THE TORCH OF REASON, SILVERTON, OREGON, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 189:
The curt*© of death is dying not of course; but always the atoms unsounded wo©.
Madeline’s brother let the agony
through the law, but because we dance to the measureless melody of
existence. And, though day and sweep over him. He did not try
[ a romance BY SAMUEL P. P utnam .] break the law.”
C hahteh v.
“Death is beautiful and terrible, night pass yet new glories will to resist. He clasped the dear
advance to take their place.
form, but he knew that life would
“ It is delicious, but it makes one even like life itself; and its beauty,
Bill, the miner, was up early, as never return. He did not expect to
feel shadowy. It is the moonlight likethebeauty of life, depends upon
was hi« wont; for he liked to greet see that noble spirit again,
■that make» »fee-g «D, I think, and is...pnr obedience to nature Death tiie sun as nWame Saiffirrg’ o -r the H ere^'er, i* < ,.uld 4we|l only . in,
t’he mother of superstition. In the might be like a blooming ot » flower,
distant hill tops. Madeline usually memory. It seemed unendurable
broad daylight, we are ourselves, a rich effulgence into something so was up with him, and busy alxmt that so much should be taken out
we have no fears; but now how fine that we cannot lie conscious of their simple morning meal; hut now of his life, that such a fountain of
!
haunted everything seems to be, it.”
How wonderfully thought Bows she did not greet him with her ready joy should cease to flow.
and yet how beautiful it all is!
smile. He wondered a bit, but
It was the greatest sorrow of his
“Beautiful, indeed; and I’m sure on into a thousand sparkling chan­ supposed that she was wearied, and life. W hen his father and mother
it is delightful to be haunted by nels, when the soul is touched by desired a lotig-r repose than usual, died, he expected them to pass
these wonderful imaginations. I the weird and beautiful aspects of So he quietly kept at work, and in- away; for they were old, and the
like to think that nature is a vast this visible world! Whether mind
deed prepared the breakiast, and full fruit of their lives had l>een
palace, and to roam away through comes first, or matter, who can tell;
yet she did not appear. He tapped borne, and it seemed hut natural
her glittering halls. And is it not yet this is true, that mind cannot
gently at her door. No answer that they should drop into the
a palace? Are not these mountains discourse apart from matter, and
grave, since the best bad been ac­
came, and so he sofily opened it.
and these rocks jewelled? Nature it is wlieu matter is most magnifi­
How beautifully she lay in gentle complished, though even then the
is order; and, if we could see her as cent and potent that the mind is
slumber! Almost like a marble sorrow was keen and overwhelming.
she really is, would she not seem the most illustrious and command­ statue, sostill,so white. Evidently, But his sister was all and all to his
even
to be as ing. Yet mind seeks mind, , and
V V“7'* in
in her
I1V1 rudest aspects
I
affectionate soul. He lived and
magnificent as anything that we through the contact of <>necun-ci.>us she was in a deep sleep, which was
unusual for one of her bright and dreamed and hoped in her, and she
existence
with
another
what
glories
call a work of art?”
active tcinpei ament. With a little was a constant inspiration and de­
“That’s a question. Nature is are evolve*!, what visions are flung uneasiness, he approached her bed- light. Now, she was cut off in the
order; but from our stand-point she fourth, what tire is struck that side. Then a vague terror seized very exquisite blossom of her being,
is both good and bad. She helps illuminates the world!
So they satin the radiant; resence him as he touched the so silent form, and there were no amelioration t«»
us, and she hurts us. She gives us
Then he knew, as he passed the icy the sorrow that flooded him like a
birth and she destroys us. I trust of nature, of the moon and the splendor of her brow, that she was desolate sea. He sat by her be« 1-
in nature and yet I hope to makv> stars and the limitless sky, and . _side in a sort of stupor, while these
her better than she really is. She great mountains and the shadowy
It was awful, as if a knife had strange and bitter thoughts rolled
furnishes the raw material, hut we forests,—like two fearless children,
they sat and discoursed of the lights pierced his heart; and the blood over him, while he kissed her and
have to make the Meals.”
almost stopped in his veins, and he stroked her brow as if she was still
“So art is superior to nature in andshadows of the infinite universe himself seemed dead, the shock was alive. He was unconscious of the
that sense, I suppose; but as Shake­ from whence they sprang, jubilant so sudden and so terrible. Then hours as they swept by. It seemed
speare says, it »s perhaps a greatei because life was theirs for one sweet he fiung himself passionately upon scarcely a moment and yet, when
nature that works upon us to do moment, and submissive because her ls»som; and wept like a chil'I.
a knock at the door aroused him,
these things. But, if our humanity they knew that all cries and tears
How cold all the sunshineseemeil he found that it was passed noon,
is greater than nature, there is would he in vain, that fate went on.
now! What a spirit was gone out
He went to greet the somewhat
nothing greater than our humanity. whatever our desires might he, and
of the things that were once so unwelcome visitor, but he was glad
That, after all, is the fountain of therefore the wisest way is to let
the desire flow in harmony with thrilling. O death! Talk as we to find that it was his friend
wonder.”
may, it is a fearful tragedy: it is Charlie. His presence was a bless-
“ We are a mystery: that I admit. fate. If it is not the best, still th»*
that which makes life an intense ing in that unhappy moment. It
I never expect to explain the uni­ brave and patient soul must make
agony a< well as an intense joy. It recalled him to the living world,
verse. I have to say I don’t know the best of it and surrender the
is an unexplainable horror. Me
“She is dead, was all that lie
to a thousand questions, and I ideal and accept the real. The
could say, as he grasped the hand
must say that 1 find very little universe is probably not so good as submit to it because we must.
But,if we could remove the terror, of Charlie.
satisfaction in those systems of phil­ it might be, still it is infinitely rich
“ Dead? Your sister?”
osophy that profess to make every­ and wonderful, and, in spite of all we would; for we see no flowers
“Yes.”
thing understandable. Ihey either its wrong and miseries, the breath springing from the grave, except
“ How did it happen?”
do so by making the universe a of life we have upon its bosom is those that we plant and water with
“I cannot tell. It came as sud-
very small affair; or it is a mere very sweet, so sweet that we would our tears. Surley, death is not
play of words, and equivalent to fain preserve it a little longer: there­ the outcome of an infinite benevo- den as lightning.”
saying that heat is caloric. This is fore, how thankful we should be for lence. There could be no such For several moments, not a word
ail the information that they deign the exhilarating glory of which we sundering of our affections, if there was spoken. There was only the
are permitted to quaff. Let us not were a God in the universe; for our intense sympathy of soul with soul,
to give.”
“Well,whatever nature is, I rejoice find fault that we canuot drink affections in themselves are pure, and of which any expression is useless,
should ever flow to the most ample en- It is that which must be felt, not
that I can some time lie upon her forever.
With these wise and quiet joyment, and no God could be so uttered. “ Please go for Jennie,
bosom and be at rest. I feel like
saying with the noble English thoughts, and the tender and cruel as to bring death into the midst She must come at once. Madeline
thinker whose books I have just courageous sur render to nature; with of such ennobling happiness. The must be prepared for her burial,
been reading, ‘I was not and I no prayer, but submission to law, fact of death is proof that there is It is all over with, and I must
was conceived, I loved and did a and a determination to enjoy its no God: it is the one fact that make the best of it.”
“I will go,” said Charlie.
little work. I am not and I grieve many fruits, the brother and sister absolute perfection would .not brook.
Jennie Baker was the wife of
not.’ I sometimes think that it retired to peaceful slumber; and just There is no rainbow over death: it
would be tedious to live forever. as quietly and courageously, with is the sad inevitable, it is the law of Tim Baker, the saloon-keeper, and
I should get tired even of growing no prayers nor tears, would they deeav, it is the infinite sorrow of one of the rich rare souls of the
We desire change; and therefore, have gone to sleep, if they had fate. There must be action and world. She was rough-looking,
in the end, we shall desire the known that that sleep would have reaction in the universe, growthand and hardly ever wore anything but
decomposition. The blooming of a calico dress, and not a very clean
greatest of all changes, the change no waking.
The morning came fresh and thisrenders necessary thedestruc- one at that; but her face, though
from life to death.”
“I atn ready for death, even as I sparkling from the bosom of the in- tionofthat: this is all we can guess homely, was exceedingly pleasant,
am ready for life, provided that it finite life. From the solemn silence at, and the only wise philosophy there was so much good-nature in
comes by law, and not by my own awoke a world of music. How that we can adopt is to enjoy the it. She was always ready to help
carelessness; and so I don’t want to wonderful it all is! The march of blooming to the utmost when it anybody in distress. She would
die of fever or accident, but of good day and night, when did it begin comes; and. when the blast pierces, sit up all night long with any poor
obi age. And I think that every- in the far ages out of the rolling then we must submit. Prayers devil that was sick, and treat him
b sly after arriving at old age chaos? and when will the musical will avail nothing, nor any belief as tenderly as if he were her own
would be perfectly willing to die. motion come to an end? Sometime, we may try to have concerning the child. She had a constitution of
GOLDEN THRONE.
/
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