-
Articles/Ads
Article GOLDEN DREAMS. Page 1 of 2 →
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Golden Dreams.
GOLDEN DREAMS .
BY A DREAMETt . WE , all of us , even we Freemasons , have , I fancy , at one time or another of our life , our own " golden dreams . " We are said , as Freemasons , to be very prosaic and matter-of-factand averse to sentimentbut I fancy
, , if any of us could procure that magic "topaz" by which every one ' s secret thoughts and feelings were known to the possessor of that awful , if legendary , ring , we should soon find that our sleekest and sedatest neighbour has had a " golden dream " after all , was partaker of a secret which he particularly wished his own clear , dear Jezabel should never know . Some of us , as we advance iu years , affect to treat all such ideas and feelings as what we like to term
" gush , " " sentimentalit y , " and the like , and we deprecate much any allusion by any one to "golden dreams " and " p icturesque personalpre-Raphaelitism . " When Goethe said " Ich babe gelebt unci geliebt , " he uttered , according to such unimaginative censors ,. unmitigated "bosh ; " when the young man strikes his forehead , as young men sometimes do , and cries out ecstatically , " Ah , meine goldene traumen , " we are wont generally , if " sotto voce , " to dub that
young man an " anser . " There are many of us , indeed , to whom , as life lias passed away , leaving us old , greyheaded , gouty , and forlorn , all these ideas and theories appear too sublimated for our earthly vision . We don't believe in "love at first si ght , " the " mutual harmony" of " confiding bosoms , " the " glancings of rapturous glances , " the " squeezings of hot little rooms" ( whatever these may be ) , and we strongly repress all allusions to our own earlier clays , hopes , plans , longings , idealities . Indeed , like the poet , we say somewhat proudly and sternly , when we hear young men talking what we like to call their " spoony nonsense " now ,
New milk 1 own is very fine When foaming from the cow ; But yet I want my pint of wine—I ' m not a lover now . I never tell a tender tale , I never want to sigh , I never seek to raise a veil ,
I never tell a lie . But yet , as I remarked before , say what we will and do what we will , spend our lives where and how we may , we cannot silence " memory , " and the present , with all its attractions for some and its bitter heartaches for others , is ever carrying us away on its " resistless tide " to that "past" of ours , which , try as we may , we can never shut out in its tender interests and living sympathies either for time or eternity . But I must not drift into too serious a tone .
We all , then , have our " golden dreams , " or , as the courtly preacher once said to Louis XV ., when speaking of universal death , " presque tons , " and very pleasant they are while they last . Sometimes they do not endure for long ; of ttimes they fade away as with the morning ' s light ; but while they are ours they are cheery to the sight and good for the mind . For there is , if they are " golden dreams , " something elevating in them : they seem to lift us above the common crowd and the noisy ruck of men , and to fill us with happy hopes and fair imaginings . To-day , when we are old and cold , and weary and worn , when trials and troubles , crosses andf years have bowed our
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Golden Dreams.
GOLDEN DREAMS .
BY A DREAMETt . WE , all of us , even we Freemasons , have , I fancy , at one time or another of our life , our own " golden dreams . " We are said , as Freemasons , to be very prosaic and matter-of-factand averse to sentimentbut I fancy
, , if any of us could procure that magic "topaz" by which every one ' s secret thoughts and feelings were known to the possessor of that awful , if legendary , ring , we should soon find that our sleekest and sedatest neighbour has had a " golden dream " after all , was partaker of a secret which he particularly wished his own clear , dear Jezabel should never know . Some of us , as we advance iu years , affect to treat all such ideas and feelings as what we like to term
" gush , " " sentimentalit y , " and the like , and we deprecate much any allusion by any one to "golden dreams " and " p icturesque personalpre-Raphaelitism . " When Goethe said " Ich babe gelebt unci geliebt , " he uttered , according to such unimaginative censors ,. unmitigated "bosh ; " when the young man strikes his forehead , as young men sometimes do , and cries out ecstatically , " Ah , meine goldene traumen , " we are wont generally , if " sotto voce , " to dub that
young man an " anser . " There are many of us , indeed , to whom , as life lias passed away , leaving us old , greyheaded , gouty , and forlorn , all these ideas and theories appear too sublimated for our earthly vision . We don't believe in "love at first si ght , " the " mutual harmony" of " confiding bosoms , " the " glancings of rapturous glances , " the " squeezings of hot little rooms" ( whatever these may be ) , and we strongly repress all allusions to our own earlier clays , hopes , plans , longings , idealities . Indeed , like the poet , we say somewhat proudly and sternly , when we hear young men talking what we like to call their " spoony nonsense " now ,
New milk 1 own is very fine When foaming from the cow ; But yet I want my pint of wine—I ' m not a lover now . I never tell a tender tale , I never want to sigh , I never seek to raise a veil ,
I never tell a lie . But yet , as I remarked before , say what we will and do what we will , spend our lives where and how we may , we cannot silence " memory , " and the present , with all its attractions for some and its bitter heartaches for others , is ever carrying us away on its " resistless tide " to that "past" of ours , which , try as we may , we can never shut out in its tender interests and living sympathies either for time or eternity . But I must not drift into too serious a tone .
We all , then , have our " golden dreams , " or , as the courtly preacher once said to Louis XV ., when speaking of universal death , " presque tons , " and very pleasant they are while they last . Sometimes they do not endure for long ; of ttimes they fade away as with the morning ' s light ; but while they are ours they are cheery to the sight and good for the mind . For there is , if they are " golden dreams , " something elevating in them : they seem to lift us above the common crowd and the noisy ruck of men , and to fill us with happy hopes and fair imaginings . To-day , when we are old and cold , and weary and worn , when trials and troubles , crosses andf years have bowed our