It Is Comparatively A Faint
And Reflected Beauty That Is Admired, Not An Essential And
Intrinsic One.
It is because the old are weak, feel their
mortality, and think that they have measured the strength of man.
They will not boast; they will be frank and humble.
Well, let
them have the few poor comforts they can keep. Humility is still
a very human virtue. They look back on life, and so see not into
the future. The prospect of the young is forward and unbounded,
mingling the future with the present. In the declining day the
thoughts make haste to rest in darkness, and hardly look forward
to the ensuing morning. The thoughts of the old prepare for
night and slumber. The same hopes and prospects are not for him
who stands upon the rosy mountain-tops of life, and him who
expects the setting of his earthly day.
I must conclude that Conscience, if that be the name of it, was
not given us for no purpose, or for a hinderance. However
flattering order and expediency may look, it is but the repose of
a lethargy, and we will choose rather to be awake, though it be
stormy, and maintain ourselves on this earth and in this life, as
we may, without signing our death-warrant. Let us see if we
cannot stay here, where He has put us, on his own
conditions. Does not his law reach as far as his light? The
expedients of the nations clash with one another, only the
absolutely right is expedient for all.
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