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worldly ways and byways-第39部分

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prophecies of the barometer。



In the old…fashioned brick palace at Kensington; a little suite of 

rooms is carefully guarded from the public gaze; swept; garnished 

and tended as though the occupants of long ago were hourly expected 

to return。  The early years of England's aged sovereign were passed 

in these simple apartments and by her orders they have been kept 

unchanged; the furniture and decorations remaining to…day as when 

she inhabited them。  In one corner; is assembled a group of dolls; 

dressed in the quaint finery of 1825。  A set of miniature cooking 

utensils stands near by。  A child's scrap…books and color…boxes lie 

on the tables。  In one sunny chamber stands the little white…draped 

bed where the heiress to the greatest crown on earth dreamed her 

childish dreams; and from which she was hastily aroused one June 

morning to be saluted as Queen。  So homelike and livable an air 

pervades the place; that one almost expects to see the lonely 

little girl of seventy years ago playing about the unpretending 

chambers。



Affection for the past and a reverence for the memory of the dead 

have caused the royal wife and mother to preserve with the same 

care souvenirs of her passage in other royal residences。  The 

apartments that sheltered the first happy months of her wedded 

life; the rooms where she knew the joys and anxieties of maternity; 

have become for her consecrated sanctuaries; where the widowed; 

broken old lady comes on certain anniversaries to evoke the 

unforgotten past; to meditate and to pray。



Who; as the year is drawing to its close; does not open in memory 

some such sacred portal; and sit down in the familiar rooms to live 

over again the old hopes and fears; thrilling anew with the joys 

and temptations of other days?  Yet; each year these pilgrimages 

into the past must become more and more lonely journeys; the 

friends whom we can take by the hand and lead back to our old homes 

become fewer with each decade。  It would be a useless sacrilege to 

force some listless acquaintance to accompany us。  He would not 

hear the voices that call to us; or see the loved faces that people 

the silent passages; and would wonder what attraction we could find 

in the stuffy; old…fashioned quarters。



Many people have such a dislike for any mental privacy that they 

pass their lives in public; or surrounded only by sporting trophies 

and games。  Some enjoy living in their pantries; composing for 

themselves succulent dishes; and interested in the doings of the 

servants; their companions。  Others have turned their salons into 

nurseries; or feel a predilection for the stable and the dog…

kennels。  Such people soon weary of their surroundings; and move 

constantly; destroying; when they leave old quarters; all the 

objects they had collected。



The men and women who have thus curtailed their belongings are; 

however; quite contented with themselves。  No doubts ever harass 

them as to the commodity or appropriateness of their lodgements and 

look with pity and contempt on friends who remain faithful to old 

habitations。  The drawback to a migratory existence; however; is 

the fact that; as a French saying has put it; CEUX QUI SE REFUSENT 

LES PENSEES SERIEUSES TOMBENT DANS LES IDEES NOIRES。  These people 

are surprised to find as the years go by that the futile amusements 

to which they have devoted themselves do not fill to their 

satisfaction all the hours of a lifetime。  Having provided no books 

nor learned to practise any art; the time hangs heavily on their 

hands。  They dare not look forward into the future; so blank and 

cheerless does it appear。  The past is even more distasteful to 

them。  So; to fill the void in their hearts; they hurry out into 

the crowd as a refuge from their own thoughts。



Happy those who care to revisit old abodes; childhood's remote 

wing; and the moonlit porches where they knew the rapture of a 

first…love whisper。  Who can enter the chapel where their dead lie; 

and feel no blush of self…reproach; nor burning consciousness of 

broken faith nor wasted opportunities?  The new year will bring to 

them as near an approach to perfect happiness as can be attained in 

life's journey。  The fortunate mortals are rare who can; without a 

heartache or regret; pass through their disused and abandoned 

dwellings; who dare to open every door and enter all the silent 

rooms; who do not hurry shudderingly by some obscure corners; and 

return with a sigh of relief to the cheerful sunlight and murmurs 

of the present。



Sleepless midnight hours come inevitably to each of us; when the 

creaking gates of subterranean passages far down in our 

consciousness open of themselves; and ghostly inhabitants steal out 

of awful vaults and force us to look again into their faces and 

touch their unhealed wounds。



An old lady whose cheerfulness under a hundred griefs and 

tribulations was a marvel and an example; once told a man who had 

come to her for counsel in a moment of bitter trouble; that she had 

derived comfort when difficulties loomed big around her by writing 

down all her cares and worries; making a list of the subjects that 

harassed her; and had always found that; when reduced to material 

written words; the dimensions of her troubles were astonishingly 

diminished。  She recommended her procedure to the troubled youth; 

and prophesied that his anxieties would dwindle away in the clear 

atmosphere of pen and paper。



Introspection; the deliberate unlatching of closed wickets; has the 

same effect of stealing away the bitterness from thoughts that; if 

left in the gloom of semi…oblivion; will grow until they overshadow 

a whole life。  It is better to follow the example of England's pure 

Queen; visiting on certain anniversaries our secret places and 

holding communion with the past; for it is by such scrutiny only





THAT MEN MAY RISE ON STEPPING…STONES

OF THEIR DEAD SELVES TO HIGHER THINGS。





Those who have courage to perform thoroughly this task will come 

out from the silent chambers purified and chastened; more lenient 

to the faults and shortcomings of others; and better fitted to take 

up cheerfully the burdens of a new year。









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