Orleans independent standard. [volume] (Irasburgh, Vt.) 1856-1871, 1869-10-12
The Ready-to-haIts .

sympathy. III people really cannot walk |
they must be carried. Everybody sees
that; and all strong people are, or ought |
to be, ready to lift babies and cripples.-
There are plenty of such in every parish.
The Feeble Minds are unfortunately pre-
disposed to intermarry, and our schools
are overrun with little Masters and Misses |
Feeble Mind. But, heavy as they are, land |
they are apt to be fat they are precious
and pleasant friends and neighbors in COM
parison with the Ready-to-Halts.
The Ready-to-Halts are never ready for
any thing else. They can walk as well as
anybody else if they only would; but they
are never sure on which road they had
better go. Great Hearts have to go back,
and 60 back to look them up. They are
found standing still, helpless and bewild-
cred, on all sorts of absurd side paths,
which lead nowhere, and they never will
confess, either, that they needed help
They always think they are doing what
they call making up their mind" But,
whichever way they make it, they wish
they had made it the other; so they I'M
make it directly. And by this time the cri-
sis of the first hour which they lost has be-
come complicated with that of the second |
hour, for which they are in nowise ready;
and so the hour stumbles on, one after an
other-the day is only a tangle of ineffect-
i've cross purposes. Hundreds of such days |
drift on with their sad burden of wasted |
time. Year after year their lives fail of |
growth, of delight, and of blessings to 9TH
ers. .Opportunity's great golden doors,
which never stay long open for any man,
have just swung to when they reach the |
threshold of deed; and it is hard, very
hard, to see why it would not have been |
better for them if they had never been born.
But, after ALL it is not right to be impa-
tent with them, for, in nine cases out of
ten, they are no more responsible for their |
mental limp, than the poor Chinese wo-
man is for her feeble feet. From their in
fancy, mp to what in our comic caricature
words, we call maturity" they have been
bandaged. How should their muscles be
good for anything? From the day when
we give, and take, and arrange the baby's
playthings for him, hour by hour, without
ever setting before him to choose one of
two and give up the other, to the day when
we take it upon ourselves to decide wheth-
er he shall soon be an engineer or lawyer,
we persist in doing for him the work which
he should do for himself This is because
we love him more than we love our own
lives. o, if love could but have its eyes
opened and seel If we were not blind we
should know that whenever child decides
for himself deliberately, and without bias
from Others, any question, however small,
he has had just so many minutes of gym
nastics-just so much strengthening of the
one faculty on whose health and frmness
his success in life will depend more than
upon any one thing.
So many people do not know the differ
ence between obstinacy and clear headed
firmness of will that it is hardly safe to say
much in praise or blame of either without
expressly stating that you do not mean the
other. They are as unlike as digestion
and indigestion, and one would suppose
could not be much more easily confounded;
but it is constantly done. 1t has not yet
ceased to be said among fathers and moth
ers that it is necessary to ''break the will"
of children, and it has not yet ceased to be
seen in the land that men by virtue of sim
pie obstinacy are called men ofstrong char
acter. The truth is, that the stronger, bet
ter trained will man has, the less obstin-
ate he will be- Will is ofreason; obstina-
cy of temper. What have they in COM
mon?
For want of strong will kingdoms and
souls have been lost. Without it there is
no kingdom for any man--nO, not even in
his own soul. 1t is not enough, then, that
we do not "break" this grand power, this
one attribute Of all we possess which is
most Godlike, since by it we say, under his
laws, as he says creating those laws, so
far and no farther" 1t is not enough that
we do not ''break" it. Itshould be strength
ened, developed, trained. And, as the good
teacher Of gymnastics gives his beginners
light weights to lift and swing, so should
we bring to the children small points to de-
eide; to the very little children, very little
points. evil you have the apple or the
orange? You cannot have both. Choose /;
but after you have chosen you cannot
change" "Will you have the horse back
ride today, or the concert tomorrow night
You can have but one"
Every day, many times day, child
should decide for himself points involving
pros and cons-substantial ones, too. Let
him even decide unwisely, and take the
consequences; that, too, is good for him.
No amount of Blackstone can give such
: idea of law as a month of prison. Tell him
as much as you please of what you know on
both sides, but compel him to decide, and
, also compel him not to be too long about
it. CHOOSE We this day whom we will
) serve" is a good text for every morning.
If men and women had in their child
hood such training of their wills weshould
: not see so many putting their hands to the
pillow and looking back, and not "ftfor the
kingdom of heaven" Nor for any king.
, dom of earth, either, unless it be for the
| wicked little kingdom of the Prince OF
Monaco, where there are but two things tc
3 be done-gamble or drown yourself--h.
? dependent.