The Olneyville Times

A Life of Freedom.

People sometimes think how delightful it would be to be quite free. But a fish, as Ruskin says, is freer than a man, and, as for a fly, it is "a black incarnation of freedom." A life of so called pleasure and self indulgence is not a life of real happiness or true freedom. Far from it. If we once begin to give way to ourselves we fall under a most intolerable tyranny. Other temptations are in some respects like that of drink. At first, perhaps, it seems delightful, but there is bitterness at the bottom of the cup. Men drink to satisfy the desire created by previous indulgence. So it is in other things. Repetition soon becomes a craving, not a pleasure. Resistance grows more and more painful. Yielding, which at first, perhaps, afforded some slight and temporary gratification, soon ceases to give pleasure and, even if for a time it procures relief, ere long becomes odious itself.