to
lay plans for your business. but you find your
self running into such eNtravagant and high
6"Wn calculations, that you take cousel of your
remaining common sense, and postpone cSicu-
lation till your recovery. By-and-by you are
tired of all these imputent attempts to amuse
yourself tired, even, of finding tault with your
WIFE and scolding the children and your good
wife coaxes you to the bed, or rocking chair.
and there you remain. in amonotony, only dis
turbed by her good-natured attempts to cure
you, by the aid of everv remedy the inventive
genius of herself and half dozen neighboring
housekeepers can devise. You hear the low,
an xious whispering of the conclavc, around tho
eooking-stove III the kitchen, and your heart
sinks in anticipation of the opening of the
door, when Prudence shall enter in all the bus,
hing Importance of days unlimited authority
armed with pill. potion, poultice, or with or,s
of those mysterious little homeopathic bottles
wherein are the small shot that are to batter
down the strong Notifications of the King o
1errorx. Happy is the man who has a sensible
wife !; for on his sick day, she will give hin
only medicine enough to kill two men, inste;sc
Of packing every vacant shelf of his system
with dose, till his % interior mar" become
an apothecary i shop in miniaturcl


Use the sick day thus. Do not mar it by
fretfulness, blaspheme Gods good name
who arrested you this side of great dan
ger, cloud it by unmanly despondency.-
Life is full of beauty; and were yol
secluded many days, you weuld learn something
valuable every moment and when returnin:
health flows round this quite island of rest yo
will begin to appreciate its worth in your ex
psrience, and by and by, its pain and sorroN
will disappear, and this day will also become


cheerful remembrance and shine out of you
past with a mellow light shading the more daz
cling glory of joyful days So does Heav
emily Parent turn our whole Past to beauty,
we use the Present Alright; and in the retro
spect of the good man will appear only the re
suits of trial-the truth, and love, and grac
wrought out by the fire of affliction. Th
saints heaven is not far away in the Future
but is also in his Past for as he goes on, tn
prospect behind groups itself into myst


beauty, and the clouds ahead flush with golde
promise, and he stands in the Present weav
ing its contradictions into harmony with hea'
en- of memory behind and heaven of hope b.
d fore, and God pervading all.