University of California Berkeley 
 
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 ! CHARMS OF LIFE 
 
 SYt6 r ; - 
 
 BY W. E. F. KRAUSE. 
 
 Al'I'llOU OF "AMERICAN INTERESTS ABROAD," 'THE INFLUENCE OF THE 
 
 UNITED STATES ABROAD," " THE SANCTITY OF MARRIAGE," 
 
 "BIANCA," "HISTORY OF THE GERMAN-FRENCH 
 
 WAR OF 1870." ETC., ETC. 
 
 SAN FRANCISCO: 
 
 Jos. WlXTERBURN & Co., BOOK & JOB PRINTERS, 41 7 Cl-AV SjREEl 
 
THE 
 
 CHARMS OF LIFE, 
 
 BY W. E. F. KRAUSE. 
 
 AUTHOR OF "AMERICAN INTERESTS ABROAD," "THE INFLUENCE OF THE 
 
 UNITED STATES ABROAD," "THE SANCTITY OF MARRIAGE," 
 
 "BIANCA," "HISTORY OF THE GERMAN-FRENCH 
 
 WAR OF 1870." ETC., ETC. 
 
 SAN FRANCISCO : 
 
 JOS. WlNTERBURN & Co., BOOK AND JOB PRINTERS. 
 
 1877. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 As it is the most obvious will of God, which nature teaches 
 man, that the human being live happily during the tenor 
 of time, allotted to it in its condition, as assigned in nature, 
 so ought "happiness" to be depicted to show that not only is it 
 found in the code to the laws which govern nature, but on 
 account of the reason of man, which, when attained to its 
 fullest strength, as arousing faith in a supreme spiritual 
 power over nature, is by the aid of faith, fully realized by 
 man. 
 
 In order to illustrate the above as lucidly as possible, be- 
 cause there are occasionally men to be found, who appear not 
 to experience happiness, nor behold any charm in nature, con- 
 sequently in life, I have sketched the life of man as two-fold, 
 viz: the life of nature inclusive of man with reason without 
 faith as dead, and vice versa with faith as life. 
 
 Furthermore, that faith in God affords to man a hold so 
 strong, that it appears as if it were beyond the control of 
 reason, which has the effect that adversity mirrors itself at 
 once as naturally and entirely consequent upon man's own 
 manifold errors only. This conviction leading man towards 
 a valuation of the instant of life, and admonished by the 
 senses, as he unrelentingly is, to labor, man readily finds the 
 charms of life by the diversion of labor. 
 
 A life among the people, being the ground assigned to 
 \ labor by civilization, man in adversity constantly notices 
 that there are always fellowmen, who are more unfavorably 
 circumstanced, than he is, which contemplation as realizing 
 fortitude, leads a disconsolate mind from the darkness of 
 despair into the light of the charms of life until natural 
 death. 
 
 By W. E. F. KBAUSE, 
 
 Author. 
 
THE CHARMS OF LIFE, 
 
 For the purpose of producing moral actions, man evidently, 
 though necessarily presumptively, fancies that his mind 
 exists by the ever inscrutable wisdom of God, as it is by far the 
 most important issue of all life created, not on account of, as in 
 the case of the air, its curious invisible material strength, 
 but its entirely immaterial, spiritual force, which it develops 
 during the growth of man, making it incomparable with, and 
 distinguishing it radically from the general conglomerate of 
 living, but inferiority animated creations of nature, the existen- 
 ces of which are consigned upon this paradisiacal earth as from 
 amidst the galaxy of a brilliant throng of constellations, 
 belonging to the, in all probability, from natural causes, 
 uninhabitable, comprising the inconceivable, and forming 
 the immensity of the Universe of matter only. 
 
 The mind of man, from its ability to retrospect the past 
 into childhood, and to carry itself back over forty years to 
 any given part of the terrestrial globe in a fleet, yet credible 
 instant, although a time of some few decenia of years and 
 lauds within reach upon earth, stand in no comparison of any 
 reliable strength, the former with eternity, and the latter with 
 a comprehensible universe, as far even as astronomically dis- 
 cernible, yet that light, so completely clarified, as to prove 
 itself not only to be, but to exist emancipated from atoms, 
 when thoroughly mature in an healthful bodily and mentally 
 well cultivated state, so developed upon the great field of 
 useful labor, personally performed among the people, expos- 
 ing it to experience of the world and realizing this most serv- 
 iceable wisdom, through a correct perception of the duties of 
 civilized life as the climax of its attainable usefulness that 
 
4 THE CHARMS OF LIFE; 
 
 ability of the mind, in its applicable living strength, to draw 
 from nature with the spontaneous aid of senses: " inspira- 
 tion" and to receive it with such vital force as to beget 
 * e thought," which can ripen into "idea, "and instantaneously 
 mature into "motive," preparatory to action, when acceler- 
 ated by an impetus of voluntary intention and will that 
 mind of man, notwithstanding its prescribed littleness, 
 admitting of no reasonable comparison upon any reflection 
 whatsoever, with the unlimited greatness of the spirit of God 
 is nevertheless sensibly supposed to be an integral part of 
 what can be inferred of, only, of the Spirit of God in its 
 inconceivable omnisciency as in earnest consideration of the 
 fact of man's existence and- with due deference to what the 
 mind of man has in ages past, and is able to conceive of all 
 that constitutes civilization. 
 
 From the simple fact that the mind exists, is here in nature 
 created, is brightest and strongest in manhood, when serene 
 and the body healthy, is immature in the child, without 
 vitality in the insane and the idiot, of no acuteness in the 
 imbecile; gently weaned from the patriarch; non-existent in 
 the dead; not clarified in the living animal, but instinct only; 
 graduating towards the cannibal, is partially obtused in the 
 sensualist, until it controls life in the enlightened man sen- 
 sitiveness in the plant, magnetism in the gem, and electricity 
 in the air, the water and the fire it renders to man, together 
 with the fact that in nature he only is privileged to give utter- 
 ance of his thoughts in coherent speech, an all-convincing 
 proof of the towering importance which God attaches to the 
 use of the mind of man in its government over the senses, 
 which latter man has to have necessarily in common with 
 most animated creations of nature, in order to sustain bodily 
 life. 
 
 This latter apparently unflattering condition with reference 
 to the body of man, becomes nevertheless the greatest of all 
 boons conferred upon the human being, upon reflection, 
 that man's mind, so coexistent within a perishable body, 
 
OK, THE GLORY OF NATURAL DEATH. 5 
 
 attains to that reason ing power, which is endowed with attri- 
 butes of spiritual strength, unparalelled elsewhere in nature, 
 enabling it to rejoicingly appreciate the fact of life at any 
 time, and everywhere upon earth, whenever it correctly in- 
 terprets and properly directs the senses to utilize nature. 
 Thus its own conviction of the purpose of the creation of man 
 for the production of moral actions, being indeed fully estab- 
 lished, their execution in daily personal intercourse with 
 fellow-men, realises for him contentment, happiness, and a 
 cheerful submission to natural death. 
 
 By this particular argument, I come upon a large number 
 of suicides. Case No. 1 Man, incapable of comprehending 
 that although God is Nature, that Nature is not God, and 
 that the first invisible atom of space having necessarily been 
 matter, and grown even into what is so far visible of the 
 universe in colossality, must have been created; and in as 
 much as any inanimate substance cannot create itself, in 
 other words, give life to itself, it was created, and by the 
 only possible alternative, of a spiritual agency a God; whose 
 spiritual power being infinite, because positively untraceable 
 by the mind of man, not only proves by the life of nature 
 that it was so, but by the first inspiration of a child, 
 that it is possible; which inspiration or dawn of reason, 
 although its spiritual life here sprung from clarified matter, 
 and its vitality continues to be sustained by it, because 
 nature influencing it, yet its power of active subjectivitly, viz: 
 consciousness/ which it gradually develops, stronger and 
 brighter, until it abates in old age, is no longer matter, but a 
 life of itself; spiritual, because distinct from man's material 
 existence. 
 
 This spiritual strength, being entirely distinct from all 
 organic matter of nature, therefore rests plausibly upon the 
 same principle as God's inconceivable omnisciency, being 
 capacitated as soon as the body is mature of being creative, 
 not only of matter, as on the par with the life of nature in its 
 organism, but of being alone in nature creative of intellectual 
 
6 THE CHARMS OF LIFE; 
 
 inspirations, as evidently in the design of a God's own for 
 eternal purposes, and guaranteed by the distinction of man's 
 mind over the instinct of the -animal, and all other creations 
 upon earth, having animation equivalent to life in nature. 
 
 Thus, God having created matter for purposes of his own, 
 the interesting and curious mystery enshrouding its necessity 
 in the form of an inconceivably vast accumulation of a con- 
 stantly miscegenating more or less animated matter from 
 the stellar system to the molecule of the earth, with man as 
 a race, existing now by more than a thousand millions upon 
 it, which latter, in an astronomical point of view is a barely 
 noticeable part of the Universe at large, yet, notwithstand- 
 ing, is the only planet, which, at least the scientist presumes 
 to suppose, can be inhabited by man, then again the period 
 of time allotted to man's life upon earth, being ordered so 
 very brief for the production of conspicuously useful actions, 
 and his body subjected to such unremitteiit and vigilant care 
 on the part of the mind over the senses in their adherence to 
 nature concerning health this astounding mystery so com- 
 pletely captivating the mind of man in regard to God's Spir- 
 itual power and so reverently realizing that power when the 
 eye beholds the inimitable designs of all that is nature, es- 
 pecially when assisted by astronomical study or in pursuit of 
 microscopic research, is the towering cause of man's contem- 
 plation upon eternal life and creates that abiding faith in the 
 certainty of a God's every day's surveillaut Spiritual care over 
 nature and that exquisite certainty for his provision for man's 
 soul hereafter, which is the hope or anchor of this life in the 
 storms of adversity and the origin of man's submissive piety. 
 
 They are the parent feelings of man's sovereign dignity to 
 honor the Great Euler by steady useful labor in obedience to 
 nature, during the fleet instant of life, as in reality the only 
 time given to, and demanded of him to do right in, which 
 the sweet home of childhood and afterwards a universal free 
 and competent education for the purpose of personally apply- 
 ing their benefits to man's daily actions among the people, 
 
Oil, THE UL011Y OF NATUIIAL DEATH 
 
 teach him how to do, a-iid to rest in his grave assured that he 
 is all right hereafter. 
 
 This contemplation, accustoming man to think of God 
 while at labor, to feel convinced that His Spirit is omnipres- 
 ent, and that every pulsation of the heart should be to please 
 him, is the only bulwark which holds out strong enough 
 through life to shield man against the storms of adversity. 
 It is so strong, because it is natural, directing man's entire 
 power of the mind to the full utilization of the instant of life 
 as in strict accordance with the will of God, read from the 
 open book of nature. 
 
 As far, however, as a futurity anterior to death is concerned, 
 charitable duties incumbent upon our families, or relations, 
 fellowmen in sight and out of sight, demand compliance with 
 the rights of civilization, substantiating society upon the 
 moral basis of single marriage, (as early as maturity will 
 reasonably permit, for the very potent reason of self-respect, 
 which, unheeded, results in No. 2, the largest class of suicides : 
 the imbecile malcontents,) a competent, free and universal 
 education, and that republican fellowship of man, which by 
 its sworn fidelity to law and order, renders labor more effect- 
 ive in the strong, elevates the education of the poor, and 
 benevolence towards the helpless, to a God loving principle, 
 and makes the consequences of man's mistakes in life, less 
 onerous for him to bear. 
 
 So freedom is guarded against power; liberty appreciated 
 by moral conduct; the independence of man as a sovereign 
 being honored by such a fearless union of strength, for the 
 protection of man's free will, vote and voice against imposi- 
 tion and pernicious selfish aggrandisement from individuals, 
 cliques and clans; the life of man made a continued feast, 
 and God honored with fillial piety. 
 
 The great, brilliant and fiery sun we behold as nearest to 
 this planet, and belonging to the vast and harmonious system 
 of nature, having been made subservient from so immense a 
 
8 THE CHARMS OF LIFE; 
 
 distance to assist in this direction of the universe, by animat- 
 ing this little paradisiacal earth, consequently,. man upon it, 
 the mind conceives from this visible and tangible demonstra- 
 tion of God's ordinance, not merely the awe-inspiring ornnis- 
 ciency of his power in general, and directly the importance 
 attached to the physical existence of man, conditioned as his 
 body is subject to warmth, frail and puny; above all, short- 
 lived, yet containing that mind which is created to conduct 
 its intellectual labor, whether mentally conceived or manually 
 performed in broad daylight, in order that it can so best direct 
 the senses to perform their necessary functions for sustaining 
 physical life, as man is forced to in common with most ani- 
 mated creations of nature, by hunger, thirst, and sleep, at 
 regular intervals, and to realize for itself happiness, and for 
 the body health, as in which latter state only, it can be thor- 
 oughly vigorous, arrive at happiness through labor, estimate 
 exactly the importance of life by enjoying its incomparable 
 bliss in timely single marriage and social intercourse with 
 fellowmen, at the same time become cheerfully submissive to 
 natural death, to which the hour-glass of time gently and un- 
 erringly points, as being the most important of all the instruc- 
 tive episodes of terrestrial life, it being the cradle of another 
 life hope rocked by faith. 
 
 Were these aforesaid facts less demonstrative, consequently 
 less palpable, and their truth less universally conceived, less 
 verified by all mankind; therefore, not realized and not 
 experienced by all the race alike, the simple creation of mat- 
 ter only, as contemplated upon in the visible section of the 
 universe; in particular, the phenomena of nature in general, 
 the gradual miscegenation of matter here, from the invisible 
 molecule to the formation of the earth, with man's frail body 
 upon it, so insignificant of strength in comparison with the 
 Pachyderm ; so inferior in delicacy, if not beauty and love- 
 liness, to the flora around us, our sisters; and so confined to 
 the ground in comparison with the privileges of the condor, 
 would be very apt to cast a gloom over the mind of man; that 
 

 OE, THE GLORY OF NATURAL DEATH, 9 
 
 its spirit is at all required to wait, and shall not now break 
 the fetters of its bodily encasement, in order to at once con- 
 ceive God in his ruling spiritual power exclusively, and to be 
 with the great ruling spirit, explanatory of the necessity for 
 this terrestrial, as well as an eternal life, culminating in a 
 full perception of the origin of the master spirit which 
 gloom, an ingratitude towards God in the face of life received, 
 and his obvious will, to patiently wait until natural death, as 
 demonstrated by the appearance of a centenarian, again help- 
 less as his life was in childhood, and the ruling order over 
 nature upon this earth at large, which so fully guarantees to 
 man not only constant care throughout life, by the fact 
 of its existence, but the joys of life during the performance 
 of his labor as inferred of best by the sweet and thrilling song 
 of little puny birds, born in freedom like man, to sing in 
 liberty, to labor in independence, and to die a natural death 
 might, indeed, become very dangerous to the peace of mind 
 of man, and detrimental to his happiness in general, even 
 lend a show of a semblance of. exoneration to the atrocious 
 act of suicide, on account of its childish impetuosity, were it 
 not that the mind of man, as inmate of himself, who shall 
 have and has bodily life ; and now, simply because he had not 
 while others had, life in previous ages, the knowledge of 
 which is at his disposal, was so constituted as to be thoroughly 
 able to realize not only a pious but a joyous submission to 
 God's will to live, moreover to find that, the indescribably 
 felicitous serenity, which it enjoys, when in blissful repose 
 from its own creation of pure and good motives, by which is 
 understood in general parlance, the conscience of man, 
 afforded to the mind all the strength necessary to patiently 
 abide the time of natural death. 
 
 The creation of inspirations and thoughts, as sapped from 
 the surroundings of nature, constituting man's intellectual 
 life, their concentration into ideas and motives leading to 
 actions, visible by mankind, which, if practical and good, are 
 moral and serviceable to himself and fellowmen, form the 
 
10 THE CHARMS OF LIFE; 
 
 respective living age and in their mites from all combined 
 are civilization. These mites, amassing as they do upon the 
 rock of ages for the benefit of futurity, as the ages past, 
 serve man now instructively, explain upon rational ground 
 the purpose of the creation of the mind of man, while their 
 performance during the instant of life render it, animated by 
 its terrestrial charms, accessible to all, a joyful existence, 
 which realizing contentment, includes that meek patience for 
 a natural death, which is the obviously foremost duty, 
 incumbent upon man to fulfill towards God. 
 
 This identical state of man's happy mind, the result of a 
 serene conscience is not only the natural consequence of the 
 good action of civilized man, but his verification of the truth 
 of his faith in an omniscient God as well as his obedience 
 shown towards Him in regard to the appreciation of life as 
 tendered to him. It is indeed life fully realized; it is the 
 nucleus of that ineffable bliss, so rapturous in its effect to, 
 so pervading in its fullness; the mind of man which, signify- 
 ing happiness, is designed by a loving God to reconcile man 
 to the cumbersome condition of his bodily existence in nature. 
 
 Were happiness not an experience : were its condition not 
 an incontestable reality, the creation of nature with all its 
 sightly splendor, its harmony, its vastness, its perpetual mo- 
 tion of force, as a reproducing agency of matter, could not 
 but appear as altogether superfluous and dead; whereas again, 
 a blissful state of the mind of man, representing a serene 
 conscience, proves itself throughout the tenor of life as the 
 formidable bulwark against the towering surf of an unreal 
 adversity, exhausting and reducing itself to a dashing spray, 
 necessary, as is the foam to the ocean, to show man his fol- 
 lies by the cross he has to carry, in due consequence of same 
 and to guide him to fortitude to amend himself by commenc- 
 ing to labor industriously, to act sensibly, and to be steady 
 in the course of righteousness at the helm of ship, when, 
 again in a hurricane of the consequences of his errors upon 
 the ocean of life. 
 
OB, THE GLORY OF NATURAL DEATH. 11 
 
 The subtilty of the serenity of man's conscience, conse- 
 quent upon his moral actions during so short a period of 
 individual life, slowly, but gradually, increasing with each 
 age, as composed of man's matured labor to advance morality, 
 serves not only as another obvious truth of the purpose of 
 the creation of the mind of man, but shall teach him the 
 most important lesson of life, viz: to value the past and the 
 future LESS, than the instant of life, that the knowledge of 
 the past, and his good intentions for the future after death, 
 are fruitless unless applied by him to a set purpose of good 
 noiv: beautiful blossoms only, which however do not mature 
 and perish upon the tree of life, on account of theories and 
 blissful fancies not moistening with the sweat of brow the 
 ground of civilization upon which man appears in life, and 
 that the accumulation of ages, which the mind of man in its 
 sovereign existence is directed to contemplate upon, in order 
 to fully realize the importance of life for spiritually universal 
 purposes, indefinable therefore by the mind of man, just as 
 much as God's own origin is, should thus increase his efforts 
 and energy to the utmost ennobling extent. 
 
 It is to a tendency of the mind, becoming injudiciously 
 unregardful of the great gift of the presence, in fact, wasting 
 it superciliously, that in cases of dire calamity, which man 
 can learn in active life among the people only to regard as, 
 and find in reality to be unreal, emanating as all adversity 
 does, with the exception only of grief decreed by God 
 through death of beloved ones, for which however his all 
 considerate love administers the healing balm of time from 
 man's own or his ancestors inadvertence, that a great num- 
 ber of cases of suicides are traced to, in the lack of fortitude 
 to manly bsar the consequences of their follies. 
 
 Case No.. 3 : I now refer to despair on account of hereditary 
 incurable diseases which man is obliged to admit the truth 
 of, when his mind, in which he cannot evade the eye of God 
 directs him to analyze his doleful chagrin and must admit 
 
12 THE CHARMS OF LIFE; 
 
 that, he or his ancestors trespassed wildly and unwisely upon 
 nature. 
 
 Case No. 4: Man, who aware of the superiority of his inind 
 over other animated creations of nature, studiously alienates 
 himself from the people and aberrates his intellect with vis- 
 ionary preparations for the future after death, without, how- 
 ever, substantiating the same by faithful actions towards 
 God in serviceable intercourse with fellowmen, as demanded 
 of him by life in his possession and the peremptory order of 
 nature, governed by the stern will of that God, the aforesaid 
 man in so silly a manner wishes to please. 
 
 No. 5 : Man, appearing among strangers, who is so impol- 
 itic, as to retain the manners and customs of the people of 
 his native land without improving upon his general know- 
 ledge of the w r orld by studying those of his new acquaintan- 
 ces; the consequences of such a clannish life, which reduces 
 travel to a sight seeing, time wasting frivolity, is, that he 
 finds himself forlorn, wherever he may be and in whatever 
 circumstances he may live, soon falls a prey to weariness, and 
 if wealthy, often to sensuality, but in the end, to poverty 
 surely, for the man, who does not study life among the peo- 
 ple, where the vote is cast which makes the law, and the dol- 
 lar is made which honors labor, is sure to lose his millions 
 and blame the land for it, instead of his own stupidity 
 exactly the same refers to man, who lands among strangers 
 poor : without labor he defies nature, which is inexorable, and 
 civilization, which, although lenient, sternly insists upon will 
 to labor, and is ever ready to accommodate any earnest ap- 
 plicant in robust health, with innumerable opportunities to 
 utilize his prowess according to capacity and to be surely 
 rewarded for it; as to the helpless, it honors God by gently 
 enfolding those with its broad system of charitable institu- 
 tions. 
 
 The sixth case : The most deplorable of all cases of suicide 
 is man; who, very young, consequently inexperienced of the 
 
OK, THE GLORY OF NATURAL DEATH. 13 
 
 world, loves ardently to distraction, but not having had time 
 to study human nature thoroughly, and become aware that 
 the divine inspiration of love, which leads to single marriage 
 in civilized life and its golden wedding, as the result of recip- 
 rocated tender love and the consequences of each other's 
 respectful treatment, is in a lady, as unaccountable as it is 
 accountable in his own true, loudly palpitating heart; there- 
 fore, that the reciprocity of the- intense feeling of hallowed 
 love, as emanating from the sovereign will of the mind of a 
 person of either sex, and resting upon character through life 
 securely only, is entirely voluntary, and cannot possibly be 
 coerced, not even by the most heart-melting and truthful 
 protestations of the sincerity of affection neither by any 
 conventional or worldly consideration whatsoever, nor counte- 
 nanced by assiduous study, or obliterated by travel, or indeed 
 by time ; but can find its successful solution only in a com- 
 plete harmony of tastes the consequence of general associ- 
 ations and subsequent inclinations, a certain obsequiousness 
 and perseverance, reasonably guided by hope. 
 
 The Charms of Life are fully realized by man through his 
 moral actions, the result of an earnest study of life of the 
 past, when the knowledge so acquired has been individually 
 applied to the present for such useful purposes, as to merit 
 acknowledgment from civilization of the day, of each respect- 
 ive age. 
 
 Such an acknowledgment from fellowmen, affords to the 
 mind an intense gratification, which attaches man to life, its 
 duties, which are its purpose, its usefulness, which is its 
 necessity. 
 
 This gratification, being a combination of spiritual and 
 temporal delight attains to intensity through a reflex of God's 
 spiritual presence from the conscience of man upon the lat- 
 ter's action to the world. 
 
 
14 THE CHAEMS OF LIFE; 
 
 The intensity, therefore, rests upon faith, and is unattain- 
 able without this ideality because the force -of reason, as 
 here obtained in nature, and culminating in faith, otherwise 
 weaning the mind of man is necessarily ultimately lost in a 
 maze of bewildering reflections upon the fact of nature 
 through its frantic research to trace the code to the laws by 
 which its miscegenated matter is governed, leaving man in 
 possession only of a meaningless life, without purpose and 
 necessity, indifferent to his actions among fellowrnen, a uni- 
 verse's triumphant existence and his life individually upon 
 earth. 
 
 The Charms of Life are consequently issues from the laws 
 of nature and realizable, as well as accessible to the human 
 race as civilized, and consist in doing good, because no feel- 
 ing kindles a more intense delight, no action of man is more 
 sensible, than a voluntary unselfish act of kindness; it honors 
 God by loving man; man's own sorrows, in itself unreal, be- 
 cause amendable, are forgotten while he aids another; no tri- 
 umph greater, no wealth more enormous, than to save man, 
 who apparently is lost, to assist him in regaining his happi- 
 ness. 
 
 The immutable laws of nature, under which the reason of 
 man is developed, and at the expense of eternal happiness is 
 directed towards a full realization of the terrestrial charms of 
 life, as these present themselves daily to the mind with the 
 aid of senses through what is new and sudden, are the spir- 
 itual instigation and the physical authority, to which man 
 submissively and gladly, bows during the fleet instant of time, 
 which only is his. The charms of life are therefore a conso- 
 lation, as well as a delight until natural death. 
 
 First, They are a consolation, because a combination of 
 spiritual and temporal fancy and impression both are nat- 
 ural : to fancy to be with the Spirit of God after death as well 
 as now, is natural, because of the illimitable sway of reason, 
 and to be impressed that His Spirit pervades all nature, con- 
 
OB, THE GLORY OF NATURAL DEATH. 15 
 
 sequently is its life, and the origin of the matter of nature, a 
 creation of His Spiritual power is natural, because the mind 
 of man, as clarified matter of nature, during the growth of 
 infancy, proves it, and reason, the matured strength of the 
 mind demonstrates it as natural, therefore as possible, be- 
 sides being the only alternative. 
 
 Thus: faith is life because the purpose of the creation of 
 nature being unknown, its necessity likewise, nature itself 
 must appear as a living death; a fiery steed, mounted by the 
 body of man, reigned in by mind, guided by reason, and gal- 
 loped through the plains of darkness of a brief, meaningless 
 existence, vice versa: life is faith, because faith does not 
 dwell upon the origin of the Spirit of God. but guides rea- 
 son to dwell upon the origin of a miscegenated matter of na- 
 ture, to the use of which man is confined. 
 
 Second, The charms of life are a delight, because they 
 appear as the purpose of, and the necessity for the creation 
 of man; the crammed condition of his body being so situated 
 that, according to the laws of nature, sensualr impressions 
 shall commingle with mental delights and be governed by 
 intelligence. This fact is the crowning point of faith: it 
 honors God by submitting to nature in an intelligent way ; 
 although God is everywhere, and man never alone, when alone, 
 in this labyrinth of simply animated matter, yet it is danger- 
 ous, to view life in that way, because .it is unnatural, and 
 nature demands that labor be forthcoming, civilization that 
 it is publicly appreciated, and a civilized man's necessities, 
 that it is converted into money, for which the public are ne- 
 cessary. 
 
 Man alone, gradually falls to pieces; a lonely pine upon 
 the Potrero of life, exposed to constant gales. Besides, 
 nothing is alone everything has company nature is frater- 
 nal, living in a constant jubilee; the people its jolly host, 
 God and man the honored guests. Where God visits, man 
 is a gentleman, and the woman a lady, as the world is one 
 
16 THE CHARMS OF LIFE; 
 
 palace to therein politely greet whom you meet, and as inti- 
 macy is voluntary, so is social liberty distinct from political. 
 A life among the people, converting strangers into acquaint- 
 ances, ideas become unbiased, man's judgment just, as simi- 
 larity of tastes and associations form friendship and love. 
 Nature, by its production of two distinct sexes, peremptorily 
 demands single marriage, and civilization points to it at as 
 early a period in life as maturity will reasonably permit, in 
 order that the sanctum of the golden wedding may be reached, 
 which treasures up the archives of the best spent lives. 
 
 As the baby is the most important creature of creation, 
 containing the germinating strength of the mind of man, its 
 mother's spirit of love, the most intense and lasting senti- 
 ment; the aurora borealis, nature's most awe inspiring feature, 
 and the mucuna bennetti of New Guinea, the handsomest 
 flower, quite lately, although of course, somewhat boldly, so 
 acknowledged, festooning itself upon the cannibal islands, 
 so does an active life among the people prove best, that the 
 bloom of happiness, allotted to mankind as so developed 
 from earnest labor, producing moral actions, can embellish 
 every mind and everywhere as in strict accordance with the 
 particular nature of its own culture. To direct that culture 
 wisely in the child is the object of single marriage, to further 
 expand it the object of universal free and competent educa- 
 tion, and to apply it to life the object of civilization in order 
 that man may realize its inestimable worth everywhere. 
 
 As. the mind of man is directed towards God everywhere 
 in nature, because nature gives the inducement to reason to 
 comprehend his omnisciency, so is krowledge of the use of 
 nature, for the wants of man, that intellectual labor which 
 realizes the charms of life and leads to the happiness of man . 
 
 With God so comprehended, man is indeed in Paradise 
 every instant of his life and fulfills his duties towards him- 
 self and fellowmen cheerfully and efficiently. He ha's got 
 tranquility, the repose of reason within the realm of eternity. 
 
OR, THE GLORY OF NATURAL DEATH. 17 
 
 No worldly ambition as naturally expected from the produc- 
 tion of a moral action can outglory the one to please God 
 first, whether afterwards such action receives the highest 
 encomium or experiences the extreme of a reverse from the 
 world at large ignoring man's mite of labor, he is chagrined 
 only, but never subdued in fortitude : he continues to live 
 calmly and deliberately until natural death: a studious 
 observer independent of himself of the charms of life, as 
 these present themselves to the world. These have there- 
 fore a very significant meaning, viz: That they are realized 
 through the peculiar position man is brought into in ^aii- 
 hood when he needs them most, either as consolation or en- 
 couragment. Applied more directly to the fulfillment of the 
 duties as well as the necessities of life, the gathering of 
 knowledge from nature is that research, which particularizes 
 the proper application of knowledge to life. Education facil- 
 itates the gathering of knowledge, which, directed towards 
 investigation of the organism of nature, produces science, 
 which is important, because thereby the knowledge of nature 
 is made especially subservient to man's use. 
 
 Thus nature instructing, the mind conceives, which is sen- 
 timent, reason receives it and faith is born. Faith is the 
 ready admission by reason, as sapped through the mind of 
 man from nature, that nature's life is dead, that it is not life, 
 which lives in nature, because it is and is represented by a 
 reproducing force of the effect of its cause, harmoniously 
 blended .by order, and governed by immutable laws, but the 
 Spirit of God which pervades all the dead life of nature from 
 reason, the strength of the mind of man down to the mind 
 itself, as the most clarified matter of nature and further down 
 to all the unclarified simply animated matter of the universe 
 at large, inclusive of this little earth. 
 
 Faith is therefore the only Life which lives, because it is 
 not the reason of man which lives, but the force of it, "faith," 
 which upholds its strength, while reason, simply as strength 
 of the mind of man, which latter again as clarified matter of 
 
18 THE CHARMS OF LIFE; 
 
 nature, made spiritual to guide the senses in their functions, 
 to sustain the body of man, is, without faith, dead in any 
 man, just as dead as mind and body is together with ^very- 
 thing else, which man beholds 'moving automatically in 
 nature, either noisily amidst silence, or silhouettes of shadow 
 in effulgent light. 
 
 Innumerable cases of suicide are traced to a forlorn condi- 
 tion of the reason of man to comprehend the above; lacking 
 the force to its strength-"faith " it is dead, and'being dead, the 
 senses so left unguided by a powerless reasoning mind, pre- 
 dorffinate at once over, and tear with zoological ferocity man 
 into a premature decomposition of an unnaturally early grave, 
 or thrust him headlong into suicidal death, not imfrequently 
 under the most trivial provocations of either mental anguish 
 or physical pain. 
 
 A life among the people applies faith ; faith verifies hope, 
 and hope rests in itself upon personal virtue to honor God, 
 to ennoble one's self and to love God by doing good to others, 
 by laboring joyously and by waiting patiently until natural 
 death. What is 'natural is good. Civilization, including" the 
 last redeemed cannibal, attests thereby that every human 
 being has redeeming traits, and were he the most abandoned 
 of criminals. 
 
 This indeed man finds out only in a life among the people, 
 where to his utter astonishment man is thought good enough 
 at any time to come to his senses, although civilization at the 
 same time reproving severely according to necessity criminal 
 acts, committed. 
 
 It is a duty towards God to respect life, and towards man 
 that the law of civilization should put the ingrate out of 
 harms way. At the same time it is a grievous error that the 
 open presence of vice should instill immorality, as both vice 
 and virtue in themselves voluntary have their origin every- 
 where. On the contrary, man's virtuous habits receive their 
 
OR, THE GLOEY OF NATURAL DEATH, 19 
 
 test and full consolidation exactly in a life among strangers, 
 at the same time serving as an example to counteract evil. 
 
 Thus virtue shall not be viewed as a selfish hoarded-up 
 treasure, but become instrumental to antidote the evil and 
 serve civilization directly, through man appearing in public. 
 As virtue and vice are no personalities, just as heaven and 
 hell are ho localities, but simply terms to denote the degree 
 of man's purity implying that vice is amendable, and virtue 
 strong to denounce vice within the breast of man so it 
 depends not upon the words of man, but his actions in life 
 among fellow men, to convince another of that he is vir- 
 tuous, or at least able to counteract the bad within himself. 
 A virtuous man is knowledge of the world personified; the 
 consummate knowledge of himself ; an illustrated life of 
 character; the luscious ripe fruit of reason; and nowhere 
 does he attain to that highest standard of civilization more 
 beneficially to himself and prominently as an example to 
 others, than in a life among the people, because his talent is 
 constantly and earnestly exercised, making his varied ac- 
 complishments really serviceable to himself and fellow men, 
 to mutual advantage, while the old adage, " Tell me with 
 whom you associate and I will tell who you are," is in no wise 
 interfered with. Indeed such a life does not imply the neces- 
 sity of familiarity, because intimacy being voluntary, remains 
 always a matter of choice. It is there where he receives a 
 constant encouragement from strangers to add to his own 
 knowledge of the duties of life, and where his views further 
 expand and correct themselves similar to the select society of 
 ladies, in an evening circle, whose very presence, restraining 
 man within bounds of decorum and preventing him from 
 losing the grace of his manners, proves to man an incompar- 
 able advantage, because the time so spent not only prevents 
 him from falling a prey to the indulgences consequent upon 
 the possibility of encouragement given to vice by man in 
 evening hours, but from not exposing his principles to the 
 
20 THE CHARMS OF LIFE; 
 
 possibility of impairment, and his rectitude to manifest 
 temptation. 
 
 To a gentleman of the world there is nothing more annoy- 
 ing than vulgarity, It is disagreeable, because it is low; it 
 is unprofitable, because it is the worst t}'pe of ignorance. No 
 position, wealth or learning, shields a man from contempt 
 who disgraces the " gentleman," by low manners, language, 
 and advice, as being the index of low principles and their 
 cohorts of shame. To be unacquainted with him is a far 
 greater fortune, than in boon companionship with him, to 
 waste reputation and self respect. The friendship from such 
 a man is always nominal. A low person, no matter how in- 
 fluential or rich he may be, is never permanently reliable, 
 except in cases that lead to the destruction of both character 
 the flower of life, and friendship the reflex of one's self. 
 
 As it is the outward influence to the mind which makes 
 man good or bad, according to the degrees of virtue and vice 
 it offers, so it is exactly in daily life among the people, where, 
 on account of the large field it represents, man learns proper 
 discrimination of what is good or bad, guarding his mind 
 accordingly. The people are an observatory of the actions of 
 man, noting down with astronomical accuracy the minutest 
 traits and all clandestine movements of man upon the horizon 
 of society. There is no shirking from the argus eye of the 
 world-like in private society. 
 
 As to a suicide, he is never thought of but with surprise. 
 Like a meteor, the extraordinary phenomenon startles for an 
 instant, then equally instantaneously vanishes from sight. It 
 was seen to fall, that's all, which is significant from memory. 
 In regard to the object of a life among the people, this most 
 natural mode of life, the original ground of civilization, it is 
 to afford everybody an opportunity to place labor remunera- 
 tively, in order to achieve which, vice must be eradicated. 
 This being the great obstacle, public opinion does it, at least 
 anything like effectually. 
 
OR, THE GLORY OF NATURAL DEATH. 21 
 
 In the U. S. of America, man, who votes, is supposed to 
 feel keenly the good opinion of fellow men; he goes to the 
 polls under the canopy of heaven, glorying in his soul that he 
 is a free man, and lives under the most liberal laws of civili- 
 zation; he feeJs deeply that he is a ttivilized man, because of 
 his personal freedom, which he enjoys, and that he is of im- 
 portance, because he is so civilized. He is an American, 
 because the President does not bow the less low to the laws 
 of the laud than he does. This inspires him. It makes an 
 ennobling impression upon him in spite of himself; he cannot 
 help it; it is the dawn of that gratitude which denotes the 
 full presence of God in him, and vice receives a fatal check. 
 Education appears at first sight to have little to do with it. 
 Whether elaborately educated or not, man feels at least to 
 some extent the principle of justice so exercised in public, 
 yet, while it points in the silence of his soul to himself as a 
 sovereign being, man yearns for knowledge. The vote does 
 more towards implanting a desire for knowledge and to draw 
 the metal out of man, than any other external encourage- 
 ment. The most violent become submissive when they 
 behold in broad daylight the equal love of God, as demons- 
 trated by the anatomy of man, done justice to by over forty 
 millions of grateful human beings, irrespective of each one's 
 knowledge, and respective only of their rights as civilized 
 men. 
 
 The best feelings are aroused in man by the right to vote, 
 and transferring his thoughts from God to man, he conceives 
 that that right is the most kind of all the kind deeds he ever 
 received from fellow man. Though the voter may not fully 
 discriminate why he should vote for such and such a man, 
 yet he comprehends that it depends upon his vote that the 
 other is elected. He feels keenly this importance, because 
 he understands by it why he himself is independent, and, 
 from his own impulse, rather seeks and consults strangers, 
 than listens to persuasion, to guide him in his judgment. 
 Similar to a forlorn girl, whose immaculate virtue is her 
 
22 THE CHARMS OF LIFE; 
 
 strong defence, so is he correct in his impulse to do right, as 
 she is noble in her moral courage. 
 
 Upon the foreign burn citizen this right to vote makes a 
 particularly gratifying impression; he is doubly grateful, 
 because generally he comes from a country where no such 
 human rights were extended to him. As to the people, they 
 are to him a kinship. Everybody exchanges ideas; every- 
 body labors; everybody is off-hand, comparatively kind; at 
 the same time everybody appears to him as if left alone, 
 which, applied to himself, he experiences what is altogether 
 inestimable the breath of liberty, its sweet delight, and the 
 sacred duty to guard it against every pernicious power. 
 
 As to the practical issue of liberty upon the morals of man 
 outside of the U. S., wars slay far more people than vice does 
 individuals, both here and there; and as to the influence of 
 churches, all over the world, persuasion, by planting virtue 
 upon the paths of vice, fails signally in making a corrupt 
 man act at his labor on Monday as he prayed on Sunday, 
 because vice can only be eradicated by man s own bitter 
 experience of the consequences of his badness as these 
 never fail to reach him sooner or later with a redounding 
 force upon himself, convincing him of the folly of vice to his 
 own interests, as incurred by his own free will, at the fearful 
 expense of the peace of his mind. 
 
 Public opinion, profiting by the past, by leaving man 
 severely alone, as to his will to act, and steadily relying 
 upon this comparatively enlightened age and its predomin- 
 ating force of general good example, assists man so best to 
 come to his senses. Surrounded by progress, he cannot but 
 fall into the wake of earnest labor and a virtuous life, in conse- 
 quence of the time so occupied destroying the time for fostering 
 vice. Labor, thus substituted for idleness, necessarily trains 
 man into a mode of life both natural and efficient, to carry the 
 point, which, viewed from the standpoint of the world's 
 experience, is superior to all other imaginable practicable 
 means of extirpating vice. 
 
 
OR, THE GLORY OF NATURAL DEATH 23 
 
 This fact is best verified in the case of the vice of intem- 
 perance; man here laboring voluntarily, falls to a less degree 
 a prey to excess, than the forced laborer as well as, of course, 
 the idler everywhere, besides is far more frequent among 
 comparatively middle-aged man, than old; to plead exhaust- 
 ing toils, that these invite excess is fallacious, from the fact 
 that the thirst assuaging drink is natural, and nature's demand 
 imperative, as well as authoritative as to non-intoxicating bev- 
 erages; to assuage the craving of thirst is therefore stimulat- 
 ing the system and conducive to health, while again a time- 
 killing indulgence of the sort the consequence of idleness 
 and sensuality invites vice and ruins the constitution of man; 
 neither does it appear that the street life is positively dan- 
 gerous as an example in the case of intemperance. Man is 
 rather discouraged there; while in private he is at the mercy 
 of this particular vice. Money has a great deal to do with 
 all vices. Poverty, although surely not a praise of man, is a 
 steel armor shielding him against the fangs of vice. Intem- 
 perance, together with all other sensualities is pernicious to 
 man, because these are indulged in by free will, and the very, 
 fear of being detected by the argus eye of the world, proves 
 that a life among the people can save man best from himself 
 as there is at least the clear eye of the law watchful upon 
 him. As to the would-be-suicide, the noise and bustle of 
 the joyous multitude deters him from committing the act: it 
 works like a charm, like the sun, which disperses the fog, so 
 does that natural mirth disperse the gloomy thoughts, where- 
 as in private and among acquaintances, whose tastes very 
 likely correspond, ruin is accelerated. 
 
 All invitations of vice, all temptations to act viciously are 
 engendered by example, by some pernicious external influence 
 Where the pe:.ple are free and labor most cheerfully in con- 
 sequence, vice is proportionately less deplored of both in 
 extent of crime as well as example. As the desire to get 
 rich without labor is the main substance of vice, begetting 
 the hallucination of leading a life of towering ambition, or of 
 
24 THE CHARMS OF LIFE; 
 
 ease and comfort, in short, of general- independence from 
 wants, so is such a tendency of the mind the direct road 
 towards the complete destruction of man's true happiness in 
 life within the bottomless pit of ignorance and its endless 
 disappointments or of sensuality and its pitiless satiation. 
 A life among the people constantly dissolves the diseased 
 crust of intemperance, pride, silliness, in short, an unloving 
 disposition by the many chances it affords, which unexpect- 
 edly appeal to the heart to do good and to aid one another 
 in stimulating this country's moral growth, which, as a re- 
 public, is founded upon combined action in gratitude towards 
 God for life received upon earth. 
 
 These chances, which, like the minute to come, were un- 
 known to man a minute ago, increasing as minutes do, be- 
 longing to eternity, the sun in warmth upon the morn, melt 
 among the people the most obdurate heart, imperceptibly, 
 into feeling, gently awakening the dormant Godliness of the 
 mind to rejoice in a sincere love of life upon earth by enjoying 
 its full worth at useful labor and united participation in the 
 care for the demands of civilization, for the two-fold purpose 
 of man's own and the happiness of others. 
 
 Through the force of habit> acquired among the people, 
 man alone is saved from such gloom, which his carelessness 
 to properly guard the entrance to his mind against pernicious 
 influence, is the only cause of, besides finding that the world 
 is a far more spacious place to enjoy life in, than is the little 
 arrangement of his own, which is the oasis of man's home 
 upon the great desert of nature's loneliness. 
 
 Man observing among the people at once, that thousands 
 are far less favored by circumstances than he is, is encour- 
 aged, and by the powerful aid of that encouragment he is 
 bound to find himself rescued from despair by the sight of 
 fellowmen, some cripples, others sick; then again by the 
 many so cheerful in appearance and in reality more so within, 
 who toil hard to maintain often large families; it is there 
 
OR, THE GLORY OF NATURAL DEATH. 25 
 
 where man finds natural sympathy, although he is keenly 
 scanned and has to hear the broad truth from stranger's lips 
 in regard to himself as fellowman, which, on account of the 
 weight of its unceremoniousness and accumulation through 
 life, makes the man of the world, the most intelligent being 
 because they were fellowmen, who taught him to know him- 
 self. 
 
 The people's life is an exchange of joys and grief, of bliss 
 and consolation, and cannot but prove beneficial to all men. 
 Man, in despair, in particular learns that to parade 
 before the world his want of foresight, his fagged enery, or 
 his weakness in the shape of glaring vice, which with him 
 either his looks or seediness betray, is a grievous error, 
 because it is unmanly, entirely unprofitable to others, and 
 very suggestive of the truth, " Tell me with whom you asso- 
 ciate and I tell you who you are." It is there were man 
 meets man the man of the world as suddenly appearing 
 everywhere who, by one look knowing whose worthy child of 
 genius the other is, brings such a person to himself not at 
 all with harshness, but with one look of inoffensive disdain; 
 at the same time he considers the really unfortunate man 
 never as a bore, nor the self-made millionaire as a deity, 
 because he respects both on account of their character being 
 good. Such a person is a man, because he has got a heart; 
 he is a sovereign, because he considers it beneath his dignity 
 to envy anyone. Above all, people, rich or poor, wise or un- 
 wise, have constantly to learn. A business man, for instance, 
 learns the most the more he understands to convert 
 strangers into passing acquaintances, because these bring 
 him new ideas, which represent money. It becoming a 
 habit, man becomes both shrewd and graceful; he learns 
 that all business is dead unless his plausible talk, his bland 
 manner and his perseverance and economy resusciate into 
 life and money the solid goods upon the shelves, in the ware- 
 house, or in the coffers of the bank. 
 
26 THE CHARMS OF LIFE; 
 
 It is man, who sustains business; not his knowledge, 
 wealth, or standing; and it is character which sustains man; 
 not his credit. 
 
 There is neither any retiring from business in the pro- 
 gramme of such a man's life, because business habits have con- 
 solidated character, which, resting on virtue, and virtue on la- 
 bor, is inimical to a non-energetic life, a life of permanent leis- 
 ure. For a self-made man of wealth to idle is a sheer impossi- 
 bility, whereas an idler, coming into possession of sudden 
 wealth, is generally a restless, fidgety being; and, as an asso- 
 ciate to others, rather so-so, if not dangerous, representing a 
 life without brain -work, which naturally tends towards a col- 
 lapse of morals. Satiation, the fearful enemy of wealth, 
 follows him unrelentingly everywhere, until his happiness is 
 destroyed, leaving him naught but the feint of life. Nature 
 peremptorily demands labor from rich or poor, through force 
 of the senses, which have to be obeyed. So, wise is he who 
 interprets nature correctly and lives up to it faithfully as long 
 as manly vigor lasts has an object in view to labor for an 
 object which is directly useful to himself as well as to the 
 people, irrespective of any pecuniary necessity towards him- 
 self and family, and who requires as little for himself, which 
 costs unnecessary time and money as possible, because the 
 mind gains so much more freedom and strength for grand, 
 intellectual, really blissful ideas, creating and maintaining 
 refinement, and advancing knowledge, in proportion to what 
 a caretaking of superfluities and an indulgence in frivolities 
 would otherwise require of, and absorb of, attention. Man 
 civilized, lives through his refined mind : not through senses, 
 refining a rude nature. To burden the mind with non-intel- 
 lectual cares would make it naturally gross, absorbing time 
 as the expense of refinement and knowledge; and civilization, 
 like in America, where the greatest strides are made through 
 minds, from which the cares for wars and other impediments 
 are taken and directed into the channels of industry, accounts 
 for the wealth of the American people, their friendliness and 
 
OR, THE GLORY OF NATURAL DEATH. 27 
 
 taste. A love for the beautiful is engendered, diffusing itself 
 everywhere, and attaining to its highest standard of excel- 
 lence where ladies are concerned, and preside over it iii 
 domestic circles, diffusing joy, and gently and imperceptibly 
 governing the taste of man. Their beauty, grace, and incom- 
 parable taste in their own attire, is a powerful incentive to 
 man, as, naturally appreciative of the beautiful and arouse 
 within him the ambition to excel and benefit the world. 
 Their refining influence is indeed felt everywhere, extending 
 beneficially towards all the traits governing the character of 
 man, upon whicli happiness is consolidated. 
 
 The ladies, more than any other civilizing influence, pre- 
 vent man from falling a prey to the heart-hardening effects of 
 materialism, or those noisy indulgences which, although by 
 no means consequent upon the possession of unincumbered 
 wealth, lie but too readily in the wake of the seductive power 
 of ample funds. 
 
 The people at large want .to be diverted. What diverts, 
 cheers; what cheers, calms; what calms, solaces. Solace is 
 the parent of energy, seeking another to exchange ideas 
 with. 
 
 As it is the bold exchange of good and serviceable ideas 
 which is the origin of civilization and their combined force and 
 best possible application presents the grand spectacle, which 
 man beholds upon its living ground, its indestructible ped- 
 estal the people's life so is labor, this curious issue from a 
 set will to a set purpose, of conception and execution, of ap- 
 plication and usefulness, of mirth and necessity the sweat 
 of the brow of man : it is that part of the code of the laws by 
 which nature is governed, which applies the most sternly to 
 man, because of his superior intelligence. 
 
 The husbandry of labor gives wealth, the garden spot of 
 civilization. Unless carefully raked over by mutually ser- 
 viceable assistance, conceiving that man is indispensable to 
 another, and sprinkled every morning in unremitting care 
 
28 THE CHARMS OF LIFE; 
 
 with the refreshing amenities of conventional life, which, like 
 the dew-drops of the morn, so sweetly sympathetic as well as 
 brilliant, center in amiability and politeness, without which 
 virtue, the quint-essence of gentility, is imperfect, even 
 man's character, in danger of being misunderstood through 
 a defect in manners and temper, . subjecting him to annoy- 
 ance the blight of life the bud of contentment, which shall 
 develop the bloom of the charming flower of happiness, 
 planted by a loving God in the shadowy recesses of man's 
 heart, must inevitably be knicked, and wither upon the stem 
 of reason, so unnaturally abandoned by the would-be tenant 
 of God's surplus bounties of nature until natural death, and 
 in the meantime be left to the mercy of supercilious power or 
 the feint of sensuality. 
 
 Enterprise is often confounded with power, as labor is with 
 capital quite an erroneous application of the meaning ex- 
 pressed by these words. The true idiom of power is selfish- 
 ness, intolerance, and injustice; while enterprise signifies a 
 venturesome spirit, drawing out the resources of nature on a 
 grand scale, and advantageous to both man, as originator 
 of the plan and to fellow men. 
 
 Power is especially unfitted for this country, because of its 
 intolerant spirit. It is inimical to free and humane institu- 
 tions, to a kind and generous disposition of man. Power, 
 personified in its most vicious state, is the autocrat of the 
 feudal age. In the presence of God, of nature, and the race 
 of man, it is simply ridiculous, pointing to the ignorance of 
 the people at large, maintaining the existence of power, and 
 to the necessity of universal education to destroy it. 
 
 Labor and capital are, however, not hostile to each other. 
 Labor, well performed, being money, capital is accumulated 
 money, to be invested to create new fields for labor. Having 
 one origin, they are harmonious. The possession of wealth 
 is, if lawful, man's right, yet it is a curious freak of nature 
 that the labor of maintaining wealth is more arduous than the 
 
OR, THE GLORY OF NATURAL DEATH. 29 
 
 labor of producing it. All over the world, there is propor- 
 tionately less mirth among the hundreds of thousands of rich 
 than the hundreds of millions of the poor, because it affects 
 the mind more anxiously to invest money safely than to make 
 it. The cause of this anxiety is natural. The mind of the 
 rich is coerced by wealth, while the mind of the poor is 
 calmly submissive to the natural necessity of daily labor. 
 The demands of the latter upon life being little, their minds 
 enjoy greater freedom to refresh and recuperate themselves 
 in nature being ostensibly, if not practically, nearer God. 
 Neither is there danger connected with the necessity to labor. 
 Nature instructing, the sun rising, the linnet sings before 
 breakfast, heralding forth the cheering truth to man, that all 
 life is joy, that all earnest labor pays, and that none are 
 exempt from it. 
 
 Therefore is an active, useful life among the people the 
 most peremptory and obvious will of God, and as such, the 
 most efficient antidote to despair. In fact it is the only one, 
 because despair resting upon idleness, labor destroys the 
 force of bewildering thoughts. As tears are excused by the 
 heart, but considered unmanly by reason, so is the silent prayer 
 of the soul the voice of the heart, but unheeded by reason, 
 which sternly points to labor as aid from an omniscient lov- 
 ing God. 
 
 Life among the people is the most powerful remedy against 
 despair, because the world never acknowledges despair, and 
 its derision saves man. The world insists upon, that despair 
 is a phantom, shadowing forth the ghastly spectre of man's 
 own inner conviction tha.t he has grossly misinterpreted the 
 duties of civilized life, a fitful powerless scintillation of justi- 
 fication on his part, which instantaneously vanishes from 
 public eyesight, impressing everyone's reason with the fallacy 
 of despair and instead of creating pity because a life is in 
 danger, it creates contempt, because it dishonors man, who 
 having life has hope, and being a sovereign being, has the 
 strength of reason left unto the last to amend himself, and 
 
30 THE CHABMS OF LIFE; 
 
 to look upon life amidst the most threatening clouds of trib- 
 ulation as a sunbeam of God's will, enabling him to behold 
 a bountiful nature at his service, and to conceive that as long 
 as there is life, man can extricate himself from difficulties. 
 These difficulties the world never believes in, because they 
 demonstrate want of foresight, there being no external cause 
 sufficiently destructive to the peace of mind of man. The 
 people therefore consider man in despair legitimately at 
 fault; they care very little about the nature of that fault, be- 
 cause man's thoughts being unfathomable by others, appear- 
 ances may deceive; man's trouble is his concern, not theirs; 
 this is not callousness by any means, it is character, and 
 character is stern, requiring that man's thoughts should be 
 represented by worthy actions, at least be introduced to the 
 outside world by a proper demeanor, a dignified deportment, 
 which being the decorum of conventional life, as represented 
 by acquaintances and extending to the people at large, 
 man owes to civilization above everything else. It is 
 the gulf stream, in which the current of civilization runs 
 quickly through the oceans of life. Its distinguished feature 
 is its warmth, which are the amenities of civilized life, based 
 upon refinement, which is the desire to please : the graceful 
 bow to civilization, the readiness to notice the good in 
 another, because it pleases, while faults annoy and the con- 
 viction of what pleases, adds to happiness and is well received 
 everywhere. The people above all require an unobtrusive, 
 bland and courteous demeanor, because it not merely dis- 
 arms hostilities, but prepossesses, provided it introduces 
 some useful ideas. Man in tribulation, finds this out best in 
 the street, somewhere where business is done, among strang- 
 ers. There is no time to listen to complaints, because these 
 represent useless ideas. The world receives man to listen to 
 sense, and complaints demonstrate the want of sense, and 
 nonsense is there the rank enemy of self-interest, because it 
 wastes time. To waste time, signifies waste of labor, to 
 waste labor is to waste money, and to waste money is set 
 down not only as folly, because of the necessity of re-earning 
 
OB, THE GLORY OF NATURAL DEATH. 31 
 
 it, of ignorance of not knowing how soon a person may want 
 it, and of indiscretion, because of the annoyances it subjects 
 man to, but of poverty in a strict business point of view, 
 which every business man, no matter how rich he may be, 
 regards as an abominable inconvenience, and is from princi- 
 ples annoyed by, because labor, so interfered with, has to be 
 done over again. As labor has to be performed industri- 
 ously, has to be done quickly as well as well done, in order 
 to be well paid for, so is an outside unnecessary interference 
 always regarded as a detriment. That, therefore, a croaker 
 is ill received by the public is quite natural and applied to 
 himself: from that moment instead of executing his despair 
 by suicide, in consequence of these rebuffs he is saved, his 
 mind having met with a demoralizing discomfiture to its Own 
 natural force of will, which created a state of weakness. It 
 is suddenly irresolute: in the dawn of shame, in the dim 
 glare of the last flickering flame of reason, checked in its 
 independence, momentarily deprived of the vitality of its 
 strength, it cannot intend, it cannot will, but has to permit 
 the executive hand to remain paralized at his side, to commit 
 that deed composed of death and crime, of which alone there 
 is no repentance. Man is brought to a stand still, his mind 
 still writhing under the sentence passed upon him by civili- 
 zation; he feels he has been cut to the quick, that it was a 
 lancet cut from the public surgeon, preventing mortification, 
 and as in the case of the body so of the mind; the sovereign 
 mind, so long unworthily dormant within him is aroused, the 
 metal drawn out, a soul redeemed, the most triumphant glory 
 of man, and a life saved, the wealth of a God. Time assists 
 gently in the cure; it is the healing balm, which is in readi- 
 ness for the human race upon their faltering ways until nat- 
 ural death. 
 
 Thus man learns that the world never pities the hale and 
 hearty; and as to a compassionate feeling towards the help- 
 less, it is duty, not pity; it is charity, because it is duty; it 
 is kindness, becaiise it is charity; it is voluntary, because it 
 
32 THE CHARMS OF LIFE; 
 
 is kindness; and a prominent feature of civilization, because 
 it honors God, and ennobles man. 
 
 Tn episodes of life, when man is disconsolate, a change of 
 scene is good, and very advisable. Those without means, of 
 course travel on foot. It is conducive to health, because it 
 is natural; and what is natural, diverts. Men wean from 
 sight, as do cities and mountains; acquaintances are substi- 
 tuted by strangers, who may become friends; painful remiiii- 
 scenes give way to impressions from an innocent, laughing, 
 joyous nature, in the great domain of which there is no 
 starvation. 
 
 In countries newly opened to civilization, uneducated men 
 have become rich, and educated poor, the one being itf his 
 element and the other not. The labor of the one was suit- 
 able to the times; the others, not. The country and luck 
 have rarely anything to do with success. Success is labor 
 sensibly placed. 'It is shrewdness to understand it, and 
 genius to do it under difficulties. It is man, personified upon 
 the spot, utilizing the instant of life, and adapting himself to 
 circumstances. 
 
 This fact has a great deal to do with the record of suicides. 
 Men, arriving in new countries, from the center of civiliza- 
 tion, and finding sand-hills instead of universities, blamed 
 the land for its want of magic power to take the sand-hills 
 away, that they might be in their element, within the walls of 
 the seat of learning. 
 
 So much to say the past, represented by knowledge 
 amassed in universities, awaiting chances for application, 
 should take the place of the presence. In other words, the 
 dead past to become life without effort. That effort does not 
 signify manual labor in the same sphere, but simply proves 
 that it is as essential as erudite knowledge that both being 
 labor, go hand in hand, balancing each other in their necessi- 
 ties to civilization. Progress, holding the scales of these 
 necessities, man is measured by his worth of available use- 
 
OB, THE GLORY OF NATURAL DEATH. 33 
 
 fulness towards it. Without a dollar to begin with, he is on 
 the road to wealth, for which he selected a new country, and 
 went there. Poverty, forcing him to stay, it forces him to 
 labor until he sees the road clearly before him which leads 
 towards wealth. 
 
 Nature, being bountiful everywhere, progress is perpetual. 
 It amalgamates not ability, but work, suitable the occasion, 
 and blames the man of ability for not understanding to be 
 wiser than he is. So many a man is lost, because his ability 
 passes unnoticed by the people, hard at work to realize and 
 better the times. 
 
 With the most fervent wishes that this work may save 
 many a life in time, I conclude it. The charms of life, as 
 sustained by cheerful, practical labor, are obvious and 
 natural, and my views of them, I hope, reliable. 
 
 Very respectfully, 
 
 W. E. F. KRAUSE, 
 
 Author. 
 
 OAKLAND, CAL., SUNNYSIDE HOUSE, June 9th, 1877. 
 
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