The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1866-07-28

pill, and there would be this advantage
about the distribution of pills, that the
production of pill-boX docs not ncces-
sarily seem to imply a religious supe-
riority on the part of the pill-giver. a
man may want one without knowing it,
or, if he does not want it now, the time
may come when he will want it. At
any rate, it can do no harm to offer it,
and though tracts have this additional
value, thatthey are designed to minister
to the mind, it is better to minister to
the body than not to minister to any,
thing at all.
Both sorts of ministration may accord
ingly be undertaken from genuine de-
sire to promote the welfare of ones fell
low-creaturcs, and in theory it would
appear harsh and unkind to meet any
such medicinal overturcs with rudencss
or discourtesy. Tracts and pills, after
all, are only what is meant for good adj
vice, disguised as the case may be, either
in print or in sugar. And it seems
doubtful, from q moral point of view,
whether we ought to sneer at either in
the presence of the donor. The philan-
thropist who wishes to go through life
giving as little pain as possible will be
as careful not to hurt the feelings of an
enthusiast as he would be to avoid hurt
ing caterpillar, and will politely
pocket for the moment anything that is
presented to him in the way of sugges-
ton oradmonition. Somepersons might
think it was Il mans bounden duty in
such case to demonstrate with the in
truder. This does not seem clear. At
least it would only be equivalent to re-
turning pill for pill, with the certainty
that the remonstrance would be entirely
thrown away. Controversy with Il tract
distributor, or any other distributor of
good advice, is not likely to do the dis
tributor any sensible good and if he
likes tospend his time in the redistribution,
it is, after all, no business of ours.
Good advice is Il thing which ought
doubtless, on rare occasions, to be fear
lcssly and frankly given, and yet it is
one of those good things which are pro-
verbally almost always valueless. An
attempt to reform the character of our
neighbors, and to alter the current of
their lives, cannot be said to be alto.
gether a forlorn hope, because every
now and then it does by miracle sue.
coed. The phenomenon of conversion
though exceptional, is not utterly un.
known, and for the best of reasons. The
law of habit is probably the stronges
law of our moral nature. Habit is the
lord of life, and the combination of
motives which leads to action in any
single case, the next time it presents it.
self, produces similar effect more easily
and quickly. Soon habit becomes ;
second nature, and the motives whicl
at first had to overcome n sort of gis i,e
cHi03 within us before they resulted il
action and by influencing us instinct
lively and Immediately.
II is on this account, rs ancient phi
losophers teach us, that education is st
important. 1t presides over the forma
ton ofhabits themselves, and whatever
prcsides over the formation of habit,
has in its hands the direction of oul
future career. The reason why cOnver
sion is occasionally possible is, on the
other hand, tolerably plain. Habit
though powerful, is not omnipotent, foI
if it We're, men would be at the mercy
of their carly training, and it would bt
as difficult to change character as it is t,
warp the growth of a tree. 1t rest
originally, indeed, on combination of
motives, but the motives that make VI
the combination do not invariably in
cludc among them all the motives tina
may conceivably move us. Some ar
left outside, dormant, or even undis
covered. Some that are even included
figure amongst the rest, it may be, in
sleepy kind of way, and are not Wha
they might be if they were thorough.
aroused. 1t is never, therefore, ccrtail
that we may not at any epoch in on
lives call into activity some new mOtiv
which only requires to be awakened i
order to become completely predomi
nunt.
1t is by hitting on some such fires
power within us that habits, hOWevC
mduratcd, are every now and the
= broken or dissolved. And there ar
periods in the history of all of us wher
from some undiscovered cause, we az
more susceptible than usual to this il
tcrnal cOmmOtion, which is to the mOrs
. character what Il revolution is to a Stat,
: The commotion is not, indeed, univel
) sally productive of advantage. Convel
e sions to evil, though infrequent, are nj
: unknown. a man who has lived fC
D years in temperance or sobriety in h
: maturer age falls under the sway c
o some passion which tears him loose frol
Il his mOOrings, and sends him adrift. Br
r the infrcquency of this spectacle, as con
II pared with the comparative frequenC
t, of the converse, is due to the fact thi
y good habits are more firmly and reasol
J. ably set, in general, than bad ones. III
II former implyan original moral struggl
during the course Of which tempt
II tiOns have been conquered and passiO
Is brought under control, and it is not Oft
y that an enemy once thoroughly defet
II ed is able to regain the upper han
d But habit, on the contrary, seldom j
C. wolves the previous defeat of virtue.
If Nirtuou9 impulses are less instinct
le and less clamorous than the instincts
: Il L. l..