,,bits ,,about ,,home ,,matters4 ,by ,h4 ,h41 ,author of ,verses and ,bits of ,travel4 #ahgc ,contents4 ,the ,inhumanities of ,parents--,corporal ,punishment ,the ,inhumanities of ,parents--,needless ,denials ,the ,inhumanities of ,parents--,rudeness ,breaking the ,will ,the ,reign of ,archelaus ,the ,awkward ,age ,a ,day with a ,courteous ,mother ,children in ,nova ,scotia ,the ,republic of the ,family ,the ,ready-to-,halts ,the ,descendants of ,nabal ,boys not allowed ,half an ,hour in a ,railway ,station ,a ,genius for ,affection ,rainy ,days ,friends of the ,prisoners ,a ,companion for the ,winter ,choice of ,colors ,the ,apostle of ,beauty ,english ,lodging-,houses ,wet the ,clay ,the ,king's ,friend ,learning to speak ,private ,tyrants ,margin ,the ,fine ,art of ,smiling ,death-bed ,repentance ,the ,correlation of ,moral ,forces ,a ,simple ,bill of ,fare for a ,christmas ,dinner ,children's ,parties ,after-supper ,talk ,hysteria in ,literature ,jog ,trot ,the ,joyless ,american ,spiritual ,teething ,glass ,houses ,the ,old-,clothes ,monger in ,journalism ,the ,country ,landlord's ,side ,the ,good ,staff of ,pleasure ,wanted--a ,home ,bits of ,talk4 ,the ,inhumanities of ,parents--,corporal ,punishment4 ,not long ago a ,presbyterian minister in ,western ,new ,york whipped his three-year-old boy to death1 for refusing to say his prayers4 ,the little fingers were broken2 the tender flesh was bruised and actually mangled2 strong men wept when they looked on the body2 and the reverend murderer1 after having been set free on bail1 was glad to return and take refuge within the walls of his prison1 to escape summary punishment at the hands of an outraged community4 ,at the bare mention of such cruelty1 every heart grew sick and faint2 men and women were dumb with horror3 only tears and a hot demand for instant retaliation availed4 ,the question whether1 after all1 that baby martyr were not fortunate among his fellows1 would1 no doubt1 be met by resentful astonishment4 ,but it is a question which may well be asked1 may well be pondered4 ,heart-rending as it is to think for an instant of the agonies which the poor child must have borne for some hours after his infant brain was too bewildered by terror and pain to understand what was required of him1 it still cannot fail to occur to deeper reflection that the torture was short and small in comparison with what the next ten years might have held for him if he had lived4 ,to earn entrance on the spiritual life by the briefest possible experience of the physical1 is always greater gain2 but how emphatically is it so when the conditions of life upon earth are sure to be unfavorable6 ,if it were possible in any way to get a statistical summing-up and a tangible presentation of the amount of physical pain inflicted by parents on children under twelve years of age1 the most callous-hearted would be surprised and shocked4 ,if it were possible to add to this estimate an accurate and scientific demonstration of the extent to which such pain1 by weakening the nervous system and exhausting its capacity to resist disease1 diminishes children's chances for life1 the world would stand aghast4 ,too little has been said upon this point4 ,the opponents of corporal punishment usually approach the subject either from the sentimental or the moral standpoint4 ,the argument on either of these grounds can be made strong enough1 one would suppose1 to paralyze every hand lifted to strike a child4 ,but the question of the direct and lasting physical effect of blows--even of one blow on the delicate tissues of a child's body1 on the frail and trembling nerves1 on the sensitive organization which is trying1 under a thousand unfavoring conditions1 to adjust itself to the hard work of both living and growing--has yet to be properly considered4 ,every one knows the sudden sense of insupportable pain1 sometimes producing even dizziness and nausea1 which follows the accidental hitting of the ankle or elbow against a hard substance4 ,it does not need that the blow be very hard to bring involuntary tears to adult eyes4 ,but what is such a pain as this1 in comparison with the pain of a dozen or more quick tingling blows from a heavy hand on flesh which is1 which must be as much more sensitive than ours1 as are the souls which dwell in it purer than ours4 ,add to this physical pain the overwhelming terror which only utter helplessness can feel1 and which is the most recognizable quality in the cry of a very young child under whipping2 add the instinctive sense of disgrace1 of outrage1 which often keeps the older child stubborn and still through-out1--and you have an amount and an intensity of suffering from which even tried nerves might shrink4 ,again1 who does not know--at least1 what woman does not know--that violent weeping1 for even a very short time1 is quite enough to cause a feeling of languor and depression1 of nervous exhaustion for a whole day8 ,yet it does not seem to occur to mothers that little children must feel this1 in proportion to the length of time and violence of their crying1 far more than grown people4 ,who has not often seen a poor child receive1 within an hour or two of the first whipping1 a second one1 for some small ebullition of nervous irritability1 which was simply inevitable from its spent and worn condition8 ,it is safe to say that in families where whipping is regularly recognized as a punishment1 few children under ten years of age1 and of average behavior1 have less than one whipping a week4 ,sometimes they have more1 sometimes the whipping is very severe4 ,thus you have in one short year sixty or seventy occasions on which for a greater or less time1 say from one to three hours1 the child's nervous system is subjected to a tremendous strain from the effect of terror and physical pain combined with long crying4 ,will any physician tell us that this fact is not an element in that child's physical condition at the end of that year8 ,will any physician dare to say that there may not be1 in that child's life1 crises when the issues of life and death will be so equally balanced that the tenth part of the nervous force lost in such fits of crying1 and in the endurance of such pain1 could turn the scale8 ,nature's retributions1 like her rewards1 are cumulative4 ,because her sentences against evil works are not executed speedily1 therefore the hearts of the sons of men are fully set in them to do evil4 ,but the sentence always is executed1 sooner or later1 and that inexorably4 ,your son1 ,o unthinking mother6 may fall by the way in the full prime of his manhood1 for lack of that strength which his infancy spent in enduring your hasty and severe punishments4 ,it is easy to say1--and universally is said1--by people who cling to the old and fight against the new1 ,all this outcry about corporal punishment is sentimental nonsense4 ,the world is full of men and women1 who have grown up strong and good1 in spite of whippings2 and as for me1 ,i know ,i never had any more whipping than ,i deserved1 or than was good for me4 ,are you then so strong and clear and pure in your physical and spiritual nature and life1 that you are sure no different training could have made either your body or your soul better8 ,are these men and women1 of whom the world is full1 so able-bodied1 whole-souled1 strong-minded1 that you think it needless to look about for any method of making the next generation better8 ,above all1 do you believe that it is a part of the legitimate outworking of ,god's plan and intent in creating human beings to have more than one-half of them die in childhood8 ,if we are not to believe that this fearful mortality is a part of ,god's plan1 is it wise to refuse to consider all possibilities1 even those seemingly most remote1 of diminishing it8 ,no argument is so hard to meet 7simply because it is not an argument7 as the assumption of the good and propriety of the thing that hath been4 ,it is one of the devil's best sophistries1 by which he keeps good people undisturbed in doing the things he likes4 ,it has been in all ages the bulwark behind which evils have made stand1 and have slain their thousands4 ,it is the last enemy which shall be destroyed4 ,it is the only real support of the cruel evil of corporal punishment4 ,suppose that such punishment of children had been unheard of till now4 ,suppose that the idea had yesterday been suggested for the first time that by inflicting physical pain on a child's body you might make him recollect certain truths2 and suppose that instead of whipping1 a very moderate and harmless degree of pricking with pins or cutting with knives or burning with fire had been suggested4 ,would not fathers and mothers have cried out all over the land at the inhumanity of the idea8 ,would they not still cry out at the inhumanity of one who1 as things are to-day1 should propose the substitution of pricking or cutting or burning for whipping8 ,but ,i think it would not be easy to show in what wise small pricks or cuts are more inhuman than blows2 or why lying may not be as legitimately cured by blisters made with a hot coal as by black and blue spots made with a ruler4 ,the principle is the same2 and if the principle be right1 why not multiply methods8 ,it seems as if this one suggestion1 candidly considered1 might be enough to open all parents' eyes to the enormity of whipping4 ,how many a loving mother will1 without any thought of cruelty1 inflict half-a-dozen quick blows on the little hand of her child1 when she could no more take a pin and make the same number of thrusts into the tender flesh1 than she could bind the baby on a rack4 ,yet the pin-thrusts would hurt far less1 and would probably make a deeper impression on the child's mind4 ,among the more ignorant classes1 the frequency and severity of corporal punishment of children1 are appalling4 ,the facts only need to be held up closely and persistently before the community to be recognized as horrors of cruelty far greater than some which have been made subjects of legislation4 ,it was my misfortune once to be forced to spend several of the hottest weeks of a hot summer in ,new ,york4 ,in near neighborhood to my rooms were blocks of buildings which had shops on the first floor and tenements above4 ,in these lived the families of small tradesmen1 and mechanics of the better sort4 ,during those scorching nights every window was thrown open1 and all sounds were borne with distinctness through the hot still air4 ,chief among them were the shrieks and cries of little children1 and blows and angry words from tired1 overworked mothers4 ,at times it became almost unbearable3 it was hard to refrain from an attempt at rescue4 ,ten1 twelve1 twenty quick1 hard blows1 whose sound rang out plainly1 ,i counted again and again2 mingling with them came the convulsive screams of the poor children1 and that most piteous thing of all1 the reiteration of ,oh1 mamma6 oh1 mamma6 as if1 through all1 the helpless little creatures had an instinct that this word ought to be in itself the strongest appeal4 ,these families were all of the better class of work people1 comfortable and respectable4 ,what sounds were to be heard in the more wretched haunts of the city1 during those nights1 the heart struggled away from fancying4 ,but the shrieks of those children will never wholly die out of the air4 ,i hear them to-day2 and mingling with them1 the question rings perpetually in my ears1 ,why does not the law protect children1 before the point at which life is endangered8 ,a cartman may be arrested in the streets for the brutal beating of a horse which is his own1 and which he has the right to kill if he so choose4 ,should not a man be equally withheld from the brutal beating of a child who is not his own1 but ,god's1 and whom to kill is murder8 ,the ,inhumanities of ,parents--,needless ,denials4 ,webster's ,dictionary1 which cannot be accused of any leaning toward sentimentalism1 defines inhumanity as cruelty in action2 and cruelty as an act of a human being which inflicts unnecessary pain4 ,the word inhumanity has an ugly sound1 and many inhuman people are utterly and honestly unconscious of their own inhumanities2 it is necessary therefore to entrench one's self behind some such bulwark as the above definitions afford1 before venturing the accusation that fathers and mothers are habitually guilty of inhuman conduct in inflicting unnecessary pain on their children1 by needless denials of their innocent wishes and impulses4 ,most men and a great many women would be astonished at being told that simple humanity requires them to gratify every wish1 even the smallest1 of their children1 when the pain of having that wish denied is not made necessary1 either for the child's own welfare1 physical or mental1 or by circumstances beyond the parent's control4 ,the word necessary is a very authoritative one2 conscience1 if left free1 soon narrows down its boundaries2 inconvenience1 hindrance1 deprivation1 self-denial1 one or all1 or even a great deal of all1 to ourselves1 cannot give us a shadow of right to say that the pain of the child's disappointment is necessary4 ,selfishness grasps at help from the hackneyed sayings1 that it is best for children to bear the yoke in their youth2 the sooner they learn that they cannot have their own way the better2 it is a good discipline for them to practise self-denial1 c4 ,but the yoke that they must bear1 in spite of our lightening it all we can1 is heavy enough2 the instances in which it is1 for good and sufficient reasons1 impossible for them to have their own way are quite numerous enough to insure their learning the lesson very early2 and as for the discipline of self-denial1--,god bless their dear1 patient souls6--if men and women brought to bear on the thwartings and vexations of their daily lives1 and their relations with each other1 one hundredth part of the sweet acquiescence and brave endurance which average children show1 under the average management of average parents1 this world would be a much pleasanter place to live in than it is4 ,let any conscientious and tender mother1 who perhaps reads these words with tears half of resentment1 half of grief in her eyes1 keep for three days an exact record of the little requests which she refuses1 from the baby of five1 who begged to stand on a chair and look out of the window1 and was hastily told1 ,no1 it would1 hurt the chair1 when one minute would have been enough time to lay a folded newspaper over the upholstery1 and another minute enough to explain to him1 with a kiss and a hug1 that that was to save his spoiling mamma's nice chair with his boots2 and the two minutes together would probably have made sure that another time the dear little fellow would look out for a paper himself1 when he wished to climb up to the window1--from this baby up to the pretty girl of twelve1 who1 with as distinct a perception of the becoming as her mother had before her1 went to school unhappy because she was compelled to wear the blue necktie instead of the scarlet one1 and surely for no especial reason6 ,at the end of the three days1 an honest examination of the record would show that full half of these small denials1 all of which had involved pain1 and some of which had brought contest and punishment1 had been needless1 had been hastily made1 and made usually on account of the slight interruption or inconvenience which would result from yielding to the request4 ,i am very much mistaken if the honest keeping and honest study of such a three days' record would not wholly change the atmosphere in many a house to what it ought to be1 and bring almost constant sunshine and bliss where now1 too often1 are storm and misery4 ,with some parents1 although they are neither harsh nor hard in manner1 nor yet unloving in nature1 the habitual first impulse seems to be to refuse3 they appear to have a singular obtuseness to the fact that it is1 or can be1 of any consequence to a child whether it does or does not do the thing it desires4 ,often the refusal is withdrawn on the first symptom of grief or disappointment on the child's part2 a thing which is fatal to all real control of a child1 and almost as unkind as the first unnecessary denial1--perhaps even more so1 as it involves double and treble pains1 in future instances1 where there cannot and must not be any giving way to entreaties4 ,it is doubtless this lack of perception1--akin1 one would think1 to color-blindness1--which is at the bottom of this great and common inhumanity among kind and intelligent fathers and mothers3 an inhumanity so common that it may almost be said to be universal2 so common that1 while we are obliged to look on and see our dearest friends guilty of it1 we find it next to impossible to make them understand what we mean when we make outcry over some of its glaring instances4 ,you1 my dearest of friends1--or1 rather1 you who would be1 but for this one point of hopeless contention between us1--do you remember a certain warm morning1 last ,august1 of which ,i told you then you had not heard the last8 ,here it is again3 perhaps in print ,i can make it look blacker to you than ,i could then2 part of it ,i saw1 part of it you unwillingly confessed to me1 and part of it little ,blue ,eyes told me herself4 ,it was one of those ineffable mornings1 when a thrill of delight and expectancy fills the air2 one felt that every appointment of the day must be unlike those of other days1--must be festive1 must help on the white day for which all things looked ready4 ,i remember how like the morning itself you looked as you stood in the doorway1 in a fresh white muslin dress1 with lavender ribbons4 ,i said1 ,oh1 extravagance6 ,for breakfast6 ,i know1 you said2 but the day was so enchanting1 ,i could not make up my mind to wear any thing that had been worn before4 ,here an uproar from the nursery broke out1 and we both ran to the spot4 ,there stood little ,blue ,eyes1 in a storm of temper1 with one small foot on a crumpled mass of pink cambric on the floor2 and nurse1 who was also very red and angry1 explained that ,miss would not have on her pink frock because it was not quite clean4 ,it is all dirty1 mamma1 and ,i don't want to put it on6 ,you've got on a nice white dress3 why can't ,i8 ,you are in the main a kind mother1 and you do not like to give little ,blue ,eyes pain2 so you knelt down beside her1 and told her that she must be a good girl1 and have on the gown ,mary had said1 but that she should have on a pretty white apron1 which would hide the spots4 ,and ,blue ,eyes1 being only six years old1 and of a loving1 generous nature1 dried her tears1 accepted the very questionable expedient1 tried to forget the spots1 and in a few moments came out on the piazza1 chirping like a little bird4 ,by this time the rare quality of the morning had stolen like wine into our brains1 and you exclaimed1 ,we will have breakfast out here1 under the vines6 ,how ,george will like it6 ,and in another instant you were flitting back and forth1 helping the rather ungracious ,bridget move out the breakfast-table1 with its tempting array4 ,oh1 mamma1 mamma1 cried ,blue ,eyes1 can't ,i have my little tea-set on a little table beside your big table8 ,oh1 let me1 let me6 and she fairly quivered with excitement4 ,you hesitated4 ,how ,i watched you6 ,but it was a little late4 ,bridget was already rather cross2 the tea-set was packed in a box1 and up on a high shelf4 ,no1 dear4 ,there is not time1 and we must not make ,bridget any more trouble2 but--seeing the tears coming again--you shall have some real tea in papa's big gilt cup1 and another time you shall have your tea-set when we have breakfast out here again4 ,as ,i said before1 you are a kind mother1 and you made the denial as easy to be borne as you could1 and ,blue ,eyes was again pacified1 not satisfied1 only bravely making the best of it4 ,and so we had our breakfast2 a breakfast to be remembered1 too4 ,but as for the other time which you had promised to ,blue ,eyes2 how well ,i knew that not many times a year did such mornings and breakfasts come1 and that it was well she would forget all about it6 ,after breakfast1--you remember how we lingered1--,george suddenly started up1 saying1 ,how hard it is to go to town6 ,i say1 girls1 walk down to the station with me1 both of you4 ,and me too1 me too1 papa6 said ,blue ,eyes4 ,you did not hear her2 but ,i did1 and she had flown for her hat4 ,at the door we found her1 saying again1 ,me too1 mamma6 ,then you remembered her boots3 ,oh1 my darling1 you said1 kissing her1 for you are a kind mother1 you cannot go in those nice boots3 the dew will spoil them2 and it is not worth while to change them1 we shall be back in a few minutes4 ,a storm of tears would have burst out in an instant at this the third disappointment1 if ,i had not sat down on the door-step1 and1 taking her in my lap1 whispered that auntie was going to stay too4 ,oh1 put the child down1 and come along1 called the great1 strong1 uncomprehending man--,blue ,eyes' dear papa4 ,pussy won't mind4 ,be a good girl1 pussy2 ,i'll bring you a red balloon to-night4 ,you are both very kind1 you and ,george1 and you both love little ,blue ,eyes dearly4 ,no1 ,i won't come4 ,i believe my boots are too thin1 said ,i2 and for the equivocation there was in my reply ,i am sure of being forgiven4 ,you both turned back twice to look at the child1 and kissed your hands to her2 and ,i wondered if you did not see in her face1 what ,i did1 real grief and patient endurance4 ,even ,the ,king of the ,golden ,river did not rouse her3 she did not want a story2 she did not want me2 she did not want a red balloon at night2 she wanted to walk between you1 to the station1 with her little hands in yours6 ,god grant the day may not come when you will be heart-broken because you can never lead her any more6 ,she asked me some questions1 while you were gone1 which you remember ,i repeated to you4 ,she asked me if ,i did not hate nice new shoes2 and why little girls could not put on the dresses they liked best2 and if mamma did not look beautiful in that pretty white dress2 and said that1 if she could only have had her own tea-set1 at breakfast1 she would have let me have my coffee in one of her cups4 ,gradually she grew happier1 and began to tell me about her great wax-doll1 which had eyes that could shut2 which was kept in a trunk because she was too little1 mamma said1 to play very much with it now2 but she guessed mamma would let her have it to-day2 did ,i not think so8 ,alas6 ,i did1 and ,i said so2 in fact1 ,i felt sure that it was the very thing you would be certain to do1 to sweeten the day1 which had begun so sadly for poor little ,blue ,eyes4 ,it seemed very long to her before you came back1 and she was on the point of asking for her dolly as soon as you appeared2 but ,i whispered to her to wait till you were rested4 ,after a few minutes ,i took her up to your room1--that lovely room with the bay window to the east2 there you sat1 in your white dress1 surrounded with gay worsteds1 all looking like a carnival of humming-birds4 ,oh1 how beautiful6 ,i exclaimed1 in involuntary admiration2 what are you doing8 ,you said that you were going to make an affghan1 and that the morning was so enchanting you could not bear the thought of touching your mending1 but were going to luxuriate in the worsteds4 ,some time passed in sorting the colors1 and deciding on the contrasts1 and ,i forgot all about the doll4 ,not so little ,blue ,eyes4 ,i remembered afterward how patiently she stood still1 waiting and waiting for a gap between our words1 that she need not break the law against interrupting1 with her eager-- ,please1 mamma1 let me have my wax dolly to play with this morning6 ,i'll sit right here on the floor1 by you and auntie1 and not hurt her one bit4 ,oh1 please do1 mamma6 ,you mean always to be a very kind mother1 and you spoke as gently and lovingly as it is possible to speak when you replied3-- ,oh1 ,pussy1 mamma is too busy to get it2 she can't get up now4 ,you can play with your blocks1 and with your other dollies1 just as well2 that's a good little girl4 ,probably1 if ,blue ,eyes had gone on imploring1 you would have laid your worsteds down1 and given her the dolly2 for you love her dearly1 and never mean to make her unhappy4 ,but neither you nor ,i were prepared for what followed4 ,you're a naughty1 ugly1 hateful mamma6 ,you never let me do any thing1 and ,i wish you were dead6 with such a burst of screaming and tears that we were both frightened4 ,you looked1 as well you might1 heart-broken at such words from your only child4 ,you took her away2 and when you came back1 you cried1 and said you had whipped her severely1 and you did not know what you should do with a child of such a frightful temper4 ,such an outburst as that1 just because ,i told her1 in the gentlest way possible1 that she could not have a plaything6 ,it is terrible6 ,then ,i said some words to you1 which you thought were unjust4 ,i asked you in what condition your own nerves would have been by ten o'clock that morning if your husband 7who had1 in one view1 a much better right to thwart your harmless desires than you had to thwart your child's1 since you1 in the full understanding of maturity1 gave yourself into his hands7 had1 instead of admiring your pretty white dress1 told you to be more prudent1 and not put it on2 had told you it would be nonsense to have breakfast out on the piazza2 and that he could not wait for you to walk to the station with him4 ,you said that the cases were not at all parallel2 and ,i replied hotly that that was very true1 for those matters would have been to you only the comparative trifles of one short day1 and would have made you only a little cross and uncomfortable2 whereas to little ,blue ,eyes they were the all-absorbing desires of the hour1 which1 to a child in trouble1 always looks as if it could never come to an end1 and would never be followed by any thing better4 ,blue ,eyes cried herself to sleep1 and slept heavily till late in the afternoon4 ,when her father came home1 you said that she must not have the red balloon1 because she had been such a naughty girl4 ,i have wondered many times since why she did not cry again1 or look grieved when you said that1 and laid the balloon away4 ,after eleven o'clock at night1 ,i went to look at her1 and found her sobbing in her sleep1 and tossing about4 ,i groaned as ,i thought1 ,this is only one day1 and there are three hundred and sixty-five in a year6 ,but ,i never recall the distorted face of that poor child1 as1 in her fearful passion1 she told you she wished you were dead1 without also remembering that even the gentle ,christ said of him who should offend one of these little ones1 ,it were better for him that a mill-stone were hanged about his neck1 and he were drowned in the depths of the sea6 ,the ,inhumanities of ,parents--,rudeness4 _/ ,inhumanity--,cruelty4 ,cruelty--,the disposition to give unnecessary pain4--,webster's ,dict4 _/ ,i had intended to put third on the list of inhumanities of parents needless requisitions2 but my last summer's observations changed my estimate1 and convinced me that children suffer more pain from the rudeness with which they are treated than from being forced to do needless things which they dislike4 ,indeed1 a positively and graciously courteous manner toward children is a thing so rarely seen in average daily life1 the rudenesses which they receive are so innumerable1 that it is hard to tell where to begin in setting forth the evil4 ,children themselves often bring their sharp and unexpected logic to bear on some incident illustrating the difference in this matter of behavior between what is required from them and what is shown to them3 as did a little boy ,i knew1 whose father said crossly to him one morning1 as he came into the breakfast-room1 ,will you ever learn to shut that door after you8 and a few seconds later1 as the child was rather sulkily sitting down in his chair1 ,and do you mean to bid anybody 'good-morning1' or not8 ,i don't think you gave me a very nice 'good-morning1' anyhow1 replied satirical justice1 aged seven4 ,then1 of course1 he was reproved for speaking disrespectfully2 and so in the space of three minutes the beautiful opening of the new day1 for both parents and children1 was jarred and robbed of its fresh harmony by the father's thoughtless rudeness4 ,was the breakfast-room door much more likely to be shut the next morning8 ,no4 ,the lesson was pushed aside by the pain1 the motive to resolve was dulled by the antagonism4 ,if that father had called his son1 and1 putting his arm round him1 7oh6 the blessed and magic virtue of putting your arm round a child's neck67 had said1 ,good-morning1 my little man2 and then1 in a confidential whisper in his ear1 ,what shall we do to make this forgetful little boy remember not to leave that door open1 through which the cold wind blows in on all of us8--can any words measure the difference between the first treatment and the second8 between the success of the one and the failure of the other8 ,scores of times in a day1 a child is told1 in a short1 authoritative way1 to do or not to do such little things as we ask at the hands of older people1 as favors1 graciously1 and with deference to their choice4 ,would you be so very kind as to close that window8 ,may ,i trouble you for that cricket8 ,if you would be as comfortable in this chair as in that1 ,i would like to change places with you4 ,oh1 excuse me1 but your head is between me and the light3 could you see as well if you moved a little8 ,would it hinder you too long to stop at the store for me8 ,i would be very much obliged to you1 if you would4 ,pray1 do not let me crowd you1 c4 ,in most people's speech to children1 we find1 as synonyms for these polite phrases3 ,shut that window down1 this minute4 ,bring me that cricket4 ,i want that chair2 get up4 ,you can sit in this4 ,don't you see that you are right in my light8 ,move along4 ,i want you to leave off playing1 and go right down to the store for me4 ,don't crowd so4 ,can't you see that there is not room enough for two people here8 and so on4 ,as ,i write1 ,i feel an instinctive consciousness that these sentences will come like home-thrusts to some surprised people4 ,i hope so4 ,that is what ,i want4 ,i am sure that in more than half the cases where family life is marred in peace1 and almost stripped of beauty1 by just these little rudenesses1 the parents are utterly unconscious of them4 ,the truth is1 it has become like an established custom1 this different and less courteous way of speaking to children on small occasions and minor matters4 ,people who are generally civil and of fair kindliness do it habitually1 not only to their own children1 but to all children4 ,we see it in the cars1 in the stages1 in stores1 in ,sunday schools1 everywhere4 ,on the other hand1 let a child ask for any thing without saying please1 receive any thing without saying thank you1 sit still in the most comfortable seat without offering to give it up1 or press its own preference for a particular book1 chair1 or apple1 to the inconveniencing of an elder1 and what an outcry we have3 ,such rudeness6 ,such an ill-mannered child6 ,his parents must have neglected him strangely4 ,not at all3 they have been steadily telling him a great many times every day not to do these precise things which you dislike4 ,but they themselves have been all the while doing those very things to him2 and there is no proverb which strikes a truer balance between two things than the old one which weighs example over against precept4 ,however1 that it is bad policy to be rude to children is the least of the things to be said against it4 ,over this they will triumph1 sooner or later4 ,the average healthy child has a native bias towards gracious good behavior and kindly affections4 ,he will win and be won in the long run1 and1 the chances are1 have better manners than his father4 ,but the pain that we give these blessed little ones when we wound their tenderness1--for that there is no atoning4 ,over that they can never triumph1 either now or hereafter4 ,why do we dare to be so sure that they are not grieved by ungracious words and tones8 that they can get used to being continually treated as if they were in the way8 ,who has not heard this said8 ,i have1 until ,i have longed for an ,elijah and for fire1 that the grown-up cumberers of the ground1 who are the ones really in the way1 might be burned up1 to make room for the children4 ,i believe that1 if it were possible to count up in any one month1 and show in the aggregate1 all of this class of miseries borne by children1 the world would cry out astonished4 ,i know a little girl1 ten years old1 of nervous temperament1 whose whole physical condition is disordered1 and seriously1 by her mother's habitual atmosphere of rude fault-finding4 ,she is a sickly1 fretful1 unhappy1 almost unbearable child4 ,if she lives to grow up1 she will be a sickly1 fretful1 unhappy1 unlovely woman4 ,but her mother is just as much responsible for the whole as if she had deranged her system by feeding her on poisonous drugs4 ,yet she is a most conscientious1 devoted1 and anxious mother1 and1 in spite of this manner1 a loving one4 ,she does not know that there is any better way than hers4 ,she does not see that her child is mortified and harmed when she says to her1 in the presence of strangers1 ,how do you suppose you look with your mouth open like that8 ,do you want me to show you how you are sitting8--and then a grotesque imitation of her stooping shoulders4 ,will you sit still for one minute8 ,do take your hands off my dress4 ,was there ever such an awkward child8 ,when the child replies fretfully and disagreeably1 she does not see that it is only an exact reflection of her own voice and manners4 ,she does not understand any of the things that would make for her own peace1 as well as for the child's4 ,matters grow worse1 instead of better1 as the child grows older and has more will2 and the chances are that the poor little soul will be worried into her grave4 ,probably most parents1 even very kindly ones1 would be a little startled at the assertion that a child ought never to be reproved in the presence of others4 ,this is so constant an occurrence that nobody thinks of noticing it2 nobody thinks of considering whether it be right and best1 or not4 ,but it is a great rudeness to a child4 ,i am entirely sure that it ought never to be done4 ,mortification is a condition as unwholesome as it is uncomfortable4 ,when the wound is inflicted by the hand of a parent1 it is all the more certain to rankle and do harm4 ,let a child see that his mother is so anxious that he should have the approbation and good-will of her friends that she will not call their attention to his faults2 and that1 while she never1 under any circumstances1 allows herself to forget to tell him afterward1 alone1 if he has behaved improperly1 she will spare him the additional pain and mortification of public reproof2 and1 while that child will lay these secret reproofs to heart1 he will still be happy4 ,i know a mother who had the insight to see this1 and the patience to make it a rule2 for it takes far more patience1 far more time1 than the common method4 ,she said sometimes to her little boy1 after visitors had left the parlor1 ,now1 dear1 ,i am going to be your little girl1 and you are to be my papa4 ,and we will play that a gentleman has just come in to see you1 and ,i will show you exactly how you have been behaving while this lady has been calling to see me4 ,and you can see if you do not feel very sorry to have your little girl behave so4 ,here is a dramatic representation at once which that boy does not need to see repeated many times before he is forever cured of interrupting1 of pulling his mother's gown1 of drumming on the piano1 c41--of the thousand and one things which able-bodied children can do to make social visiting where they are a martyrdom and a penance4 ,once ,i saw this same little boy behave so boisterously and rudely at the dinner-table1 in the presence of guests1 that ,i said to myself1 ,surely1 this time she will have to break her rule1 and reprove him publicly4 ,i saw several telegraphic signals of rebuke1 entreaty1 and warning flash from her gentle eyes to his2 but nothing did any good4 ,nature was too much for him2 he could not at that minute force himself to be quiet4 ,presently she said1 in a perfectly easy and natural tone1 ,oh1 ,charley1 come here a minute2 ,i want to tell you something4 ,no one at the table supposed that it had any thing to do with his bad behavior4 ,she did not intend that they should4 ,as she whispered to him1 ,i alone saw his cheek flush1 and that he looked quickly and imploringly into her face2 ,i alone saw that tears were almost in her eyes4 ,but she shook her head1 and he went back to his seat with a manful but very red little face4 ,in a few moments he laid down his knife and fork1 and said1 ,mamma1 will you please to excuse me8 ,certainly1 my dear1 said she4 ,nobody but ,i understood it1 or observed that the little fellow had to run very fast to get out of the room without crying4 ,afterward she told me that she never sent a child away from the table in any other way4 ,but what would you do1 said ,i1 if he were to refuse to ask to be excused8 ,then the tears stood full in her eyes4 ,do you think he could1 she replied1 when he sees that ,i am only trying to save him from pain8 ,in the evening1 ,charley sat in my lap1 and was very sober4 ,at last he whispered to me1 ,i'll tell you an awful secret1 if you won't tell4 ,did you think ,i had done my dinner this afternoon when ,i got excused8 ,well1 ,i hadn't4 ,mamma made me1 because ,i acted so4 ,that's the way she always does4 ,but ,i haven't had to have it done to me before for ever so long1--not since ,i was a little fellow 7he was eight now72 and ,i don't believe ,i ever shall again till ,i'm a man4 ,then he added1 reflectively1 ,mary brought me all the rest of my dinner upstairs2 but ,i wouldn't touch it1 only a little bit of the ice-cream4 ,i don't think ,i deserved any at all2 do you8 ,i shall never1 so long as ,i live1 forget a lesson of this sort which my own mother once gave me4 ,i was not more than seven years old2 but ,i had a great susceptibility to color and shape in clothes1 and an insatiable admiration for all people who came finely dressed4 ,one day1 my mother said to me1 ,now ,i will play 'house' with you4 ,who does not remember when to play house was their chief of plays8 ,and to whose later thought has it not occurred that in this mimic little show lay bound up the whole of life8 ,my mother was the liveliest of playmates1 she took the worst doll1 the broken tea-set1 the shabby furniture1 and the least convenient corner of the room for her establishment4 ,social life became a round of festivities when she kept house as my opposite neighbor4 ,at last1 after the washing-day1 and the baking-day1 and the day when she took dinner with me1 and the day when we took our children and walked out together1 came the day for me to take my oldest child and go across to make a call at her house4 ,chill discomfort struck me on the very threshold of my visit4 ,where was the genial1 laughing1 talking lady who had been my friend up to that moment8 ,there she sat1 stock-still1 dumb1 staring first at my bonnet1 then at my shawl1 then at my gown1 then at my feet2 up and down1 down and up1 she scanned me1 barely replying in monosyllables to my attempts at conversation2 finally getting up1 and coming nearer1 and examining my clothes1 and my child's still more closely4 ,a very few minutes of this were more than ,i could bear2 and1 almost crying1 ,i said1 ,why1 mamma1 what makes you do so8 ,then the play was over2 and she was once more the wise and tender mother1 telling me playfully that it was precisely in such a way ,i had stared1 the day before1 at the clothes of two ladies who had come in to visit her4 ,i never needed that lesson again4 ,to this day1 if ,i find myself departing from it for an instant1 the old tingling shame burns in my cheeks4 ,to this day1 also1 the old tingling pain burns my cheeks as ,i recall certain rude and contemptuous words which were said to me when ,i was very young1 and stamped on my memory forever4 ,i was once called a stupid child in the presence of strangers4 ,i had brought the wrong book from my father's study4 ,nothing could be said to me to-day which would give me a tenth part of the hopeless sense of degradation which came from those words4 ,another time1 on the arrival of an unexpected guest to dinner1 ,i was sent1 in a great hurry1 away from the table1 to make room1 with the remark that it was not of the least consequence about the child2 she could just as well have her dinner afterward4 ,the child would have been only too happy to help on the hospitality of the sudden emergency1 if the thing had been differently put2 but the sting of having it put in that way ,i never forgot4 ,yet in both these instances the rudeness was so small1 in comparison with what we habitually see1 that it would be too trivial to mention1 except for the bearing of the fact that the pain it gave has lasted till now4 ,when we consider seriously what ought to be the nature of a reproof from a parent to a child1 and what is its end1 the answer is simple enough4 ,it should be nothing but the superior wisdom and strength1 explaining to inexperience and feebleness wherein they have made a mistake1 to the end that they may avoid such mistakes in future4 ,if personal annoyance1 impatience1 antagonism enter in1 the relation is marred and the end endangered4 ,most sacred and inalienable of all rights is the right of helplessness to protection from the strong1 of ignorance to counsel from the wise4 ,if we give our protection and counsel grudgingly1 or in a churlish1 unkind manner1 even to the stranger that is in our gates1 we are no ,christians1 and deserve to be stripped of what little wisdom and strength we have hoarded4 ,but there are no words to say what we are or what we deserve if we do thus to the little children whom we have dared1 for our own pleasure1 to bring into the perils of this life1 and whose whole future may be blighted by the mistakes of our careless hands4 ,breaking the ,will4 ,this phrase is going out of use4 ,it is high time it did4 ,if the thing it represents would also cease1 there would be stronger and freer men and women4 ,but the phrase is still sometimes heard2 and there are still conscientious fathers and mothers who believe they do ,god service in setting about the thing4 ,i have more than once said to a parent who used these words1 ,will you tell me just what you mean by that8 ,of course you do not mean exactly what you say4 ,yes1 ,i do4 ,i mean that the child's will is to be once for all broken6--that he is to learn that my will is to be his law4 ,the sooner he learns this the better4 ,but is it to your will simply as will that he is to yield8 ,simply as the weaker yields to the stronger1--almost as matter yields to force8 ,for what reason is he to do this8 ,why1 because ,i know what is best for him1 and what is right2 and he does not4 ,ah6 that is a very different thing4 ,he is1 then1 to do the thing that you tell him to do1 because that thing is right and is needful for him2 you are his guide on a road over which you have gone1 and he has not2 you are an interpreter1 a helper2 you know better than he does about all things1 and your knowledge is to teach his ignorance4 ,certainly1 that is what ,i mean4 ,a pretty state of things it would be if children were to be allowed to think they know as much as their parents4 ,there is no way except to break their wills in the beginning4 ,but you have just said that it is not to your will as will that he is to yield1 but to your superior knowledge and experience4 ,that surely is not 'breaking his will4' ,it is of all things furthest removed from it4 ,it is educating his will4 ,it is teaching him how to will4 ,this sounds dangerous2 but the logic is not easily turned aside1 and there is little left for the advocate of will-breaking but to fall back on some texts in the ,bible1 which have been so often misquoted in this connection that one can hardly hear them with patience4 ,to ,children1 obey your parents1 was added in the ,lord1 and because it is right1 not because they are your parents4 ,spare the rod has been quite gratuitously assumed to mean spare blows4 ,rod means here1 as elsewhere1 simply punishment4 ,we are not told to train up a child to have no will but our own1 but in the way in which he should go1 and to the end that when he is old he should not depart from it1--i4e41 that his will should be so educated that he will choose to walk in the right way still4 ,suppose a child's will to be actually broken2 suppose him to be so trained that he has no will but to obey his parents4 ,what is to become of this helpless machine1 which has no central spring of independent action8 ,can we stand by1 each minute of each hour of each day1 and say to the automata1 ,go here1 or ,go there8 ,can we be sure of living as long as they live8 ,can we wind them up like seventy-year clocks1 and leave them8 ,but this is idle4 ,it is not1 thank ,god1 in the power of any man or any woman to break a child's will4 ,they may kill the child's body1 in trying1 like that still unhung clergyman in ,western ,new ,york1 who whipped his three-year-old son to death for refusing to repeat a prayer to his step-mother4 ,bodies are frail things2 there are more child-martyrs than will be known until the bodies terrestrial are done with4 ,but1 by one escape or another1 the will1 the soul1 goes free4 ,sooner or later1 every human being comes to know and prove in his own estate that freedom of will is the only freedom for which there are no chains possible1 and that in ,nature's whole reign of law nothing is so largely provided for as liberty4 ,sooner or later1 all this must come4 ,but1 if it comes later1 it comes through clouds of antagonism1 and after days of fight1 and is hard-bought4 ,it should come sooner1 like the kingdom of ,god1 which it is1--without observation1 gracious as sunshine1 sweet as dew2 it should begin with the infant's first dawning of comprehension that there are two courses of action1 two qualities of conduct3 one wise1 the other foolish2 one right1 the other wrong4 ,i am sure2 for ,i have seen1 that a child's moral perceptions can be so made clear1 and his will so made strong and upright1 that before he is ten years old he will see and take his way through all common days rightly and bravely4 ,will he always act up to his highest moral perceptions8 ,no4 ,do we8 ,but one right decision that he makes voluntarily1 unbiassed by the assertion of authority or the threat of punishment1 is worth more to him in development of moral character than a thousand in which he simply does what he is compelled to do by some sort of outside pressure4 ,i read once1 in a book intended for the guidance of mothers1 a story of a little child who1 in repeating his letters one day1 suddenly refused to say ,a4 ,all the other letters he repeated again and again1 unhesitatingly2 but ,a he would not1 and persisted in declaring that he could not say4 ,he was severely whipped1 but still persisted4 ,it now became a contest of wills4 ,he was whipped again and again and again4 ,in the intervals between the whippings the primer was presented to him1 and he was told that he would be whipped again if he did not mind his mother and say ,a4 ,i forget how many times he was whipped2 but it was almost too many times to be believed4 ,the fight was a terrible one4 ,at last1 in a paroxysm of his crying under the blows1 the mother thought she heard him sob out ,a1 and the victory was considered to be won4 ,a little boy whom ,i know once had a similar contest over a letter of the alphabet2 but the contest was with himself1 and his mother was the faithful ,great ,heart who helped him through4 ,the story is so remarkable that ,i have long wanted all mothers to know it4 ,it is as perfect an illustration of what ,i mean by educating the will as the other one is of what is called breaking it4 ,willy was about four years old4 ,he had a large1 active brain1 sensitive temperament1 and indomitable spirit4 ,he was and is an uncommon child4 ,common methods of what is commonly supposed to be discipline would1 if he had survived them1 have made a very bad boy of him4 ,he had great difficulty in pronouncing the letter ,g1--so much that he had formed almost a habit of omitting it4 ,one day his mother said1 not dreaming of any special contest1 ,this time you must say ,g4 ,it is an ugly old letter1 and ,i ain't ever going to try to say it again1 said ,willy1 repeating the alphabet very rapidly from beginning to end1 without the ,g4 ,like a wise mother1 she did not open at once on a struggle2 but said1 pleasantly1 ,ah6 you did not get it in that time4 ,try again2 go more slowly1 and we will have it4 ,it was all in vain2 and it soon began to look more like real obstinacy on ,willy's part than any thing she had ever seen in him4 ,she has often told me how she hesitated before entering on the campaign4 ,i always knew1 she said1 that ,willy's first real fight with himself would be no matter of a few hours2 and it was a particularly inconvenient time for me1 just then1 to give up a day to it4 ,but it seemed1 on the whole1 best not to put it off4 ,so she said1 ,now1 ,willy1 you can't get along without the letter ,g4 ,the longer you put off saying it1 the harder it will be for you to say it at last2 and we will have it settled now1 once for all4 ,you are never going to let a little bit of a letter like that be stronger than ,willy4 ,we will not go out of this room till you have said it4 ,unfortunately1 ,willy's will had already taken its stand4 ,however1 the mother made no authoritative demand that he should pronounce the letter as a matter of obedience to her4 ,because it was a thing intrinsically necessary for him to do1 she would see1 at any cost to herself or to him1 that he did it2 but he must do it voluntarily1 and she would wait till he did4 ,the morning wore on4 ,she busied herself with other matters1 and left ,willy to himself2 now and then asking1 with a smile1 ,well1 isn't my little boy stronger than that ugly old letter yet8 ,willy was sulky4 ,he understood in that early stage all that was involved4 ,dinner-time came4 ,aren't you going to dinner1 mamma8 ,oh6 no1 dear2 not unless you say ,g1 so that you can go too4 ,mamma will stay by her little boy until he is out of this trouble4 ,the dinner was brought up1 and they ate it together4 ,she was cheerful and kind1 but so serious that he felt the constant pressure of her pain4 ,the afternoon dragged slowly on to night4 ,willy cried now and then1 and she took him in her lap1 and said1 ,dear1 you will be happy as soon as you say that letter1 and mamma will be happy too1 and we can't either of us be happy until you do4 ,oh1 mamma6 why don't you make me say it8 7,this he said several times before the affair was over47 ,because1 dear1 you must make yourself say it4 ,i am helping you make yourself say it1 for ,i shall not let you go out of this room1 nor go out myself1 till you do say it2 but that is all ,i shall do to help you4 ,i am listening1 listening all the time1 and if you say it1 in ever so little a whisper1 ,i shall hear you4 ,that is all mamma can do for you4 ,bed-time came4 ,willy went to bed1 unkissed and sad4 ,the next morning1 when ,willy's mother opened her eyes1 she saw ,willy sitting up in his crib1 and looking at her steadfastly4 ,as soon as he saw that she was awake1 he exclaimed1 ,mamma1 ,i can't say it2 and you know ,i can't say it4 ,you're a naughty mamma1 and you don't love me4 ,her heart sank within her2 but she patiently went again and again over yesterday's ground4 ,willy cried4 ,he ate very little breakfast4 ,he stood at the window in a listless attitude of discouraged misery1 which she said cut her to the heart4 ,once in a while he would ask for some plaything which he did not usually have4 ,she gave him whatever he asked for2 but he could not play4 ,she kept up an appearance of being busy with her sewing1 but she was far more unhappy than ,willy4 ,dinner was brought up to them4 ,willy said1 ,mamma1 this ain't a bit good dinner4 ,she replied1 ,yes1 it is1 darling2 just as good as we ever have4 ,it is only because we are eating it alone4 ,and poor papa is sad1 too1 taking his all alone downstairs4 ,at this ,willy burst out into an hysterical fit of crying and sobbing4 ,i shall never see my papa again in this world4 ,then his mother broke down1 too1 and cried as hard as he did2 but she said1 ,oh6 yes1 you will1 dear4 ,i think you will say that letter before tea-time1 and we will have a nice evening downstairs together4 ,i can't say it4 ,i try all the time1 and ,i can't say it2 and1 if you keep me here till ,i die1 ,i shan't ever say it4 ,the second night settled down dark and gloomy1 and ,willy cried himself to sleep4 ,his mother was ill from anxiety and confinement2 but she never faltered4 ,she told me she resolved that night that1 if it were necessary1 she would stay in that room with ,willy a month4 ,the next morning she said to him1 more seriously than before1 ,now1 ,willy1 you are not only a foolish little boy1 you are unkind2 you are making everybody unhappy4 ,mamma is very sorry for you1 but she is also very much displeased with you4 ,mamma will stay here with you till you say that letter1 if it is for the rest of your life2 but mamma will not talk with you1 as she did yesterday4 ,she tried all day yesterday to help you1 and you would not help yourself2 to-day you must do it all alone4 ,mamma1 are you sure ,i shall ever say it8 asked ,willy4 ,yes1 dear2 perfectly sure4 ,you will say it some day or other4 ,do you think ,i shall say it to-day8 ,i can't tell4 ,you are not so strong a little boy as ,i thought4 ,i believed you would say it yesterday4 ,i am afraid you have some hard work before you4 ,willy begged her to go down and leave him alone4 ,then he begged her to shut him up in the closet1 and see if that wouldn't make him good4 ,every few minutes he would come and stand before her1 and say very earnestly1 ,are you sure ,i shall say it8 ,he looked very pale1 almost as if he had had a fit of illness4 ,no wonder4 ,it was the whole battle of life fought at the age of four4 ,it was late in the afternoon of this the third day4 ,willy had been sitting in his little chair1 looking steadily at the floor1 for so long a time that his mother was almost frightened4 ,but she hesitated to speak to him1 for she felt that the crisis had come4 ,suddenly he sprang up1 and walked toward her with all the deliberate firmness of a man in his whole bearing4 ,she says there was something in his face which she has never seen since1 and does not expect to see till he is thirty years old4 ,mamma6 said he4 ,well1 dear8 said his mother1 trembling so that she could hardly speak4 ,mamma1 he repeated1 in a loud1 sharp tone1 ,g6 ,g6 ,g6 ,g6 ,and then he burst into a fit of crying1 which she had hard work to stop4 ,it was over4 ,willy is now ten years old4 ,from that day to this his mother has never had a contest with him2 she has always been able to leave all practical questions affecting his behavior to his own decision1 merely saying1 ,willy1 ,i think this or that will be better4 ,his self-control and gentleness are wonderful to see2 and the blending in his face of childlike simplicity and purity with manly strength is something which ,i have only once seen equalled4 ,for a few days he went about the house1 shouting ,g6 ,g6 ,g6 at the top of his voice4 ,he was heard asking playmates if they could say ,g1 and who showed them how4 ,for several years he used often to allude to the affair1 saying1 ,do you remember1 mamma1 that dreadful time when ,i wouldn't say ,g8 ,he always used the verb wouldn't in speaking of it4 ,once1 when he was sick1 he said1 ,mamma1 do you think ,i could have said ,g any sooner than ,i did8 ,i have never felt certain about that1 ,willy1 she said4 ,what do you think8 ,i think ,i could have said it a few minutes sooner4 ,i was saying it to myself as long as that6 said ,willy4 ,it was singular that1 although up to that time he had never been able to pronounce the letter with any distinctness1 when he first made up his mind in this instance to say it1 he enunciated it with perfect clearness1 and never again went back to the old1 imperfect pronunciation4 ,few mothers1 perhaps1 would be able to give up two whole days to such a battle as this2 other children1 other duties1 would interfere4 ,but the same principle could be carried out without the mother's remaining herself by the child's side all the time4 ,moreover1 not one child in a thousand would hold out as ,willy did4 ,in all ordinary cases a few hours would suffice4 ,and1 after all1 what would the sacrifice of even two days be1 in comparison with the time saved in years to come8 ,if there were no stronger motive than one of policy1 of desire to take the course easiest to themselves1 mothers might well resolve that their first aim should be to educate their children's wills and make them strong1 instead of to conquer and break them4 ,the ,reign of ,archelaus4 ,herod's massacre had1 after all1 a certain mercy in it3 there were no lingering tortures4 ,the slayers of children went about with naked and bloody swords1 which mothers could see1 and might at least make effort to flee from4 ,into ,rachel's refusal to be comforted there need enter no bitter agonies of remorse4 ,but ,herod's death1 it seems1 did not make ,judea a safe place for babies4 ,when ,joseph heard that ,archelaus did reign in the room of his father1 ,herod1 he was afraid to return thither with the infant ,jesus1 and only after repeated commands and warnings from ,god would he venture as far as ,nazareth4 ,the reign of ,archelaus is not yet over2 he has had many names1 and ruled over more and more countries1 but the spirit of his father1 ,herod1 is still in him4 ,to-day his power is at its zenith4 ,he is called ,education2 and the safest place for the dear1 holy children is still ,egypt1 or some other of the fortunate countries called unenlightened4 ,some years ago there were symptoms of a strong rebellion against his tyranny4 ,horace ,mann lifted up his strong hands and voice against it2 physicians and physiologists came out gravely and earnestly1 and fortified their positions with statistics from which there was no appeal4 ,thomas ,wentworth ,higginson1 whose words have with the light1 graceful beauty of the ,damascus blade its swift sureness in cleaving to the heart of things1 wrote an article for the ,atlantic ,monthly called ,the ,murder of the ,innocents1 which we wish could be put into every house in the ,united ,states4 ,some changes in school organizations resulted from these protests2 in the matter of ventilation of school-rooms some real improvement was probably effected2 though we shudder to think how much room remains for further improvement1 when we read in the report of the superintendent of public schools in ,brooklyn that in the primary departments of the grammar schools an average daily number of #cc1bge pupils are crowded into one-half the space provided in the upper departments for an average daily attendance of #bf1cei2 or compelled to occupy badly lighted1 inconvenient1 and ill-ventilated galleries1 or rooms in the basement stories4 ,but in regard to the number of hours of confinement1 and amount of study required of children1 it is hard to believe that schools have ever been much more murderously exacting than now4 ,the substitution of the single session of five hours for the old arrangement of two sessions of three hours each1 with a two-hours interval at noon1 was regarded as a great gain4 ,so it would be1 if all the brain-work of the day were done in that time2 but in most schools with the five-hours session1 there is next to no provision for studying in school-hours1 and the pupils are required to learn two1 three1 or four lessons at home4 ,now1 when is your boy to learn these lessons8 ,not in the morning1 before school2 that is plain4 ,school ends at two4 ,few children live sufficiently near their schools to get home to dinner before half past two o'clock4 ,we say nothing of the undesirableness of taking the hearty meal of the day immediately after five hours of mental fatigue2 it is probably a less evil than the late dinner at six1 and we are in a region where we are grateful for less evils6 ,dinner is over at quarter past three2 we make close estimates4 ,in winter there is left less than two hours before dark4 ,this is all the time the child is to have for out-door play2 two hours and a half 7counting in his recess7 out of twenty-four4 ,ask any farmer1 even the stupidest1 how well his colt or his lamb would grow if it had but two hours a day of absolute freedom and exercise in the open air1 and that in the dark and the chill of a late afternoon6 ,in spite of the dark and the chill1 however1 your boy skates or slides on until he is called in by you1 who1 if you are an ,american mother1 care a great deal more than he does for the bad marks which will stand on his week's report if those three lessons are not learned before bed-time4 ,he is tired and cold2 he does not want to study--who would8 ,it is six o'clock before he is fairly at it4 ,you work harder than he does1 and in half an hour one lesson is learned2 then comes tea4 ,after tea half an hour1 or perhaps an hour1 remains before bed-time2 in this time1 which ought to be spent in light1 cheerful talk or play1 the rest of the lessons must be learned4 ,he is sleepy and discouraged4 ,words which in the freshness of the morning he would have learned in a very few moments with ease1 it is now simply out of his power to commit to memory4 ,you1 if you are not superhuman1 grow impatient4 ,at eight o'clock he goes to bed1 his brain excited and wearied1 in no condition for healthful sleep2 and his heart oppressed with the fear of missing in the next day's recitations4 ,and this is one out of the school-year's two hundred and sixteen days--all of which will be like this1 or worse4 ,one of the most pitiful sights we have seen for months was a little group of four dear children1 gathered round the library lamp1 trying to learn the next day's lessons in time to have a story read to them before going to bed4 ,they had taken the precaution to learn one lesson immediately after dinner1 before going out1 cutting their out-door play down by half an hour4 ,the two elder were learning a long spelling-lesson2 the third was grappling with geographical definitions of capes1 promontories1 and so forth2 and the youngest was at work on his primer4 ,in spite of all their efforts1 bed-time came before the lessons were learned4 ,the little geography student had been nodding over her book for some minutes1 and she had the philosophy to say1 ,i don't care2 ,i'm so sleepy4 ,i had rather go to bed than hear any kind of a story4 ,but the elder ones were grieved and unhappy1 and said1 ,there won't ever be any time2 we shall have just as much more to learn to-morrow night4 ,the next morning1 however1 there was a sight still more pitiful3 the baby of seven1 with a little bit of paper and a pencil1 and three sums in addition to be done1 and the father vainly endeavoring1 to explain them to him in the hurried moments before breakfast4 ,it would be easy to show how fatal to all real mental development1 how false to all ,nature's laws of growth1 such a system must be2 but that belongs to another side of the question4 ,we speak now simply of the effect of it on the body2 and here we quote largely from the admirable article of ,col4 ,higginson's1 above referred to4 ,no stronger1 more direct1 more conclusive words can be written3-- ,sir ,walter ,scott1 according to ,carlyle1 was the only perfectly healthy literary man who ever lived4 ,he gave it as his deliberate opinion1 in conversation with ,basil ,hall1 that five and a half hours form the limit of healthful mental labor for a mature person4 ',this ,i reckon very good work for a man1' he said4 ',i can very seldom work six hours a day4' ,supposing his estimate to be correct1 and five and a half hours the reasonable limit for the day's work of a mature intellect1 it is evident that even this must be altogether too much for an immature one4 ',to suppose the youthful brain1' says the recent admirable report1 by ,dr4 ,ray1 of the ,providence ,insane ,hospital1 'to be capable of an amount of work which is considered an ample allowance to an adult brain is simply absurd4' ',it would be wrong1 therefore1 to deduct less than a half-hour from ,scott's estimate1 for even the oldest pupils in our highest schools1 leaving five hours as the limit of real mental effort for them1 and reducing this for all younger pupils very much further4' ,but ,scott is not the only authority in the case2 let us ask the physiologists4 ,so said ,horace ,mann before us1 in the days when the ,massachusetts school system was in process of formation4 ,he asked the physicians in #ahdj1 and in his report printed the answers of three of the most eminent4 ,the late ,dr4 ,woodward1 of ,worcester1 promptly said that children under eight should never be confined more than one hour at a time1 nor more than four hours a day4 ,dr4 ,james ,jackson1 of ,boston1 allowed the children four hours schooling in winter and five in summer1 but only one hour at a time2 and heartily expressed his detestation of giving young children lessons to learn at home4 ,dr4 ,s4,g4 ,howe1 reasoning elaborately on the whole subject1 said that children under eight years of age should never be confined more than half an hour at a time2 by following which rule1 with long recesses1 they can study four hours daily4 ,children between eight and fourteen should not be confined more than three-quarters of an hour at a time1 having the last quarter of each hour for exercise on the play-ground4 ,indeed1 the one thing about which doctors do not disagree is the destructive effect of premature or excessive mental labor4 ,i can quote you medical authority for and against every maxim of dietetics beyond the very simplest2 but ,i defy you to find one man who ever begged1 borrowed1 or stole the title of ,m4,d41 and yet abused those two honorary letters by asserting under their cover that a child could safely study as much as a man1 or that a man could safely study more than six hours a day4 ,the worst danger of it is that the moral is written at the end of the fable1 not at the beginning4 ,the organization in youth is so dangerously elastic that the result of these intellectual excesses is not seen until years after4 ,when some young girl incurs spinal disease from some slight fall1 which she ought not to have felt for an hour1 or some business man breaks down in the prime of his years from some trifling over-anxiety1 which should have left no trace behind1 the popular verdict may be ',mysterious ,providence2' but the wiser observer sees the retribution for the folly of those misspent days which enfeebled the childish constitution instead of ripening it4 ,one of the most striking passages in the report of ,dr4 ,ray1 before mentioned1 is that in which he explains that1 'though study at school is rarely the immediate cause of insanity1 it is the most frequent of its ulterior causes1 except hereditary tendencies4' ,it diminishes the conservative power of the animal economy to such a degree that attacks of disease which otherwise would have passed off safely destroy life almost before danger is anticipated4 ,it would be easy to multiply authorities on these points4 ,it is hard to stop4 ,but our limits forbid any thing like a full treatment of the subject4 ,yet discussion on this question ought never to cease in the land until a reform is brought about4 ,teachers are to blame only in part for the present wrong state of things4 ,they are to blame for yielding1 for acquiescing2 but the real blame rests on parents4 ,here and there1 individual fathers and mothers1 taught1 perhaps1 by heart-rending experience1 try to make stand against the current of false ambitions and unhealthy standards4 ,but these are rare exceptions4 ,parents1 as a class1 not only help on1 but create the pressure to which teachers yield1 and children are sacrificed4 ,the whole responsibility is really theirs4 ,they have in their hands the power to regulate the whole school routine to which their children are to be subjected4 ,this is plain1 when we once consider what would be the immediate effect in any community1 large or small1 if a majority of parents took action together1 and persistently refused to allow any child under fourteen to be confined in school more than four hours out of the twenty-four1 more than one hour at a time1 or to do more than five hours' brain-work in a day4 ,the law of supply and demand is a first principle4 ,in three months the schools in that community would be entirely reorganized1 to accord with the parents' wishes2 in three years the improved average health of the children in that community would bear its own witness in ruddy bloom along the streets2 and perhaps even in one generation so great gain of vigor might be made that the melancholy statistics of burial would no longer have to record the death under twelve years of age of more than two-fifths of the children who are born4 ,the ,awkward ,age4 ,the expression defines itself4 ,at the first sound of the words1 we all think of some one unhappy soul we know just now1 whom they suggest4 ,nobody is ever without at least one brother1 sister1 cousin1 or friend on hand1 who is struggling through this social slough of despond2 and nobody ever will be1 so long as the world goes on taking it for granted that the slough is a necessity1 and that the road must go through it4 ,nature never meant any such thing4 ,now and then she blunders or gets thwarted of her intent1 and turns out a person who is awkward1 hopelessly and forever awkward2 body and soul are clumsy together1 and it is hard to fancy them translated to the spiritual world without too much elbow and ankle4 ,however1 these are rare cases1 and come in under the law of variation4 ,but an awkward age1--a necessary crisis or stage of uncouthness1 through which all human beings must pass1--,nature was incapable of such a conception2 law has no place for it2 development does not know it2 instinct revolts from it2 and man is the only animal who has been silly and wrong-headed enough to stumble into it4 ,the explanation and the remedy are so simple1 so close at hand1 that we have not seen them4 ,the whole thing lies in a nutshell4 ,where does this abnormal1 uncomfortable period come in8 ,between childhood1 we say1 and maturity2 it is the transition from one to the other4 ,when human beings1 then1 are neither boys nor men1 girls nor women1 they must be for a few years anomalous creatures1 must they8 ,we might1 perhaps1 find a name for the individual in this condition as well as for the condition4 ,we must look to ,du ,chaillu for it1 if we do2 but it is too serious a distress to make light of1 even for a moment4 ,we have all felt it1 and we know how it feels2 we all see it every day1 and we know how it looks4 ,what is it which the child has and the adult loses1 from the loss of which comes this total change of behavior8 ,or is it something which the adult has and the child had not8 ,it is both2 and until the loss and the gain1 the new and the old1 are permanently separated and balanced1 the awkward age lasts4 ,the child was overlooked1 contradicted1 thwarted1 snubbed1 insulted1 whipped2 not constantly1 not often1--in many cases1 thank ,god1 very seldom4 ,but the liability was there1 and he knew it2 he never forgot it1 if you did4 ,one burn is enough to make fire dreaded4 ,the adult1 once fairly recognized as adult1 is not overlooked1 contradicted1 thwarted1 snubbed1 insulted1 whipped2 at least1 not with impunity4 ,to this gratifying freedom1 these comfortable exemptions1 when they are once established in our belief1 we adjust ourselves1 and grow contentedly good-mannered4 ,to the other rgime1 while we were yet children1 we also somewhat adjusted ourselves1 were tolerably well behaved1 and made the best of it4 ,but who could bear a mixture of both8 ,what genius could rise superior to it1 could be itself1 surrounded by such uncertainties8 ,no wonder that your son comes into the room with a confused expression of uncomfortable pain on every feature1 when he does not in the least know whether he will be recognized as a gentleman1 or overlooked as a little boy4 ,no wonder he sits down in his chair with movements suggestive of nothing but rheumatism and jack-knives1 when he is thinking that perhaps there may be some reason why he should not take that particular chair1 and that1 if there is1 he will be ordered up4 ,no wonder that your tall daughter turns red1 stammers1 and says foolish things on being courteously spoken to by strangers at dinner1 when she is afraid that she may be sharply contradicted or interrupted1 and remembers that day before yesterday she was told that children should be seen and not heard4 ,i knew a very clever girl1 who had the misfortune to look at fourteen as if she were twenty4 ,at home1 she was the shyest and most awkward of creatures2 away from her mother and sisters1 she was self-possessed and charming4 ,she said to me1 once1 ,oh6 ,i have such a splendid time away from home4 ,i'm so tall1 everybody thinks ,i am grown up1 and everybody is civil to me4 ,i know1 also1 a man of superb physique1 charming temperament1 and uncommon talent1 who is to this day--and he is twenty-five years old--nervous and ill at ease in talking with strangers1 in the presence of his own family4 ,he hesitates1 stammers1 and never does justice to his thoughts4 ,he says that he believes he shall never be free from this distress2 he cannot escape from the recollections of the years between fourteen and twenty1 during which he was so systematically snubbed that his mother's parlor was to him worse than the chambers of the ,inquisition4 ,he knows that he is now sure of courteous treatment2 that his friends are all proud of him2 but the old cloud will never entirely disappear4 ,something has been lost which can never be regained4 ,and the loss is not his alone1 it is theirs too2 they are all poorer for life1 by reason of the unkind days which are gone4 ,this1 then1 is the explanation of the awkward age4 ,i am not afraid of any dissent from my definition of the source whence its misery springs4 ,everybody's consciousness bears witness4 ,everybody knows1 in the bottom of his heart1 that1 however much may be said about the change of voice1 the thinness of cheeks1 the sharpness of arms1 the sudden length in legs and lack of length in trousers and frocks1--all these had nothing to do with the real misery4 ,the real misery was simply and solely the horrible feeling of not belonging anywhere2 not knowing what a moment might bring forth in the way of treatment from others2 never being sure which impulse it would be safer to follow1 to retreat or to advance1 to speak or to be silent1 and often overwhelmed with unspeakable mortification at the rebuff of the one or the censure of the other4 ,oh6 how dreadful it all was6 ,how dreadful it all is1 even to remember6 ,it would be malicious even to refer to it1 except to point out the cure4 ,the cure is plain4 ,it needs no experiment to test it4 ,merely to mention it ought to be enough4 ,if human beings are so awkward at this unhappy age1 and so unhappy at this awkward age1 simply because they do not know whether they are to be treated as children or as adults1 suppose we make a rule that children are always to be treated1 in point of courtesy1 as if they were adults8 ,then this awkward age--this period of transition from an atmosphere of1 to say the least1 negative rudeness to one of gracious politeness--disappears4 ,there cannot be a crisis of readjustment of social relations3 there is no possibility of such a feeling2 it would be hard to explain to a young person what it meant4 ,now and then we see a young man or young woman who has never known it4 ,they are usually only children1 and are commonly spoken of as wonders4 ,i know such a boy to-day4 ,at seventeen he measures six feet in height2 he has the feet and the hands of a still larger man2 and he comes of a blood which had far more strength than grace4 ,but his manner is1 and always has been1 sweet1 gentle1 composed1--the very ideal of grave1 tender1 frank young manhood4 ,people say1 ,how strange6 ,he never seemed to have any awkward age at all4 ,it would have been stranger if he had4 ,neither his father nor his mother ever departed for an instant1 in their relations with him1 from the laws of courtesy and kindliness of demeanor which governed their relations with others4 ,he knew but one atmosphere1 and that a genial one1 from his babyhood up2 and in and of this atmosphere has grown up a sweet1 strong1 pure soul1 for which the quiet1 self-possessed manner is but the fitting garb4 ,this is part of the kingdom that cometh unobserved4 ,in this kingdom we are all to be kings and priests1 if we choose2 and all its ways are pleasantness4 ,but we are not ready for it till we have become peaceable and easy to be entreated1 and have learned to understand why it was that one day1 when ,jesus called his disciples together1 he set a little child in their midst4 ,a ,day with a ,courteous ,mother4 ,during the whole of one of last summer's hottest days ,i had the good fortune to be seated in a railway car near a mother and four children1 whose relations with each other were so beautiful that the pleasure of watching them was quite enough to make one forget the discomforts of the journey4 ,it was plain that they were poor2 their clothes were coarse and old1 and had been made by inexperienced hands4 ,the mother's bonnet alone would have been enough to have condemned the whole party on any of the world's thoroughfares4 ,i remembered afterward1 with shame1 that ,i myself had smiled at the first sight of its antiquated ugliness2 but her face was one which it gave you a sense of rest to look upon1--it was so earnest1 tender1 true1 and strong4 ,it had little comeliness of shape or color in it1 it was thin1 and pale2 she was not young2 she had worked hard2 she had evidently been much ill2 but ,i have seen few faces which gave me such pleasure4 ,i think that she was the wife of a poor clergyman2 and ,i think that clergyman must be one of the ,lord's best watchmen of souls4 ,the children--two boys and two girls--were all under the age of twelve1 and the youngest could not speak plainly4 ,they had had a rare treat2 they had been visiting the mountains1 and they were talking over all the wonders they had seen with a glow of enthusiastic delight which was to be envied4 ,only a word-for-word record would do justice to their conversation2 no description could give any idea of it1--so free1 so pleasant1 so genial1 no interruptions1 no contradictions2 and the mother's part borne all the while with such equal interest and eagerness that no one not seeing her face would dream that she was any other than an elder sister4 ,in the course of the day there were many occasions when it was necessary for her to deny requests1 and to ask services1 especially from the eldest boy2 but no young girl1 anxious to please a lover1 could have done either with a more tender courtesy4 ,she had her reward2 for no lover could have been more tender and manly than was this boy of twelve4 ,their lunch was simple and scanty2 but it had the grace of a royal banquet4 ,at the last1 the mother produced with much glee three apples and an orange1 of which the children had not known4 ,all eyes fastened on the orange4 ,it was evidently a great rarity4 ,i watched to see if this test would bring out selfishness4 ,there was a little silence2 just the shade of a cloud4 ,the mother said1 ,how shall ,i divide this8 ,there is one for each of you2 and ,i shall be best off of all1 for ,i expect big tastes from each of you4 ,oh1 give ,annie the orange4 ,annie loves oranges1 spoke out the oldest boy1 with a sudden air of a conqueror1 and at the same time taking the smallest and worst apple himself4 ,oh1 yes1 let ,annie have the orange1 echoed the second boy1 nine years old4 ,yes1 ,annie may have the orange1 because that is nicer than the apple1 and she is a lady1 and her brothers are gentlemen1 said the mother1 quietly4 ,then there was a merry contest as to who should feed the mother with largest and most frequent mouthfuls2 and so the feast went on4 ,then ,annie pretended to want apple1 and exchanged thin golden strips of orange for bites out of the cheeks of ,baldwins2 and1 as ,i sat watching her intently1 she suddenly fancied she saw longing in my face1 and sprang over to me1 holding out a quarter of her orange1 and saying1 ,don't you want a taste1 too8 ,the mother smiled1 understandingly1 when ,i said1 ,no1 ,i thank you1 you dear1 generous little girl2 ,i don't care about oranges4 ,at noon we had a tedious interval of waiting at a dreary station4 ,we sat for two hours on a narrow platform1 which the sun had scorched till it smelt of heat4 ,the oldest boy--the little lover--held the youngest child1 and talked to her1 while the tired mother closed her eyes and rested4 ,now and then he looked over at her1 and then back at the baby2 and at last he said confidentially to me 7for we had become fast friends by this time71 ,isn't it funny1 to think that ,i was ever so small as this baby8 ,and papa says that then mamma was almost a little girl herself4 ,the two other children were toiling up and down the banks of the railroad-track1 picking ox-eye daisies1 buttercups1 and sorrel4 ,they worked like beavers1 and soon the bunches were almost too big for their little hands4 ,then they came running to give them to their mother4 ,oh dear1 thought ,i1 how that poor1 tired woman will hate to open her eyes6 and she never can take those great bunches of common1 fading flowers1 in addition to all her bundles and bags4 ,i was mistaken4 ,oh1 thank you1 my darlings6 ,how kind you were6 ,poor1 hot1 tired little flowers1 how thirsty they look6 ,if they will only try and keep alive till we get home1 we will make them very happy in some water2 won't we8 ,and you shall put one bunch by papa's plate1 and one by mine4 ,sweet and happy1 the weary and flushed little children stood looking up in her face while she talked1 their hearts thrilling with compassion for the drooping flowers and with delight in the giving of their gift4 ,then she took great trouble to get a string and tie up the flowers1 and then the train came1 and we were whirling along again4 ,soon it grew dark1 and little ,annie's head nodded4 ,then ,i heard the mother say to the oldest boy1 ,dear1 are you too tired to let little ,annie put her head on your shoulder and take a nap8 ,we shall get her home in much better case to see papa if we can manage to give her a little sleep4 ,how many boys of twelve hear such words as these from tired1 overburdened mothers8 ,soon came the city1 the final station1 with its bustle and noise4 ,i lingered to watch my happy family1 hoping to see the father4 ,why1 papa isn't here6 exclaimed one disappointed little voice after another4 ,never mind1 said the mother1 with a still deeper disappointment in her own tone2 perhaps he had to go to see some poor body who is sick4 ,in the hurry of picking up all the parcels1 and the sleepy babies1 the poor daisies and buttercups were left forgotten in a corner of the rack4 ,i wondered if the mother had not intended this4 ,may ,i be forgiven for the injustice6 ,a few minutes after ,i passed the little group1 standing still just outside the station1 and heard the mother say1 ,oh1 my darlings1 ,i have forgotten your pretty bouquets4 ,i am so sorry6 ,i wonder if ,i could find them if ,i went back4 ,will you all stand still and not stir from this spot if ,i go8 ,oh1 mamma1 don't go1 don't go4 ,we will get you some more4 ,don't go1 cried all the children4 ,here are your flowers1 madam1 said ,i4 ,i saw that you had forgotten them1 and ,i took them as mementoes of you and your sweet children4 ,she blushed and looked disconcerted4 ,she was evidently unused to people1 and shy with all but her children4 ,however1 she thanked me sweetly1 and said1-- ,i was very sorry about them4 ,the children took such trouble to get them2 and ,i think they will revive in water4 ,they cannot be quite dead4 ,they will never die6 said ,i1 with an emphasis which went from my heart to hers4 ,then all her shyness fled4 ,she knew me2 and we shook hands1 and smiled into each other's eyes with the smile of kindred as we parted4 ,as ,i followed on1 ,i heard the two children1 who were walking behind1 saying to each other1 ,wouldn't that have been too bad8 ,mamma liked them so much1 and we never could have got so many all at once again4 ,yes1 we could1 too1 next summer1 said the boy1 sturdily4 ,they are sure of their next summers1 ,i think1 all six of those souls1--children1 and mother1 and father4 ,they may never again gather so many ox-eye daisies and buttercups all at once4 ,perhaps some of the little hands have already picked their last flowers4 ,nevertheless1 their summers are certain4 ,to such souls as these1 all trees1 either here or in ,god's larger country1 are ,trees of ,life1 with twelve manner of fruits and leaves for healing2 and it is but little change from the summers here1 whose suns burn and make weary1 to the summers there1 of which the ,lamb is the light4 ,heaven bless them all1 wherever they are4 ,children in ,nova ,scotia4 ,nova ,scotia is a country of gracious surprises4 ,instead of the stones which are what strangers chiefly expect at her hands1 she gives us a wealth of fertile meadows2 instead of stormy waves breaking on a frowning coast1 she shows us smooth basins whose shores are soft and wooded to the water's edge1 and into which empty wonderful tidal rivers1 whose courses1 where the tide-water has flowed out1 lie like curving bands of bright brown satin among the green fields4 ,she has no barrenness1 no unsightliness1 no poverty2 everywhere beauty1 everywhere riches4 ,she is biding her time4 ,but most beautiful among her beauties1 most wonderful among her wonders1 are her children4 ,during two weeks' travel in the provinces1 ,i have been constantly more and more impressed by their superiority in appearance1 size1 and health to the children of the ,new ,england and ,middle ,states4 ,in the outset of our journey ,i was struck by it2 along all the roadsides they looked up1 boys and girls1 fair1 broad-cheeked1 sturdy-legged1 such as with us are seen only now and then4 ,i did not1 however1 realize at first that this was the universal law of the land1 and that it pointed to something more than climate as a cause4 ,but the first school that ,i saw1 en masse1 gave a startling impetus to the train of observation and inference into which ,i was unconsciously falling4 ,it was a ,sunday school in the little town of ,wolfville1 which lies between the ,gaspcreau and ,cornwallis rivers1 just beyond the meadows of the ,grand ,pr1 where lived ,gabriel ,lajeunesse1 and ,benedict ,bellefontaine1 and the rest of the simple ,acadian farmers4 ,mists from the mighty ,atlantic more than looked on the happy valley that ,sunday morning4 ,convicting ,longfellow of a mistake1 they did descend from their stations1 on solemn ,blomidon1 and fell in a slow1 unpleasant drizzle in the streets of ,wolfville and ,horton4 ,i arrived too early at one of the village churches1 and while ,i was waiting for a sexton a door opened1 and out poured the ,sunday school1 whose services had just ended4 ,on they came1 dividing in the centre1 and falling to the right and left about me1 thirty or forty boys and girls1 between the ages of seven and fifteen4 ,i looked at them in astonishment4 ,they all had fair skins1 red cheeks1 and clear eyes2 they were all broad-shouldered1 straight1 and sturdy2 the younger ones were more than sturdy1--they were fat1 from the ankles up4 ,but perhaps the most noticeable thing of all was the quiet1 sturdy1 unharassed expression which their faces wore2 a look which is the greatest charm of a child's face1 but which we rarely see in children over two or three years old4 ,boys of eleven or twelve were there1 with shoulders broader than the average of our boys at sixteen1 and yet with the pure1 childlike look on their faces4 ,girls of ten or eleven were there who looked almost like women1--that is1 like ideal women1--simply because they looked so calm and undisturbed4 ,the ,saxon coloring prevailed2 three-fourths of the eyes were blue1 with hair of that pale ash-brown which the ,french call blonde cendre ,out of them all there was but one child who looked sickly4 ,he had evidently met with some accident1 and was lame4 ,afterward1 as the congregation assembled1 ,i watched the fathers and mothers of these children4 ,they1 too1 were broad-shouldered1 tall1 and straight1 especially the women4 ,even old women were straight1 like the negroes one sees at the ,south1 walking with burdens on their heads4 ,five days later ,i saw in ,halifax the celebration of the anniversary of the settlement of the province4 ,the children of the city and of some of the neighboring towns marched in bands of hope and processions1 such as we see in the cities of the ,states on the ,fourth of ,july4 ,this was just the opportunity ,i wanted4 ,it was the same here as in the country4 ,i counted on that day just eleven sickly-looking children2 no more6 ,such brilliant cheeks1 such merry eyes1 such evident strength2 it was a scene to kindle the dullest soul4 ,there were scores of little ones there1 whose droll1 fat legs would have drawn a crowd in ,central ,park2 and they all had that same1 quiet1 composed1 well-balanced expression of countenance of which ,i spoke before1 and of which it would be hard to find an instance in all ,central ,park4 ,climate undoubtedly has something to do with this4 ,the air is moist1 and the mercury rarely rises above #hj or falls below #aj4 ,also the comparative quiet of their lives helps to make them so beautiful and strong4 ,but the most significant fact to my mind is that1 until the past year1 there have been in ,nova ,scotia no public schools1 comparatively few private ones2 and in these there is no severe pressure brought to bear on the pupils4 ,the private schools have been expensive1 consequently it has been very unusual for children to be sent to school before they were eight or nine years of age2 ,i could not find a person who had ever known of a child's being sent to school under seven6 ,the school sessions are on the old plan of six hours per day1--from nine till twelve1 and from one till four2 but no learning of lessons out of school has been allowed4 ,within the last year a system of free public schools has been introduced1 and the people are grumbling terribly about it1 said my informant4 ,why8 ,i asked2 because they do not wish to have their children educated8 ,oh1 no1 said he2 because they do not like to pay the taxes6 ,alas6 ,i thought1 if it were only their silver which would be taxed6 ,i must not be understood to argue from the health of the children of ,nova ,scotia1 as contrasted with the lack of health among our children1 that it is best to have no public schools2 only that it is better to have no public schools than to have such public schools as are now killing off our children4 ,the registration system of ,nova ,scotia is as yet imperfectly carried out4 ,it is almost impossible to obtain exact returns from all parts of so thinly settled a country4 ,but such statistics as have been already established give sufficient food for reflection in this connection4 ,in ,massachusetts more than two-fifths of all the children born die before they are twelve years old4 ,in ,nova ,scotia the proportion is less than one-third4 ,in ,nova ,scotia one out of every fifty-six lives to be over ninety years of age2 and one-twelfth of the entire number of deaths is between the ages of eighty and ninety4 ,in ,massachusetts one person out of one hundred and nine lives to be over ninety4 ,in ,massachusetts the mortality from diseases of the brain and nervous system is eleven per cent4 ,in ,nova ,scotia it is only eight per cent4 ,the ,republic of the ,family4 ,he is lover and friend and son1 all in one1 said a friend1 the other day1 telling me of a dear boy who1 out of his first earnings1 had just sent to his mother a beautiful gift1 costing much more than he could really afford for such a purpose4 ,that mother is the wisest1 sweetest1 most triumphant mother ,i have ever known4 ,i am restrained by feelings of deepest reverence for her from speaking1 as ,i might speak1 of the rare and tender methods by which her motherhood has worked1 patiently and alone1 for nearly twenty years1 and made of her two sons lovers and friends4 ,i have always felt that she owed it to the world to impart to other mothers all that she could of her divine secret2 to write out1 even in detail1 all the processes by which her boys have grown to be so strong1 upright1 loving1 and manly4 ,but one of her first principles has so direct a bearing on the subject that ,i wish to speak of here that ,i venture to attempt an explanation of it4 ,she has told me that she never once1 even in their childish days1 took the ground that she had right to require any thing from them simply because she was their mother4 ,this is a position very startling to the average parent4 ,it is exactly counter to traditions4 ,why must ,i8 or ,why cannot ,i8 says the child4 ,because ,i say so1 and ,i am your father1 has been the stern1 authoritative reply ever since we can any of us remember2 and1 ,i presume1 ever since the ,christian era1 since that good ,apostle ,paul saw enough in the ,ephesian families where he visited to lead him to write to them from ,rome1 ,fathers1 provoke not your children to wrath4 ,it seems to me that there are few questions of practical moment in every-day living on which a foregone and erroneous conclusion has been adopted so generally and so undoubtingly4 ,how it first came about it is hard to see4 ,or1 rather1 it is easy to see1 when one reflects2 and the very clearness of the surface explanation of it only makes its injustice more odious4 ,it came about because the parent was strong and the child weak4 ,helplessness in the hands of power1--that is the whole story4 ,suppose for an instant 7and1 absurd as the supposition is practically1 it is not logically absurd71 that the child at six were strong enough to whip his father2 let him have the intellect of an infant1 the mistakes and the faults of an infant1--which the father would feel himself bound and would be bound to correct1--but the body of a man2 and then see in how different fashion the father would set himself to work to insure good behavior4 ,i never see the heavy1 impatient hand of a grown man or woman laid with its brute force1 even for the smallest purpose1 on a little child1 without longing for a sudden miracle to give the baby an equal strength to resist4 ,when we realize what it is for us to dare1 for our own pleasure1 even with solemnest purpose of the holiest of pleasures1 parenthood1 to bring into existence a soul1 which must take for our sake its chance of joy or sorrow1 how monstrous it seems to assume that the fact that we have done this thing gives us arbitrary right to control that soul2 to set our will1 as will1 in place of its will2 to be law unto its life2 to try to make of it what it suits our fancy or our convenience to have it2 to claim that it is under obligation to us6 ,the truth is1 all the obligation1 in the outset1 is the other way4 ,we owe all to them4 ,all that we can do to give them happiness1 to spare them pain2 all that we can do to make them wise and good and safe1--all is too little6 ,all and more than all can never repay them for the sweetness1 the blessedness1 the development that it has been to us to call children ours4 ,if we can also so win their love by our loving1 so deserve their respect by our honorableness1 so earn their gratitude by our helpfulness1 that they come to be our lovers and friends1 then1 ah6 then we have had enough of heaven here to make us willing to postpone the more for which we hope beyond6 ,but all this comes not of authority1 not by command2 all this is perilled always1 always impaired1 and often lost1 by authoritative1 arbitrary ruling1 substitution of law and penalty for influence4 ,it will be objected by parents who disagree with this theory that only authority can prevent license2 that without command there will not be control4 ,no one has a right to condemn methods he has not tried4 ,i know1 for ,i have seen1 ,i know1 for ,i have myself tested1 that command and authority are short-lived2 that they do not insure the results they aim at2 that real and permanent control of a child's behavior1 even in little things1 is gained only by influence1 by a slow1 sure educating1 enlightening1 and strengthening of a child's will4 ,i know1 for ,i have seen1 that it is possible in this way to make a child only ten years old quite as intelligent and trustworthy a free agent as his mother2 to make him so sensible1 so gentle1 so considerate that to say must or must not to him would be as unnecessary and absurd as to say it to her4 ,but1 if it be wiser and better to surround even little children with this atmosphere of freedom1 how much more essential is it for those who remain under the parental roof long after they have ceased to be children6 ,just here seems to me to be the fatal rock upon which many households make utter shipwreck of their peace4 ,fathers and mothers who have ruled by authority 7let it be as loving as you please1 it will still remain an arbitrary rule7 in the beginning1 never seem to know when their children are children no longer1 but have become men and women4 ,in any average family1 the position of an unmarried daughter after she is twenty years old becomes less and less what it should be4 ,in case of sons1 the question is rarely a practical one2 in those exceptional instances where invalidism or some other disability keeps a man helpless for years under his father's roof1 his very helplessness is at once his vindication and his shield1 and also prevents his feeling manly revolt against the position of unnatural childhood4 ,but in the case of daughters it is very different4 ,who does not number in his circle of acquaintance many unmarried women1 between the ages of thirty and forty1 perhaps even older1 who have practically little more freedom in the ordering of their own lives than they had when they were eleven8 ,the mother or the father continues just as much the autocratic centre of the family now as of the nursery1 thirty years before4 ,taking into account the chance--no1 the certainty--of great differences between parents and children in matters of temperament and taste1 it is easy to see that great suffering must result from this2 suffering1 too1 which involves real loss and hindrance to growth4 ,it is really a monstrous wrong2 but it seems to be rarely observed by the world1 and never suspected by those who are most responsible for it4 ,it is perhaps a question whether the real tyrannies in this life are those that are accredited as such4 ,there are certainly more than even tyrants know6 ,every father and mother has it within easy reach to become the intimate friend of the child4 ,closest1 holiest1 sweetest of all friendships is this one1 which has the closest1 holiest tie of blood to underlie the bond of soul4 ,we see it in rare cases1 proving itself divine by rising above even the passion of love between man and woman1 and carrying men and women unwedded to their graves for sake of love of mother or father4 ,when we realize what such friendship is1 it seems incredible that parents can forego it1 or can risk losing any shade of its perfectness1 for the sake of any indulgence of the habit of command or of gratifying of selfish preference4 ,in the ideal household of father and mother and adult children1 the one great aim of the parents ought to be to supply1 as far as possible to each child1 that freedom and independence which they have missed the opportunity of securing in homes of their own4 ,the loss of this one thing alone is a bitterer drop in the loneliness of many an unmarried woman than parents1 especially fathers1 are apt even to dream1--food and clothes and lodgings are so exalted in unthinking estimates4 ,to be without them would be distressingly inconvenient1 no doubt2 but one can have luxurious provision of both and remain very wretched4 ,even the body itself cannot thrive if it has no more than these three pottage messes6 ,freedom to come1 go1 speak1 work1 play1--in short1 to be one's self1--is to the body more than meat and gold1 and to the soul the whole of life4 ,just so far as any parent interferes with this freedom of adult children1 even in the little things of a single day or a single hour1 just so far it is tyranny1 and the children are wronged4 ,but just so far as parents help1 strengthen1 and bestow this freedom on their children1 just so far it is justice and kindness1 and their relation is cemented into a supreme and unalterable friendship1 whose blessedness and whose comfort no words can measure4 ,the ,ready-to-,halts4 ,mr4 ,ready-to-,halt must have been the most exasperating pilgrim that ,great ,heart ever dragged over the road to the ,celestial ,city4 ,mr4 ,feeble ,mind was bad enough2 but genuine weakness and organic incapacity appeal all the while to charity and sympathy4 ,if people really cannot walk1 they must be carried4 ,everybody sees that2 and all strong people are1 or ought to be1 ready to lift babies and cripples4 ,there are plenty of such in every parish4 ,the ,feeble ,minds are unfortunately predisposed to intermarry2 and our schools are overrun with the little ,masters and ,misses ,feeble ,mind4 ,but1 heavy as they are 7and they are apt to be fat71 they are precious and pleasant friends and neighbors in comparison with the ,ready-to-,halts4 ,the ,ready-to-,halts are never ready for any thing else4 ,they can walk as well as anybody else1 if they only would2 but they are never quite sure on which road they would better go4 ,great ,hearts have to go back1 and go back1 to look them up4 ,they are found standing still1 helpless and bewildered1 on all sorts of absurd side-paths1 which lead nowhere2 and they never will confess1 either1 that they need help4 ,they always think they are doing what they call making up their mind4 ,but1 whichever way they make it1 they wish they had made it the other2 so they unmake it directly4 ,and by this time the crisis of the first hour which they lost has become complicated with that of the second hour1 for which they are in no wise ready2 and so the hours stumble on1 one after another1 and the day is only a tangle of ineffective cross purposes4 ,hundreds of such days drift on1 with their sad burden of wasted time4 ,year after year their lives fail of growth1 of delight1 of blessing to others4 ,opportunity's great golden doors1 which never stay long open for any man1 have always just closed when they reach the threshold of a deed2 and it is hard1 very hard1 to see why it would not have been better for them if they had never been born4 ,after all1 it is not right to be impatient with them2 for1 in nine cases out of ten1 they are no more responsible for their mental limp than the poor ,chinese woman is for her feeble feet4 ,from their infancy up to what in our comic caricature of words we call maturity1 they have been bandaged4 ,how should their muscles be good for any thing8 ,from the day when we give1 and take1 and arrange the baby's playthings for him1 hour by hour1 without ever setting before him to choose one of two and give up the other1 to the day when we take it upon ourselves to decide whether he shall be an engineer or a lawyer1 we persist in doing for him the work which he should do for himself4 ,this is because we love him more than we love our own lives4 ,oh6 if love could but have its eyes opened and see6 ,if we were not blind1 we should know that whenever a child decides for himself deliberately1 and without bias from others1 any question1 however small1 he has had just so many minutes of mental gymnastics1--just so much strengthening of the one faculty on whose health and firmness his success in life will depend more than upon any other thing4 ,so many people do not know the difference between obstinacy and clear-headed firmness of will1 that it is hardly safe to say much in praise or blame of either without expressly stating that you do not mean the other4 ,they are as unlike as digestion and indigestion1 and one would suppose could not be much more easily confounded2 but it is constantly done4 ,it has not yet ceased to be said among fathers and mothers that it is necessary to break the will of children2 and it has not yet ceased to be seen in the land that men by virtue of simple obstinacy are called men of strong character4 ,the truth is that the stronger1 better-trained will a man has1 the less obstinate he will be4 ,will is of reason2 obstinacy1 of temper4 ,what have they in common8 ,for want of strong will kingdoms and souls have been lost4 ,without it there is no kingdom for any man1--no1 not even in his own soul4 ,it is the one attribute of all we possess which is most ,god-like4 ,by it1 we say1 under his laws1 as he says1 enacting those laws1 ,so far and no further4 ,it is not enough that we do not break this grand power4 ,it should be strengthened1 developed1 trained4 ,and1 as the good teacher of gymnastics gives his beginners light weights to lift and swing1 so should we bring to the children small points to decide2 to the very little children1 very little points4 ,will you have the apple1 or the orange8 ,you cannot have both4 ,choose2 but after you have chosen you cannot change4 ,will you have the horseback ride to-day1 or the opera to-morrow night8 ,you can have but one4 ,every day1 many times a day1 a child should decide for himself points involving pros and cons1--substantial ones too4 ,let him even decide unwisely1 and take the consequences2 that too is good for him4 ,no amount of ,blackstone can give such an idea of law as a month of prison4 ,tell him as much as you please of what you know on both sides2 but compel him to decide1 and also compel him not to be too long about it4 ,choose ye this day whom ye will serve is a text good for every morning4 ,if men and women had in their childhood such training of their wills as this1 we should not see so many putting their hands to the plough and looking back1 and not fit for the kingdom of heaven4 ,nor for any kingdom of earth1 either1 unless it be for the wicked little kingdom of the ,prince of ,monaco1 where there are but two things to be done1--gamble1 or drown yourself4 ,the ,descendants of ,nabal4 ,the line has never been broken1 and they have married into respectable families1 right and left1 until to-day there can hardly be found a household which has not at least one to worry it4 ,they are not men and women of great passionate natures1 who flame out now and then in an outbreak like a volcano1 from which everybody runs4 ,this1 though terrible while it lasts1 is soon over1 and there are great compensations in such souls4 ,their love is worth having4 ,their tenderness is great4 ,one can forgive them seventy times seven1 for the hasty words and actions of which they repent immediately with tears4 ,but the ,nabals are sullen2 they are grumblers2 they are never done4 ,such sons of ,belial are they to this day that no man can speak peaceably unto them4 ,they are as much worse than passionate people as a slow drizzle of rain is than a thunder-storm4 ,for the thunder-storm1 you stay in-doors1 and you cannot help having pleasure in its sharp lights and darks and echoes2 and when it is over1 what clear air1 what a rainbow6 ,but in the drizzle1 you go out2 you think that with a waterproof1 an umbrella1 and overshoes1 you can manage to get about in spite of it1 and attend to your business4 ,what a state you come home in1--muddy1 limp1 chilled1 disheartened6 ,the house greets you1 looking also muddy and cold1--for the best of front halls gives up in despair and cannot look any thing but forlorn in a long1 drizzling rain2 all the windows are bleared with trickling1 foggy wet on the outside1 which there is no wiping off nor seeing through1 and if one could see through there is no gain4 ,the street is more gloomy than the house2 black1 slimy mud1 inches deep on crossings2 the same black1 slimy mud in footprints on side-walks2 hopeless-looking people hurrying by1 so unhappy by reason of the drizzle that a weird sort of family likeness is to be seen in all their faces4 ,this is all that can be seen outside4 ,it is better not to look4 ,for the inside is no redemption except a wood-fire1--a good1 generous wood-fire1--not in any of the modern compromises called open stoves1 but on a broad stone hearth1 with a big background of chimney1 up which the sparks can go skipping and creeping4 ,this can redeem a drizzle2 but this cannot redeem a grumbler4 ,plump he sits down in the warmth of its very blaze1 and complains that it snaps1 perhaps1 or that it is oak and maple1 when he paid for all hickory4 ,you can trust him to put out your wood-fire for you as effectually as a water-spout4 ,and1 if even a wood-fire1 bless it6 cannot outshine the gloom of his presence1 what is to happen in the places where there is no wood-fire1 on the days when real miseries1 big and little1 are on hand1 to be made into mountains of torture by his grumbling8 ,oh1 who can describe him8 ,there is no language which can do justice to him2 no supernatural foresight which can predict where his next thrust will fall1 from what unsuspected corner he will send his next arrow4 ,like death1 he has all seasons for his own2 his ingenuity is infernal4 ,whoever tries to forestall or appease him might better be at work in ,augean stables2 because1 after all1 we must admit that the facts of life are on his side4 ,it is not intended that we shall be very comfortable4 ,there is a terrible amount of total depravity in animate and inanimate things4 ,from morning till night there is not an hour without its cross to carry4 ,the weather thwarts us2 servants1 landlords1 drivers1 washerwomen1 and bosom friends misbehave2 clothes don't fit2 teeth ache2 stomachs get out of order2 newspapers are stupid2 and children make too much noise4 ,if there are not big troubles1 there are little ones4 ,if they are not in sight1 they are hiding4 ,i have wondered whether the happiest mortal could point to one single moment and say1 ,at that moment there was nothing in my life which ,i would have had changed4 ,i think not4 ,in argument1 therefore1 the grumbler has the best of it4 ,it is more than probable that things are as he says4 ,but why say it8 ,why make four miseries out of three8 ,if the three be already unbearable1 so much the worse4 ,if he is uncomfortable1 it is a pity2 we are sorry1 but we cannot change the course of ,nature4 ,we shall soon have our own little turn of torments1 and we do not want to be worn out before it comes by having listened to his2 probably1 too1 the very things of which he complains are pressing just as heavily on us as on him1--are just as unpleasant to everybody as to him4 ,suppose everybody did as he does4 ,imagine1 for instance1 a chorus of grumble from ten people at a breakfast-table1 all saying at once1 or immediately after each other1 ,this coffee is not fit to drink4 ,really1 the attendance in this house is insufferably poor4 ,i have sometimes wished to try this homoeopathic treatment in a bad case of grumble4 ,it sounds as if it might work a cure4 ,if you lose your temper with the grumbler1 and turn upon him suddenly1 saying1 ,oh1 do not spoil all our pleasure4 ,do make the best of things3 or1 at least1 keep quiet6 then how aggrieved he is6 how unjust he thinks you are to make a personal matter of it6 ,you do not1 surely1 suppose ,i think you are responsible for it1 do you8 he says1 with a lofty air of astonishment at your unreasonable sensitiveness4 ,of course1 we do not suppose he thinks we are to blame2 we do not take him to be a fool as well as a grumbler4 ,but he speaks to us1 at us1 before us1 about the cause of his discomfort1 whatever it may be1 precisely as he would if we were to blame2 and that is one thing which makes his grumbling so insufferable4 ,but this he can never be made to see4 ,and the worst of it is that grumbling is contagious4 ,if we live with him1 we shall1 sooner or later1 in spite of our dislike of his ways1 fall into them2 even sinking so low1 perhaps1 before the end of a single summer1 as to be heard complaining of butter at boarding-house tables1 which is the lowest deep of vulgarity of grumbling4 ,there is no help for this2 ,i have seen it again and again4 ,i have caught it myself4 ,one grumbler in a family is as pestilent a thing as a diseased animal in a herd3 if he be not shut up or killed1 the herd is lost4 ,but the grumbler cannot be shut up or killed1 since grumbling is not held to be a proof of insanity1 nor a capital offence1--more's the pity4 ,what1 then1 is to be done8 ,keep out of his way1 at all costs1 if he be grown up4 ,if it be a child1 labor day and night1 as you would with a tendency to paralysis1 or distortion of limb1 to prevent this blight on its life4 ,it sounds extreme to say that a child should never be allowed to express a dislike of any thing which cannot be helped2 but ,i think it is true4 ,i do not mean that it should be positively forbidden or punished1 but that it should never pass unnoticed2 his attention should be invariably called to its uselessness1 and to the annoyance it gives to other people4 ,children begin by being good-natured little grumblers at every thing which goes wrong1 simply from the outspokenness of their natures4 ,all they think they say and act4 ,the rudiments of good behavior have to be chiefly negative at the outset1 like ,punch's advice to those about to marry1--,don't4 ,the race of grumblers would soon die out if all children were so trained that never1 between the ages of five and twelve1 did they utter a needless complaint without being gently reminded that it was foolish and disagreeable4 ,how easy for a good-natured and watchful mother to do this6 ,it takes but a word4 ,oh1 dear6 ,i wish it had not rained to-day4 ,it is too bad6 ,you do not really mean what you say1 my darling4 ,it is of much more consequence that the grass should grow than that you should go out to play4 ,and it is so silly to complain1 when we cannot stop its raining4 ,mamma1 ,i hate this pie4 ,oh6 hush1 dear6 ,don't say so1 if you do4 ,you can leave it4 ,you need not eat it4 ,but think how disagreeable it sounds to hear you say such a thing4 ,oh1 dear6 ,oh1 dear6 ,i am too cold4 ,yes1 dear1 ,i know you are4 ,so is mamma4 ,but we shall not feel any warmer for saying so4 ,we must wait till the fire burns better2 and the time will seem twice as long if we grumble4 ,oh1 mamma6 mamma6 ,my steam-engine is all spoiled4 ,it won't run4 ,i hate things that wind up6 ,but1 my dear little boy1 don't grumble so6 ,what would you think if mamma were to say1 ',oh1 dear6 oh1 dear6 ,my little boy's stockings are full of holes4 ,how ,i hate to mend stockings6' and1 ',oh1 dear6 oh1 dear6 ,my little boy has upset my work-box6 ,i hate little boys'8 ,how they look steadily into your eyes for a minute1--the honest1 reasonable little souls6--when you say such things to them2 and then run off with a laugh1 lifted up1 for that time1 by your fitly spoken words of help4 ,oh6 if the world could only stop long enough for one generation of mothers to be made all right1 what a millennium could be begun in thirty years6 ,but1 mamma1 you are grumbling yourself at me because ,i grumbled6 says a quick-witted darling not ten years old4 ,ah6 never shall any weak spot in our armor escape the keen eyes of these little ones4 ,yes1 dear6 ,and ,i shall grumble at you till ,i cure you of grumbling4 ,grumblers are the only thing in this world that it is right to grumble at4 ,boys ,not ,allowed4 ,it was a conspicuous signboard1 at least four feet long1 with large black letters on a white ground3 ,boys not allowed4 ,i looked at it for some moments in a sort of bewildered surprise3 ,i did not quite comprehend the meaning of the words4 ,at last ,i understood it4 ,i was waiting in a large railway station1 where many trains connect2 and most of the passengers from the train in which ,i was were eating dinner in a hotel near by4 ,i was entirely alone in the car1 with the exception of one boy1 who was perhaps eleven years old4 ,i made an involuntary ejaculation as ,i read the words on the sign1 and the boy looked around at me4 ,little boy1 said ,i1 solemnly1 do you see that sign8 ,he turned his head1 and1 reading the ominous warning1 nodded sullenly1 but said nothing4 ,boy1 what does it mean8 said ,i4 ,boys must be allowed to come into this railway station4 ,there are two now standing in the doorway directly under the sign4 ,the latent sympathy in my tone touched his heart4 ,he left his seat1 and1 coming to mine1 edged in past me2 and1 putting his head out of the window1 read the sentence aloud in a contemptuous tone4 ,then he offered me a peanut1 which ,i took2 and he proceeded to tell me what he thought of the sign4 ,boys not allowed6 said he4 ,that's just the way 'tis everywhere2 but ,i never saw the sign up before4 ,it don't make any difference1 though1 whether they put the sign up or not4 ,why1 in ,new ,york 7you live in ,new ,york1 don't you87 they won't even stop the horse-cars for a boy to get on4 ,nobody thinks any thing'll hurt a boy2 but they're glad enough to 'allow' us when there's any errands to be done1 and-- ,do you live in ,new ,york8 interrupted ,i2 for ,i did not wish to hear the poor little fellow's list of miseries1 which ,i knew by heart beforehand without his telling me1 having been hopeless knight-errant of oppressed boyhood all my life4 ,yes1 he lived in ,new ,york1 and he went to a grammar school1 and he had two sisters4 ,and so we talked on in that sweet1 ready1 trustful talk which comes naturally only from children's lips1 until the twenty minutes for refreshments were over1 and the choked and crammed passengers1 who had eaten big dinners in that breath of time1 came hurrying back to their seats4 ,among them came the father and mother of my little friend4 ,in angry surprise at not finding him in the seat where they left him1 they exclaimed1-- ,now1 where is that boy8 ,just like him6 ,we might have lost every one of these bags4 ,here ,i am1 mamma1 he called out1 pleasantly4 ,i could see the bags all the time4 ,nobody came into the car4 ,i told you not to leave the seat1 sir4 ,what do you mean by such conduct8 said the father4 ,oh1 no1 papa1 said poor ,boy1 you only told me to take care of the bags4 ,and an anxious look of terror came into his face1 which told only too well under how severe a rgime he lived4 ,i interposed hastily with-- ,i am afraid ,i am the cause of your little son's leaving his seat4 ,he had sat very still till ,i spoke to him2 and ,i believe ,i ought to take all the blame4 ,the parents were evidently uncultured1 shallow people4 ,their irritation with him was merely a surface vexation1 which had no real foundation in a deep principle4 ,they became complaisant and smiling at my first word1 and ,boy escaped with a look of great relief to another seat1 where they gave him a simple luncheon of saleratus gingerbread4 ,boys not allowed to go in to dinner at the ,massasoit1 thought ,i to myself2 and upon that text ,i sat sadly meditating all the way from ,springfield to ,boston4 ,how true it was1 as the little fellow had said1 that it don't make any difference whether they put the sign up or not6 ,no one can watch carefully any average household where there are boys1 and not see that there are a thousand little ways in which the boys' comfort1 freedom1 preference will be disregarded1 when the girls' will be considered4 ,this is partly intentional1 partly unconscious4 ,something is to be said undoubtedly on the advantage of making the boy realize early and keenly that manhood is to bear and to work1 and womanhood is to be helped and sheltered4 ,but this should be inculcated1 not inflicted2 asked1 not seized2 shown and explained1 not commanded4 ,nothing can be surer than the growth in a boy of tender1 chivalrous regard for his sisters and for all women1 if the seeds of it be rightly sown and gently nurtured4 ,but the common method is quite other than this4 ,it begins too harshly and at once with assertion or assumption4 ,mother never thinks ,i am of any consequence1 said a dear boy to me1 the other day4 ,she's all for the girls4 ,this was not true2 but there was truth in it4 ,and ,i am very sure that the selfishness1 the lack of real courtesy1 which we see so plainly and pitiably in the behavior of the average young man to-day is the slow1 certain result of years of just such feelings as this child expressed4 ,the boy has to scramble for his rights4 ,naturally he is too busy to think much about the rights of others4 ,the man keeps up the habit1 and is negatively selfish without knowing it4 ,take1 for instance1 the one point of the minor courtesies 7if we can dare to call any courtesies minor7 of daily intercourse4 ,how many people are there who habitually speak to a boy of ten1 twelve1 or fourteen with the same civility as to his sister1 a little younger or older8 ,i like ,miss----1 said this same dear boy to me1 one day2 for she always bids me good-morning4 ,ah6 never is one such word thrown away on a loving1 open-hearted boy4 ,men know that safe through all the wear and tear of life they keep far greener the memory of some woman or some man who was kind to them in their boyhood than of the friend who helped or cheered them yesterday4 ,dear1 blessed1 noisy1 rollicking1 tormenting1 comforting ,boy6 ,what should we do without him8 ,how much we like1 without suspecting it1 his breezy presence in the house6 ,except for him1 how would errands be done1 chairs brought1 nails driven1 cows stoned out of our way1 letters carried1 twine and knives kept ready1 lost things found1 luncheon carried to picnics1 three-year-olds that cry led out of meeting1 butterflies and birds' nests and birch-bark got1 the horse taken round to the stable1 borrowed things sent home1--and all with no charge for time8 ,dear1 patient1 busy ,boy6 ,shall we not sometimes answer his questions8 ,give him a comfortable seat8 ,wait and not reprove him till after the company has gone8 ,let him wear his best jacket1 and buy him half as many neckties as his sister has8 ,give him some honey1 even if there is not enough to go round8 ,listen tolerantly to his little bragging1 and help him do his sums8 ,with a sudden shrill scream the engine slipped off on a side-track1 and the cars glided into the great1 grim city-station1 looking all the grimmer for its twinkling lights4 ,the masses of people who were waiting and the masses of people who had come surged toward each other like two great waves1 and mingled in a moment4 ,i caught sight of my poor little friend1 ,boy1 following his father1 struggling along in the crowd1 carrying two heavy carpet-bags1 a strapped bundle1 and two umbrellas1 and being sharply told to ,keep up close there4 ,ha6 said ,i1 savagely1 to myself1 doing porters' work is not one of the things which 'boys' are 'not allowed4' ,half an ,hour in a ,railway ,station4 ,it was one of those bleak and rainy days which mark the coming of spring on ,new ,england sea-shores4 ,the rain felt and looked as if it might at any minute become hail or snow2 the air pricked like needles when it blew against flesh4 ,yet the huge railway station was as full of people as ever4 ,one could see no difference between this dreariest of days and the sunniest1 so far as the crowd was concerned1 except that fewer of the people wore fine clothes2 perhaps1 also1 that their faces looked a little more sombre and weary than usual4 ,there is no place in the world where human nature shows to such sad disadvantage as in waiting-rooms at railway stations1 especially in the ,ladies' ,room4 ,in the ,gentlemen's ,room there is less of that ghastly1 apathetic silence which seems only explainable as an interval between two terrible catastrophes4 ,shall we go so far as to confess that even the unsightly spittoons1 and the uncleanly and loquacious fellowship resulting from their common use1 seem here1 for the moment1 redeemed from a little of their abominableness1--simply because almost any action is better than utter inaction1 and any thing which makes the joyless1 taciturn ,american speak to his fellow whom he does not know1 is for the time being a blessing4 ,but in the ,ladies' ,room there is not even a community of interest in a single bad habit1 to break the monotone of weary stillness4 ,who has not felt the very soul writhe within her as she has first crossed the threshold of one of these dismal antechambers of journey8 ,carpetless1 dingy1 dusty2 two or three low sarcophagi of greenish-gray iron in open spaces1 surrounded by blue-lipped women1 in different angles and attitudes of awkwardness1 trying to keep the soles of their feet in a perpendicular position1 to be warmed at what they have been led to believe is a steam-heating apparatus2 a few more women1 equally listless and weary-looking1 standing in equally difficult and awkward positions before a counter1 holding pie in one hand1 and tea in a cup and saucer in the other1 taking alternate mouthfuls of each1 and spilling both2 the rest wedged bolt upright against the wall in narrow partitioned seats1 which only need a length of perforated foot-board in front to make them fit to be patented as the best method of putting whole communities of citizens into the stocks at once4 ,all1 feet warmers1 pie-eaters1 and those who sit in the red-velvet stocks1 wear so exactly the same expression of vacuity and fatigue that they might almost be taken for one gigantic and unhappy family connection1 on its way to what is called in newspapers a sad event4 ,the only wonder is that this stiffened1 desiccated crowd retains vitality enough to remember the hours at which its several trains depart1 and to rise up and shake itself alive and go on board4 ,one is haunted sometimes by the fancy that some day1 when the air in the room is unusually bad and the trains are delayed1 a curious phenomenon will be seen4 ,the petrifaction will be carried a little farther than usual1 and1 when the bell rings and the official calls out1 ,train made up for ,babel1 ,hinnom1 and way stations8 no women will come forth from the ,ladies' ,room1 no eye will move1 no muscle will stir4 ,husbands and brothers will wait and search vainly for those who should have met them at the station1 with bundles of the day's shopping to be carried out2 homes will be desolate2 and the history of rare fossils and petrifactions will have a novel addition4 ,or1 again1 that1 if some sudden convulsion of ,nature1 like those which before now have buried wicked cities and the dwellers in them1 were to-day to swallow up the great city of ,new ,sodom in ,america1 and keep it under ground for a few thousand years1 nothing in all its circuit would so puzzle the learned archaeologists of ,a4,d4 #ehgc as the position of the skeletons in these same waiting-rooms of railway stations4 ,thinking such thoughts as these1 sinking slowly and surely to the level of the place1 ,i waited1 on this bleak1 rainy day1 in just such a ,ladies' ,room as ,i have described4 ,i sat in the red-velvet stocks1 with my eyes fixed on the floor4 ,please1 ma'am1 won't you buy a basket8 said a cheery little voice4 ,so near me1 without my knowing it1 had the little tradesman come that ,i was as startled as if the voice had spoken out of the air just above my head4 ,he was a sturdy little fellow1 ten years old1 ,irish1 dirty1 ragged2 but he had honest1 kind gray eyes1 and a smile which ought to have sold more baskets than he could carry4 ,a few kind words unsealed the fountain of his childish confidences4 ,there were four children younger than he2 the mother took in washing1 and the father1 who was a cripple from rheumatism1 made these baskets1 which he carried about to sell4 ,where do you sell the most8 ,round the depots4 ,that's the best place4 ,but the baskets are rather clumsy to carry4 ,almost everybody has his hands full1 when he sets out on a journey4 ,yis'm2 but mostly they doesn't take the baskets4 ,but they gives me a little change1 said he1 with a smile2 half roguish1 half sad4 ,i watched him on in his pathetic pilgrimage round that dreary room1 seeking help from that dreary circle of women4 ,my heart aches to write down here the true record that out of those scores of women only three even smiled or spoke to the little fellow4 ,only one gave him money4 ,my own sympathies had been so won by his face and manner that ,i found myself growing hot with resentment as ,i watched woman after woman wave him off with indifferent or impatient gesture4 ,his face was a face which no mother ought to have been able to see without a thrill of pity and affection4 ,god forgive me6 ,as if any mother ought to be able to see any child1 ragged1 dirty1 poor1 seeking help and finding none6 ,but his face was so honest1 and brave1 and responsive that it added much to the appeal of his poverty4 ,one woman1 young and pretty1 came into the room1 bringing in her arms a large toy horse1 and a little violin4 ,oh1 ,i said to myself1 she has a boy of her own1 for whom she can buy gifts freely4 ,she will surely give this poor child a penny4 ,he thought so1 too2 for he went toward her with a more confident manner than he had shown to some of the others4 ,no6 ,she brushed by him impatiently1 without a word1 and walked to the ticket-office4 ,he stood looking at the violin and the toy horse till she came back to her seat4 ,then he lifted his eyes to her face again2 but she apparently did not see him1 and he went away4 ,ah1 she is only half mother who does not see her own child in every child6--her own child's grief in every pain which makes another child weep6 ,presently the little basket-boy went out into the great hall4 ,i watched him threading his way in and out among the groups of men4 ,i saw one man--bless him6--pat the little fellow on the head2 then ,i lost sight of him4 ,after ten minutes he came back into the ,ladies' ,room1 with only one basket in his hand1 and a very happy little face4 ,the sterner sex had been kinder to him than we4 ,the smile which he gave me in answer to my glad recognition of his good luck was the sunniest sunbeam ,i have seen on a human face for many a day4 ,he sank down into the red-velvet stocks1 and twirled his remaining basket1 and swung his shabby little feet1 as idle and unconcerned as if he were some rich man's son1 waiting for the train to take him home4 ,so much does a little lift help the heart of a child1 even of a beggar child4 ,it is a comfort to remember him1 with that look on his face1 instead of the wistful1 pleading one which ,i saw at first4 ,i left him lying back on the dusty velvet1 which no doubt seemed to him unquestionable splendor4 ,in the cars ,i sat just behind the woman with the toy-horse and the violin4 ,i saw her glance rest lovingly on them many times1 as she thought of her boy at home2 and ,i wondered if the little basket-seller had really produced no impression whatever on her heart4 ,i shall remember him long after 7if he lives7 he is a man6 ,a ,genius ,for ,affection4 ,the other day1 speaking superficially and uncharitably1 ,i said of a woman1 whom ,i knew but slightly1 ,she disappoints me utterly4 ,how could her husband have married her8 ,she is commonplace and stupid4 ,yes1 said my friend1 reflectively2 it is strange4 ,she is not a brilliant woman2 she is not even an intellectual one2 but there is such a thing as a genius for affection1 and she has it4 ,it has been good for her husband that he married her4 ,the words sank into my heart like a great spiritual plummet ,they dropped down to depths not often stirred4 ,and from those depths came up some shining sands of truth1 worth keeping among treasures2 having a phosphorescent light in them1 which can shine in dark places1 and1 making them light as day1 reveal their beauty4 ,a genius for affection4 ,yes2 there is such a thing1 and no other genius is so great4 ,the phrase means something more than a capacity1 or even a talent for loving4 ,that is common to all human beings1 more or less4 ,a man or woman without it would be a monster1 such as has probably never been on the earth4 ,all men and women1 whatever be their shortcomings in other directions1 have this impulse1 this faculty1 in a degree4 ,it takes shape in family ties3 makes clumsy and unfortunate work of them in perhaps two cases out of three1--wives tormenting husbands1 husbands neglecting and humiliating wives1 parents maltreating and ruining children1 children disobeying and grieving parents1 and brothers and sisters quarrelling to the point of proverbial mention2 but under all this1 in spite of all this1 the love is there4 ,a great trouble or a sudden emergency will bring it out4 ,in any common danger1 hands clasp closely and quarrels are forgotten2 over a sick-bed hard ways soften into yearning tenderness2 and by a grave1 alas6 what hot tears fall6 ,the poor1 imperfect love which had let itself be wearied and harassed by the frictions of life1 or hindered and warped by a body full of diseased nerves1 comes running1 too late1 with its effort to make up lost opportunities4 ,it has been all the while alive1 but in a sort of trance2 little good has come of it1 but it is something that it was there4 ,it is the divine germ of a flower and fruit too precious to mature in the first years after grafting2 in other soils1 by other waters1 when the healing of the nations is fulfilled1 we shall see its perfection4 ,oh6 what atonement will be there6 ,what allowances we shall make for each other1 then6 with what love we shall love6 ,but the souls who have what my friend meant by a genius for affection are in another atmosphere than that which common men breathe4 ,their upper air is clearer1 more rarefied than any to which mere intellectual genius can soar4 ,because1 to this last1 always remain higher heights which it cannot grasp1 see1 nor comprehend4 ,michel ,angelo may build his dome of marble1 and human intellect may see as clearly as if ,god had said it that no other dome can ever be built so grand1 so beautiful4 ,but above ,st4 ,peter's hangs the blue tent-dome of the sky1 vaster1 rounder1 elastic1 unfathomable1 making ,st4 ,peter's look small as a drinking-cup1 shutting it soon out of sight to north1 east1 south1 and west1 by the mysterious horizon-fold which no man can lift4 ,and beyond this horizon-fold of our sky shut down again other domes1 which the wisest astronomer may not measure1 in whose distances our little ball and we1 with all our spinning1 can hardly show like a star4 ,if ,st4 ,peter's were swallowed up to-morrow1 it would make no real odds to anybody but the ,pope4 ,the probabilities are that ,michel ,angelo himself has forgotten all about it4 ,titian and ,raphael1 and all the great brotherhood of painters1 may kneel reverently as priests before ,nature's face1 and paint pictures at sight of which all men's eyes shall fill with grateful tears2 and yet all men shall go away1 and find that the green shade of a tree1 the light on a young girl's face1 the sleep of a child1 the flowering of a flower1 are to their pictures as living life to beautiful death4 ,coming to ,art's two highest spheres1--music of sound and music of speech1--we find that ,beethoven and ,mozart1 and ,milton and ,shakespeare1 have written4 ,but the symphony is sacred only because1 and only so far as1 it renders the joy or the sorrow which we have felt4 ,surely1 the interpretation is less than the thing interpreted4 ,face to face with a joy1 a sorrow1 would a symphony avail us8 ,and1 as for words1 who shall express their feebleness in midst of strength8 ,the fettered helplessness in spite of which they soar to such heights8 ,the most perfect sentence ever written bears to the thing it meant to say the relation which the chemist's formula does to the thing he handles1 names1 analyzes1 can destroy1 perhaps1 but cannot make4 ,every element in the crystal1 the liquid1 can be weighed1 assigned1 and rightly called2 nothing in all science is more wonderful than an exact chemical formula2 but1 after all is done1 will remain for ever unknown the one subtle secret1 the vital centre of the whole4 ,but the souls who have a genius for affection have no outer dome1 no higher and more vital beauty2 no subtle secret of creative motive force to elude their grasp1 mock their endeavor1 overshadow their lives4 ,the subtlest essence of the thing they worship and desire1 they have in their own nature1--they are4 ,no schools1 no standards1 no laws can help or hinder them4 ,to them the world is as if it were not4 ,work and pain and loss are as if they were not4 ,these are they to whom it is easy to die any death1 if good can come that way to one they love4 ,these are they who do die daily unnoted on our right hand and on our left1--fathers and mothers for children1 husbands and wives for each other4 ,these are they1 also1 who live1--which is often far harder than it is to die1--long lives1 into whose being never enters one thought of self from the rising to the going down of the sun4 ,year builds on year with unvarying steadfastness the divine temple of their beauty and their sacrifice4 ,they create1 like ,god4 ,the universe which science sees1 studies1 and explains1 is small1 is petty1 beside the one which grows under their spiritual touch2 for love begets love4 ,the waves of eternity itself ripple out in immortal circles under the ceaseless dropping of their crystal deeds4 ,angels desire to look1 but cannot1 into the mystery of holiness and beauty which such human lives reveal4 ,only ,god can see them clearly4 ,god is their nearest of kin2 for ,he is love4 ,rainy ,days4 ,with what subtle and assured tyranny they take possession of the world6 ,stoutest hearts are made subject1 plans of conquerors set aside1--the heavens and the earth and man1--all alike at the mercy of the rain4 ,come when they may1 wait long as they will1 give what warnings they can1 rainy days are always interruptions4 ,no human being has planned for them then and there4 ,if it had been but yesterday1 ,if it were only to-morrow1 is the cry from all lips4 ,ah6 a lucky tyranny for us is theirs4 ,were the clouds subject to mortal call or prohibition1 the seasons would fail and death get upper hand of all things before men agreed on an hour of common convenience4 ,what tests they are of people's souls6 ,show me a dozen men and women in the early morning of a rainy day1 and ,i will tell by their words and their faces who among them is rich and who is poor1--who has much goods laid up for just such times of want1 and who has been spend-thrift and foolish4 ,that curious1 shrewd1 underlying instinct1 common to all ages1 which takes shape in proverbs recognized this long ago4 ,who knows when it was first said of a man laying up money1 ,he lays by for a rainy day8 ,how close the parallel is between the man who1 having spent on each day's living the whole of each day's income1 finds himself helpless in an emergency of sickness whose expenses he has no money to meet1 and the man who1 having no intellectual resources1 no self-reliant habit of occupation1 finds himself shut up in the house idle and wretched for a rainy day4 ,i confess that on rainy mornings in country houses1 among well-dressed and so-called intelligent and ,christian people1 ,i have been seized with stronger disgusts and despairs about the capacity and worth of the average human creature1 than ,i have ever felt in the worst haunts of ignorant wickedness4 ,what is there to do to-day8 is the question they ask4 ,i know they are about to ask it before they speak4 ,i have seen it in their listless and disconcerted eyes at breakfast4 ,it is worse to me than the tolling of a bell2 for saddest dead of all are they who have only a name to live4 ,the truth is1 there is more to do on a rainy day than on any other4 ,in addition to all the sweet1 needful1 possible business of living and working1 and learning and helping1 which is for all days1 there is the beauty of the rainy day to see1 the music of the rainy day to hear4 ,it drums on the window-panes1 chuckles and gurgles at corners of houses1 tinkles in spouts1 makes mysterious crescendoes and arpeggio chords through the air2 and all the while drops from the eaves and upper window-ledges are beating time as rhythmical and measured as that of a metronome1--time to which our own souls furnish tune1 sweet or sorrowful1 inspiriting or saddening1 as we will4 ,it is a curious experiment to try repeating or chanting lines in time and cadence following the patter of raindrops on windows4 ,it will sometimes be startling in its effect3 no metre1 no accent fails of its response in the low1 liquid stroke of the tender drops1--there seems an uncanny rapport between them at once4 ,and the beauty of the rain1 not even love can find words to tell it4 ,if it left but one trace1 the exquisite shifting sheen of pearls on the outer side of the window glass1 that alone one might watch for a day4 ,in all times it has been thought worthy of kings1 of them who are royally rich1 to have garments sown thick in dainty lines and shapes with fine seed pearls4 ,who ever saw any such embroidery which could compare with the beauty of one pane of glass wrought on a single side with the shining white transparent globulets of rain8 ,they are millions2 they crowd2 they blend2 they become a silver stream2 they glide slowly down1 leaving tiniest silver threads behind2 they make of themselves a silver bank of miniature sea at the bottom of the pane2 and1 while they do this1 other millions are set pearl-wise at the top1 to crowd1 blend1 glide down in their turn1 and overflow the miniature sea4 ,this is one pane1 a few inches square2 and rooms have many windows of many panes4 ,and looking past this spectacle1 out of our windows1 how is it that we do not each rainy day weep with pleasure at sight of the glistening show8 ,every green thing1 from tiniest grass-blade lying lowest1 to highest waving tips of elms1 also set thick with the water-pearls2 all tossing and catching1 and tossing and catching1 in fairy game with the wind1 and with the rain itself1 always losing1 always gaining1 changing shape and place and number every moment1 till the twinkling and shifting dazzle all eyes4 ,then at the end comes the sun1 like a magician for whom all had been made ready2 at sunset1 perhaps1 or at sunrise1 if the storm has lasted all night4 ,in one instant the silver balls begin to disappear4 ,by countless thousands at a time he tosses them back whence they came2 but as they go1 he changes them1 under our eyes1 into prismatic globes1 holding very light of very light in their tiny circles1 shredding and sorting it into blazing lines of rainbow color4 ,all the little children shout with delight1 seeing these things2 and call dull1 grown-up people to behold4 ,they reply1 ,yes1 the storm is over2 and this is all it means to most of them4 ,this kingdom of heaven they cannot enter1 not being as a little child4 ,it would be worth while to know1 if we only could1 just what our betters--the birds and insects and beasts--do on rainy days4 ,but we cannot find out much4 ,it would be a great thing to look inside of an ant-hill in a long rain4 ,all we know is that the doors are shut tight1 and a few sentinels1 who look as if ,india-rubber coats would be welcome1 stand outside4 ,the stillness and look of intermission in the woods on a really rainy day is something worth getting wet to observe4 ,it is like ,sunday in ,london1 or ,fourth of ,july in a country town which has gone bodily to a picnic in the next village4 ,the strays who are out seem like accidentally arrived people1 who have lost their way4 ,one cannot fancy a caterpillar's being otherwise than very uncomfortable in wet hair2 and what can there be for butterflies and dragon-flies to do1 in the close corners into which they creep1 with wings shut up as tight as an umbrella8 ,the beasts fare better1 being clothed in hides4 ,those whom we oftenest see out in rains 7cows and oxen and horses7 keep straight on with their perpetual munching1 as content wet as dry1 though occasionally we see them accept the partial shelter of a tree from a particularly hard shower4 ,hens are the forlornest of all created animals when it rains4 ,who can help laughing at sight of a flock of them huddled up under lee of a barn1 limp1 draggled1 spiritless1 shifting from one leg to the other1 with their silly heads hanging inert to right or left1 looking as if they would die for want of a yawn8 ,one sees just such groups of other two-legged creatures in parlors1 under similar circumstances4 ,the truth is1 a hen's life at best seems poorer than that of any other known animal4 ,except when she is setting1 ,i cannot help having a contempt for her4 ,this also has been recognized by that common instinct of people which goes to the making of proverbs2 for ,hen's time ain't worth much is a common saying among farmers' wives4 ,how she dawdles about all day1 with her eyes not an inch from the ground1 forever scratching and feeding in dirtiest places1--a sort of animated muck-rake1 with a mouth and an alimentary canal6 ,no wonder such an inane creature is wretched when it rains1 and her soulless business is interrupted4 ,she is1 ,i think1 likest of all to the human beings1 men or women1 who do not know what to do with themselves on rainy days4 ,friends of the ,prisoners4 ,in many of the ,paris prisons is to be seen a long1 dreary room1 through the middle of which are built two high walls of iron grating1 enclosing a space of some three feet in width4 ,a stranger visiting the prison for the first time would find it hard to divine for what purpose these walls of grating had been built4 ,but on the appointed days when the friends of the prisoners are allowed to enter the prison1 their use is sadly evident4 ,it would not be safe to permit wives and husbands1 and mothers and sons1 to clasp hands in unrestrained freedom4 ,a tiny file1 a skein of silk1 can open prison-doors and set captives free2 love's ingenuity will circumvent tyranny and fetters1 in spite of all possible precautions4 ,therefore the vigilant authority says1 ,you may see1 but not touch2 there shall be no possible opportunity for an instrument of escape to be given2 at more than arm's length the wife1 the mother must be held4 ,the prisoners are led in and seated on a bench upon one side of these gratings2 the friends are led in and seated on a similar bench on the other side2 jailers are in attendance in both rooms2 no words can be spoken which the jailers do not hear4 ,yearningly eyes meet eyes2 faces are pressed against the hard wires2 loving words are exchanged2 the poor prisoned souls ask eagerly for news from the outer world1--the world from which they are as much hidden as if they were dead4 ,fathers hear how the little ones have grown2 sometimes1 alas6 how the little ones have died4 ,small gifts of fruit or clothing are brought2 but must be given first into the hands of the jailers4 ,even flowers cannot be given from loving hand to hand2 for in the tiniest flower might be hidden the secret poison which would give to the weary prisoner surest escape of all4 ,all day comes and goes the sad train of friends2 lingering and turning back after there is no more to be said2 weeping when they meant and tried to smile2 more hungry for closer sight and voice1 and for touch1 with every moment that they gaze through the bars2 and going away1 at last1 with a new sense of loss and separation1 which time1 with its merciful healing1 will hardly soften before the visiting-day will come again1 and the same heart-rending experience of mingled torture and joy will again be borne4 ,but to the prisoners these glimpses of friends' faces are like manna from heaven4 ,their whole life1 physical and mental1 receives a new impetus from them4 ,their blood flows more quickly1 their eyes light up1 they live from one day to the next on a memory and a hope4 ,no punishment can be invented so terrible as the deprivation of the sight of their friends on the visiting-day4 ,men who are obstinate and immovable before any sort or amount of physical torture are subdued by mere threat of this4 ,a friend who told me of a visit he paid to the ,prison ,mazas1 on one of the days1 said1 with tears in his eyes1 ,it was almost more than ,i could bear to see these poor souls reaching out toward each other from either side of the iron railings4 ,here a poor1 old woman1 tottering and weak1 bringing a little fruit in a basket for her son2 here a wife1 holding up a baby to look through the gratings at its father1 and the father trying in an agony of earnestness to be sure that the baby knew him2 here a little girl1 looking half reproachfully at her brother1 terror struggling with tenderness in her young face2 on the side of the friends1 love and yearning and pity beyond all words to describe2 on the side of the prisoners1 love and yearning just as great1 but with a misery of shame added1 which gave to many faces a look of attempt at dogged indifference on the surface1 constantly betrayed and contradicted1 however1 by the flashing of the eyes and the red of the cheeks4 ,the story so impressed me that ,i could not for days lose sight of the picture it raised2 the double walls of iron grating2 the cruel1 inexorable1 empty space between them1--empty1 yet crowded with words and looks2 the lines of anxious1 yearning faces on either side4 ,but presently ,i said to myself1 ,it is1 after all1 not so unlike the life we all live4 ,who of us is not in prison8 ,who of us is not living out his time of punishment8 ,law holds us all in its merciless fulfilment of penalty for sin2 disease1 danger1 work separate us1 wall us1 bury us4 ,that we are not numbered with the number of a cell1 clothed in the uniform of a prison1 locked up at night1 and counted in the morning1 is only an apparent difference1 and not so real a one4 ,our jailers do not know us2 but we know them4 ,there is no fixed day gleaming for us in the future when our term of sentence will expire and we shall regain freedom4 ,it may be to-morrow2 but it may be threescore years away4 ,meantime1 we bear ourselves as if we were not in prison4 ,we profess that we choose1 we keep our fetters out of sight1 we smile1 we sing1 we contrive to be glad of being alive1 and we take great interest in the changing of our jails4 ,but no man knows where his neighbor's prison lies4 ,how bravely and cheerily most eyes look up6 ,this is one of the sweetest mercies of life1 that the heart knoweth its own bitterness1 and1 knowing it1 can hide it4 ,hence1 we can all be friends for other prisoners1 standing separated from them by the impassable iron gratings and the fixed gulf of space1 which are not inappropriate emblems of the unseen barriers between all human souls4 ,we can show kindly faces1 speak kindly words1 bear to them fruits and food1 and moral help1 greater than fruit or food4 ,we need not aim at philanthropies2 we need not have a visiting-day1 nor seek a prison-house built of stone4 ,on every road each man we meet is a prisoner2 he is dying at heart1 however sound he looks2 he is only waiting1 however well he works4 ,if we stop to ask whether he be our brother1 he is gone4 ,our one smile would have lit up his prison-day4 ,alas for us if we smiled not as we passed by6 ,alas for us if1 face to face1 at last1 with our ,elder ,brother1 we find ourselves saying1 ,lord1 when saw we thee sick and in prison6 ,a ,companion for the ,winter4 ,i have engaged a companion for the winter4 ,it would be simply a superfluous egotism to say this to the public1 except that ,i have a philanthropic motive for doing so4 ,there are many lonely people who are in need of a companion possessing just such qualities as his2 and he has brothers singularly like himself1 whose services can be secured4 ,i despair of doing justice to him by any description4 ,in fact1 thus far1 ,i discover new perfections in him daily1 and believe that ,i am yet only on the threshold of our friendship4 ,in conversation he is more suggestive than any person ,i have ever known4 ,after two or three hours alone with him1 ,i am sometimes almost startled to look back and see through what a marvellous train of fancy and reflection he has led me4 ,yet he is never wordy1 and often conveys his subtlest meaning by a look4 ,he is an artist1 too1 of the rarest sort4 ,you watch the process under which his pictures grow with incredulous wonder4 ,the ,eastern magic which drops the seed in the mould1 and bids it shoot up before your eyes1 blossom1 and bear its fruit in an hour1 is tardy and clumsy by side of the creative genius of my companion4 ,his touch is swift as air2 his coloring is vivid as light2 he has learned1 ,i know not how1 the secrets of hidden places in all lands2 and he paints1 now a tufted clump of soft cocoa palms2 now the spires and walls of an iceberg1 glittering in yellow sunlight2 now a desolate1 sandy waste1 where black rocks and a few crumbling ruins are lit up by a lurid glow2 then a cathedral front1 with carvings like lace2 then the skeleton of a wrecked ship1 with bare ribs and broken masts1--and all so exact1 so minute1 so life-like1 that you believe no man could paint thus any thing which he had not seen4 ,he has a special love for mosaics1 and a marvellous faculty for making drawings of curious old patterns4 ,nothing is too complicated for his memory1 and he revels in the most fantastic and intricate shapes4 ,i have known him in a single evening throw off a score of designs1 all beautiful1 and many of them rare3 fiery scorpions on a black ground2 pale lavender filagrees over scarlet2 white and black squares blocked out as for tiles of a pavement1 and crimson and yellow threads interlaced over them2 odd ,chinese patterns in brilliant colors1 all angles and surprises1 with no likeness to any thing in nature2 and exquisite little bits of landscape in soft grays and whites4 ,last night was one of his nights of reminiscences of the mosaic-workers4 ,a furious snow-storm was raging1 and1 as the flaky crystals piled up in drifts on the window-ledges1 he seemed to catch the inspiration of their law of structure1 and drew sheet after sheet of crystalline shapes2 some so delicate and filmy that it seemed as if a jar might obliterate them2 some massive and strong1 like those in which the earth keeps her mineral treasures2 then1 at last1 on a round charcoal disk1 he traced out a perfect rose1 in a fragrant white powder1 which piled up under his fingers1 petal after petal1 circle after circle1 till the feathery stamens were buried out of sight4 ,then1 as we held our breath for fear of disturbing it1 with a good-natured little chuckle1 he shook it off into the fire1 and by a few quick strokes of red turned the black charcoal disk into a shield gay enough for a tournament4 ,he has talent for modelling1 but this he exercises more rarely4 ,usually1 his figures are grotesque rather than beautiful1 and he never allows them to remain longer than for a few moments1 often changing them so rapidly under your eye that it seems like jugglery4 ,he is fondest of doing this at twilight1 and loves the darkest corner of the room4 ,from the half-light he will suddenly thrust out before you a grinning gargoyle head1 to which he will give in an instant more a pair of spider legs1 and then1 with one roll1 stretch it out into a crocodile1 whose jaws seem so near snapping that you involuntarily draw your chair further back4 ,next1 in a freak of ventriloquism1 he startles you still more by bringing from the crocodile's mouth a sigh1 so long drawn1 so human1 that you really shudder1 and are ready to implore him to play no more tricks4 ,he knows when he has reached this limit1 and soothes you at once by a tender1 far-off whisper1 like the wind through pines1 sometimes almost like an ,aeolian harp2 then he rouses you from your dreams by what you are sure is a tap at the door4 ,you turn1 speak1 listen2 no one enters2 the tap again4 ,ah6 it is only a little more of the ventriloquism of this wonderful creature4 ,you are alone with him1 and there was no tap at the door4 ,but when there is1 and the friend comes in1 then my companion's genius shines out4 ,almost always in life the third person is a discord1 or at least a burden2 but he is so genial1 so diffusive1 so sympathetic1 that1 like some tints by which painters know how to bring out all the other colors in a picture1 he forces every one to do his best4 ,i am indebted to him already for a better knowledge of some men and women with whom ,i had talked for years before to little purpose4 ,it is most wonderful that he produces this effect1 because he himself is so silent2 but there is some secret charm in his very smile which puts people en rapport with each other1 and with him at once4 ,i am almost afraid to go on with the list of the things my companion can do4 ,i have not yet told the half1 nor the most wonderful2 and ,i believe ,i have already overtaxed credulity4 ,i will mention only one more1--but that is to me far more inexplicable than all the rest4 ,i am sure that it belongs1 with mesmerism and clairvoyance1 to the domain of the higher psychological mysteries4 ,he has in rare hours the power of producing the portraits of persons whom you have loved1 but whom he has never seen4 ,for this it is necessary that you should concentrate your whole attention on him1 as is always needful to secure the best results of mesmeric power4 ,it must also be late and still4 ,in the day1 or in a storm1 ,i have never known him to succeed in this4 ,for these portraits he uses only shadowy gray tints4 ,he begins with a hesitating outline4 ,if you are not tenderly and closely in attention1 he throws it aside2 he can do nothing4 ,but if you are with him1 heart and soul1 and do not take your eyes from his1 he will presently fill out the dear faces1 full1 life-like1 and wearing a smile1 which makes you sure that they too must have been summoned from the other side1 as you from this1 to meet on the shadowy boundary between flesh and spirit4 ,he must see them as clearly as he sees you2 and it would be little more for his magic to do if he were at the same moment showing to their longing eyes your face and answering smile4 ,but ,i delay too long the telling of his name4 ,a strange hesitancy seizes me4 ,i shall never be believed by any one who has not sat as ,i have by his side4 ,but1 if ,i can only give to one soul the good-cheer and strength of such a presence1 ,i shall be rewarded4 ,his name is ,maple ,wood-fire1 and his terms are from eight to twelve dollars a month1 according to the amount of time he gives4 ,this price is ridiculously low1 but it is all that any member of the family asks2 in fact1 in some parts of the country1 they can be hired for much less4 ,they have connections by the name of ,hickory1 whose terms are higher2 but ,i cannot find out that they are any more satisfactory4 ,there are also some distant relations1 named ,chestnut and ,pine1 who can be employed in the same way1 at a much lower rate2 but they are all snappish and uncertain in temper4 ,to the whole world ,i commend the good brotherhood of ,maple1 and pass on the emphatic indorsement of a blessed old black woman who came to my room the other day1 and1 standing before the rollicking blaze on my hearth1 said1 ,bless yer1 honey1 yer's got a wood-fire4 ,i'se allers said that1 if yer's got a wood-fire1 yer's got meat1 an' drink1 an' clo'es4 ,choice of ,colors4 ,the other day1 as ,i was walking on one of the oldest and most picturesque streets of the old and picturesque town of ,newport1 ,r4,i41 ,i saw a little girl standing before the window of a milliner's shop4 ,it was a very rainy day4 ,the pavement of the side-walks on this street is so sunken and irregular that in wet weather1 unless one walks with very great care1 he steps continually into small wells of water4 ,up to her ankles in one of these wells stood the little girl1 apparently as unconscious as if she were high and dry before a fire4 ,it was a very cold day too4 ,i was hurrying along1 wrapped in furs1 and not quite warm enough even so4 ,the child was but thinly clothed4 ,she wore an old plaid shawl and a ragged knit hood of scarlet worsted4 ,one little red ear stood out unprotected by the hood1 and drops of water trickled down over it from her hair4 ,she seemed to be pointing with her finger at articles in the window1 and talking to some one inside4 ,i watched her for several moments1 and then crossed the street to see what it all meant4 ,i stole noiselessly up behind her1 and she did not hear me4 ,the window was full of artificial flowers1 of the cheapest sort1 but of very gay colors4 ,here and there a knot of ribbon or a bit of lace had been tastefully added1 and the whole effect was really remarkably gay and pretty4 ,tap1 tap1 tap1 went the small hand against the window-pane2 and with every tap the unconscious little creature murmured1 in a half-whispering1 half-singing voice1 ,i choose that color4 ,i choose that color4 ,i choose that color4 ,i stood motionless4 ,i could not see her face2 but there was in her whole attitude and tone the heartiest content and delight4 ,i moved a little to the right1 hoping to see her face1 without her seeing me2 but the slight movement caught her ear1 and in a second she had sprung aside and turned toward me4 ,the spell was broken4 ,she was no longer the queen of an air-castle1 decking herself in all the rainbow hues which pleased her eye4 ,she was a poor beggar child1 out in the rain1 and a little frightened at the approach of a stranger4 ,she did not move away1 however2 but stood eying me irresolutely1 with that pathetic mixture of interrogation and defiance in her face which is so often seen in the prematurely developed faces of poverty-stricken children4 ,aren't the colors pretty8 ,i said4 ,she brightened instantly4 ,yes'm4 ,i'd like a goon av thit blue4 ,but you will take cold standing in the wet1 said ,i4 ,won't you come under my umbrella8 ,she looked down at her wet dress suddenly1 as if it had not occurred to her before that it was raining4 ,then she drew first one little foot and then the other out of the muddy puddle in which she had been standing1 and1 moving a little closer to the window1 said1 ,i'm not jist goin' home1 mem4 ,i'd like to stop here a bit4 ,so ,i left her4 ,but1 after ,i had gone a few blocks1 the impulse seized me to return by a cross street1 and see if she were still there4 ,tears sprang to my eyes as ,i first caught sight of the upright little figure1 standing in the same spot1 still pointing with the rhythmic finger to the blues and reds and yellows1 and half chanting under her breath1 as before1 ,i choose that color4 ,i choose that color4 ,i choose that color4 ,i went quietly on my way1 without disturbing her again4 ,but ,i said in my heart1 ,little ,messenger1 ,interpreter1 ,teacher6 ,i will remember you all my life4 ,why should days ever be dark1 life ever be colorless8 ,there is always sun2 there are always blue and scarlet and yellow and purple4 ,we cannot reach them1 perhaps1 but we can see them1 if it is only through a glass1 and darkly1--still we can see them4 ,we can choose our colors4 ,it rains1 perhaps2 and we are standing in the cold4 ,never mind4 ,if we look earnestly enough at the brightness which is on the other side of the glass1 we shall forget the wet and not feel the cold4 ,and now and then a passer-by1 who has rolled himself up in furs to keep out the cold1 but shivers nevertheless1--who has money in his purse to buy many colors1 if he likes1 but1 nevertheless1 goes grumbling because some colors are too dear for him1--such a passer-by1 chancing to hear our voice1 and see the atmosphere of our content1 may learn a wondrous secret1--that pennilessness is not poverty1 and ownership is not possession2 that to be without is not always to lack1 and to reach is not to attain2 that sunlight is for all eyes that look up1 and color for those who choose4 ,the ,apostle of ,beauty4 ,he is not of the twelve1 any more than the golden rule is of the ten4 ,a greater commandment ,i give unto you1 was said of that4 ,also it was called the new commandment4 ,yet it was really older than the rest1 and greater only because it included them all4 ,there were those who kept it ages before ,moses went up ,sinai3 ,joseph1 for instance1 his ancestor2 and the king's daughter1 by whose goodness he lived4 ,so stands the ,apostle of ,beauty1 greater than the twelve1 newer and older2 setting ,gospel over against law1 having known law before its beginning2 living triumphantly free and unconscious of penalty4 ,he has had martyrdom1 and will have4 ,his church is never established2 the world does not follow him2 only of ,wisdom is he known1 and of her children1 who are children of light4 ,he never speaks by their mouths who say ,shalt not4 ,he knows that shalt not is illegitimate1 puny1 trying always to usurp the throne of the true king1 ,thou shalt4 ,this is delight1 this is good to see1 he says of a purity1 of a fair thing4 ,it needs not to speak of the impurity1 of the ugliness4 ,left unmentioned1 unforbidden1 who knows how soon they might die out of men's lives1 perhaps even from the earth's surface8 ,men hedging gardens have for centuries set plants under that letter of law which killeth1 until the very word hedge has become a pain and an offence2 and all the while there have been standing in every wild country graceful walls of unhindered brier and berry1 to which the apostles of beauty have been silently pointing4 ,by degrees gardeners have learned something4 ,the best of them now call themselves landscape gardeners2 and that is a concession1 if it means1 as ,i suppose it does1 that they will try to copy ,nature's landscapes in their enclosures4 ,i have seen also of late that on rich men's estates tangled growths of native bushes are being more let alone1 and hedges seem to have had some of the weights and harness taken off of them4 ,this is but one little matter among millions with which the ,apostle of ,beauty has to do2 but it serves for instance of the first requisite he demands1 which is freedom4 ,let use take care of itself4 ,it will1 he says4 ,there is no beauty without freedom4 ,nothing is too high for him1 nothing too low or small4 ,to speak more truly1 in his eyes there is no small1 no low4 ,from a philanthropy down to a gown1 one catholic necessity1 one catholic principle2 gowns can be benefactions or injuries2 philanthropies can be well or ill clad4 ,he has a ministry of co-workers1--men1 women1 and guileless little children4 ,many of them serve him without knowing him by name4 ,some who serve him best1 who spread his creeds most widely1 who teach them most eloquently1 die without dreaming that they have been missionaries to ,gentiles4 ,others there are who call him ,lord1 ,lord1 build temples to him and teach in them1 who never know him4 ,these are they who give their goods to the poor1 their bodies to be burned2 but are each day ungracious1 unloving1 hard1 cruel to men and women about them4 ,these are they also who make bad statues1 bad pictures1 invent frightful fashions of things to be worn1 and make the houses and the rooms in which they live hideous with unsightly adornments4 ,the centuries fight such1--now with a ,titian1 a ,michel ,angelo2 now with a great philanthropist1 who is also peaceable and easy to be entreated2 now with a ,florence ,nightingale1 knowing no sect2 now with a little child by a roadside1 holding up a marigold in the sun2 now with a sweet-faced old woman1 dying gracefully in some almshouse4 ,who has not heard voice from such apostles8 ,to-day my nearest1 most eloquent apostle of beauty is a poor shoemaker1 who lives in the house where ,i lodge4 ,how poor he must be ,i dare not even try to understand4 ,he has six children3 the oldest not more than thirteen1 the third a deaf-mute1 the baby puny and ill1--sure1 ,i think 7and hope71 to die soon4 ,they live in two rooms1 on the ground-floor4 ,his shop is the right-hand corner of the front room2 the rest is bedroom and sitting-room2 behind are the bedroom and kitchen4 ,i have never seen so much as ,i might of their way of living2 for ,i stand before his window with more reverent fear of intruding by a look than ,i should have at the door of a king's chamber4 ,a narrow rough ledge added to the window-sill is his bench4 ,behind this he sits from six in the morning till seven at night1 bent over1 sewing slowly and painfully on the coarsest shoes4 ,his face looks old enough for sixty years2 but he cannot be so old4 ,yet he wears glasses and walks feebly2 he has probably never had in any one day of his life enough to eat4 ,but ,i do not know any man1 and ,i know only one woman1 who has such a look of radiant good-cheer and content as has this poor shoemaker1 ,anton ,grasl4 ,in his window are coarse wooden boxes1 in which are growing the common mallows4 ,they are just now in full bloom1--row upon row of gay-striped purple and white bells4 ,the window looks to the east1 and is never shut4 ,when ,i go out to my breakfast the sun is streaming in on the flowers and ,anton's face4 ,he looks up1 smiles1 bows low1 and says1 ,good-day1 good my lady1 sometimes holding the mallow-stalks back with one hand1 to see me more plainly4 ,i feel as if the day and ,i had had benediction4 ,it is always a better day because ,anton has said it is good2 and ,i am a better woman for sight of his godly contentment4 ,almost every day he has beside the mallows in the boxes a white mug with flowers in it1--nasturtiums1 perhaps1 or a few pinks4 ,this he sets carefully in shade of the thickest mallows2 and this ,i have often seen him hold down tenderly1 for the little ones to see and to smell4 ,when ,i come home in the evenings1 between eight and nine o'clock1 ,anton is always sifting in front of the door1 resting his head against the wall4 ,this is his recreation1 his one blessed hour of out-door air and rest4 ,he stands with his cap in his hand while ,i pass1 and his face shines as if all the concentrated enjoyment of my walk in the woods had descended upon him in my first look4 ,if ,i give him a bunch of ferns to add to his nasturtiums and pinks1 he is so grateful and delighted that ,i have to go into the house quickly for fear ,i shall cry4 ,whenever ,i am coming back from a drive1 ,i begin to think1 long before ,i reach the house1 how glad ,anton will look when he sees the carriage stop4 ,i am as sure as if ,i had omniscient sight into the depths of his good heart that he has distinct and unenvious joy in every pleasure that he sees other people taking4 ,never have ,i1 heard one angry or hasty word1 one petulant or weary cry from the rooms in which this father and mother and six children are struggling to live4 ,all day long the barefooted and ragged little ones play under my south windows1 and do not quarrel4 ,i amuse myself by dropping grapes or plums on their heads1 and then watching them at their feast2 never have ,i seen them dispute or struggle in the division4 ,once ,i purposely threw a large bunch of grapes to the poor little mute1 and only a few plums to the others4 ,i am sorry to say that voiceless ,carl ate all his grapes himself2 but not a selfish or discontented look could ,i see on the faces of the others1--they all smiled and beamed up at me like suns4 ,it is ,anton who creates and sustains this rare atmosphere4 ,the wife is only a common and stupid woman2 he is educating her1 as he is the children4 ,she is very thin and worn and hungry-looking1 but always smiles4 ,being ,anton's wife1 she could not do otherwise4 ,sometimes ,i see people passing the house1 who give a careless glance of contemptuous pity at ,anton's window of mallows and nasturtiums4 ,then ,i remember that an apostle wrote3-- ,there are1 it may be1 so many kinds of voices in the world1 and none of them is without signification4 ,therefore1 if ,i know not the meaning of the voice1 ,i shall be unto him that speaketh a barbarian1 and he that speaketh shall be a barbarian unto me4 ,and ,i long to call after them1 as they go groping their way down the beautiful street1-- ,oh1 ye barbarians1 blind and deaf6 ,how dare you think you can pity ,anton8 ,his soul would melt in compassion for you1 if he were able to comprehend that lives could be so poor as yours4 ,he is the rich man1 and you are poor4 ,eating only the husks on which you feed1 he would starve to death4 ,english ,lodging-,houses4 ,somebody who has written stories 7is it ,dickens87 has given us very wrong ideas of the ,english lodging-house4 ,what good ,american does not go into ,london with the distinct impression that1 whatever else he does or does not do1 he will upon no account live in lodgings8 ,that he will even be content with the comfortless coffee-room of a second-rate hotel1 and fraternize with commercial travellers from all quarters of the globe1 rather than come into relations with that mixture of vulgarity and dishonesty1 the lodging-house keeper8 ,it was with more than such misgiving that ,i first crossed the threshold of ,mrs4 ----'s house in ,bedford ,place1 ,bloomsbury4 ,at this distance ,i smile to remember how welcome would have been any alternative rather than the remaining under her roof for a month2 how persistently for several days ,i doubted and resisted the evidence of all my senses1 and set myself at work to find the discomforts and shortcomings which ,i believed must belong to that mode of life4 ,to confess the stupidity and obstinacy of my ignorance is small reparation1 and would be little worth while1 except for the hope that my account of the comfort and economy in living on the ,english lodging-house system may be a seed dropped in due season1 which shall spring up sooner or later in the introduction of a similar system in ,america4 ,the gain which it would be to great numbers of our men and women who must live on small incomes cannot be estimated4 ,it seems hardly too much to say that in the course of one generation it might work in the average public health a change which would be shown in statistics1 and rid us of the stigma of a national disease of dyspepsia4 ,for the men and women whose sufferings and ill-health have made of our name a by-word among the nations are not1 as many suppose1 the rich men and women1 tempted by their riches to over-indulgence of their stomachs1 and paying in their dyspepsia simply the fair price of their folly2 they are the moderately poor men and women1 who are paying cruel penalty for not having been richer1--not having been rich enough to avoid the poisons which are cooked and served in ,american restaurants and in the poorer class of ,american homes4 ,mrs4 ----'s lodging-house was not1 so far as ,i know1 any better than the average lodging-houses of its grade4 ,it was well situated1 well furnished1 well kept1 and its scale of prices was moderate4 ,for instance1 the rent of a pleasant parlor and bedroom on the second floor was thirty-four shillings a week1 including fire and gas1--#h4ej1 gold4 ,then there was a charge of two shillings a week for the use of the kitchen-fire1 and three shillings a week for service2 and these were the only charges in addition to the rent4 ,thus for #i4ge a week one had all the comforts that can be had in housekeeping1 so far as room and service are concerned4 ,there were four good servants1--cook1 scullery maid1 and two housemaids4 ,oh1 the pleasant voices and gentle fashions of behavior of those housemaids6 ,they were slow1 it must be owned2 but their results were admirable4 ,in spite of ,london smoke and grime1 ,mrs4 ----'s floors and windows were clean2 the grates shone every morning like mirrors1 and the glass and silver were bright4 ,each morning the smiling cook came up to take our orders for the meals of the day2 each day the grocer and the baker and the butcher stopped at the door and left the sugar for the first floor front1 the beef for the drawing-room1 and so on4 ,the smallest article which could be required in housekeeping was not overlooked4 ,the groceries of the different floors never got mixed1 though how this separateness of stores was accomplished will for ever remain a mystery to me2 but that it was successfully accomplished the smallness of our bill was the best of proof1--unless1 indeed1 as we were sometimes almost afraid1 we did now and then eat up ,dr4 ,a----'s cheese1 or drink the milk belonging to the ,b's below us4 ,we were a party of four2 our fare was of the plain1 substantial sort1 but of sufficient variety and abundance2 and yet our living never cost us1 including rent1 service1 fires1 and food1 over #fj a week4 ,if we had chosen to practise closer economies1 we might have lived on less4 ,compare for one instant the comfort of such an arrangement as this1 which really gave us every possible advantage to be secured by housekeeping1 and with almost none of the trouble1 with any boarding or lodging possible in ,new ,york4 ,we had two parlors and two bedrooms2 our meals served promptly and neatly1 in our own parlor4 ,the same amount of room1 and service1 and such a table1 for four people1 cannot be had in ,new ,york for less than #aej or #bjj a week2 in fact1 they cannot be had in ,new ,york for any sum of money4 ,the quiet respectfulness of behavior and faithful interest in work of ,english servants on ,english soil are not to be found elsewhere4 ,we afterward lived for some weeks in another lodging-house in ,great ,malvern1 ,worcestershire1 at about the same price per week4 ,this house was even better than the ,london one in some respects4 ,the system was precisely the same2 but the cooking was almost faultless1 and the table appointments were more than satisfactory1--they were tasteful4 ,the china was a pleasure1 and there were silver and linen and glass which one would be glad to have in one's own home4 ,it may be asked1 and not unnaturally1 how does this lodging-house system work for those who keep the houses8 ,can it be possible that all this comfort and economy for lodgers are compatible with profits for landlords8 ,i can judge only from the results in these two cases which came under my own observation4 ,in each of these cases the family who kept the house lived comfortably and pleasantly in their own apartment1 which was1 in the ,london house1 almost as good a suite of rooms as any which they rented4 ,they certainly had far more apparent quiet1 comfort1 and privacy than is commonly seen in the arrangements of the keepers of average boarding-houses4 ,in the ,malvern house1 one whole floor1 which was less pleasant than the others1 but still comfortable and well furnished1 was occupied by the family4 ,there were three little boys1 under ten years of age1 who had their nursery governess1 said lessons to her regularly1 and were led out decorously to walk by her at appointed seasons1 like all the rest of good little ,english boys in well-regulated families2 and yet the mother of these children came to the door of our parlor each morning1 with the respectful air of an old family housekeeper1 to ask what we would have for dinner1 and was careful and exact in buying three penn'orth of herbs at a time for us1 to season our soup4 ,i ought to mention that in both these places we made the greater part of our purchases ourselves1 having weekly bills sent in from the shops1 and in our names1 exactly as if we were living in our own house4 ,all honest lodging-house keepers1 we were told1 preferred this method1 as leaving no opening for any unjust suspicions of their fairness in providing4 ,but1 if one chooses to be as absolutely free from trouble as in boarding1 the marketing can all be done by the family1 and the bills still made out in the lodgers' names4 ,i have been thus minute in my details because ,i think there may be many to whom this system of living is as unknown as it was to me2 and ,i cannot but hope that it may yet be introduced in ,america4 ,wet the ,clay4 ,once ,i stood in ,miss ,hosmer's studio1 looking at a statue which she was modelling of the ex-queen of ,naples4 ,face to face with the clay model1 ,i always feel the artist's creative power far more than when ,i am looking at the immovable marble4 ,a touch here--there--and all is changed4 ,perhaps1 under my eyes1 in the twinkling of an eye1 one trait springs into life and another disappears4 ,the queen1 who is a very beautiful woman1 was represented in ,miss ,hosmer's statue as standing1 wearing the picturesque cloak that she wore during those hard days of garrison life at ,gaeta1 when she showed herself so brave and strong that the world said if she1 instead of that very stupid young man her husband1 had been king1 the throne need not have been lost4 ,the very cloak1 made of light cloth showily faced with scarlet1 was draped over a lay figure in one corner of the room4 ,in the statue the folds of drapery over the right arm were entirely disarranged1 simply rough clay4 ,the day before they had been apparently finished2 but that morning ,miss ,hosmer had1 as she laughingly told us1 pulled it all to pieces again4 ,as she said this1 she took up a large syringe and showered the statue from head to foot with water1 till it dripped and shone as if it had been just plunged into a bath4 ,now it was in condition to be moulded4 ,many times a day this process must be repeated1 or the clay becomes so dry and hard that it cannot be worked4 ,i had known this before2 but never did ,i so realize the significant symbolism of the act as when ,i looked at this lifeless yet lifelike thing1 to be made into the beauty of a woman1 called by her name1 and cherished after her death1--and saw that only through this chrysalis of the clay1 so cared for1 moistened1 and moulded1 could the marble obtain its soul4 ,and1 as all things ,i see in life seem to me to have a voice either for or of children1 so did this instantly suggest to me that most of the failures of mothers come from their not keeping the clay wet4 ,the slightest touch tells on the clay when it is soft and moist1 and can produce just the effect which is desired2 but when the clay is too dry it will not yield1 and often it breaks and crumbles beneath the unskilful hand4 ,how perfect the analogy between these two results1 and the two atmospheres which one often sees in the space of one half-hour in the management of the same child6 ,one person can win from it instantly a gentle obedience3 that person's smile is a reward1 that person's displeasure is a grief it cannot bear1 that person's opinions have utmost weight with it1 that person's presence is a controlling and subduing influence4 ,another1 alas6 the mother1 produces such an opposite effect that it is hard to believe the child can be the same child4 ,her simplest command is met by antagonism or sullen compliance2 her pleasure and displeasure are plainly of no account to the child1 and its great desire is to get out of her presence4 ,what shape will she make of that child's soul8 ,she does not wet the clay4 ,she does not stop to consider before each command whether it be wholly just1 whether it be the best time to make it1 and whether she can explain its necessity4 ,oh6 the sweet reasonableness of children when disagreeable necessities are explained to them1 instead of being enforced as arbitrary tyrannies6 ,she does not make them so feel that she shares all their sorrows and pleasures that they cannot help being in turn glad when she is glad1 and sorry when she is sorry4 ,she does not so take them into constant companionship in her interests1 each day1--the books1 the papers she reads1 the things she sees1--that they learn to hold her as the representative of much more than nursery discipline1 clothes1 and bread and butter4 ,she does not kiss them often enough1 put her arms around them1 warm1 soften1 bathe them in the ineffable sunshine of loving ways4 ,i can't imagine why children are so much better with you than with me1 exclaims such a mother4 ,no1 she cannot imagine2 and that is the trouble4 ,if she could1 all would be righted4 ,it is quite probable that she is a far more anxious1 self-sacrificing1 hard-working mother than the neighbor1 whose children are rosy and frolicking and affectionate and obedient2 while hers are pale and fretful and selfish and sullen4 ,she is all the time working1 working1 with endless activity1 on hard1 dry clay2 and the neighbor1 who1 perhaps half-unconsciously1 keeps the clay wet1 is with one-half the labor modelling sweet creatures of ,nature's own loveliest shapes4 ,then she says1 this poor1 tired mother1 discouraged because her children tell lies1 and irritated because they seem to her thankless1 ,after all1 children are pretty much alike1 ,i suppose4 ,i believe most children tell lies when they are little2 and they never realize until they are grown up what parents do for them4 ,here again ,i find a similitude among the artists who paint or model4 ,studios are full of such caricatures1 and the hard-working1 honest souls who have made them believe that they are true reproductions of nature and life4 ,see my cherub4 ,are not all cherubs such as he8 and ,behold these trees and this water2 and how the sun glowed on the day when ,i walked there6 and all the while the cherub is like a paper doll1 and the trees and the water never had any likeness to any thing that is in this beautiful earth4 ,but1 after all1 this similitude is short and paltry1 for it is of comparatively small moment that so many men and women spend their lives in making bad cherubs in marble1 and hideous landscapes in oil4 ,it is industry1 and it keeps them in bread2 in butter1 too1 if their cherubs and trees are very bad4 ,but1 when it is a human being that is to be moulded1 how do we dare1 even with all the help which we can ask and find in earth and in heaven1 to shape it by our touch6 ,clay in the hands of the potter is not more plastic than is the little child's soul in the hands of those who tend it4 ,alas6 how many shapeless1 how many ill-formed1 how many broken do we see6 ,who does not believe that the image of ,god could have been beautiful on all8 ,sooner or later it will be1 thank ,christ6 ,but what a pity1 what a loss1 not to have had the sweet blessedness of being even here fellow-workers with him in this glorious modelling for eternity6 ,the ,king's ,friend4 ,we are a gay party1 summering among the hills4 ,new-comers into the little boarding-house where we1 by reason of prior possession1 hold a kind of sway are apt to fare hardly at our hands unless they come up to our standard4 ,we are not exacting in the matter of clothes2 we are liberal on creeds2 but we have our shibboleths4 ,and1 though we do not drown unlucky ,ephraimites1 whose tongues make bad work with ,s's1 ,i fear we are not quite kind to them2 they never stay long1 and so we go on having it much our own way4 ,week before last a man appeared at dinner1 of whom our good little landlady said1 deprecatingly1 that he would stay only a few days4 ,she knew by instinct that his presence would not be agreeable to us4 ,he was not in the least an intrusive person1--on the contrary1 there was a sort of mute appeal to our humanity in the very extent of his quiet inoffensiveness2 but his whole atmosphere was utterly uninteresting4 ,he was untrained in manner1 awkwardly ill at ease in the table routine2 and1 altogether1 it was so uncomfortable to make any attempt to include him in our circle that in a few days he was ignored by every one1 to a degree which was neither courteous nor ,christian4 ,in all families there is a leader4 ,ours is a charming and brilliant married woman1 whose ready wit and never-failing spirits make her the best of centres for a country party of pleasure-seekers4 ,her keen sense of humor had not been able entirely to spare this unfortunate man1 whose attitudes and movements were certainly at times almost irresistible4 ,but one morning such a change was apparent in her manner toward him that we all looked up in surprise4 ,no more gracious and gentle greeting could she have given him if he had been a prince of royal line4 ,our astonishment almost passed bounds when we heard her continue with a kindly inquiry after his health1 and1 undeterred by his evident readiness to launch into detailed symptoms1 listen to him with the most respectful attention4 ,under the influence of this new and sweet recognition his plain and common face kindled into something almost manly and individual4 ,he had never before been so spoken to by a well-bred and beautiful woman4 ,we were sobered1 in spite of ourselves1 by an indefinable something in her manner2 and it was with subdued whispers that we crowded around her on the piazza1 and begged to know what it all meant4 ,it was a rare thing to see ,mrs4 ---- hesitate for a reply4 ,the color rose in her face1 and1 with a half-nervous attempt at a smile1 she finally said1 ,well1 girls1 ,i suppose you will all laugh at me2 but the truth is1 ,i heard that man say his prayers this morning4 ,you know his room is next to mine1 and there is a great crack in the door4 ,i heard him praying1 this morning1 for ten minutes1 just before breakfast2 and ,i never heard such tones in my life4 ,i don't pretend to be religious2 but ,i must own it was a wonderful thing to hear a man talking with ,god as he did4 ,and when ,i saw him at table1 ,i felt as if ,i were looking in the face of some one who had just come out of the presence of the ,king of kings1 and had the very air of heaven about him4 ,i can't help what the rest of you do or say2 ,i shall always have the same feeling whenever ,i see him4 ,there was a magnetic earnestness in her tone and look1 which we all felt1 and which some of us will never forget4 ,during the few remaining days of his stay with us1 that untutored1 uninteresting1 stupid man knew no lack of friendly courtesy at our hands4 ,we were the better for his homely presence2 unawares1 he ministered unto us4 ,when we knew that he came directly from speaking to the ,master to speak to us1 we felt that he was greater than we1 and we remembered that it is written1 ,if any man serve me1 him will my ,father honor4 ,learning to ,speak4 ,with what breathless interest we listen for the baby's first word6 ,what a new bond is at once and for ever established between its soul and ours by this mysterious1 inexplicable1 almost incredible fact6 ,that is the use of the word4 ,that is its only use1 so far as mere gratification of the ear goes4 ,many other sounds are more pleasurable1--the baby's laugh1 for instance1 or its inarticulate murmurs of content or sleepiness4 ,but the word is a revelation1 a sacred sign4 ,now we shall know what our beloved one wants2 now we shall know when and why the dear heart sorrows or is glad4 ,how reassured we feel1 how confident6 ,now we cannot make mistakes2 we shall do all for the best2 we can give happiness2 we can communicate wisdom2 relation is established2 the perplexing gulf of silence is bridged4 ,the baby speaks6 ,but it is not of the baby's learning to speak that we propose to write here4 ,all babies learn to speak2 or1 if they do not1 we know that it means a terrible visitation1--a calamity rare1 thank ,god6 but bitter almost beyond parents' strength to bear4 ,but why1 having once learned to speak1 does the baby leave off speaking when it becomes a man or a woman8 ,many of our men and women to-day need1 almost as much as when they were twenty-four months old1 to learn to speak4 ,we do not mean learning to speak in public4 ,we do not mean even learning to speak well1--to pronounce words clearly and accurately2 though there is need enough of that in this land6 ,but that is not the need at which we are aiming now4 ,we mean something so much simpler1 so much further back1 that we hardly know how to say it in words which shall be simple enough and also sufficiently strong4 ,we mean learning to speak at all6 ,in spite of all which satirical writers have said and say of the loquacious egotism1 the questioning curiosity of our people1 it is true to-day that the average ,american is a reticent1 taciturn1 speechless creature1 who1 for his own sake1 and still more for the sake of all who love him1 needs1 more than he needs any thing else under heaven1 to learn to speak4 ,look at our silent railway and horse-cars1 steamboat-cabins1 hotel-tables1 in short1 all our public places where people are thrown together incidentally1 and where good-will and the habit of speaking combined would create an atmosphere of human vitality1 quite unlike what we see now4 ,but it is not of so much consequence1 after all1 whether people speak in these public places or not4 ,if they did1 one very unpleasant phase of our national life would be greatly changed for the better4 ,but it is in our homes that this speechlessness tells most fearfully1--on the breakfast and dinner and tea-tables1 at which a silent father and mother sit down in haste and gloom to feed their depressed children4 ,this is especially true of men and women in the rural districts4 ,they are tired2 they have more work to do in a year than it is easy to do4 ,their lives are monotonous1--too much so for the best health of either mind or body4 ,if they dreamed how much this monotony could be broken and cheered by the constant habit of talking with each other1 they would grasp at the slightest chance of a conversation4 ,sometimes it almost seems as if complaints and antagonism were better than such stagnant quiet4 ,but there need not be complaint and antagonism2 there is no home so poor1 so remote from affairs1 that each day does not bring and set ready1 for family welcome and discussion1 beautiful sights and sounds1 occasions for helpfulness and gratitude1 questions for decision1 hopes1 fears1 regrets6 ,the elements of human life are the same for ever2 any one heart holds in itself the whole1 can give all things to another1 can bear all things for another2 but no giving1 no bearing1 no1 not even if it is the giving up of a life1 if it is done without free1 full1 loving interchange of speech1 is half the blessing it might be4 ,many a wife goes down to her grave a dulled and dispirited woman simply because her good and faithful husband has lived by her side without talking to her6 ,there have been days when one word of praise1 or one word even of simple good cheer1 would have girded her up with new strength4 ,she did not know1 very likely1 what she needed1 or that she needed any thing2 but she drooped4 ,many a child grows up a hard1 unimpressionable1 unloving man or woman simply from the uncheered silence in which the first ten years of life were passed4 ,very few fathers and mothers1 even those who are fluent1 perhaps1 in society1 habitually talk with their children4 ,it is certain that this is one of the worst shortcomings of our homes4 ,perhaps no other single change would do so much to make them happier1 and1 therefore1 to make our communities better1 as for men and women to learn to speak4 ,private ,tyrants4 ,we recognize tyranny when it wears a crown and sits on an hereditary throne4 ,we sympathize with nations that overthrow the thrones1 and in our secret hearts we almost canonize individuals who slay the tyrants4 ,from the days of ,ehud and ,eglon down to those of ,charlotte ,corday and ,marat1 the world has dealt tenderly with their names whose hands have been red with the blood of oppressors4 ,on moral grounds it would be hard to justify this sentiment1 murder being murder all the same1 however great gain it may be to this world to have the murdered man put out of it2 but that there is such a sentiment1 instinctive and strong in the human soul1 there is no denying4 ,it is so instinctive and so strong that1 if we watch ourselves closely1 we shall find it giving alarming shape sometimes to our secret thoughts about our neighbors4 ,how many communities1 how many households even1 are without a tyrant8 ,if we could move for returns of suffering1 as that tender and thoughtful man1 ,arthur ,helps1 says1 we should find a far heavier aggregate of misery inflicted by unsuspected1 unresisted tyrannies than by those which are patent to everybody1 and sure to be overthrown sooner or later4 ,an exhaustive sermon on this subject should be set off in three divisions1 as follows3-- ,,private ,,tyrants4 #ast4 ,number of-- #b;d4 ,nature of-- #c;d4 ,longevity of-- ,first4 ,their number4 ,they are not enumerated in any census4 ,not even the most painstaking statistician has meddled with the topic4 ,fancy takes bold leaps at the very suggestion of such an estimate1 and begins to think at once of all things in the universe which are usually mentioned as beyond numbering4 ,probably one good way of getting at a certain sort of result would be to ask each person of one's acquaintance1 ,do you happen to know a private tyrant8 ,how well we know beforehand the replies we should get from some beloved men and women1--that is1 if they spoke the truth6 ,but they would not4 ,that is the saddest thing about these private tyrannies4 ,they are in many cases borne in such divine and uncomplaining silence by their victims1 perhaps for long years1 the world never dreams that they exist4 ,but at last the fine1 subtle writing1 which no control1 no patience1 no will can thwart1 becomes set on the man's or the woman's face1 and tells the whole record4 ,who does not know such faces8 ,cheerful usually1 even gay1 brave1 and ready with lines of smile2 but in repose so marked1 so scarred with unutterable weariness and disappointment1 that tears spring in the eyes and love in the hearts of all finely organized persons who meet them4 ,secondly4 ,nature of private tyrants4 ,here also the statistician has not entered4 ,the field is vast2 the analysis difficult4 ,selfishness is1 of course1 their leading characteristic2 in fact1 the very sum and substance of their natures4 ,but selfishness is ,protean4 ,it has as many shapes as there are minutes1 and as many excuses and wraps of sheep's clothing as ever ravening wolf possessed4 ,one of its commonest pleas is that of weakness4 ,here it often is so inextricably mixed with genuine need and legitimate claim that one grows bewildered between sympathy and resentment4 ,in this shape1 however1 it gets its cruelest dominion over strong and generous and tender people4 ,this kind of tyranny builds up and fortifies its bulwarks on and out of the very virtues of its victims2 it gains strength hourly from the very strength of the strength to which it appeals2 each slow and fatal encroachment never seems at first so much a thing required as a thing offered2 but1 like the slow sinking inch by inch of that great1 beautiful city of stone into the relentless ,adriatic1 so is the slow1 sure going down and loss of the freedom of a strong1 beautiful soul1 helpless in the omnipresent circumference of the selfish nature to which it is or believes itself bound4 ,that the exactions never or rarely take shape in words is1 to the unbiassed looker-on1 only an exasperating feature in their tyranny4 ,while it saves the conscience of the tyrant1--if such tyrants have any1--it makes doubly sure the success of their tyranny4 ,and probably nothing short of revelation from ,heaven1 in shape of blinding light1 would ever open their eyes to the fact that it is even more selfish to hold a generous spirit fettered hour by hour by a constant fear of giving pain than to coerce or threaten or scold them into the desired behavior4 ,invalids1 all invalids1 stand in deadly peril of becoming tyrants of this order4 ,a chronic invalid who entirely escapes it must be so nearly saint or angel that one instinctively feels as if their invalidism would soon end in the health of heaven4 ,we know of one invalid woman1 chained to her bed for long years by an incurable disease1 who has had the insight and strength to rise triumphant above this danger4 ,her constant wish and entreaty is that her husband should go freely into all the work and the pleasure of life4 ,whenever he leaves her1 her farewell is not1 ,how soon do you think you shall come back8 ,at what hour1 or day1 may ,i look for you8 but1 ,now1 pray stay just as long as you enjoy it4 ,if you hurry home one hour sooner for the thought of me1 ,i shall be wretched4 ,it really seems almost as if the longer he stayed away1--hours1 days1 weeks even1--the happier she were4 ,by this sweet and wise unselfishness she has succeeded in realizing the whole blessedness of wifehood far more than most women who have health4 ,but we doubt if any century sees more than one such woman as she is4 ,another large class1 next to that of invalids the most difficult to deal with1 is made up of people who are by nature or by habit uncomfortably sensitive or irritable4 ,who has not lived at one time or other in his life in daily contact with people of this sort1--persons whose outbreaks of temper1 or of wounded feeling still worse than temper1 were as incalculable as meteoric showers8 ,the suppressed atmosphere1 the chronic state of alarm and misgiving1 in which the victims of this species of tyranny live are withering and exhausting to the stoutest hearts4 ,they are also hardening2 perpetually having to wonder and watch how people will take things is apt sooner or later to result in indifference as to whether they take them well or ill4 ,but to define all the shapes of private tyranny would require whole histories2 it is safe1 however1 to say that so far as any human being attempts to set up his own individual need or preference as law to determine the action of any other human being1 in small matters or great1 so far forth he is a tyrant4 ,the limit of his tyranny may be narrowed by lack of power on his part1 or of response on the part of his fellows2 but its essence is as purely tyrannous as if he sat on a throne with an executioner within call4 ,thirdly4 ,longevity of private tyrants4 ,we have not room under this head to do more--nor1 if we had all room1 could we do better--than to quote a short paragraph from ,george ,eliot's immortal ,mrs4 ,poyser3 ,it seems as if them as aren't wanted here are th' only folks as aren't wanted i' th' other world4 ,margin4 ,wide-margined pages please us at first sight4 ,we do not stop to ask why4 ,it has passed into an accepted rule that all elegant books must have broad1 clear margins to their pages4 ,we as much recognize such margins among the indications of promise in a book1 as we do fineness of paper1 clearness of type1 and beauty of binding4 ,all three of these last1 even in perfection1 could not make any book beautiful1 or sightly1 whose pages had been left narrow-margined and crowded4 ,this is no arbitrary decree of custom1 no chance preference of an accredited authority4 ,it would be dangerous to set limit to the power of fashion in any thing2 and yet it seems almost safe to say that not even fashion itself can ever make a narrow-margined page look other than shabby and mean4 ,this inalienable right of the broad margin to our esteem is significant4 ,it lies deep4 ,the broad margin means something which is not measured by inches1 has nothing to do with fashions of shape4 ,it means room for notes1 queries1 added by any man's hand who reads4 ,meaning this1 it means also much more than this1--far more than the mere letter of right of way4 ,it is a fine courtesy of recognition that no one page shall ever say the whole of its own message2 be exhaustive1 or ultimate1 even of its own topic2 determine or enforce its own opinion1 to the shutting out of others4 ,no matter if the book live and grow old1 without so much as an interrogation point or a line of enthusiastic admiration drawn in it by human hand1 still the gracious import and suggestion of its broad white spaces are the same4 ,each thought invites its neighbor1 stands fairly to right or left of its opponent1 and wooes its friend4 ,thinking on this1 we presently discover that margin means a species of freedom4 ,no wonder the word1 and the thing it represents1 wherever we find them1 delight us4 ,we use the word constantly in senses which1 speaking carelessly1 we should have called secondary and borrowed4 ,now we see that its application to pages1 or pictures1 or decorations1 and so forth1 was the borrowed and secondary use2 and that primarily its meaning is spiritual4 ,we must have margin1 or be uncomfortable in every thing in life4 ,our plan for a day1 for a week1 for our lifetime1 must have it1--margin for change of purpose1 margin for interruption1 margin for accident4 ,making no allowance for these1 we are fettered1 we are disturbed1 we are thwarted4 ,is there a greater misery than to be hurried8 ,if we leave ourselves proper margin1 we never need to be hurried4 ,we always shall be1 if we crowd our plan4 ,people pant1 groan1 and complain as if hurry were a thing outside of themselves1--an enemy1 a monster1 a disease which overtook them1 and against which they had no shelter4 ,it is hard to be patient with such nonsense4 ,hurry is almost the only known misery which it is impossible to have brought upon one by other people's fault4 ,if our plan of action for an hour or a day be so fatally spoiled by lack of margin1 what shall we say of the mistake of the man who leaves himself no margin in matters of belief8 ,no room for a wholesome1 healthy doubt8 ,no provision for an added enlightenment8 ,no calculation for the inevitable progress of human knowledge8 ,this is1 in our eyes1 the crying sin and danger of elaborate creeds1 rigid formulas of exact statement on difficult and hidden mysteries4 ,the man who is ready to give pledge that the opinion he will hold to-morrow will be precisely the opinion he holds to-day has either thought very little1 or to little purpose1 or has resolved to quit thinking altogether4 ,the ,fine ,art of ,smiling4 ,some theatrical experiments are being made at this time to show that all possible emotions and all shades and gradations of emotion can be expressed by facial action1 and that the method of so expressing them can be reduced to a system1 and taught in a given number of lessons4 ,it seems a matter of question whether one would be likely to make love or evince sorrow any more successfully by keeping in mind all the while the detailed catalogue of his flexors and extensors1 and contracting and relaxing ,no4 #a1 #b1 or #c1 according to rule4 ,the human memory is a treacherous thing1 and what an enormous disaster would result from a very slight forgetfulness in such a nicely adjusted system6 ,the fatal effect of dropping the superior maxillary when one intended to drop the inferior1 or of applying nervous stimuli to the up track1 instead of the down1 can easily be conceived4 ,art is art1 after all1 be it ever so skilful and triumphant1 and science is only a slow reading of hieroglyphs4 ,nature sits high and serene above both1 and smiles compassionately on their efforts to imitate and understand4 ,and this brings us to what we have to say about smiling4 ,do many people feel what a wonderful thing it is that each human being is born into the world with his own smile8 ,eyes1 nose1 mouth1 may be merely average commonplace features2 may look1 taken singly1 very much like anybody's else eyes1 nose1 or mouth4 ,let whoever doubts this try the simple but endlessly amusing experiment of setting half a dozen people behind a perforated curtain1 and making them put their eyes at the holes4 ,not one eye in a hundred can be recognized1 even by most familiar and loving friends4 ,but study smiles2 observe1 even in the most casual way1 the variety one sees in a day1 and it will soon be felt what subtle revelation they make1 what infinite individuality they possess4 ,the purely natural smile1 however1 is seldom seen in adults2 and it is on this point that we wish to dwell4 ,very early in life people find out that a smile is a weapon1 mighty to avail in all sorts of crises4 ,hence1 we see the treacherous smile of the wily2 the patronizing smile of the pompous2 the obsequious smile of the flatterer2 the cynical smile of the satirist4 ,very few of these have heard of ,delsarte2 but they outdo him on his own grounds4 ,their smile is four-fifths of their social stock in trade4 ,all such smiles are hideous4 ,the gloomiest1 blankest look which a human face can wear is welcomer than a trained smile or a smile which1 if it is not actually and consciously methodized by its perpetrator1 has become1 by long repetition1 so associated with tricks and falsities that it partakes of their quality4 ,what1 then1 is the fine art of smiling8 ,if smiles may not be used for weapons or masks1 of what use are they8 ,that is the shape one would think the question took in most men's minds1 if we may judge by their behavior6 ,there are but two legitimate purposes of the smile2 but two honest smiles4 ,on all little children's faces such smiles are seen4 ,woe to us that we so soon waste and lose them6 ,the first use of the smile is to express affectionate good-will2 the second1 to express mirth4 ,why do we not always smile whenever we meet the eye of a fellow-being8 ,that is the true1 intended recognition which ought to pass from soul to soul constantly4 ,little children1 in simple communities1 do this involuntarily1 unconsciously4 ,the honest-hearted ,german peasant does it4 ,it is like magical sunlight all through that simple land1 the perpetual greeting on the right hand and on the left1 between strangers1 as they pass by each other1 never without a smile4 ,this1 then1 is the fine art of smiling2 like all fine art1 true art1 perfection of art1 the simplest following of ,nature4 ,now and then one sees a face which has kept its smile pure and undefiled4 ,it is a woman's face usually2 often a face which has trace of great sorrow all over it1 till the smile breaks4 ,such a smile transfigures2 such a smile1 if the artful but knew it1 is the greatest weapon a face can have4 ,sickness and age cannot turn its edge2 hostility and distrust cannot withstand its spell2 little children know it1 and smile back2 even dumb animals come closer1 and look up for another4 ,if one were asked to sum up in one single rule what would most conduce to beauty in the human face1 one might say therefore1 ,never tamper with your smile2 never once use it for a purpose4 ,let it be on your face like the reflection of the sunlight on a lake4 ,affectionate good-will to all men must be the sunlight1 and your face is the lake4 ,but1 unlike the sunlight1 your good-will must be perpetual1 and your face must never be overcast4 ,what6 smile perpetually8 says the realist4 ,how silly6 ,yes1 smile perpetually6 ,go to ,delsarte here1 and learn even from the mechanician of smiles that a smile can be indicated by a movement of muscles so slight that neither instruments nor terms exist to measure or state it2 in fact1 that the subtlest smile is little more than an added brightness to the eye and a tremulousness of the mouth4 ,one second of time is more than long enough for it2 but eternity does not outlast it4 ,in that wonderfully wise and tender and poetic book1 the ,layman's ,breviary1 ,leopold ,schefer says1-- ,a smile suffices to smile death away2 ,and love defends thee e'en from wrath divine6 ,then let what may befall thee1--still smile on6 ,and howe'er ,death may rob thee1--still smile on6 ,love never has to meet a bitter thing2 ,a paradise blooms around him who smiles4 ,death-,bed ,repentance4 ,not long since1 a ,congregationalist clergyman1 who had been for forty-one years in the ministry1 said in my hearing1 ,i have never1 in all my experience as a pastor1 known of a single instance in which a repentance on what was supposed to be a death-bed proved to be of any value whatever after the person recovered4 ,this was strong language4 ,i involuntarily exclaimed1 ,have you known many such cases8 ,more than ,i dare to remember4 ,and as many more1 perhaps1 where the person died4 ,yes1 fully as many more4 ,then did not the bitter failure of these death-bed repentances to bear the tests of time shake your confidence in their value under the tests of eternity8 ,it did1--it does1 said the clergyman1 with tears in his eyes4 ,the conversation made a deep impression on my mind4 ,it was strong evidence1 from a quarter in which ,i least looked for it1 of the utter paltriness and insufficiency of fear as a motive when brought to bear upon decisions in spiritual things4 ,there seem to be no words strong enough to stigmatize it in all other affairs except spiritual4 ,all ages1 all races1 hold cowardice chief among vices2 noble barbarians punished it with death4 ,even civilization the most cautiously legislated for1 does the same thing when a soldier shows it in face of the enemy4 ,language1 gathering itself up and concentrating its force to describe base behavior1 can do no more than call it cowardly4 ,no instinct of all the blessed body-guard of instincts born with us seems in the outset a stronger one than the instinct that to be noble1 one must be brave4 ,almost in the cradle the baby taunts or is taunted by the accusation of being afraid4 ,and the sting of the taunt lies in the probability of its truth4 ,for in all men1 alas6 is born a certain selfish weakness1 to which fear can address itself4 ,but how strange does it appear that they who wish to inculcate noblest action1 raise to most exalted spiritual conditions1 should appeal to this lowest of motives to help them6 ,we believe that there are many death-bed repentances among hale1 hearty sinners1 who are approached by the same methods1 stimulated by the same considerations1 frightened by the same conceptions of possible future suffering1 which so often make the chambers of dying men dark with terrors4 ,fear is fear all the same whether its dread be for the next hour or the next century4 ,the closer the enemy1 the swifter it runs4 ,that is all the difference4 ,let the enemy be surely and plainly removed1 and in one instance it is no more1--is as if it had never been4 ,every thought1 word1 and action based upon it has come to end4 ,i was forcibly reminded of the conversation above quoted by some observations ,i once had opportunity of making at a ,methodist camp-meeting4 ,much of the preaching and exhortation consisted simply and solely of urgent1 impassioned appeals to the people to repent1--not because repentance is right2 not because ,god is love1 and it is base not to love and obey him2 not even because godliness is in itself great gain1 and sinfulness is1 even temporarily1 loss and ruin2 but because there is a wrath to come1 which will inflict terrible and unending suffering on the sinner4 ,he is to flee for his life from torments indescribable and eternal2 he is to call on ,jesus1 not to make him holy1 but to save him from woe1 to rescue him from frightful danger2 all and every thing else is subordinate to the one selfish idea of escaping future misery4 ,the effect of these appeals1 of these harrowing pictures1 on some of the young men and women and children was almost too painful to be borne4 ,they were in an hysterical condition1--weeping from sheer nervous terror4 ,when the excitement had reached its highest pitch1 an elder rose and told the story of a wicked and impenitent man whom he had visited a few weeks before4 ,the man had assented to all that he told him of the necessity of repentance2 but said that he was not at leisure that day to attend the class meeting4 ,he resolved and promised1 however1 to do so the next week4 ,that very night he was taken ill with a disease of the brain1 and1 after three days of unconsciousness1 died4 ,i would not like to quote here the emphasis of application which was made of this story to the terrors of the weeping young people4 ,under its influence several were led1 almost carried by force1 into the anxious seats4 ,it was hard not to fancy the gentle ,christ looking down upon the scene with a pain as great as that with which he yearned over ,jerusalem4 ,i longed for some instant miracle to be wrought on the spot1 by which there should come floating down from the peaceful blue sky1 through the sweet tree-tops1 some of the loving and serene words of balm from his ,gospel4 ,theologians may theorize1 and good ,christians may differ 7they always will7 as to the existence1 extent1 and nature of future punishment2 but the fact remains indisputably clear that1 whether there be less or more of it1 whether it be of this sort or of that1 fear of it is a base motive to appeal to1 a false motive to act from1 and a worthless motive to trust in4 ,perfect love does not know it2 spiritual courage resents it2 the true ,kingdom of ,heaven is never taken by its violence4 ,somewhere 7,i wish ,i knew where1 and ,i wish ,i knew from whose lips7 ,i once found this immortal sentence3 ,a woman went through the streets of ,alexandria1 bearing a jar of water and a lighted torch1 and crying aloud1 ',with this torch ,i will burn up ,heaven1 and with this water ,i will put out ,hell1 that ,god may be loved for himself alone4' ,the ,correlation of ,moral ,forces4 ,science has dealt and delved patiently with the laws of matter4 ,from ,cuvier to ,huxley1 we have a long line of clear-eyed workers4 ,the gravitating force between all molecules2 the law of continuity2 the inertial force of matter2 the sublime facts of organic co-ordination and adaptation1--all these are recognized1 analyzed1 recorded1 taught4 ,we have learned that the true meaning of the word law1 as applied to ,nature1 is not decree1 but formula of invariable order1 immutable as the constitution of ultimate units of matter4 ,order is not imposed upon ,nature4 ,order is result4 ,physical science does not confuse these2 it never mistakes nor denies specific function1 organic progression1 cyclical growth4 ,it knows that there is no such thing as evasion1 interruption1 substitution4 ,when shall we have a ,cuvier1 a ,huxley1 a ,tyndall for the immaterial world1--the realm of spiritual existence1 moral growth8 ,nature is one4 ,the things which we have clumsily and impertinently dared to set off by themselves1 and label as immaterial1 are no less truly component parts or members of the real frame of natural existence than are molecules of oxygen or crystals of diamond4 ,we believe in the existence of one as much as in the existence of the other4 ,in fact1 if there be balance of proof in favor of either1 it is not in favor of the existence of what we call matter4 ,all the known sensible qualities of matter are ultimately referable to immaterial forces1--forces acting from points or volumes2 and whether these points are occupied by positive substance1 or matter as it is usually conceived1 cannot to-day be proved4 ,yet many men have less absolute belief in a soul than in nitric acid2 many men achieve lifetimes of triumph by the faithful use and application of ,nature's law--that is1 formula of uniform occurrence--in light1 sound1 motion1 while they all the while outrage and violate and hinder every one of those sweet forces equally hers1 equally immutable1 called by such names as truth1 sobriety1 chastity1 courage1 and good-will4 ,the suggestions of this train of thought are too numerous to be followed out in the limits of a single article4 ,take1 for instance1 the fact of the identity of molecules1 and look for its correlative truth in the spiritual universe4 ,shall we not thence learn charity1 and the better understand the full meaning of some who have said that vices were virtues in excess or restraint8 ,taking the lists of each1 and faithfully comparing them from beginning to end1 not one shall be found which will not confirm this seemingly paradoxical statement4 ,take the great fact of continuous progressive development which applies to all organisms1 vegetable or animal1 and see how it is one with the law that the holy shall be holy still1 the wicked shall be wicked still4 ,dare we think what would be the formula in statement of spiritual life which would be correlative to the law of continuity8 ,having dared to think1 then shall we use the expression little sins1 or doubt the terrible absoluteness of exactitude with which every idle word which men speak shall enter upon eternity of reckoning4 ,on the other hand1 looking at all existences as organisms1 shall we be disturbed at seeming failure8--long periods of apparent inactivity8 ,shall we believe1 for instance1 that ,christ's great church can be really hindered in its appropriate cycle of progressive change and adaptation8 ,that any true membership of this organic body can be formed or annulled by mere human interference8 ,that the lopping or burning of branches of the tree1 even the uprooting and burning of the tree itself1 this year1 next year1 nay1 for hundreds of years1 shall have power to annihilate or even defer the ultimate organic result8 ,the soul of man is not outcast from this glory1 this freedom1 this safety of law4 ,we speak as if we might break it1 evade it2 we forget it2 we deny it3 but it never forgets us1 it never refuses us a morsel of our estate4 ,in spite of us1 it protects our growth1 makes sure of our development4 ,in spite of us1 it takes us whithersoever we tend1 and not whithersoever we like2 in spite of us1 it sometimes saves what we have carelessly perilled1 and always destroys what we wilfully throw away4 ,a ,simple ,bill of ,fare for a ,christmas ,dinner4 ,all good recipe-books give bills of fare for different occasions1 bills of fare for grand dinners1 bills of fare for little dinners2 dinners to cost so much per head2 dinners which can be easily prepared with one servant1 and so on4 ,they give bills of fare for one week2 bills of fare for each day in a month1 to avoid too great monotony in diet4 ,there are bills of fare for dyspeptics2 bills of fare for consumptives2 bills of fare for fat people1 and bills of fare for thin2 and bills of fare for hospitals1 asylums1 and prisons1 as well as for gentlemen's houses4 ,but among them all1 we never saw the one which we give below4 ,it has never been printed in any book2 but it has been used in families4 ,we are not drawing on our imagination for its items4 ,we have sat at such dinners2 we have helped prepare such dinners2 we believe in such dinners2 they are within everybody's means4 ,in fact1 the most marvellous thing about this bill of fare is that the dinner does not cost a cent4 ,ho6 all ye that are hungry and thirsty1 and would like so cheap a ,christmas dinner1 listen to this ,,bill ,,of ,,fare ,,for ,a ,,christmas ,,dinner4 ,first ,course44--,,gladness4 ,this must be served hot4 ,no two housekeepers make it alike2 no fixed rule can be given for it4 ,it depends1 like so many of the best things1 chiefly on memory2 but1 strangely enough1 it depends quite as much on proper forgetting as on proper remembering4 ,worries must be forgotten4 ,troubles must be forgotten4 ,yes1 even sorrow itself must be denied and shut out4 ,perhaps this is not quite possible4 ,ah6 we all have seen ,christmas days on which sorrow would not leave our hearts nor our houses4 ,but even sorrow can be compelled to look away from its sorrowing for a festival hour which is so solemnly joyous as ,christ's ,birthday4 ,memory can be filled full of other things to be remembered4 ,no soul is entirely destitute of blessings1 absolutely without comfort4 ,perhaps we have but one4 ,very well2 we can think steadily of that one1 if we try4 ,but the probability is that we have more than we can count4 ,no man has yet numbered the blessings1 the mercies1 the joys of ,god4 ,we are all richer than we think2 and if we once set ourselves to reckoning up the things of which we are glad1 we shall be astonished at their number4 ,gladness1 then1 is the first item1 the first course on our bill of fare for a ,christmas dinner4 ,entres4--,,love garnished with ,smiles4 ,,gentleness1 with sweet-wine sauce of ,laughter4 ,,gracious ,,speech1 cooked with any fine1 savory herbs1 such as ,drollery1 which is always in season1 or ,pleasant ,reminiscence1 which no one need be without1 as it keeps for years1 sealed or unsealed4 ,second ,course4--,,hospitality4 ,the precise form of this also depends on individual preferences4 ,we are not undertaking here to give exact recipes1 only a bill of fare4 ,in some houses ,hospitality is brought on surrounded with ,relatives4 ,this is very well4 ,in others1 it is dished up with ,dignitaries of all sorts2 men and women of position and estate for whom the host has special likings or uses4 ,this gives a fine effect to the eye1 but cools quickly1 and is not in the long-run satisfying4 ,in a third class1 best of all1 it is served in simple shapes1 but with a great variety of ,unfortunate ,persons1--such as lonely people from lodging-houses1 poor people of all grades1 widows and childless in their affliction4 ,this is the kind most preferred2 in fact1 never abandoned by those who have tried it4 ,for ,dessert4--,,mirth1 in glasses4 ,,gratitude and ,,faith beaten together and piled up in snowy shapes4 ,these will look light if run over night in the moulds of ,solid ,trust and ,patience4 ,a dish of the bonbons ,good ,cheer and ,kindliness with every-day mottoes2 ,knots and ,reasons in shape of ,puzzles and ,answers2 the whole ornamented with ,apples of ,gold in ,pictures of ,silver1 of the kind mentioned in the ,book of ,proverbs4 ,this is a short and simple bill of fare4 ,there is not a costly thing in it2 not a thing which cannot be procured without difficulty4 ,if meat is desired1 it can be added4 ,that is another excellence about our bill of fare4 ,it has nothing in it which makes it incongruous with the richest or the plainest tables4 ,it is not overcrowded by the addition of roast goose and plum-pudding2 it is not harmed by the addition of herring and potatoes4 ,nay1 it can give flavor and richness to broken bits of stale bread served on a doorstep and eaten by beggars4 ,we might say much more about this bill of fare4 ,we might1 perhaps1 confess that it has an element of the supernatural2 that its origin is lost in obscurity2 that1 although1 as we said1 it has never been printed before1 it has been known in all ages2 that the martyrs feasted upon it2 that generations of the poor1 called blessed by ,christ1 have laid out banquets by it2 that exiles and prisoners have lived on it2 and the despised and forsaken and rejected in all countries have tasted it4 ,it is also true that when any great king ate well and throve on his dinner1 it was by the same magic food4 ,the young and the free and the glad1 and all rich men in costly houses1 even they have not been well fed without it4 ,and though we have called it a ,bill of ,fare for a ,christmas ,dinner1 that is only that men's eyes may be caught by its name1 and that they1 thinking it a specialty for festival1 may learn and understand its secret1 and henceforth1 laying all their dinners according to its magic order1 may eat unto the ,lord4 ,children's ,parties4 ,from six till half-past eleven4 ,german at seven1 precisely4 ,these were the terms of an invitation which we saw last week4 ,it was sent to forty children1 between the ages of ten and sixteen4 ,will you allow your children to stay at this party until half-past eleven8 we said to a mother whose children were invited4 ,what can ,i do8 she replied4 ,if ,i send the carriage for them at half-past ten1 the chances are that they will not be allowed to come away4 ,it is impossible to break up a set4 ,and as for that matter1 half-past ten is two hours and a half past their bed-time2 they might as well stay an hour longer4 ,i wish nobody would ever ask my children to a party4 ,i cannot keep them at home1 if they are asked4 ,of course1 ,i might2 but ,i have not the moral courage to see them so unhappy4 ,all the other children go2 and what can ,i do8 ,this is a tender1 loving mother1 whose sweet1 gentle1 natural methods with her children have made them sweet1 gentle1 natural little girls1 whom it is a delight to know4 ,but what can she do8 ,the question is by no means one which can be readily answered4 ,it is very easy for off-hand severity1 sweeping condemnation1 to say1 ,do6 ,why1 nothing is plainer4 ,keep her children away from such places4 ,never let them go to any parties which will last later than nine o'clock4 ,this is the same thing as saying1 ,never let them go to parties at all4 ,there are no parties which break up at nine o'clock2 that is1 there are not in our cities4 ,we hope there are such parties still in country towns and villages1--such parties as we remember to this day with a vividness which no social enjoyments since then have dimmed2 ,saturday-afternoon parties1--matines they would have been called if the village people had known enough2 parties which began at three in the afternoon and ended in the early dusk1 while little ones could see their way home2 parties at which there was no ,german1 only the simplest of dancing1 if any1 and much more of blind-man's-buff2 parties at which mottoes in sugar horns were the luxurious novelty1 caraway cookies the staple1 and lemonade the only drink besides pure water4 ,fancy offering to the creature called child in cities to-day1 lemonade and a caraway cooky and a few pink sugar horns and some walnuts and raisins to carry home in its pocket6 ,one blushes at thought of the scornful contempt with which such simples would be received1--we mean rejected6 ,from the party whose invitation we have quoted above the little girls came home at midnight1 radiant1 flushed1 joyous1 looking in their floating white muslin dresses like fairies1 their hands loaded with bouquets of hot-house flowers and dainty little favors from the ,german4 ,at eleven they had had for supper champagne and chicken salad1 and all the other unwholesome abominations which are set out and eaten in ,american evening entertainments4 ,next morning there were no languid eyes1 pale cheeks4 ,each little face was eager1 bright1 rosy1 though the excited brain had had only five or six hours of sleep4 ,if they only would feel tired the next day1 that would be something of an argument to bring up with them1 said the poor mother4 ,but they always declare that they feel better than ever4 ,and so they do4 ,but the better is only a deceitful sham1 kept up by excited and overwrought nerves1--the same thing that we see over and over and over again in all lives which are temporarily kindled and stimulated by excitement of any kind4 ,this is the worst thing1 this is the most fatal thing in all our mismanagements and perversions of the physical life of our children4 ,their beautiful elasticity and strength rebound instantly to an apparently uninjured fulness2 and so we go on1 undermining1 undermining at point after point1 until suddenly some day there comes a tragedy1 a catastrophe1 for which we are as unprepared as if we had been working to avert1 instead of to hasten it4 ,who shall say when our boys die at eighteen1 twenty1 twenty-two1 our girls either in their girlhood or in the first strain of their womanhood1--who shall say that they might not have passed safely through the dangers1 had no vital force been unnecessarily wasted in their childhood1 their infancy8 ,every hour that a child sleeps is just so much investment of physical capital for years to come4 ,every hour after dark that a child is awake is just so much capital withdrawn4 ,every hour that a child lives a quiet1 tranquil1 joyous life of such sort as kittens live on hearths1 squirrels in sunshine1 is just so much investment in strength and steadiness and growth of the nervous system4 ,every hour that a child lives a life of excited brain-working1 either in a school-room or in a ball-room1 is just so much taken away from the reserved force which enables nerves to triumph through the sorrows1 through the labors1 through the diseases of later life4 ,every mouthful of wholesome food that a child eats1 at seasonable hours1 may be said to tell on every moment of his whole life1 no matter how long it may be4 ,victor ,hugo1 the benevolent exile1 has found out that to be well fed once in seven days at one meal has been enough to transform the apparent health of all the poor children in ,guernsey4 ,who shall say that to take once in seven days1 or even once in thirty days1 an unwholesome supper of chicken salad and champagne may not leave as lasting effects on the constitution of a child8 ,if ,nature would only execute her sentences against evil works more speedily1 evil works would not so thrive4 ,the law of continuity is the hardest one for average men and women to comprehend1--or1 at any rate1 to obey4 ,seed-time and harvest in gardens and fields they have learned to understand and profit by4 ,when we learn1 also1 that in the precious lives of these little ones we cannot reap what we do not sow1 and we must reap all which we do sow1 and that the emptiness or the richness of the harvest is not so much for us as for them1 one of the first among the many things which we shall reform will be children's parties4 ,after-,supper ,talk4 ,after-dinner talk has been thought of great importance4 ,the expression has passed into literature1 with many records of the good sayings it included4 ,kings and ministers condescend to make efforts at it2 poets and philosophers--greater than kings and ministers--do not disdain to attempt to shine in it4 ,but nobody has yet shown what after-supper talk ought to be4 ,we are not speaking now of the formal entertainment known as a supper2 we mean the every-day evening meal in the every-day home1--the meal known heartily and commonly as supper1 among people who are neither so fashionable nor so foolish as to take still a fourth meal at hours when they ought to be asleep in bed4 ,this ought to be the sweetest and most precious hour of the day4 ,it is too often neglected and lost in families4 ,it ought to be the mother's hour2 the mother's opportunity to undo any mischief the day may have done1 to forestall any mischief the morrow may threaten4 ,there is an instinctive disposition in most families to linger about the supper-table1 quite unlike the eager haste which is seen at breakfast and at dinner4 ,work is over for the day2 everybody is tired1 even the little ones who have done nothing but play4 ,the father is ready for slippers and a comfortable chair2 the children are ready and eager to recount the incidents of the day4 ,this is the time when all should be cheered1 rested1 and also stimulated by just the right sort of conversation1 just the right sort of amusement4 ,the wife and mother must supply this need1 must create this atmosphere4 ,we do not mean that the father does not share the responsibility of this1 as of every other hour4 ,but this particular duty is one requiring qualities which are more essentially feminine than masculine4 ,it wants a light touch and an undertone to bring out the full harmony of the ideal home evening4 ,it must not be a bore4 ,it must not be empty2 it must not be too much like preaching2 it must not be wholly like play2 more than all things1 it must not be always--no1 not if it could be helped1 not even twice--the same6 ,it must be that most indefinable1 most recognizable thing1 a good time4 ,bless the children for inventing the phrase6 ,it has1 like all their phrases1 an unconscious touch of sacred inspiration in it1 in the selection of the good word good1 which lays peculiar benediction on all things to which it is set4 ,if there were no other reason against children's having lessons assigned them to study at home1 we should consider this a sufficient one1 that it robs them of the after-supper hour with their parents4 ,even if their brains could bear without injury the sixth1 seventh1 or eighth hour1 as it may be1 of study1 their hearts cannot bear the being starved4 ,in the average family1 this is the one only hour of the day when father1 mother1 and children can be together1 free of cares and unhurried4 ,even to the poorest laborer's family comes now something like peace and rest forerunning the intermission of the night4 ,everybody who has any artistic sense recognizes this instinctively when they see through the open doors of humble houses the father and mother and children gathered around their simple supper4 ,its mention has already passed into triteness in verse1 so inevitably have poets felt the sacred charm of the hour4 ,perhaps there is something deeper than on first thoughts would appear in the instant sense of pleasure one has in this sight2 also1 in the universal feeling that the evening gathering of the family is the most sacred one4 ,perhaps there is unconscious recognition that dangers are near at hand when night falls1 and that in this hour lies1 or should lie1 the spell to drive them all away4 ,there is something almost terrible in the mingling of danger and protection1 of harm and help1 of good and bad1 in that one thing1 darkness4 ,god giveth his beloved sleep in it2 and in it the devil sets his worst lures1 by help of it gaining many a soul which he could never get possession of in sunlight4 ,mothers1 fathers6 cultivate after-supper talk2 play after-supper games2 keep after-supper books2 take all the good newspapers and magazines you can afford1 and read them aloud after supper4 ,let boys and girls bring their friends home with them at twilight1 sure of a pleasant and hospitable welcome and of a good time after supper1 and parents may laugh to scorn all the temptations which town or village can set before them to draw them away from home for their evenings4 ,these are but hasty hints1 bare suggestions4 ,but if they rouse one heart to a new realization of what evenings at home ought to be1 and what evenings at home too often are1 they have not been spoken in vain nor out of season4 ,hysteria ,in ,literature4 ,physicians tell us that there is no known disease1 no known symptom of disease1 which hysteria cannot and does not counterfeit4 ,most skilful surgeons are misled by its cunning into believing and pronouncing able-bodied young women to be victims of spinal disease1 stricture of the oesophagus1 gastrodynia1 paraplegia1 hemiplegia1 and hundreds of other affections1 with longer or shorter names4 ,families are thrown into disorder and distress2 friends suffer untold pains of anxiety and sympathy2 doctors are summoned from far and near2 and all this while the vertebra1 or the membrane1 or the muscle1 as it may be1 which is so honestly believed to be diseased1 and which shows every symptom of diseased action or inaction1 is sound and strong1 and as well able as ever it was to perform its function4 ,the common symptoms of hysteria everybody is familiar with1--the crying and laughing in inappropriate places1 the fancied impossibility of breathing1 and so forth1--which make such trouble and mortification for the embarrassed companions of hysterical persons2 and which1 moreover1 can be very easily suppressed by a little wholesome severity1 accompanied by judicious threats or sudden use of cold water4 ,but few people know or suspect the number of diseases and conditions1 supposed to be real1 serious1 often incurable1 which are simply and solely1 or in a great part1 undetected hysteria4 ,this very ignorance on the part of friends and relatives makes it almost impossible for surgeons and physicians to treat such cases properly4 ,the probabilities are1 in nine cases out of ten1 that the indignant family will dismiss1 as ignorant or hard-hearted1 any practitioner who tells them the unvarnished truth1 and proposes to treat the sufferer in accordance with it4 ,in the field of literature we find a hysteria as widespread1 as undetected1 as unmanageable as the hysteria which skulks and conquers in the field of disease4 ,its commoner outbreaks everybody knows by sight and sound1 and everybody except the miserably ignorant and silly despises4 ,yet there are to be found circles which thrill and weep in sympathetic unison with the ridiculous joys and sorrows1 grotesque sentiments1 and preposterous adventures of the heroes and heroines of the ,dime ,novels and novelettes1 and the ,flags and ,blades and ,gazettes among the lowest newspapers4 ,but in well-regulated and intelligent households1 this sort of writing is not tolerated1 any more than the correlative sort of physical phenomenon would be1--the gasping1 shrieking1 sobbing1 giggling kind of behavior in a man or woman4 ,but there is another and more dangerous working of the same thing2 deep1 unsuspected1 clothing itself with symptoms of the most defiant genuineness1 it lurks and does its business in every known field of composition4 ,men and women are alike prone to it1 though its shape is somewhat affected by sex4 ,among men it breaks out often1 perhaps oftenest1 in violent illusions on the subject of love4 ,they assert1 declare1 shout1 sing1 scream that they love1 have loved1 are loved1 do and for ever will love1 after methods and in manners which no decent love ever thought of mentioning4 ,and yet1 so does their weak violence ape the bearing of strength1 so much does their cheat look like truth1 that scores1 nay1 shoals of human beings go about repeating and echoing their noise1 and saying1 gratefully1 ,yes1 this is love2 this is1 indeed1 what all true lovers must know4 ,these are they who proclaim names of beloved on house-tops2 who strip off veils from sacred secrets and secret sacrednesses1 and set them up naked for the multitude to weigh and compare4 ,what punishment is for such beloved1 ,love himself only knows4 ,it must be in store for them somewhere4 ,dimly one can suspect what it might be2 but it will be like all ,love's true secrets1--secret for ever4 ,these men of hysteria also take up specialties of art or science2 and in their behoof rant1 and exaggerate1 and fabricate1 and twist1 and lie in such stentorian voices that reasonable people are deafened and bewildered4 ,they also tell common tales in such enormous phrases1 with such gigantic structure of rhetorical flourish1 that the mere disproportion amounts to false-hood2 and1 the diseased appetite in listeners growing more and more diseased1 feeding on such diseased food1 it is impossible to predict what it will not be necessary for story-mongers to invent at the end of a century or so more of this4 ,but the worst manifestations of this disease are found in so-called religious writing4 ,theology1 biography1 especially autobiography1 didactic essays1 tales with a moral1--under every one of these titles it lifts up its hateful head4 ,it takes so successfully the guise of genuine religious emotion1 religious experience1 religious zeal1 that good people on all hands weep grateful tears as they read its morbid and unwholesome utterances4 ,of these are many of the long and short stories setting forth in melodramatic pictures exceptionally good or exceptionally bad children2 or exceptionally pathetic and romantic careers of sweet and refined ,magdalens2 minute and prolonged dissections of the processes of spiritual growth2 equally minute and authoritative formulas for spiritual exercises of all sorts1--manuals of drill1 so to speak1 or field tactics for souls4 ,of these sorts of books1 the good and the bad are almost indistinguishable from each other1 except by the carefulest attention and the finest insight2 overwrought1 unnatural atmosphere and meaningless1 shallow routine so nearly counterfeit the sound and shape of warm1 true enthusiasm and wise precepts4 ,where may be the remedy for this widespread and widely spreading disease among writers we do not know4 ,it is not easy to keep up courageous faith that there is any remedy4 ,still ,nature abhors noise and haste1 and shams of all sorts4 ,quiet and patience are the great secrets of her force1 whether it be a mountain or a soul that she would fashion4 ,we must believe that sooner or later there will come a time in which silence shall have its dues1 moderation be crowned king of speech1 and melodramatic1 spectacular1 hysterical language be considered as disreputable as it is silly4 ,but the most discouraging feature of the disease is its extreme contagiousness4 ,all physicians know what a disastrous effect one hysterical patient will produce upon a whole ward in a hospital4 ,we remember hearing a young physician once give a most amusing account of a woman who was taken to ,bellevue ,hospital for a hysterical cough4 ,her lungs1 bronchia1 throat1 were all in perfect condition2 but she coughed almost incessantly1 especially on the approach of the hour for the doctor's visit to the ward4 ,in less than one week half the women in the ward had similar coughs4 ,a single--though it must be confessed rather terrific--application of cold water to the original offender worked a simultaneous cure upon her and all of her imitators4 ,not long ago a very parallel thing was to be observed in the field of story-writing4 ,a clever1 though morbid and melodramatic writer published a novel1 whose heroine1 having once been an inmate of a house of ill-fame1 escaped1 and1 finding shelter and ,christian training in the home of a benevolent woman1 became a model of womanly delicacy1 and led a life of exquisite and artistic refinement4 ,as to the animus and intent of this story there could be no doubt2 both were good1 but in atmosphere and execution it was essentially unreal1 overwrought1 and melodramatic4 ,for three or four months after its publication there was a perfect outburst and overflow in newspapers and magazines of the lower order of stories1 all more or less bad1 some simply outrageous1 and all treating1 or rather pretending to treat1 the same problem which had furnished theme for that novel4 ,probably a close observation and collecting of the dreary statistics would bring to light a curious proof of the extent and certainty of this sort of contagion4 ,reflecting on it1 having it thrust in one's face at every book-counter1 railway-stand1 ,sunday-school library1 and parlor centre-table1 it is hard not to wish for some supernatural authority to come sweeping through the wards1 and prescribe sharp cold-water treatment all around to half drown all such writers and quite drown all their books6 ,jog ,trot4 ,there is etymological uncertainty about the phrase4 ,but there is no doubt about its meaning2 no doubt that it represents a good1 comfortable gait1 at which nobody goes nowadays4 ,a hundred years ago it was the fashion3 in the days when railroads were not1 nor telegraphs2 when citizens journeyed in stages1 putting up prayers in church if their journey were to be so long as from ,massachusetts into ,connecticut2 when evil news travelled slowly by letter1 and good news was carried about by men on horses2 when maidens spun and wove for long1 quiet1 silent years at their wedding trousseaux1 and mothers spun and wove all which sons and husbands wore2 when newspapers were small and infrequent1 dingy-typed and wholesomely stupid1 so that no man could or would learn from them more about other men's opinions1 affairs1 or occupations than it concerned his practical convenience to know2 when even wars were waged at slow pace1--armies sailing great distances by chance winds1 or plodding on foot for thousands of miles1 and fighting doggedly hand to hand at sight2 when fortunes also were slowly made by simple1 honest growths1--no men excepting freebooters and pirates becoming rich in a day4 ,it would seem treason or idiocy to sigh for these old days1--treason to ideas of progress1 stupid idiocy unaware that it is well off4 ,is not to-day brilliant1 marvellous1 beautiful8 ,has not living become subject to a magician's presto8 ,are we not decked in the whole of color1 feasted on all that shape and sound and flavor can give8 ,are we not wiser each moment than we were the moment before8 ,do not the blind see1 the deaf hear1 and the crippled dance8 ,has not ,nature surrendered to us8 ,art and science1 are they not our slaves1--coining money and running mills8 ,have we not built and multiplied religions1 till each man1 even the most irreligious1 can have his own8 ,is not what is called the movement of the age going on at the highest rate of speed and of sound8 ,shall we complain that we are maddened by the racket1 out of breath with the spinning and whirling1 and dying of the strain of it all8 ,what is a man1 more or less8 ,what are one hundred and twenty millions of men1 more or less8 ,what is quiet in comparison with riches8 or digestion and long life in comparison with knowledge8 ,when we are added up in the universal reckoning of races1 there will be small mention of individuals4 ,let us be disinterested4 ,let us sacrifice ourselves1 and1 above all1 our children1 to raise the general average of human invention and attainment to the highest possible mark4 ,to be sure1 we are working in the dark4 ,we do not know1 not even if we are ,huxley do we know1 at what point in the grand1 universal scale we shall ultimately come in4 ,we know1 or think we know1 about how far below us stand the gorilla and the seal4 ,we patronize them kindly for learning to turn hand-organs or eat from porringers4 ,let us hope that1 if we have brethren of higher races on other planets1 they will be as generously appreciative of our little all when we have done it2 but1 meanwhile1 let us never be deterred from our utmost endeavor by any base and envious misgivings that possibly we may not be the last and highest work of the ,creator1 and in a fair way to reach very soon the final climax of all which created intelligences can be or become4 ,let us make the best of dyspepsia1 paralysis1 insanity1 and the death of our children4 ,perhaps we can do as much in forty years1 working night and day1 as we could in seventy1 working only by day2 and the five out of twelve children that live to grow up can perpetuate the names and the methods of their fathers4 ,it is a comfort to believe1 as we are told1 that the world can never lose an iota that it has gained2 that progress is the great law of the universe4 ,it is consoling to verify this truth by looking backward1 and seeing how each age has made use of the wrecks of the preceding one as material for new structures on different plans4 ,what are we that we should mention our preference for being put to some other use1 more immediately remunerative to ourselves6 ,we must be all wrong if we are not in sympathy with the age in which we live4 ,we might as well be dead as not keep up with it4 ,but which of us does not sometimes wish in his heart of hearts1 that he had been born long enough ago to have been boon companion of his great-grandfather1 and have gone respectably and in due season to his grave at a good jog trot8 ,the ,joyless ,american4 ,it is easy to fancy that a ,european1 on first reaching these shores1 might suppose that he had chanced to arrive upon a day when some great public calamity had saddened the heart of the nation4 ,it would be quite safe to assume that out of the first five hundred faces which he sees there will not be ten wearing a smile1 and not fifty1 all told1 looking as if they ever could smile4 ,if this statement sounds extravagant to any man1 let him try the experiment1 for one week1 of noting down1 in his walks about town1 every face he sees which has a radiantly cheerful expression4 ,the chances are that at the end of his seven days he will not have entered seven faces in his note-book without being aware at the moment of some conscientious difficulty in permitting himself to call them positively and unmistakably cheerful4 ,the truth is1 this wretched and joyless expression on the ,american face is so common that we are hardened to seeing it1 and look for nothing better4 ,only when by chance some blessed1 rollicking1 sunshiny boy or girl or man or woman flashes the beam of a laughing countenance into the level gloom do we even know that we are in the dark4 ,witness the instant effect of the entrance of such a person into an omnibus or a car4 ,who has not observed it8 ,even the most stolid and apathetic soul relaxes a little4 ,the unconscious intruder1 simply by smiling1 has set the blood moving more quickly in the veins of every human being who sees him4 ,he is1 for the moment1 the personal benefactor of every one2 if he had handed about money or bread1 it would have been a philanthropy of less value4 ,what is to be done to prevent this acrid look of misery from becoming an organic characteristic of our people8 ,make them play more1 says one philosophy4 ,no doubt they need to play more2 but1 when one looks at the average expression of a ,fourth of ,july crowd1 one doubts if ever so much multiplication of that kind of holiday would mend the matter4 ,no doubt we work for too many days in the year1 and play for too few2 but1 after all1 it is the heart and the spirit and the expression that we bring to our work1 and not those that we bring to our play1 by which our real vitality must be tested and by which our faces will be stamped4 ,if we do not work healthfully1 reasoningly1 moderately1 thankfully1 joyously1 we shall have neither moderation nor gratitude nor joy in our play4 ,and here is the hopelessness1 here is the root of the trouble1 of the joyless ,american face4 ,the worst of all demons1 the demon of unrest and overwork1 broods in the very sky of this land4 ,blue and clear and crisp and sparkling as our atmosphere is1 it cannot or does not exorcise the spell4 ,any old man can count on the fingers of one hand the persons he has known who led lives of serene1 unhurried content1 made for themselves occupations and not tasks1 and died at last what might be called natural deaths4 ,what1 then8 says the congressional candidate from ,mettibemps2 the new contributor to the oceanic magazine2 ,mrs4 ,potiphar1 from behind her liveries2 and poor ,dives1 senior1 from ,wall ,street2 ,are we to give up all ambition8 ,god forbid4 ,but1 because one has a goal1 must one be torn by poisoned spurs8 ,we see on the ,corso1 in the days of the ,carnival1 what speed can be made by horses under torture4 ,shall we try those methods and that pace on our journeys8 ,so long as the ,american is resolved to do in one day the work of two1 to make in one year the fortune of his whole life and his children's1 to earn before he is forty the reputation which belongs to threescore and ten1 so long he will go about the streets wearing his present abject1 pitiable1 overwrought1 joyless look4 ,but1 even without a change of heart or a reform of habits1 he might better his countenance a little1 if he would4 ,even if he does not feel like smiling1 he might smile1 if he tried2 and that would be something4 ,the muscles are all there2 they count the same in the ,american as in the ,french or the ,irish face2 they relax easily in youth2 the trick can be learned4 ,and even a trick of it is better than none of it4 ,laughing masters might be as well paid as dancing masters to help on society6 ,smiling made ,easy or the ,complete ,art of ,looking ,good-natured would be as taking titles on book-sellers' shelves as ,the ,complete ,letter-writer or ,handbook of ,behavior4 ,and nobody can calculate what might be the moral and spiritual results if it could only become the fashion to pursue this branch of the fine arts4 ,surliness of heart must melt a little under the simple effort to smile4 ,a man will inevitably be a little less of a bear for trying to wear the face of a ,christian4 ,he who laughs can commit no deadly sin1 said the wise and sweet-hearted woman who was mother of ,goethe4 ,spiritual ,teething ,milk for babes2 but1 when they come to the age for meat of doctrine1 teeth must be cut4 ,it is harder work for souls than for bodies2 but the processes are wonderfully parallel1--the results too1 alas6 ,if clergymen knew the symptoms of spiritual disease and death1 as well as doctors do of disease and death of the flesh1 and if the lists were published at end of each year and month and week1 what a record would be shown6 ,mortality in ,brooklyn1 or ,new ,york1 or ,philadelphia for the week ending ,july #gth4 ,we are so used to the curt heading of the little paragraph that our eye glances idly away from it1 and we do not realize its sadness4 ,by tens and by scores they have gone1--the men1 the women1 the babies2 in hundreds new mourners are going about the streets1 week by week4 ,we are as familiar with black as with scarlet1 with the hearse as with the pleasure-carriage2 and yet so dies in human hearts the thought of death that we can be merry4 ,but1 if we knew as well the record of sick and dying and dead souls1 our hearts would break4 ,the air would be dark and stifling4 ,we should be afraid to move1--lest we might hasten the last hour of some neighbor's spiritual breath4 ,ah1 how often have we unconsciously spoken the one word which was poison to his fever6 ,of the spiritual deaths1 as of the physical1 more than half take place in the period of teething4 ,the more one thinks of the parallelism1 the closer it looks1 until the likeness seems as droll as dismal4 ,oh1 the sweet1 unquestioning infancy which takes its food from the nearest breast2 which knows but three things1--hunger and food and sleep6 ,there is only a little space for this delight4 ,in our seventh month we begin to be wretched4 ,we drink our milk1 but we are aware of a constant desire to bite2 doubts which we do not know by name1 needs for which there is no ready supply1 make us restless4 ,now comes the old-school doctor1 and thrusts in his lancet too soon4 ,we suffer1 we bleed2 we are supposed to be relieved4 ,the tooth is said to be through4 ,through6 ,oh1 yes2 through before its time4 ,through to no purpose4 ,in a week1 or a year1 the wounded flesh1 or soul1 has reasserted its right1 shut down on the tooth1 making a harder surface than ever1 a cicatrized crust1 out of which it will take double time and double strength for the tooth to break4 ,the gentle doctor gives us a rubber ring1 it has a bad taste2 or an ivory one1 it is too hard and hurts us4 ,but we gnaw and gnaw1 and fancy the new pain a little easier to bear than the old4 ,probably it is2 probably the tooth gets through a little quicker for the days and nights of gnawing4 ,but what a picture of patient misery is a baby with its rubber ring6 ,really one sees sometimes in the little puckered1 twisting face such grotesque prophecy of future conflicts1 such likeness to the soul's processes of grappling with problems1 that it is uncanny4 ,when we come to the analysis of the diseases incident to the teething period1 and the treatment of them1 the similitude is as close4 ,we have sharp1 sudden inflammations2 we have subtle and more deadly things1 which men do not detect till it is1 in nine cases out of ten1 too late to cure them1--like water on the brain2 and we have slow wastings away2 atrophies1 which are worse than death1 leaving life enough to prolong death indefinitely1 being as it were living deaths4 ,who does not know poor souls in all stages of all these1--outbreaks of rebellion against all forms1 all creeds1 all proprieties2 secret adoptions of perilous delusions1 fatal errors2 and slow settling down into indifferentism or narrow dogmatism1 the two worst living deaths8 ,these are they who live4 ,shall we say any thing of those of us who die between our seventh and eighteenth spiritual month8 ,they never put on babies' tombstones ,died of teething4 ,there is always a special name for the special symptom or set of symptoms which characterized the last days4 ,but the mother believes and the doctor knows that1 if it had not been for the teeth that were coming just at that time1 the fever or the croup would not have killed the child4 ,now we come to the treatments2 and here again the parallelism is so close as to be ludicrous4 ,the lancet and the rubber ring fail4 ,we are still restless1 and scream and cry4 ,then our self-sacrificing nurses walk with us2 they rock us1 they swing us1 they toss us up and down1 they jounce us from top to bottom1 till the wonder is that every organ in our bodies is not displaced4 ,they beat on glass and tin and iron to distract our attention and drown out our noise by a bigger one2 they shake back and forth before our eyes all things that glitter and blaze2 they shout and sing songs2 the house and the neighborhood are searched and racked for something which will amuse the baby4 ,then1 when we will no longer be amused1 and when all this restlessness outside and around us1 added to the restlessness inside us1 has driven us more than frantic1 and the day or the night of their well-meant clamor is nearly over1 their strength worn out1 and their wits at end1--then comes the soothing syrup1 deadliest weapon of all4 ,this we cannot resist4 ,if there be they who are mighty enough to pour it down our throats1 physically or spiritually1 to sleep we must go1 and asleep we must stay so long as the effect of the dose lasts4 ,it is of this1 we oftenest die1--not in a day or a year1 but after many days and many years2 when in some sharp crisis we need for our salvation the force which should have been developing in our infancy1 the muscle or the nerve which should have been steadily growing strong till that moment4 ,but the force is not there2 the muscle is weak2 the nerve paralyzed2 and we die at twenty of a light fever1 we fall down at twenty1 under sudden grief or temptation1 because of our long sleeps under soothing syrups when we were babies4 ,oh1 good nurses and doctors of souls1 let them cut their own teeth1 in the natural ways4 ,let them scream if they must1 but keep you still on one side2 give them no false helps2 let them alone so far as it is possible for love and sympathy to do so4 ,man is the only animal that has trouble from the growing of the teeth in his body4 ,it must be his own fault somehow that he has that2 and he has evidently been always conscious of a likeness between this difficulty and perversion of a process natural to his body1 and the difficulty and perversion of his getting sensible and just opinions2 for it has passed into the immortality of a proverb that a shrewd man is a man who has cut his eye-teeth2 and the four last teeth1 which we get late in life1 and which cost many people days of real illness1 are called in all tongues1 all countries1 wisdom teeth6 ,glass ,houses4 ,who would live in one1 if he could help it8 ,and who wants to throw stones8 ,but who lives in any thing else1 nowadays8 ,and how much better off are they who never threw a stone in their lives than the rude mob who throw them all the time8 ,really1 the proverb might as well be blotted out from our books and dropped from our speech4 ,it has no longer use or meaning4 ,it is becoming a serious question what shall be done1 or rather what can be done1 to secure to fastidious people some show and shadow of privacy in their homes4 ,the silly and vulgar passion of people for knowing all about their neighbors' affairs1 which is bad enough while it takes shape merely in idle gossip of mouth1 is something terrible when it is exalted into a regular market demand of the community1 and fed by a regular market supply from all who wish to print what the community will read4 ,we do not know which is worse in this traffic1 the buyer or the seller2 we think1 on the whole1 the buyer4 ,but then he is again a seller2 and so there it is1--wheel within wheel1 cog upon cog4 ,and1 since all these sellers must earn their bread and butter1 the more one searches for a fair point of attacking the evil1 the more he is perplexed4 ,the man who writes must1 if he needs pay for his work1 write what the man who prints will buy4 ,the man who prints must print what the people who read will buy4 ,upon whom1 then1 shall we lay earnest hands8 ,clearly1 upon the last buyer1--upon him who reads4 ,but things have come to such a pass already that to point out to the average ,american that it is vulgar and also unwholesome to devour with greedy delight all sorts of details about his neighbors' business seems as hopeless and useless as to point out to the currie-eater or the whiskey-drinker the bad effects of fire and strychnine upon mucous membranes4 ,the diseased palate craves what has made it diseased1--craves it more1 and more1 and more4 ,in case of stomachs1 ,nature has a few simple inventions of her own for bringing reckless abuses to a stand-still1--dyspepsia1 and delirium-tremens1 and so on4 ,but she takes no account1 apparently1 of the diseased conditions of brains incident to the long use of unwholesome or poisonous intellectual food4 ,perhaps she never anticipated this class of excesses4 ,and1 if there were to be a precisely correlative punishment1 it is to be feared it would fall more heavily on the least guilty offender4 ,it is not hard to fancy a poor soul who1 having been condemned to do reporters' duty for some years1 and having been forced to dwell and dilate upon scenes and details which his very soul revolted from mentioning1--it is not hard to fancy such a soul visited at last by a species of delirium-tremens1 in which the speeches of men who had spoken1 the gowns of women who had danced1 the faces1 the figures1 the furniture of celebrities1 should all be mixed up in a grotesque phantasmagoria of torture1 before which he should writhe as helplessly and agonizingly as the poor whiskey-drinker before his snakes4 ,but it would be a cruel misplacement of punishment4 ,all the while the true guilty would be placidly sitting down at still further unsavory banquets1 which equally helpless providers were driven to furnish6 ,the evil is all the harder to deal with1 also1 because it is like so many evils1--all1 perhaps1--only a diseased outgrowth1 from a legitimate and justifiable thing4 ,it is our duty to sympathize2 it is our privilege and pleasure to admire4 ,no man lives to himself alone2 no man can2 no man ought4 ,it is right that we should know about our neighbors all which will help us to help them1 to be just to them1 to avoid them1 if need be2 in short1 all which we need to know for their or our reasonable and fair advantage4 ,it is right1 also1 that we should know about men who are or have been great all which can enable us to understand their greatness2 to profit1 to imitate1 to revere2 all that will help us to remember whatever is worth remembering4 ,there is education in this2 it is experience1 it is history4 ,but how much of what is written1 printed1 and read to-day about the men and women of to-day comes under these heads8 ,it is unnecessary to do more than ask the question4 ,it is still more unnecessary to do more than ask how many of the men and women of to-day1 whose names have become almost as stereotyped a part of public journals as the very titles of the journals themselves1 have any claim to such prominence4 ,but all these considerations seem insignificant by side of the intrinsic one of the vulgarity of the thing1 and its impudent ignoring of the most sacred rights of individuals4 ,that there are here and there weak fools who like to see their names and most trivial movements chronicled in newspapers cannot be denied4 ,but they are few4 ,and their silly pleasure is very small in the aggregate compared with the annoyance and pain suffered by sensitive and refined people from these merciless invasions of their privacy4 ,no precautions can forestall them1 no reticence prevent2 nothing1 apparently1 short of dying outright1 can set one free4 ,and even then it is merely leaving the torture behind1 a harrowing legacy to one's friends2 for tombs are even less sacred than houses4 ,memory1 friendship1 obligation1--all are lost sight of in the greed of desire to make an effective sketch1 a surprising revelation1 a neat analysis1 or perhaps an adroit implication of honor to one's self by reason of an old association with greatness4 ,private letters and private conversations1 which may touch living hearts in a thousand sore spots1 are hawked about as coolly as if they had been old clothes1 left too long unredeemed in the hands of the pawn-broker6 ,dead men tell no tales1 says the proverb4 ,one wishes they could6 ,we should miss some spicy contributions to magazine and newspaper literature2 and a sudden silence would fall upon some loud-mouthed living4 ,but we despair of any cure for this evil4 ,no ridicule1 no indignation seems to touch it4 ,people must make the best they can of their glass houses2 and1 if the stones come too fast1 take refuge in the cellars4 ,the ,old-,clothes ,monger in ,journalism4 ,the old-clothes business has never been considered respectable4 ,it is supposed to begin and to end with cheating2 it deals with very dirty things4 ,it would be hard to mention a calling of lower repute4 ,from the men who come to your door with trays of abominable china vases on their heads1 and are ready to take any sort of rags in payment for them1 down--or up8--to the bigger wretches who advertise that ladies and gentlemen can obtain the highest price for their cast-off clothing by calling at ,no4 so and so1 on such a street1 they are all alike odious and despicable4 ,we wonder when we find anybody who is not an abject ,jew1 engaged in the business4 ,we think we can recognize the stamp of the disgusting traffic on their very faces4 ,it is by no means uncommon to hear it said of a sorry sneak1 ,he looks like an old-clothes dealer4 ,but what shall we say of the old-clothes mongers in journalism8 ,by the very name we have defined1 described them1 and pointed them out4 ,if only we could make the name such a badge of disgrace that every member of the fraternity should forthwith betake him or herself to some sort of honest labor6 ,these are they who crowd the columns of our daily newspapers with the dreary1 monotonous1 worthless1 scandalous tales of what other men and women did1 are doing1 or will do1 said1 say1 or will say1 wore1 wear1 or will wear1 thought1 think1 or will think1 ate1 eat1 or will eat1 drank1 drink1 or will drink3 and if there be any other verb coming under the head of to do1 to be1 to suffer1 add that to the list1 and the old-clothes monger will furnish you with something to fill out the phrase4 ,these are they who patch out their miserable1 little1 sham properties for mock representations of life1 by scraps from private letters1 bits of conversation overheard on piazzas1 in parlors1 in bedrooms1 by odds and ends of untrustworthy statements picked up at railway-stations1 church-doors1 and offices of all sorts1 by impudent inferences and suppositions1 and guesses about other people's affairs1 by garblings and partial quotings1 and1 if need be1 by wholesale lyings4 ,the trade is on the increase1--rapidly1 fearfully on the increase4 ,every large city1 every summer watering-place1 is more or less infested with this class of dealers4 ,the goods they have to furnish are more and more in demand4 ,there is hardly a journal in the country but has column after column full of their tattered wares2 there is hardly a man or woman in the country but buys them4 ,there is1 perhaps1 no remedy4 ,human nature has not yet shed all the monkey4 ,a lingering and grovelling baseness in the average heart delights in this sort of cast-off clothes of fellow-worms4 ,but if the trade must continue1 can we not insist that the profits be shared8 ,if ,a is to receive ten dollars for quoting ,b's remarks at a private dinner yesterday1 shall not ,b have a small percentage on the sale8 ,clearly1 this is only justice4 ,and in cases where the wares are simply stolen1 shall there be no redress8 ,here is an opening for a new ,bureau4 ,how well its advertisements would read3-- ,ladies and gentlemen wishing to dispose of their old opinions1 sentiments1 feelings1 and so forth1 and also of the more interesting facts in their personal history1 can obtain good prices for the same at ,no4-- ,tittle-tattle street4 ,inquire at the door marked ',regular and ,special ,correspondence4' ,n4 ,b4--,persons willing to be reported verbatim will receive especial consideration4 ,we commend this brief suggestion of a new business to all who are anxious to make a living and not particular how they make it4 ,perhaps the class of whom we have been speaking would find it profitable to set it up as a branch of their own calling4 ,it is quite possible that nobody else in the country would like to meddle with it4 ,the ,country ,landlord's ,side4 ,it is only one side1 to be sure4 ,but it is the side of which we hear least4 ,the quarrel is like all quarrels1--it takes two to make it2 but as1 of those two1 one is only one1 and the other is from ten to a hundred1 it is easy to see which side will do most talking in setting forth its grievances4 ,it is naught1 it is naught1 saith the buyer2 and when he is gone his way then he boasteth4 ,we are oftener reminded of this text of ,scripture than of any other when we listen to conversations in regard to boarders in country houses4 ,oh1 let me tell you of such a nice place we have found to board in the country4 ,it is only--miles from ,mt4--or--,lake2 the drives are delightful1 and board is only #g a week4 ,is the table a good one8 ,oh1 yes2 very good for the country4 ,we had good butter and milk1 and eggs in abundance4 ,meats1 of course1 are never very good in the country4 ,but everybody gained a pound a week2 and we are going again this year1 if they have not raised their prices4 ,then this model of a city woman1 in search of country lodgings1 sits down and writes to the landlord3-- ,dear ,sir1--,we would like to secure our old rooms in your house for the whole of ,july and ,august4 ,as we shall remain so long a time1 we hope you may be willing to count all the children at half-price4 ,last year1 you may remember1 we paid full price for the two eldest1 the twins1 who are not yet quite fourteen4 ,i hope1 also1 that ,mrs4 ---- has better arrangements for washing this summer1 and will allow us to have our own servant to do the washing for the whole family4 ,if these terms suit you1 the price for my family--eight children1 myself1 and servant--would be #ch4ej a week4 ,perhaps1 if the servant takes the entire charge of my rooms1 you would call it #cg2 as1 of course1 that would save the time of your own servants4 ,then the country landlord hesitates4 ,he is not positively sure of filling all his rooms for the season4 ,thirty-seven dollars a week would be1 he thinks1 better than nothing4 ,in his simplicity1 he supposes that1 if he confers1 as he certainly does1 a favor on ,mrs4----1 by receiving her great family on such low terms1 she will be thoroughly well disposed toward him and his house1 and will certainly not be over-exacting in matter of accommodations4 ,in an evil hour1 he consents2 they come1 and he begins to reap his reward4 ,the twins are stout boys1 as large as men1 and much hungrier4 ,the baby is a sickly child of eighteen months1 and requires especial diet1 which must be prepared at especial and inconvenient hours1 in the crowded little kitchen4 ,the other five children are average boys and girls1 between the ages of three and twelve1 eat certainly as much as five grown people1 and make twice as much trouble4 ,the servant is a slow1 inefficient1 impudent ,irish girl1 who spends the greater part of four days in doing the family washing1 and makes the other servants uncomfortable and cross4 ,if this were all2 but this is not4 ,mrs4----1 who writes to all her friends boastingly of the cheap summer quarters that she has found1 and who gains by the village shop-keeper's scales a pound of flesh a week1 habitually finds fault with the food1 with the mattresses1 with the chairs1 with the rag-carpets1 with every thing1 in short1 down to the dust and the flies1 for neither of which last the poor landlord could be legitimately held responsible4 ,this is not an exaggerated picture4 ,everybody who has boarded in country places in the summer has known dozens of such women4 ,every country landlord can produce dozens of such letters1 and of letters still more exacting and unreasonable4 ,the average city man or woman who goes to a country house to board1 goes expecting what it is in the nature of things impossible that they should have4 ,the man expects to have boots blacked and hot water ready1 and a bell to ring for both4 ,what experienced country boarder has not laughed in his sleeve to see such an one1 newly arrived1 putting his head out snappingly1 like a turtle1 from his doorway1 and calling to chance passers1 ,how d'ye get at anybody in this house8 ,if it is a woman1 she expects that the tea will be of the finest flavor1 and never boiled2 that steaks will be porter-house steaks2 that green peas will be in plenty2 and that the ,american girl1 who is chambermaid for the summer1 and school-teacher in the winter1 and who1 ten to one1 could put her to the blush in five minutes by superior knowledge on many subjects1 will enter and leave her room and wait upon her at the table with the silent respectfulness of a trained city servant4 ,this is all very silly4 ,but it happens4 ,at the end of every summer hundreds of disappointed city people go back to their homes grumbling about country food and country ways4 ,hundreds of tired and discouraged wives of country landlords sit down in their houses1 at last emptied1 and vow a vow that never again will they take city folks to board4 ,but the great law of supply and demand is too strong for them4 ,the city must come out of itself for a few weeks1 and get oxygen for its lungs1 sunlight for its eyes1 and rest for its overworked brain4 ,the country must open its arms1 whether it will or not1 and share its blessings4 ,and so the summers and the summerings go on1 and there are always to be heard in the land the voices of murmuring boarders1 and of landlords deprecating1 vindicating4 ,we confess that our sympathies are with the landlords4 ,the average country landlord is an honest1 well-meaning man1 whose idea of the profit to be made off boarders is so moderate and simple that the keepers of city boarding-houses would laugh it and him to scorn4 ,if this were not so1 would he be found undertaking to lodge and feed people for one dollar or a dollar and a half a day8 ,neither does he dream of asking them1 even at this low price1 to fare as he fares4 ,the ,excelsior mattresses1 at which they cry out in disgust1 are beds of down in comparison with the straw tick on which he and his wife sleep soundly and contentedly4 ,he has paid #d4ej for each mattress1 as a special concession to what he understands city prejudice to require4 ,the cheap painted chamber-sets are holiday adorning by the side of the cherry and pine in the bedrooms of his family4 ,he buys fresh meat every day for dinner2 and nobody can understand the importance of this fact who is not familiar with the habit of salt-pork and codfish in our rural districts4 ,that the meat is tough1 pale1 stringy is not his fault2 no other is to be bought4 ,stetson1 himself1 if he dealt with this country butcher1 could do no better4 ,vegetables8 ,yes1 he has planted them4 ,if we look out of our windows1 we can see them on their winding way4 ,they will be ripe by and by4 ,he never tasted peas in his life before the ,fourth of ,july1 or cucumbers before the middle of ,august4 ,he hears that there are such things2 but he thinks they must be dreadful unhealthy1 them things forced out of season1--and1 whether healthy or not1 he can't get them4 ,we couldn't ourselves1 if we were keeping house in the same township4 ,to be sure1 we might send to the cities for them1 and be served with such as were wilted to begin with1 and would arrive utterly unfit to be eaten at end of their day's journey1 costing double their market price in the added express charge4 ,we should not do any such thing4 ,we should do just as he does1 make the best of plum sauce1 or even dried apples4 ,we should not make our sauce with molasses1 probably2 but he does not know that sugar is better2 he honestly likes molasses best4 ,as for saleratus in the bread1 as for fried meat1 and fried doughnuts1 and ubiquitous pickles1--all those things have he1 and his fathers before him1 eaten1 and1 he thinks1 thriven on from time immemorial4 ,he will listen incredulously to all we say about the effects of alkalies1 the change of fats to injurious oils by frying1 the indigestibility of pickles1 c42 for1 after all1 the unanswerable fact remains on his side1 though he may be too polite or too slow to make use of it in the argument1 that1 having fed on these poisons all his life1 he can easily thrash us to-day1 and his wife and daughters can and do work from morning till night1 while ours must lie down and rest by noon4 ,in spite of all this1 he will do what he can to humor our whims4 ,never yet have we seen the country boarding-house where kindly and persistent remonstrance would not introduce the gridiron and banish the frying-pan1 and obtain at least an attempt at yeast-bread4 ,good1 patient1 long-suffering country people6 ,the only wonder to us is that they tolerate so pleasantly1 make such effort to gratify1 the preferences and prejudices of city men and women1 who come and who remain strangers among them2 and who1 in so many instances1 behave from first to last as if they were of a different race1 and knew nothing of any common bonds of humanity and ,christianity4 ,the ,good ,staff of ,pleasure4 ,in an inn in ,berchtesgaden1 ,bavaria1 where ,i dined every day for three weeks1 one summer1 ,i made the acquaintance of a little maid called ,gretchen4 ,she stood all day long washing dishes1 in a dark passageway which communicated in some mysterious fashion with cellar1 kitchen1 dining-room1 and main hall of the inn4 ,from one or other of these quarters ,gretchen was sharply called so often that it was a puzzle to know how she contrived to wash so much as a cup or a plate in the course of the day4 ,poor child6 ,i am afraid she did most of her work after dark2 for ,i sometimes left her standing there at ten o'clock at night4 ,she was blanched and shrunken from fatigue and lack of sunlight4 ,i doubt if ever1 unless perhaps on some exceptional ,sunday1 she knew the sensation of a full breath of pure air or a warm sunbeam on her face4 ,but whenever ,i passed her she smiled1 and there was never-failing good-cheer in her voice when she said ,good-morning4 ,her uniform atmosphere of contentedness so impressed and surprised me that1 at last1 ,i said to ,franz1 the head waiter1-- ,what makes ,gretchen so happy8 ,she has a hard life1 always standing in that narrow dark place1 washing dishes4 ,franz was phlegmatic1 and spoke very little ,english4 ,he shrugged his shoulders1 in sign of assent that ,gretchen's life was a hard one1 and added1-- ,ja1 ja4 ,she likes because all must come at her door4 ,there will be no one which will say not nothing if they go by4 ,that was it4 ,almost every hour some human voice said pleasantly to her1 ,good-morning1 ,gretchen1 or ,it is a fine day2 or1 if no word were spoken1 there would be a friendly nod and smile4 ,for nowhere in kind-hearted1 simple ,germany do human beings pass by other human beings1 as we do in ,america1 without so much as a turn of the head to show recognition of humanity in common4 ,this one little pleasure kept ,gretchen not only alive1 but comparatively glad4 ,her body suffered for want of sun and air4 ,there was no helping that1 by any amount of spiritual compensation1 so long as she must stand1 year in and year out1 in a close1 dark corner1 and do hard drudgery4 ,but1 if she had stood in that close1 dark corner1 doing that hard drudgery1 and had had no pleasure to comfort her1 she would have been dead in three months4 ,if all men and women could realize the power1 the might of even a small pleasure1 how much happier the world would be6 and how much longer bodies and souls both would bear up under living6 ,sensitive people realize it to the very core of their being4 ,they know that often and often it happens to them to be revived1 kindled1 strengthened1 to a degree which they could not describe1 and which they hardly comprehend1 by some little thing1--some word of praise1 some token of remembrance1 some proof of affection or recognition4 ,they know1 too1 that strength goes out of them1 just as inexplicably1 just as fatally1 when for a space1 perhaps even a short space1 all these are wanting4 ,people who are not sensitive also come to find this out1 if they are tender4 ,they are by no means inseparable1--tenderness and sensitiveness2 if they were1 human nature would be both more comfortable and more agreeable4 ,but tender people alone can be just to sensitive ones2 living in close relations with them1 they learn what they need1 and1 so far as they can1 supply it1 even when they wonder a little1 and perhaps grow a little weary4 ,we see a tender and just mother sometimes sighing because one over-sensitive child must be so much more gently restrained or admonished than the rest4 ,but she has her reward for every effort to adjust her methods to the instrument she does not quite understand4 ,if she doubts this1 she has only to look on the right hand and the left1 and see the effect of careless1 brutal dealing with finely strung1 sensitive natures4 ,we see1 also1 many men1--good1 generous1 kindly1 but not sensitive-souled1--who have learned that the sunshine of their homes all depends on little things1 which it would never have entered into their busy and composed hearts to think of doing1 or saying1 or providing1 if they had not discovered that without them their wives droop1 and with them they keep well4 ,people who are neither tender nor sensitive can neither comprehend nor meet these needs4 ,alas6 that there are so many such people2 or that1 if there must be just so many1 as ,i suppose there must1 they are not distinguishable at first sight1 by some mark of color1 or shape1 or sound1 so that one might avoid them1 or at least know what to expect in entering into relation with them4 ,woe be to any sensitive soul whose life must1 in spite of itself1 take tone and tint from daily and intimate intercourse with such6 ,no bravery1 no philosophy1 no patience can save it from a slow death4 ,but1 while the subtlest and most stimulating pleasures which the soul knows come to it through its affections1 and are1 therefore1 so to speak1 at every man's mercy1 there is still left a world of possibility of enjoyment1 to which we can help ourselves1 and which no man can hinder4 ,and just here it is1 ,i think1 that many persons1 especially those who are hard-worked1 and those who have some special trouble to bear1 make great mistake4 ,they might1 perhaps1 say at hasty first sight that it would be selfish to aim at providing themselves with pleasures4 ,not at all4 ,not one whit more than it is for them to buy a bottle of ,ayer's ,sarsaparilla 7if they do not know better7 to cleanse their blood in the spring6 ,probably a dollar's worth of almost any thing out of any other shop than a druggist's would cleanse their blood better1--a geranium1 for instance1 or a photograph1 or a concert1 or a book1 or even fried oysters1--any thing1 no matter what1 so it is innocent1 which gives them a little pleasure1 breaks in on the monotony of their work or their trouble1 and makes them have for one half-hour a good time4 ,those who have near and dear ones to remember these things for them need no such words as ,i am writing here4 ,heaven forgive them if1 being thus blessed1 they do not thank ,god daily and take courage4 ,but lonely people1 and people whose kin are not kind or wise in these things1 must learn to minister even in such ways to themselves4 ,it is not selfish4 ,it is not foolish4 ,it is wise4 ,it is generous4 ,each contented look on a human face is reflected in every other human face which sees it2 each growth in a human soul is a blessing to every other human soul which comes in contact with it4 ,here will come in1 for many people1 the bitter restrictions of poverty4 ,there are so many men and women to whom it would seem simply a taunt to advise them to spend1 now and then1 a dollar for a pleasure4 ,that the poor must go cold and hungry has never seemed to me the hardest feature in their lot2 there are worse deprivations than that of food or raiment1 and this very thing is one of them4 ,this is a point for charitable people to remember1 even more than they do4 ,we appreciate this when we give some plum-pudding and turkey at ,christmas1 instead of all coal and flannel4 ,but1 any day in the year1 a picture on the wall might perhaps be as comforting as a blanket on the bed2 and1 at any rate1 would be good for twelve months1 while the blanket would help but six4 ,i have seen an ,irish mother1 in a mud hovel1 turn red with delight at a rattle for her baby1 when ,i am quite sure she would have been indifferently grateful for a pair of socks4 ,food and physicians and money are and always will be on the earth4 ,but a merry heart is a continual feast1 and doeth good like-a medicine2 and loving favor is chosen1 rather than gold and silver4 ,wanted4--,a ,home4 ,nothing can be meaner than that ,misery should love company4 ,but the proverb is founded on an original principle in human nature1 which it is no use to deny and hard work to conquer4 ,i have been uneasily conscious of this sneaking sin in my own soul1 as ,i have read article after article in the ,english newspapers and magazines on the decadence of the home spirit in ,english family life1 as seen in the large towns and the metropolis4 ,it seems that the ,english are as badly off as we4 ,there1 also1 men are wide-awake and gay at clubs and races1 and sleepy and morose in their own houses2 sons lead lives independent of their fathers and apart from their sisters and mothers2 girls run about as they please1 without care or guidance4 ,this state of things is a spreading social evil1 and men are at their wit's end to know what is to be done about it4 ,they are ransacking national character and customs1 religion1 and the particular tendency of the present literary and scientific thought1 and the teaching and preaching of the public press1 to find out the root of the trouble4 ,one writer ascribes it to the exceeding restlessness and the desire to be doing something which are predominant and indomitable in the ,anglo-,saxon race2 another to the passion which almost all families have for seeming richer and more fashionable than their means will allow4 ,in these1 and in most of their other theories1 they are only working round and round1 as doctors so often do1 in the dreary circle of symptomatic results1 without so much as touching or perhaps suspecting their real centre4 ,how many people are blistered for spinal disease1 or blanketed for rheumatism1 when the real trouble is a little fiery spot of inflammation in the lining of the stomach6 and all these difficulties in the outworks are merely the creaking of the machinery1 because the central engine does not work properly4 ,blisters and blankets may go on for seventy years coddling the poor victim2 but he will stay ill to the last if his stomach be not set right4 ,there is a close likeness between the doctor's high-sounding list of remote symptoms1 which he is treating as primary diseases1 and the hue and outcry about the decadence of the home spirit1 the prevalence of excessive and improper amusements1 club-houses1 billiard-rooms1 theatres1 and so forth1 which are the banes of homes4 ,the trouble is in the homes4 ,homes are stupid1 homes are dreary1 homes are insufferable4 ,if one can be pardoned for the ,irishism of such a saying1 homes are their own worst banes4 ,if homes were what they should be1 nothing under heaven could be invented which could be bane to them1 which would do more than serve as useful foil to set off their better cheer1 their pleasanter ways1 their wholesomer joys4 ,whose fault is it that they are not so8 ,fault is a heavy word4 ,it includes generations in its pitiless entail4 ,sufficient for the day is the evil thereof is but one side of the truth4 ,no day is sufficient unto the evil thereof is the other4 ,each day has to bear burdens passed down from so many other days2 each person has to bear burdens so complicated1 so interwoven with the burdens of others2 each person's fault is so fevered and swollen by faults of others1 that there is no disentangling the question of responsibility4 ,every thing is everybody's fault is the simplest and fairest way of putting it4 ,it is everybody's fault that the average home is stupid1 dreary1 insufferable1--a place from which fathers fly to clubs1 boys and girls to streets4 ,but when we ask who can do most to remedy this1--in whose hands it most lies to fight the fight against the tendencies to monotony1 stupidity1 and instability which are inherent in human nature1--then the answer is clear and loud4 ,it is the work of women2 this is the true mission of women1 their right divine and unquestionable1 and including most emphatically the right to labor4 ,to create and sustain the atmosphere of a home1--it is easily said in a very few words2 but how many women have done it8 ,how many women can say to themselves or others that this is their aim8 ,to keep house well women often say they desire4 ,but keeping house well is another affair1--,i had almost said it has nothing to do with creating a home4 ,that is not true1 of course2 comfortable living1 as regards food and fire and clothes1 can do much to help on a home4 ,nevertheless1 with one exception1 the best homes ,i have ever seen were in houses which were not especially well kept2 and the very worst ,i have ever known were presided 7,i mean tyrannized7 over by perfect housekeepers4 ,all creators are single-aimed4 ,never will the painter1 sculptor1 writer lose sight of his art4 ,even in the intervals of rest and diversion which are necessary to his health and growth1 every thing he sees ministers to his passion4 ,consciously or unconsciously1 he makes each shape1 color1 incident his own2 sooner or later it will enter into his work4 ,so it must be with the woman who will create a home4 ,there is an evil fashion of speech which says it is a narrowing and narrow life that a woman leads who cares only1 works only for her husband and children2 that a higher1 more imperative thing is that she herself be developed to her utmost4 ,even so clear and strong a writer as ,frances ,cobbe1 in her otherwise admirable essay on the ,final ,cause of ,woman1 falls into this shallowness of words1 and speaks of women who live solely for their families as adjectives4 ,in the family relation so many women are nothing more1 so many women become even less1 that human conception may perhaps be forgiven for losing sight of the truth1 the ideal4 ,yet in women it is hard to forgive it4 ,thinking clearly1 she should see that a creator can never be an adjective2 and that a woman who creates and sustains a home1 and under whose hands children grow up to be strong and pure men and women1 is a creator1 second only to ,god4 ,before she can do this1 she must have development2 in and by the doing of this comes constant development2 the higher her development1 the more perfect her work2 the instant her own development is arrested1 her creative power stops4 ,all science1 all art1 all religion1 all experience of life1 all knowledge of men--will help her2 the stars in their courses can be won to fight for her4 ,could she attain the utmost of knowledge1 could she have all possible human genius1 it would be none too much4 ,reverence holds its breath and goes softly1 perceiving what it is in this woman's power to do2 with what divine patience1 steadfastness1 and inspiration she must work4 ,into the home she will create1 monotony1 stupidity1 antagonisms cannot come4 ,her foresight will provide occupations and amusements2 her loving and alert diplomacy will fend off disputes4 ,unconsciously1 every member of her family will be as clay in her hands4 ,more anxiously than any statesman will she meditate on the wisdom of each measure1 the bearing of each word4 ,the least possible governing which is compatible with order will be her first principle2 her second1 the greatest possible influence which is compatible with the growth of individuality4 ,will the woman whose brain and heart are working these problems1 as applied to a household1 be an adjective8 be idle8 ,she will be no more an adjective than the sun is an adjective in the solar system2 no more idle than ,nature is idle4 ,she will be perplexed2 she will be weary2 she will be disheartened1 sometimes4 ,all creators1 save ,one1 have known these pains and grown strong by them4 ,but she will never withdraw her hand for one instant4 ,delays and failures will only set her to casting about for new instrumentalities4 ,she will press all things into her service4 ,she will master sciences1 that her boys' evenings need not be dull4 ,she will be worldly wise1 and render to ,caesar his dues1 that her husband and daughters may have her by their side in all their pleasures4 ,she will invent1 she will surprise1 she will forestall1 she will remember1 she will laugh1 she will listen1 she will be young1 she will be old1 and she will be three times loving1 loving1 loving4 ,this is too hard8 ,there is the house to be kept8 ,and there are poverty and sickness1 and there is not time8 ,yes1 it is hard4 ,and there is the house to be kept2 and there are poverty and sickness2 but1 ,god be praised1 there is time4 ,a minute is time4 ,in one minute may live the essence of all4 ,i have seen a beggar-woman make half an hour of home on a doorstep1 with a basket of broken meat6 ,and the most perfect home ,i ever saw was in a little house into the sweet incense of whose fires went no costly things4 ,a thousand dollars served for a year's living of father1 mother1 and three children4 ,but the mother was a creator of a home2 her relation with her children was the most beautiful ,i have ever seen2 even a dull and commonplace man was lifted up and enabled to do good work for souls1 by the atmosphere which this woman created2 every inmate of her house involuntarily looked into her face for the key-note of the day2 and it always rang clear4 ,from the rose-bud or clover-leaf which1 in spite of her hard housework1 she always found time to put by our plates at breakfast1 down to the essay or story she had on hand to be read or discussed in the evening1 there was no intermission of her influence4 ,she has always been and always will be my ideal of a mother1 wife1 home-maker4 ,if to her quick brain1 loving heart1 and exquisite tact had been added the appliances of wealth and the enlargements of a wider culture1 hers would have been absolutely the ideal home4 ,as it was1 it was the best ,i have ever seen4 ,it is more than twenty years since ,i crossed its threshold4 ,i do not know whether she is living or not4 ,but1 as ,i see house after house in which fathers and mothers and children are dragging out their lives in a hap-hazard alternation of listless routine and unpleasant collision1 ,i always think with a sigh of that poor little cottage by the seashore1 and of the woman who was the light thereof2 and ,i find in the faces of many men and children1 as plainly written and as sad to see as in the newspaper columns of ,personals1 ,wanted1--a home4