The following beautiful apologue, copied from the New York Mirror, is
from the pen of J. K. Paulding. We hope often to enrich our pages with
his productions. His style is a model of simplicity, vigor and ease,
which we should like to see more generally imitated by our Literary
writers.
Hope is the leading-string of youth--memory the staff of age. Yet for a
long time they were at variance, and scarcely ever associated together.
Memory was almost always grave, nay sad and melancholy. She delighted
in silence and repose, amid rocks and waterfalls; and whenever she
raised her eyes from the ground it was only to look back over her
shoulder. Hope was a smiling, dancing, rosy boy, with sparkling eyes,
and it was impossible to look upon him without being inspired by his
gay and sprightly buoyancy. Wherever he went he diffused around him
gladness and joy; the eyes of the young sparkled brighter than ever at
his approach; old age as it cast its dim glances at the blue vault of
heaven, seemed inspired with new vigor; the flowers looked more gay,
the grass more green, the birds sung more cheerily, and all nature
seemed to sympathize in his gladness. Memory was of mortal birth, but
Hope partook of immortality.
One day they chanced to meet, and Memory reproached Hope with being a
deceiver. She charged him with deluding mankind with visionary,
impracticable schemes, and exciting expectations that only led to
disappointment and regret; with being the _ignis fatuus_ of youth, and
the scourge of old age. But Hope cast back upon her the charge of
deceit, and maintained that the pictures of the past were as much
exaggerated by Memory, as were the anticipations of Hope. He declared
that she looked at objects at a great distance in the past, he in the
future, and that this distance magnified every thing. "Let us make the
circuit of the world," said he, "and try the experiment." Memory
consented, reluctantly, and they went their way together.
The first person they met was a schoolboy, lounging lazily along, and
stopping every moment to gaze around, as if unwilling to proceed on his
way. By and by he sat down and burst into tears.
"Whither so _fast_, my good lad?" asked Hope, jeeringly.
"I am going to school," replied the lad, "to study, when I had rather a
thousand times be at play; and sit on a bench with a book in my hand
while I long to be sporting in the fields. But never mind, I shall be a
man soon, and then I shall be free as the air." Saying this, he skipped
away merrily, in the hope of soon being a man.
"It is thus you play upon the inexperience of youth," said Memory,
reproachfully.
Passing onward, they met a beautiful girl, pacing slow and melancholy
behind a party of gay young men and maidens, who walked arm in arm with
each other, and were flirting and exchanging all those little harmless
courtesies, which nature prompts on such occasions. They were all gaily
dressed in silks and ribbons; but the little girl had on a simple
frock, a homely apron, and clumsy thick-soled shoes.
"Why don't you join yonder group," asked Hope, "and partake in their
gaiety, my pretty little girl?"
"Alas!" replied she, "they take no notice of me. They call me a child.
But I shall soon be a woman, and then I shall be so happy!" Inspired by
this hope, she quickened her pace, and soon was seen dancing along
merrily with the rest.
In this manner they wended their way, from nation to nation, and clime
to clime, until they had made the circuit of the universe. Wherever
they came, they found the human race, which at this time was all
young--it being not many years since the first creation of
mankind--repining at the present, and looking forward to a riper age
for happiness. All anticipated some future good, and Memory had scarce
any thing to do but cast looks of reproach at her young companion. "Let
us return home," said she, "to that delightful spot where I first drew
my breath. I long to repose among its beautiful bowers; to listen to
the brooks that murmured a thousand times more musically; to the birds
that sung a thousand times sweeter; and to the echoes that were softer
than any I have since heard. Ah! there is nothing on earth so
enchanting as the scenes of my earliest youth."
Hope indulged himself in a sly, significant smile, and they proceeded
on their return home. As they journeyed but slowly, many rears elapsed
ere they approached the spot whence they had departed. It so happened
one day they met an old man, bending under the weight of years, and
walking with trembling steps, leaning on his staff. Memory at once
recognized him as the youth they had seen going to school, on their
first outset in the tour of the world. As they came nearer, the old man
reclined on his staff, and looking at Hope, who, being immortal, was
still a blithe young boy, sighed as if his heart was breaking.
"What aileth thee, old man?" asked the youth.
"What aileth me," he replied, in a feeble, faltering voice--"What
should ail me, but old age. I have outlived my health and strength; I
have survived all that was near and dear; I have seen all I loved, or
that loved me, struck down to the earth like dead leaves in autumn, and
now I stand like an old tree withering alone in the world, without
roots, without branches and without verdure. I have only just enough of
sensation to know that I am miserable, and the recollection of the
happiness of my youthful days, when careless and full of blissful
anticipation, I was a laughing, merry boy, only adds to the miseries I
now endure."
"Behold!" said Memory, "the consequence of thy deceptions," and she
looked reproachfully at her companion.
"Behold!" replied Hope, "the deception practised by thyself. Thou
persuadest him that he was happy in his youth. Dost thou remember the
boy we met when we first set out together, who was weeping on his way
to school, and sighing to be a man?"
Memory cast down her eyes and was silent.
A little way onward, they came to a miserable cottage, at the door of
which was an aged woman, meanly clad, and shaking with palsy. She sat
all alone, her head resting on her bosom, and as the pair approached,
vainly tried to raise it up to look at them.
"Good-morrow, old lady--and all happiness to you," cried Hope, gaily,
and the old woman thought it was a long time since she had heard such a
cheering salutation.
"Happiness!" said she, in a voice that quivered with weakness and
infirmity. "Happiness! I have not known it since I was a little girl,
without care or sorrow. O, I remember those delightful days, when I
thought of nothing but the present moment, nor cared for the future or
the past. When I laughed and played and sung, from morning till night,
and envied no one, or wished to be any other than I was. But those
happy times are past, never to return. O, if I could only once more
return to the days of my childhood!"
The old woman sunk back on her seat, and the tears flowed from her
hollow eyes.
Memory again reproached her companion, but he only asked her if she
recollected the little girl they had met a long time ago, who was so
miserable because she was so young? Memory knew it well enough, and
said not another word.
They now approached their home, and Memory was on tiptoe with the
thought of once more enjoying the unequalled beauties of those scenes
from which she had been so long separated. But, some how or other, it
seemed they were sadly changed. Neither the grass was so green, the
flowers so sweet and lovely, nor did the brooks murmur, the echoes
answer, or the birds sing half so enchantingly, as she remembered them
in long time past.
"Alas!" she exclaimed, "how changed is every thing! I alone am the
same."
"Every thing is the same, and thou alone art changed," answered Hope.
"Thou hast deceived thyself in the past just as much as I deceive
others in the future."
"What is it you are disputing about?" asked an old man, whom they had
not observed before, though he was standing close by them. "I have
lived almost four-score and ten years, and my experience may perhaps
enable me to decide between you."
They told him the occasion of their disagreement, and related the
history of their journey round the earth. The old man smiled, and for a
few moments sat buried in thought. He then said to them:
"I, too, have lived to see all the hopes of my youth turn into shadows,
clouds and darkness, and vanish into nothing. I, too, have survived my
fortune, my friends, my children--the hilarity of youth and the
blessing of health."
"And dost thou not despair?" said Memory.
"No, I have still one hope left me."
"And what is that?"
"The hope of heaven!"
Memory turned towards Hope, threw herself into his arms, which opened
to receive her, and burst into tears, exclaiming--"Forgive me, I have
done thee injustice. Let us never again separate from each other."
"With all my heart," said Hope, and they continued for ever after to
travel together hand and hand, through the world.
The publisher has received the prospectus of the "_Southern Magazine,
or Journal of Literature, Arts and Sciences_," to be published at
Charleston, S. Carolina, and edited by James Haig. This work "will
consist entirely of original matter in prose and verse, embracing all
subjects of general interest, and exclusive of controversial divinity
and party politics, accompanied with criticisms upon the productions of
the day, and notices of the most important passing events." It is
strongly recommended to public patronage by the Literary and
Philosophical Society of South Carolina--and subscriptions to it will
be cheerfully received at the office of the "Southern Literary
Messenger." The South is awakening!