ALONE IN A BALLOON.

Manawatu Herald, Volume III, Issue 74, 17 May 1881, Page 4

ALONE IN A BALLOON.

Alone in a balloon, far above the highest clqnd, and haw lonely who in the worM be Wean tell? Doubtless there is, a lojelinoss ou earth, as we wander in solitude in the wild l and un tenanted desert, on the lonely, j ocean shore, or in the mysterious ■ gloom of some huge tropical forest. : And there is a deep moral and spirital j loneliness in the strange and crowded j city, where everyone is hurrying on his own unregarding way ; or in. the fading daylight and oncoming darkness as we linger in .some forsaken j cemetery, where lie the remains of ' those who in life where dearer to us than life itself. But the desert has its tenants, be it only the slinking : jackal below or ihe soaring vulture above. 7 The sea is always alive;:replete with interest, ivith its innumerable ripples or ita mighty waves in storm or calm. The forest is peopled and full-of sound and motion be it of insect,, of animal,' or. bird, „ The strange city' abounds yi human in? terest. Every, iiew.face js a study °f a human lifej ' attd a iecord of a brother's experience. Tho solitary cemetery, with its sad monumental incriptions, though it tells of separation j' tell also hope hnd renewal. It takes us back to the past aad forward to the future ' Even the dust beneath is a link to bind us closer to our common humanity. Everywhere there is life or life's associations ; everywhere ties' and connecting cords to appeal to bur own humnn life, and prevent us from feeling altogether alone. And he knows little of the human who knows not the power of these things and how we cling to them. The familiar nibbling mouse, the accustomed spider, the regular bugle-call, the soatjy'a well-known challenge, have saved many a [oar prisoner in his lonely eel from madness aWif despair. But here, in these eternal solitudes, their is no familiar form, no i accustomed face, no sound, no voice, no life ; only : one vast untenanted abyas-^only ono deep unfathomable calm.—^Nineteenth Century.