The weekly Ottumwa courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1857-1872, 1860-02-02

Indifferent to. How many thoughts and r
Elections that have heretofore brought bo
rowed sorrow and anticipated evil you ca
by this effort of mind rob of all power
produce unhappiness. To illustrate, som
little thing has heretofore fretted and ammo,
ed you, making you and those around yo
unhappy; it occurs again, think at once no,
tr!fing the evil to what it might have beer
how fortunate that it is no scorse. Hoy
many are suffering real and terrible calami
ties while only such little ills fall to your lot
some little thing you are deprived of, som
want you have not the means to CRAFTY
riches you have not gained, honors or plac
you have lost, or failed to secure.
Think at once of the blessings you hare
not what you haze not-of health, friends
husbands, wives, children, home with it
thousand clustering joys, and of the rea
misery there is in the world, the acant, tn,
sickness, the misery ofthousands around YOU
the homeless, the deSolate, the bereaved O
heart, and the reflection and the comparison
will make you thankful and contented and
there will come over you a quiet joy and tram
quill happiness to which your heart has long
been stranger;-the reverse of this is to be
forgetful of the comforts and blessings YOU
haze, and pine and fret for those you hare
not, and to contrast your opu with the con
dition in life of some one you deem-erroni
ously perhaps fortunate than yourself.
Such course of conduct, such habits of
mind, destroys your peace and renders you
constantly unhappy about fancied ills and
borrowed troubles.
There is another thought that may not
have occurred to all of you, that happiness
in this world is very evenly distributed. -
To those who fancy they suffer m IRE than
their proportion the ills oflifa, this thought
may rot he unimportant, and Danish perhaps
a feeling of dissatisfaction with their let and
place in the great field of human life, and that
it Is true, is undeniablc. You see one who
is prosperous in the affairs of the world, has
riches, has honors; you conclude at once that
such an one is happy, and yet such may be
the most wretched; in your midst you see
the toiling poor, and straltway you conclude
he is wretched, while pcrchancc such have
their well springs of happiness, home joys,
dear though humble, and freedom from the
cares that render wretchea your
more opulent ncighbor. -. ,............ ...
Again, what happy thought that we are
the architects ofour own happiness in this
life, having it in our power, by the cultivation
of proper disposition and habit of mind, to
ourselves with an atmosphere of
hanniness, and light ofjoy.
These general views OF life, and of the
powers graciously bestowed upon us by the
author Of our being to vary its lights and
shades, suggest the enquiry, what is best
to enhance the joys of life, and
overcome-whcre it exists.-the tendency of
hcmind to discomfort and dispondency?
And may | not name rs first, Social Life
social habits, Society in all It's various pha-
ses. .... ..... ......... .....r... .a.........
Tits unnecessary that should occupy your
time and attention to prove the admitted
that comparatively, none of our
desires, none ofour senses could be exercised
or gratified but for companionship; that alone
in the world, man or woman would be little
better than stalk or stone, not by any
means occupying as favored position in
the scale Of social being as the beasts of the
field, the birds Of the air, or the fishes of the
sea. Then if society. or companionship, is
the greatest gift of Heaven, why not en-
ploy or use it in the way best calculated to
extract from it the greatest amount of pleas
ure.
Let us do this in all the relations of life
in the family circle, in the companionship of
our wives, our husbands. Let me impress
upon your minds, my brothers and sisters,
the importance of this social relation, its vast
power, either for good or i'll. It is suscep-
tble of being made the happiest relation of
life, or the most wrctched,a source of contin-
ued and varied Joys. Kome--that dear word,
aoms--our hearts kingdom, where we reign
supreme, where we plant flowers, or plant
thorns, and shade with the tree of love or
the deadly upas, the sacred precincts.
How can | find language to impress upon
yon the Importance of those social relations
of life that pertain to our homes. How por-
tray the wonderful, the potent power for
good, or if we WELD in the government, the
conduct, and in the administration of the af.
fairs ofhome; not only upon ourselves as par
ents, but upon all within It's circle. How
vain to look anywhere upon the wide earth
for happiness if misery dwells at home and
how fatal the error to feel indifferent to the
things that make up the good or i'll Of do
mestic life. To rs and upon orr happiness
to what import is battle where falls upon
the ensanguined field milton raen, COM
pared to one moment of strife in our homes.
OF how little consequences to us are wars
and strifcs of nations if peace and order
reign at home. What Importance to us are
State instructions by John Browns com
pared to instructions at home. We babble
and strive, we wrangle and quarrel, we bawI
ourselves hoarse, we run at the beck and nod
of politicians-hatless and coatless, perhaps
and then stand on tip-toe and cape fol
hours over the shoulders ola crowd of fools
To lnarn tho ro..,,lt &C ,.,a .a...:l. i