Brownlow's Knoxville Whig. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1866-1869, 1868-02-19
Two WaTs OF LnHinR.

There are two ways Of loving children. Some
men and women have hearts 30 framed that they
are sasiy attracted 70 child who is remarkably
handaomei or very bright, particularly docile.-
These people have impression that they love
children. IL ls great mistake. No one loves
children whose heart does not warm toward child
os child without waiting TO find out whether il be
especially intelligent, OF handsome, dOcile
You are walking along the street. and see sp-
proaching you woman bearing in her srus q
baby You suppose it 10 be baby, though al you
can see is q soft Aeecy bundle with q long white
TRAIL two little red or blue worsted arms, and q
great mass Of lace and ribbons on what appears TO
be head. Now, do you begin 10 love that baby as
soon as you see it? and do you feel an impulse
while it IS yet two blocks swsy-to take the little
creature in your arms7 No" you say; I wait
till the child is brought nearer, that may see if
II be pretty, clean and good-natured" Very well (;
then you do not love children.
1t is the same with the love Of mankind If you
truly love your felow-men you do it not as 8 mat
ter OF personal choice or appreciation but from an
instinct Of the heart. 1t must be love that flows
In the blood beams in the eye speaks in the kindly
voice. and spreads itself like the atmosphere where
ever 1t goes. Such love, however beautifed by
breeding and refinement, may get spring up the
same IN the toughest heart 1t belongs TO the great
primal forces Of nature indeed, and is kindred with
the same great central beat which makes the earth
warm for its buds aud the lair Of the tigress for her
gress for her dirty darlings
After all our refinement Of culture, there is but
one thing that really ennobles life or makes it
worth living-tO love mankind.
Not 70 look AZ men critically; 10 20 about pulling
the wires Of these fine machines till they jerk and
wrggle; TO anslyze them till they bleed to pose
them and paint them as if they were mere lay fig
ures.
Not to love the noble and beautiful, whom it is
easy 10 love- nor 10 love only children, univers al
pets but 70 love the ignorant, the brutalized the
base 10 love the worst Of them as the mother loves
her boy when he is picked up drunk in the street,
and she sees him foul, debauched--his once pure
breath repulsive with whisky, the curls she kissed
in bis babyhood now soilod from the gutter--no
matter still her child. This is love as mothers
love.
Men often amaze US by the inconsistency of their
virtues. Let man be run over in the streets, and
the publieans and harlOts 60 to befriend him IS
readily as the deCorous and respectable. The gam
bier and the bully have their code of honor the
moral sentiment must have an outlet somewhere
Nevertheless 1t IS not for these incidental and out
lying virtues that we must love mankind nor for
the most perfected consistency of virtue. As soon
as we begin to do that we wrong the human heart
that beats within US. It is easy and pleasant to
love the good but IL Is cold and narrow heart
which loves them only. Does the mother love her
child for his virtues2 Did Jesus Christ love man
kind for its virtues As the shines on the evil
and on the good, 20 man must love his brothers
with larger love than this, if he expects to aid
them. 1t must be love like mothers love-found-
cd on the deep sympathes of a noble heart trained
by time and only strengthened amid disappoint-
ment 1t must be love before which words are
weak, and conventonalisms are dust--a love that
Is heart-wRrm, blood warm, that does not merely
think well Of mankind, out loyes them because they
are men, just as We love children because they are
children aside from their merits and in advance of
their solicitations.-Net0 York Independent.