The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1871-10-13
same house, the same blood, playmates,

wind to the shorn lambs of every flock.
No garden so barren but good health
can plant flowers therein and make
them grow. No hearth so desolate but
il can wake song thereby. No bosom
so dry but it can make Joy flow from it,
as water burst from the desert rock in
Meribah. 1t is indeed above all gold
and treasure 1t is indeed " the poor
mans riches and the rich mans bliss y
the salt of the earth and the bond of so
ciety.
Happiness is in ourselves, and not the
effect of distributed gifts unequally flung
abroad. The ragged beggar, sturdy and
brown in the open air, who has but a
crust in his wallet, and never penny in
his purse, nor never purse itself,
knows far more of the enjoyments OF
life than the wealthiest millionaire OF
us all, who cannot count even his mo-
ney in peace, because the govt twinges
him so savagely. And it seems to me
that we of the world do not take sutii.
cient note Of these things in the con-
duct of our reformatory projects. We
begin our reforms al tie ScrOng end. The
misery, and wretchedness, and degrade
ton Of "the dangerous classes" are the
fruits Of bad air, bad food. bad ways of
life, rather than of innate criminal in
stincts and vicious associations. Mr.
Chadwick" says Sir Benjamin Brodie,
" has shown that many persons lin
London) are driven to drinking gin as
atfording a temporary relief to the feel.
ings Of depression and exhaustion pro
duced by living in noXious atmos
phere; and he gives instances OF indi.
vduals who had spontaneously aban-
doned the habit when they were en-
abled to reside in a less crowded and
more healthy locality, where they could
breathe pure, air instead Of noxious
eXhalations." And it seems indeed
that the right way to make these classes
better is not TO preach TO them nor
punish them for what they cannot
help nor to send them to school nor to
make their case worse by violent repres-
sions and prohibitory laws, but to
cleanse them, and feed them. and
clothe them, and put them in the way
to regain their right minds, by the salu-
tary powers Of hygiene and the benef-
cent influences Of health. Send mis-
sionaries and tracts to them if you will,
and do not abolish prisons nor hanging,
but at the same time seek to effect
more salutary reforms by good food,
good air, good water, baths, and encour-
aging and profitable labor In this
way, at least, we shall run no risk Of
giving a stone where we are asked for
bread; nor will we do any harm to the
progress of moral and spiritual reform
when we clear away the brambles that
entangle the feet Of its advancement.
1t is certain, however, that the hui
man race is not adequately blessed with
this good health which is shown TO be
so desirable and so necessary. II is
certain that the throat Stays moro than
the sword. 1t is certain that an infinite
multitude Of diseases wait upon mans
footsteps from the cradle to the grave.
and that, as Cyprian said, each human
body has more several torturinC pricks
and aches than it has members Con
stantly, and with the dawn OF each in
coming generation, new diseases spring
up, bringing new pains to wreak upon
US
" Macies, ct nova febrium
Terris incubit cohors."
And although each period has had it,
occasional stout miracle Of health and
longevity, its old Parr, its Henry Jen-
kins, its Countess Desmond though all
the chronicles tell us of such men as
Cornaro, who wrote comedies at eighty
three and treatise on health at nine
ty; of Zerophilus the musician; of
! apayUat1 ~
illus, who kept himself sweet and sound
for a century by careful ministrations of
wine and oil 10 himself; of Quintus
Metellus, and of many others who have
happily lived long years without suffer
ing from any impediment, yet we be-
lieve that these are merely phoenix
cases, and that, as Hesiod has told us
was the case in his own time, each age.
and every race, and earth and sea, and
day and night, have borne sad fruit for
selt-wllled men in evils and in restless
plaugues and torments.
Certainly what was the rule in Hest.
obs day is still more the rule in these
contemporary times. We live better.
have better food, and more Of it, and
are more rational in our respect for hy-
giene but for all that we do not live so
nationally, nor so wholesomely, and
consequently have not such strong
health. Fewer children die with US
than in former times, in spite of the
homicidal iniquity of "swill milk and
pestilence is neither so rife nor so diff
cult to combat The result of this is,
that the average life of generation of
men is much greater in duration than
OF old. Yet not so many men grow old
2. formerly, nor do so many men nova
days possess unbroken health. We live
too fast, III fact; and we neglect TO re-
spect those laws of physiology which IN
struct us that intensive life can only
be purchased at the cost of extensive
life. 1t is the natural tendency of
civilization to weaken while it refnes.
and there is very deep import in the
texture Of this aporism,-a proof of that
fatality which is congener-
ons with liberty in mans nature, and
goes hand in hand with him, step by
by step through all the stages of his be-
deep fatality the contempla-
ton of which in its relation to the des-
TIMES of man prompted Goethe to his
precept: Provision has
been made that the trees do not grow
i'm 70 tho civ - Tho corrolotion Of cCrooe