The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1867-07-06

DG&tGA hLAAA-A4 HHG NtAH-ACs AAGA
y give herself vigorously TO soune kindly
NSonaNNS ,SorNsSNNn work t0r ME SSor
in Whicb.sbs can find n real interes
iAHyhOW, let her gel some colour, SOM
animation into her life from harmless
Il s0urces, OF else she Will soon be ruined
unless she can find healthy excilemen
somewhere, the dullness, Stiffness anC
sameness OF her life will be her destruc.
! tion.
There is another vice to which
we Englishmeu are specially prone.
\ Our climate makes large amount
OF solid food necessary to us, ant
if0r W8nt OF genius 10 do better
we eat grossly. We have no scrupies
Wbou(W. We are raSeuous aud vora-
\ cious, and feel no seli-repr0ach. Y an,
inclined that good cookery might do a
least as much for the morals OF the
country as gymnastics. Dine in Paris
I on fourteen courses, and you feel light
er and brighter when you have finished
than when you began; "dO justice" as
the phrase is, to an English dinner OF
| the old fashioned sort, and, without the
| liberal assistance OF sherry and cham
payne, you are too stupid TO talk OF
| anything except local politics and the
state Oftbe crops. French wines will
never become popular in this country
till we get French cooks. The ethics OF
| dining Is a neglected branch of the
! science of morals which urgently re.
quires investigation. Meantime, let
men.remember that excessive eating is
foul aud disgusting vice; its evil eff
! fects may be less obvious than those OF
excessive drinking, but they are not
less real, perhaps they are not less Sc
rious. All the finer sensibilities of the
soul, all moral grace and beauty, are
perhaps more certain to perish in the
glutlon than even in the drunkard.
The moral degradation which comes
a
indolence-it is less easy TO define.
Most OF US may thank God tha tthe very
circumstances OF our life keep us safe
from this sin. Few men can help
working; most men have TO work hard.
But sluggish ness, san indisposition to
make any eNertion unless compelled to
make it, is sometimes to be met with
even in this restless and active age, and
in every social condition. L mean that
there are people who can never be in
duced to put out their strength, and
who never do anything with their
"might." We all know men who con-
tInue to the end of their days "uuCul-
filled prophecies" who have shown in
their youth the promise OF high
achievement, and perhaps the sign of
genius, but who leave the world with
their fortunes unmade, or their poems
unwritten, or their schemes OF philoso-
ply unorganiZed, or their social and
ouGn
men are often illustrations of the failure
that is the inevitable penalty of indo-
lence. Its moral effects are not less dis
astrous.
As for some of the tests of sluggish
ness which are often to be found in
good books written for young people,
1t il difficult to see their value. / cam
not perceive, for instance, what virtue
there can be in getting upseyeral hours
before daylight in the month OF JAnu-
ary. To make early rising, for its 0IDH
sake, one of the cardinal virtues, has
always seemed TO me utterly preposter-
Gus. Why should we not wait, as
Charles Lamb puts it, till the world is
"atred" before we venture out? II a
man eau do more work iu the day when
he lies till half-past seven, than when
he gets up at half-past five, if he is bet
ter tempered mt breakfast-time, If his
mind is fresher and his heart kindlier,
for the rest of the day, 1t passes my
comprehension why he should turn out
he ought; and have honestly tried to
discover some Ineligible explanation
OF what seems to me this singular arti-
Gle of faith, but L cannot. If through
rising late on weekdays, man has to
hurry away to businesss without fami-
ly prayer, II his temper is ruffied morn
ing after morning by the haste and dis
order in which il involves him; If he
gets up so late ON Sunday that he has to
make "A violent effort to reach his place
of worship in tOlerable time, and grad
ually comes to think that he is quite
early enough if he is in his seat i've
minutes after service has began,
then of course he is to be
blamed; but though 1 have a real re-
spect for traditional wisdom, 1 have
never been IA bic to understand why a
man should get up at unseemly hours
in the night Ior the mere sake OF doing
il. r..-..... ....r
There is a sIuggishness, however,
which is fatal to manly enegy and
Christian earnestness. Some men fall
into such physical habits that they
never seem TO be fairly awake. Hard
work OF every kind, whether of muscle
or brain, they systematically evade.
They take things easy" They do not
excite themselves" They think they
are very harmless, and even very
praiseworthy people; and do not see
that Incidence has grown upon them
till the soul is no longer master of
itself, or OF the body which ought TO
serve it. The immortality OF their life 1t
may perhaps be impossible to make
clear TO them; but they may be made to
perceive that habits which destroy all
intensity, and depth, and vehemence OF
religious feeling must involve them in
gull. Every spiritual impulse is en-
feebled, every devout affection is dead
ened, every act of worship is made
WEAKNESS by the sluggishness into
which they have permitted themselves
to sink. The tiery chariot in which the
soul should rise triumphantly to
heaven in exulting praise and raptur-
Gus alteration has IHd all its splendours
qnenched now and then they may be
teebIY stirred by the fervor and passion
OF men OF nobler temper, but il Is only
for moment; "of the earth, earthy,n
they have become incapable OF the Iii
yiner movements aud Joys of the spir-
itual life.
Very wonderful is the intimate con-
nection, the subtle interaction between
the forces OF our physical and moral
nature. 1t is one OF the chief mysteries
of our mysterious being. But it is not
IA mystery merely; it is n fact OF infinite
practical Significance which cannot be
ignored without grave peril. The intel
ligeut recognition of IL would save
many good people from much sorrow,
as it would save others from grieyous
sin. should like to have the "Diaries"
which record the spiritual experience
OF certain excellent persons, illustrated
with notes by wise physicians who had
known them Intimately. Periods of
spiritual desertion, when "the light of
Gods countenance" was hidden from
them, apparently without any reason,
might receive a very instructive -expla-
nation. It might be found that God
had been less arbitrary, or as they
would say less sovereign, in his treat
ment of them than they supposed. /
once tried whether the strange vicissi-
tudes of glory and gloom which occur
red In the interior life OF an eminently
good man could be accounted for by the
physical causes which his own diary
suggested; and though the materials at
my command were, OF course, very inn