The Hillsdale standard. [volume] (Hillsdale, Mich.) 1851-1909, 1865-04-18

Mrs, Standfast is a woman of high
tone, and possessed ofapower of NOR
al principle that anpresses one even as
sublime. All her perceptions of ligh,
and wrong are clear, exact, and minute,
she is charitable to thepoor, kind to the
sick and suffering, and devoutly and
earnestly religious. I'm ali the m;nuta'
of woman's life she manifestsIan incon
ccivable precision. Everything she
does is perfectly done. She is true 10
all her promises to 4 the very letter, and
so punctual that railroad time might be
kept by her instead of a chronometer.
Yet, with all thes excellent traits.
Mrs. Standfast, has not the fa,allty OF
making happy. home. She is tha!
most hopeless of fault-iinders-a fault,
finder fromprinciple. 9iShe has high,
correct standard for ieverythingin in the
world, from the regulation of the
thoughts down to tbeuspreading of d
sheet or the hemming of a towel; and
to this exact standard she feels it her
duty to bring everyone in her house
hold She does not often scold, she is
not actually fretfull,, but She exercises
over her household q calm, inllcx-
ible severity, rebuking every fault She
overlooks nothing, she oxcnses nothing
in any part of het domaih hut absolute
perfection; and her reproofs are aimed
with a true and steady point, and sent
with force that makes them felt by
the most obdurate. '
Hence, though she is rarely seen out
Of temper, and seldom or never scolds,
yet she drives every one around her to
despair by the use of the calmest and
most elegant English. : Her servants
fear but do not love her. Her husband
an impulsive, generous man, somewhat
inconsiderate and carless in his habits
is at all times perfectly desperate un-
der the accumulated load of her disap-
probation. Her children regard her rs
inhabiting same high, distant, unap-
proachable mountain top of goodness,
whence she is always looking down
with reproving eyes on naughty boys
and girls. They wender it is that so
excellent mamma should have chill
dren who, let them try to be good as
hard as they can, are always sure to. do
something dreadful every day.
The trouble with Mrs. Standfast is;
not that she does not have a high stand
ard and p,wpores and means to bring
every one up to it, but she does not take
the high way. She has setit down that
to blame wrong doer is the only way
to cure wrong. She has never learned
that it is as much her duty to praise rs
TO blame, and that people are drawn TO
do right by being praised when they do
it, rather ihan. driven by being blamed
when they do it. sr .ei tll.l euc14 lo
Right across the way from Mrs.
Standfast is Mrs. Easy, pretty little
creature, with not a 1.-THE other moral
worth-amerry, ,pleaswe-loying woman,
of no particular force of principle.
whose great obieqt in life is to avoid its
tsisagreeables, and to secure its pleasures.
Little Mrs. Easy is adored by her
husband, her children, her servants,
merely because it is her nature to say
pleasant things to every one. 1t is n
mere fact of pleasing, which she uses
without knowing it. While Mrs. Stand.
fast, surveying her well set dining-ta-
BILE, runs her keen eye over everything,
and at last brings up with, Jane, look
at that black spot on the salt spoon! /
am astonished at your carelessness v'--
Mrs. Easy would say, +" Why, Jane,
where did you. learn TO set table SO
nicely? All looking beautifully, ex-
cept-ah let's see-give rub to this
sait-spoon; now all is quite perfect. ~
Mrs. Standfast's servants and children
lear only of their failures; these are al
ways before them and her. Mrs. Easy's
servants hear, of thcir, successes. She
praises their good points teus them that
they are doing well in this, that, and the
other particular; and finally exhorts
them, on the strength ofhaving done so
many things well, to improve in what is
yet lacking Mrs. Easy's husband feels
that he is always hero in her eyes, and
her children feel that they are dear,
good children, Notwithstanding Mrs.
Easy sometimes has her little hiffs of
displeasure,~ and scolds roundly when
something falls out as it shoiid not.
The two families show how much
more may be done by very ordinary
woman, through the mere instinct of
praising and pleasing, than by the great
est worth, piety and principle; seeking
to lift human nature by alever that new
er was meant to lift it by.
Mrs. III B. Stowe.