The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Golden Censer, by John McGovern

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Title: The Golden Censer
The duties of to-day, the hopes of the future

Author: John McGovern

Release Date: February 17, 2006 [EBook #17781]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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[Illustration: TIME.

"The mill will never grind with the water that has past."]

THE
GOLDEN CENSER
OR
THE DUTIES OF TO-DAY
and
THE HOPES OF THE FUTURE.

BY

JOHN McGOVERN,
(OF THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE.)

AUTHOR OF "HISTORY OF COMMUNISM," "WORLDS WITHOUT END," "CROWN
JEWELS," "A PASTORAL POEM," ETC

Sold by Subscription Only.

UNION PUBLISHING HOUSE.

CHICAGO, ILL. COLUMBUS, OHIO. KANSAS CITY, MO.
MINNEAPOLIS, MINN. SAN FRANCISCO, CAL.
LEXINGTON, KY. BUFFALO, N.Y.

1884.

[Illustration]

COPYRIGHTED BY
M.B. DOWNER & F.C. SMEDLEY,
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
1881-1882.

PREFACE.

I take pleasure in laying before my readers a volume the aim of which is
to lighten the cares of to-day and heighten the hopes of to-morrow.
Every human aspiration which is not an _ignis fatuus_ or fool's beacon
is built on the realities of to-day. Every young person evincing talents
in any direction hears predictions which are alone built on what he is
doing at present. He takes this hope and redoubles his efforts. He
usually succeeds--therefore, the inherited universality of hope.

Looking thus upon hope as a beautiful edifice rising above the
foundations of our lives, I have striven to give my special attention to
the duties of to-day, those stones whereon the structure is reared, that
the first cruel tempest of adversity may not transport an unsubstantial
fabric, like the palace of Aladdin, into the deserts of despair.

I have also tried to show that the lesson, so true in a proper view of
this life, is also applicable to the far grander vista of eternity
which, in the mind of philosopher as well as divine, lies so clearly
before us.

In a Hard-Pan Series of ten chapters I have endeavored to point