The River Falls journal. (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1857-1861, 1859-02-16

our dairy lives. mat idea WAS conlne'
strictly 70 things that contribute to "th'
maiu chance'-waich for Tia word was
money, and for the future life, salvation
both alike to be got by shrewd bar
ganins AMI c'ose calculation. These two
items of .the man chance" were held to
be Cd n )as be " "a each other, but nei
ther with nusafnent. winch was to be
considered chat and vanity, AM IAN en-
envy to serious things" The Old idea is
getting Moderated, and the material and
spiritual Gradgrinds invountarly break
over it 10 occasional outbursts ola genial
human nature. But the fact that it still
fingers an asserts its authority is seen in
these apologies for the play of the facul-
ties, these hasty draughts of recreation ia
ken under protest, these attempts to de-
fend the pleasures of life by proving that
they minister indirectly to its great unl-
tiles. The serious good man feels that he
must suppress the hearty laugh which
comes rolling up within him at capital
joke or grotesque picture of life, must
frolic with his children in . very subdued
and repressive manner, and check their
boisterous merrimant with a frequent
frown, lest the spontaneous impulse of
their natures may oyerleap the bounds of
decorous utility, and there may rerchance
be one laugh more than can be justified
as preventive of dyspepsia. And how
shocking it would be should a genuine,
full, hearty laugh go floating out upon the
air, with nodead weight of utility to bring
it to the ground.
We do not believe amusemonts need
apology or defense. Do we need to prove
that the flower is essential to the growth
Of seeds and fruit in order to justify ma.
ture for adjoining herself with these num-
berless outgrowths Of beluty aud joys
Doubtless nature might have made seeds
and fruit in all cases with put the flowers
That are so delightful to our senses, if ma
ture had been properly instructed in the
art in the puritan .doc;riuo Of utilities.
Shall we justify the birds for filling the air
with their sweet but useless sohgs' Why
NAV they not strengthen their lungs, If
that is what they are after, by all cav
ing like crows or squalling like parrots1
/ Alas, they have never been taught meta
physics, and have not the least notion
that a mere spontaneous delight needs JUS
tlfication FOR its utilities. All animated
nature has its play, and is not troubled
with conscientious misgivings about it.
Human nature in ch ldhoo1 asserts the
same right, and there are few SO rigid rs
t, DENY it. But when the boys AMI girls
get old enough to look ont for the two
main chances of life, play nnst be dropped
xeept so much Of it as can De logically
ma ID out to be in soms way necessary to
| sne best cultivation of the hard utilities
Of existence. There must be no more free
and spontaneous fun, no more seeking for
amusement for it's own sake, NJ chldhke
q lonment to the pleasures which ma
lure and art Offer to us on every hand.
everything must be duly measured and
regulated by the narrow and unyieidlng
rlie of utility. Move believe there Is
a better philosophy and 3 truer life. We
| will not renounce our faith IN human ma
lure, in all its parts and prop ortions. We
cannot believe that one part OF it was made
to be stimulated and another part to be re-
pressed, but that it is capable of fully
rounded and harmonious Development in-
to q consistent whole, and that in such a
development the highest virtue and the
most comprehensive utility are to be at
tanned.
We cannot therefore Judge Of amuse'
ments generally, or of any particular
amusements, by the criterion Of utlfi ty 81
generally understood. Of course there
must be discrimination III the play as wei
as the work of life To poison or defi,'
our own bodies, to stultify our intellects
or to violate the law e conscience. in tht
pursuit of pleasure, is to commit very
miserable mistake. So of excuses il
pleasures that are intrinsicaly innocent
and good. But when we go beyond thesf
lust limitations, and denounce and pro
scribe the means of amusement according
to the law of utility, we fix upon humaf
nature restraints that are unnatural, anc
instead of stimulating it to virtue we pro
woke it to outbursts of excess. Hence i
is that some of the worst vices often breal
out unexpectedly in communities tina
are, subject to undue restraints, for h llnar
nature will generally vindicate Itself, ane
when restrained of free flow in its lcgiti
{ mate channels, and damned up by arti
fetal embankments, viii re very likely t
break forth in some other point and carr
! tlesolation in ita path. LIfs Is soTnhc