The Elko Independent

MISTAKES IN LIFE.

There is no more prolific cause of repining and discontent in life than that found in looking back upon by-gone mistakes. We are fond of persuading ourselves and others that could certain crises have been decided differently, our whole course in life would have been one of unmingled success, instead of the partial failure that it so frequently appears. This melancholy review is not wholly erroneous. None can tell how weighty may be the results of even trifling actions, nor how much of the future is bound up in every day decisions. The great error men make in this revision is in attributing their failures to circumstances, instead of to character. They see the mistakes which lie on the surface, but fail to trace back to the sources from which they spring. The truth is, that crises are the occasions for bringing out predominating traits of character. They are tests of the nature and qualities of the man rather than the causes of future success or failure. Chances are lost and opportunities wasted; advisers ill-chosen, and "disastrous speculations undertaken; unhappy attachments formed, and ill-assorted marriages contracted, but there is nothing properly accidental in these steps. They are to be regarded as the results of unbalanced character as much as the causes of future misery. The disposition of mind that led to these errors would, under other circumstances, have led to different, but not less lamentable results. We see this clearly in judging of others. We attribute their mischances without compunction to the faults that we see in them, and sometimes even make cruel mistakes in the investigation; but in reviewing our own course, self-love draws a veil over our imperfections, and we persuade ourselves that unavoidable mistakes or unfortunate circumstances are the entire cause of all our misfortunes. It is true that no circumstances are always favorable, no training perfectly judicious; no friends wholly wise: yet he who is ever shifting the blame of mischances upon these external causes, is the very man who has the most reason to trace them to his own inherent weakness or demerits. It is questionable whether the habit of looking much at mistakes, even of our own, is a very profitable one. Certainly the practice of moaning over and believing them, and charging upon them all the evils that afflict us is most injurious to our future course, and the greatest hindrance to any real improvement of character. Acting from impulse and not from reason, is one of the chief causes of these mistakes, and one should avoid sudden impulses to the searching and penetrating ordeal of his best reason before acting upon them. Above all, the steady formation of virtuous habits, the subjection of all action to principle rather than policy: the stern and unflinching adherence to right, as far and as fast as it is discovered, are the best safeguards against mistakes in life.