Iowa voter. [volume] (Knoxville, Iowa) 1867-1874, 1871-12-28

wearing by which the river HAS sus A''
way into the valley; the slow anu silent
! increase by which stratum has been add
ed 10 stratum. and from the great granite
bones we have risen up 10 rich, loamy
fields and the leafy mould of gardens.
i All these things have been done by in
dividually unconsidered tribes, yet in
their totality we see the very garment
and architecture of the world. And life IS
very much like the flint insect and the chalk
formation. The tritles of one 5
DAYS are the irresistible forces OF the
wears; and habits or events that in the be-
ginning were soft and pulpy become, by
tuse and time, as hard as rock-as integral
to the being as the coral reefs are TO the
island which has grown upon them. 1T
was only this once and it was "a mere
trifle," and lit did not signify and SO
these unconsidered trifles struck their
roots, and grew up softly but steadily,
till at last those most interested woke as
from dream 10 find themselves IN tons
from which they could never get free.
Men are not born full-fedged into any
thing. Neither the drunkard nor the
murderer was hardened to his trade from
the beginning; and all crimes come by de-
grees, and through the influence OF the
unconsidered trifies of guilt. So of less
fatal faults. The snappish answer OF the
child becomes the habit of irritability in
the adult; and the habit works round to
the starting place, insomuch as 1t becomes
so far like an unconsidered tritie that the
irritable man never thinks any one should
be offended with his peevishness, and if
he was quick or surly, what does it matter?
The same is true of kindness-those
small, sweet deeds of charity and love,
~. II. h. ,,f In 10 of
life. They are tritling things to give, may
be; but all the same they are as the typical
mustard seed. which bears such goodly
wealth Of stem and foliage from SO small
a core. They sink deep, and many q
poor, sad heart has been helped over a
bad place in life by one small word of
sympathy, one little deed of pleasant at
tention, one unconsidered trifle of kind
ness, which the giver thereof might not
have held as of any value even when he
bestowed it.
How begins the leakage of fortunes?
BY unconsdcred triiles OF extravaganza,
going on into greater follies certainly; but
the beginning as we say How begins
the habit Of living, but by the same means?
And so we may say Of every fault, either
by mental preparation or by the actual
graduation of deeds Many man and
wife have been parted because the trifies
of temper and behavior were not attended
to; so that small frets grew into large an
noyances, and things went from not so
good as might be into absolute bad, too
bad to be borne; the imp of thoughtless-
ness uncorrected waXed strong, and final
" developed into the giant of discord,
whom none then could master or subdue;
and there was nothing for it but scpara-
ton, until death came to sunder them still
more efiectually. And all this because
the unconsidered trihes of daily life had
been neglected, and few loose shingles
had been allowed to creep down and ac-
cumulate until they became 'screes,'
carrying all before it.
The health of the body follows the same
laws as those which govern the health of
the mind and of life. The uncon-
feeding, foul air, fatigue, etc, count
for nothing in the estimation of
those who will not see, perhaps do not
fully know how the great fabric of hui
man existence is built up of little bits,
both individually and collectively; how
minutes make hours, and before you can
have the result of years you must go
through the gatherings of days. 1t is
only trifle that your cook makes oily
hashcs, heavy pastry and sad bread
only trifle that lays the foundation OF a
dyspeptic condition which embitters your
whole after-life. 1t is only tritie when
= A-el+E- children "pat trash from the hedges,
and worse trash from the sweet shop; but
triflc that does for them what your I'M
skillful cook has done for yourself, and the
. consequences of which they will have cause
to bemoan all their days to come. That
ditch at the bottom of your garden-well,
there is no denying that it smells badly
, enough in certain winds; but that is a
, mere triflc-a thing you cannot be cx-
pected to bother about when you have SO
, much more important work on hand in
the planning OF your new conservatory,
and your endcavOr to rival your neighbor
in producing calceolarias or dracanas.
The ditch is trifle compared to the i'm
portance of such pursuits triflc, how
ever, that brings diptheria and typhus
, into your pretty house, and takes of your
children like sheep with the rot You
had better have turned your attention to
this unconsidered trille at the bottom OF
your garden, than to have spent ali your
energies over a new conservatory, or the
best method of producing calceolarias OF
dracmnas. You overfatigue yourself you
/ heat your blood, and you sit in n
small draught when heated What does
it matter? That little current of air is
nothing save perhaps delicious refresh
ment-a mere trifie not to be thought
about; but it is one that only costs you
an attack of inflammation of the lungs,
, by which you are reduced from the pride
of your strength to condition of endur-
ing debility, wherein life is robbed of half
It's pleasure and more than half its useful
ness. You get a small illness; grant it,
} quite small-a mere infant of an illness,
manageable in the beginning without
, trouble. You regard it as trfie; you do
] not consider it of the least importance;
you let it 20 on as it will, and get ahead
] of your powers; and then you are laid on
your back By it like the weaker of two
) wrcstlers, and you have to go through the
purgatory of "a severe attack till you
are brought down to deaths door, and
perhaps pushed inside. 1t was an uncon-
sidered tritie that did it, and here is the
end
No! there are very few things in life of
which we can rightly make unconsidered
ttrifles. Almost all the circumstances in
which we live have grave potentialities
within them; severe importance attached