The Daily Phoenix

THE TRUE LIFE.—The mere lease of years is not life. To eat and drink and sleep; to be exposed to darkness and the light; to pace round the mill of habit, and turn the wheel of wealth, to make reason our book-keeper, and turn into an implement of trade—this is not life. In all this, but a poor fraction of the consciousness of humanity is awakened, and the sanctities still slumber which make it most worth while living. Knowledge, truth, love, beauty, faith, alone can give vitality to the mechanism of existence; the laugh of mirth which vibrates through the heart, the tears that freshen the dry waste within, the music that brings childhood back, the prayer that calls the future, the doubt which makes us meditate, the death which startles us with mystery, the hardships that force us to struggle, the anxiety that ends in trust, are the true nourishment of rational beings.