Year: 1878

Thoughts for Digestion.


There may st thou see to what God,like height


Energy and self reliance lift up mortal man.


When one remembers that Montaigne
had his pet cat; that distinguished state
prisoner of the fourteenth century courted
familiarity with a mouse to beguile the
weary days of his long confinement; when
we know that Kirk White wrote of his
dog as a dear friend; when we read By
ron's inscription on the death of Boatswain;
when we know that Downward made friends
of chains and rings, and that Scott wrote
one of his sweetest couplets to commemo-
rate the death of "Maida, a favorite dog,
we are drawn into the belief that man may
find society, solace and friendship in other
society than that of his fellow-man. With
out affecting to be a cynic, or without in
tending to incur the charge of being a
misanthrope, it can be substantiated be-
yond refutation, l believe, that man often
finds in the lower order of animals, attach
ments which nothing but the genial warmth
of prosperous life can ever awaken in
the hearts of his fellow creatures. l re-
commend to all the practice of those little
courtesies and amenities Of life which win
for us all what is commonly called friend
ship-but what is known by this mis-
nomer, is nothing more nor less than the
permission of the world to so on in our
own way, it is but the purchase of mega
tive disregard and this availeth us not a
whit in the trying hour of need, and when
our calamities mock US. Fortune hunters,
may, by a sudden turn of the wheel, prove
fortunate; legacy hunters, may, by cajol-
ling pur-blind aunt, or by heavily feeling
lawyer, come in for the lions share OF
an estate; popularity hunters may, by the
practice of all the arts known to petty
diplomatists, succeed in floating on the
stream of popular favor, but my word for
it, the friend-hunter who expects to make
his friends available in the day of need,
will certainly be sadly disappointed. OF
all the notifications and vexations to
which man voluntarily lays himself liable.
there are none which exceed in intensity
those attendant upon friend-making. Court
q mans society and he forthwith treats
you with contempt and contumely; humor
his passions, and you are despised as a
sycophant; pay Difference to his opinions,
and he laughs at your folly, and in all he
looks upon you as the creature of his will
the slave of his caprice. If man volun-
tarily hold out his hand to thee, suspect
that he has an axe to grind, and grasp his
hand with caution yet, if you find
him honest take his profered aid, and
when occasion shall offer yield to him your
own and if you find him really honest, ''grap-
pie him with hooks of steel" but solicit
not his friendship, for then you immedi
ately become an object of suspicion to him
and you fail in your solicitation. A true
friend is indeed rarity, kind of social
black swarm, oftener read OF than seen
Then ever be prepared to maintain de-
gree of independence that would have
shamed Hercules, when as an infant he
strangled the two serpents sent by juno
for his own destruction. Practice that
independence which induced Robert Burns
to write 81 am bred to the plow, and
am independent" Man is by his very
nature an exceedingly selfish creature, anc
not even by the aid of the most exalteG
philosophy can he so far overcome his ma
tural instincts as to be capable of thor
oughly disinterested friendship. The sci
fshness may not be altogether of mer
cenary kind, but self is the great matter al
heart; private whim is to be gratifed; per
sonal pride is to be satisfied; wrongs art
to be avenged, or it may be pleasure il
to be conferred, yet the primeval motive
of the doer, Gin nine cases out of every ter
that occur) is to confer pleasure on him
self, and he but uses the person whom ht
pleases as an instrument to please himself
Put not your trust in friends, for they viii
deceive you. Learn to rely chiefly upor
yourself. Elbow your way through thi
crowded vale, owing nothing to man.
friendship for your success, and if yor
fail, go down with head erect, withou
asking the hypocritical cry of any mans
coincidence. Whatever observations, ex
perience and philosophy may teach in re
garQ 10 the WOrlu, IeI IL De the Care OF eaci
Of us to assiduouslY keep alive the better
impulses of our own hearts, for it is bette
even amid the busy cares of life to Civ
rise to our affections in loving dog o.
cat, than to love no one. "Give ever maj
thine ear, few thy voice." be ever wary
but not over suspicious, and then you ma,
never have occasion to test the accurac,
of an experience given BY Isocrates =
"The over-watchful ever hits where h,
never intended" Let not thy geniu
sleep; ever look upward and onward, anc
let thy watch ward be utility, and if for
tune irowns upon thy view, despond never
and if misfortunes crowd around you, re
member that life is not all clouds; it
gloomiest paths have some springing flow
ers and singing birds. So


"Let us be up and doing


With heart for any fate


| Still achieving still pursuing


Learn to labor and to wait"


vIRGINIAN.
| W.s-..nete~ Morch Rfh 1879