The Minnesota pioneer. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn. Territory) 1849-1855, 1849-04-28
tnisfeila
Rev. Henry Ward Ececher, ca amuse-
lncnts.

Rev. Henry Ward Bcecher, ca amuse-
lnents.
Amuserpents were defined to be a!lthose
processes i'm which social or physical enjoy
,nent was sought pleasure is amusement
carried to, excess, and the term eanal has
been devised to express the result of the
neutrality-suspicious.. There were two
classes ia the community, towhom he might
address hin,seif- These arho Ire only for
pleasure and those ,cho coaf0andia amuse-
ment acith pleasure reject Doth, as not only
frivolous, but absolutely: wicked. TO the
first, who are sunk in vice, but little need
he said, us they fondly cling to their sinful
ways. But to those who dissent ON, consci-
entous grounds, he would address himself,
and urg0Lpon them the necessity at amuse-
ments as aids-to morals. He thought re-
foru, was much needed, and he hoped soon
to see it accomplished. ~
Some there are, whose views are so as
cetic, ana whose morality is SO energetic,
that they reject amusements altogether.-
Such men were always on the minor key !;
they were Ike the old portraits which hung
around the wall, and looked out on the life
before them with awful propriety. Others
again tolerate them in quiet digufied way !,
ments in his daily avocatious. Some men
in their dulles, it was tue, might find their
pleasures but ail could not. Everything
depended on the nature of our duties. The
rin-makercan fiud little amusement in work
ing twelve or fourteen hours in the day, in
making the twentieth part of pin. One
rankor class nnst make rules for other ranks
Hr Glasses. Labor's sternest duty may be
Graduated by pleasure. The faculties of
the mind were evidently designed to lend a
grace to labor. Nature in her fields and
flowers, has strewn thousand beauties
beneath the feet of man. These are affor-
ded to him to lend charm to his leisure
hours and exist avsihout the mind. But
there are within the minds aids to pleasure
as niirthfulness, idealty, beneyoience up
OH the tuli developement and exercise of
these faculties, depends much of the COM
fort Of man during his earthly career. The
moral aud executive faculties may be of
More Importance bones form a framework
for the face but what would skeleton
face be without its covering of feshs
GThere were in rhe mind of man, facul-
! ties answering to the lines of beauty, the
colers, the flowers, and the sweet sounds,
which adorned the natural world. Such
were mirthtulness and ideality, &c. 1t was
impossible to repress and destroy these fac
utties without doing wrong. Mirthfulness
was as important to the perfection of the
mind as conciemiousness. 1t might not be
as great loss to he deprived of an ear as ii
right hand /; but by the loss Of either, a
man was MANNED. Concientousness was
as important to the perfection of; character
rs the bones were to the perfection of the
face !; but that mind in which contentious
ness was cultivated, to the neglect of all the
other faculties, would he Ike the face
stripped of its beautiful coverings fright
flu mask of griuning bones]
- Many of the powers Of
the mind appeared to be specially designed
and adopted to promote the pleasure of
man. The whole arrangement of the nat
ural world was an exhibition of taste il, the
Builder: and Maker thereof, and was adap-
ted TO promote pleasure in man. Lines
and forms OF beauty, rich and variegated
colors, aud sweet sounds met US on every
hand. And when he had gazed on the
thousand beautiful flowers, of every shape
and hue, which adorned vast prairie, and
bad drunk IN music Of birds which sang and
talked around him, he had impossible TO
keep silence, aud yet impossible to give
utterance to his sense of the goodness of
that Being who had thus prsfusely spread
beauty around his path and he had been
ready to exclain,, If the Footstool be thus
embroidered, what must be his Throne!
He urged attention to anusements, for
the very good that they did to heath-of
body and -mind-and the consequent assis-
lance which they afford in the discharge OF
the sober aid lahorious duties Of life,
Amusen,ents were necessary to the student,
the overtaxed merchant, and the operative.
= eEven the lowest kinds,
in this view, were better than none. The
hard and grinding toll to which the masses
IN great city were habtually subjected,
rendered some kind of amusement indis-
pensil,le. No man understood better than
did Napoleon what was necessary to men,
IN the city or the camp, AMI he had said:
The French people need amuscinents.-
He might, with equal truth have Said, all
people need amusenients. What better than
a beast would the poor artisan be without
emuseinepts But what is right for him