The Camden weekly journal. [volume] (Camden, South-Carolina) 1853-1861, 1853-02-08
{" Sowing Wild Oats.''

"SOWing Wild Oats.
We often hear the excesses of young mer
excused on the plea that they are only sow
Ing their wild oats;" as if a life of virtue must
necessarily be preceded by a wild and vicious
career, A good writer,well remarks, that there
is many a young man just entering the world
who would avoid those actions which give rise
to the saying, if it were not for the veil which
this very saying throws over their hideousness
But as he hears the lips of beauty apologetl.
cally muttering, " he is only sowing his wild
oats,n. when some instance of vile profigacy Is
told, or some tale of innocence undermined
related, he begins to look upon such actions as
the natural and excusable effects of ardent
youth; he thinks that he, too, may be pardoned
for scattering similar seeds on the highway OF
life; and is, perhaps, unconscious that the soil
in which they will take the frmest and deepest
root is his own mind. " Memo repente jul
tmpissin,us"- man becomes vicious on a
sudden. The appetite for vice increases with
what it feeds on like the taste for olives, it
may be nauseous at first, but by repetition we
come to like it, and at length it becomes a
fixed desire of the mind we have sown the
seeds, and, unfortunately, we must reap the
fruits. We need not sow these wild oats, but
once having so done, we must take the conse-
quences.
An old French writer has said, that dis
gust stands at the door of all bad places" 1t
may be so but it is to be feared that we too
often put her behind the door as we enter; and
it is only when we come out that we meet her
face to face. We cover up her form with all
kinds of disguises; we endeavor to cheat our
selves into the belief that disgust is not her
real name, and that it is not the door of vice
at which she stands sentinel and as we pass
her by, and enter, we console ourselves. with
the thought that we are only having bit OF
spree! that we are in for lark or at any
rate, that We "must sow some of our wild
OATS" We are confident in ourselves, have
great reliance on our own correct principles
and right intentions, and delude ourselves in.o
the belief that we are only gaining little
knowledge of the world, and showing ourselves
to be youths OF spirit. And a most miserable
delusion this ls-fostcred and encouraged by
the wretched fallacy we are illustrating and
by the pernicious habit of CLOSING over vile
things with eulogistic names. We begin, per.
haps, by sowing our seeds with a careful hand.
scattering few here, and few there, with
long intervals between them; we are not
alarmed by any very great expenditure of seed;
we hardly fancy that the correct principles on
which we rely, are disturbed or shocked by
their slight deviations from the, strict rule of
right; we still keep in the common routine of
our duties, while we are imperceptibly being
led into temptations that, by degrees, cause us
to scatter the seeds more thickly, and with
fewer intervals between them. And we go on
"sowing the wild oats ur1i tire tuys Of c,'r
youth are past, and when miserable ndpre.
mature old age draws on, we find that the till.
age is not vet complete; it is only when in
frlnitcs have rendered it impossible to pursue
our former course, that the seed time is over ;
and the harvest comes upon US at once in the
shape of pains and penalties grievous to bear.
We forsake now the sowing until the power to
sow is departed--we forsake not the sin until
the sin forsakes u.s.
How often do we hear it said, both by pa.
rents and friends, that it is right for young
man to know the world, and that he will avoid
vice all the more for having tasted it, and found
what it is like. Bad judges Of human nature
and of human appetites, are these! And let
such parents beware lest the future growth
from their maxim come home to them to tor
ment thcm.-N. y. Organ.