University of Virginia Library

LIFE — LIFE — HOW CURIOUS IT IS.

“Curious” is the word — we would n't have any
other, for it expresses the very thing. How curious it
is, from the cradle to the grave! The hopes of the
young are curious — reaching forward into the future, and
building castles in perspective for their possessors, that
will crumble before them ere they arrive at that spot in
time where their fabrics are located.

How curious it is, the first dawning of love, where the
young heart surrenders itself to its dreams of bliss, illumined
with stars and garnished with moonshine! How
curious it is, when matrimony crowns the wishes, and
cares, fancied to be surmounted by ardent hearts, are
found to be but just commenced! How curious it is! says
the young mother, as she spreads upon hers the tiny
hand of her babe, and endeavors to read in its dim lines
the fortunes of her child. Curious indeed would such
revealings be, could she there read them.

How curious it is, the greed for gain that marks and
mars the life of man, leading him away after strange
gods, forgetting all the object and good of life in a heartless
chase for a phantom light, that leaves him at last in
three-fold Egyptian darkness! How curious it is, the
love of life that clings to the old, and draws them back
imploringly to the scenes of earth — begging for a longer
look at time and its frivolities, with eternity and its
joys within their reach! How curious it is, when at last

the great end draws nigh — the glazing eye, the struggle,
the groan, proclaiming dissolution, and the still clay that
denotes the extinguishment of the spark known as life!
How curious it is, that the realities of the immortal world
should be based upon the crumbling ashes of this, and
that the path to infinite light should lie through the dark
shadow of the grave! How curious it is, in its business
and pleasures, its joys and sorrows, its hopes and fears,
its temptations and triumphs! And as we contemplate life
in all its phases we must exclaim — “How curious it is!”