Iowa voter. [volume] (Knoxville, Iowa) 1867-1874, 1872-03-14
HABITS.

habits. Shakespeare taught us chow use
doth breed habit in a man.; for the fire.
quent repetition of acts causes a tenden-
Cyl almost resistless, toward their regular
recurrence, which has caused habit TO be
called kind of second nature growing
up within US. Observation, as well as
personal experience, teaches us that Pa
ley was right when he said: mankind
act more from habit than reflection, for
man is but bundle of habits" How
important, then--how vital, indeed-that
we should watch these habits in those
near to us, as well as in ourselves-know-
ing, as we do, that what at first an in
fant's hand could snap stiffen upon older
limbs like gives Of iron," or, as Cowper
SO strongly expressed it,
+" Habits soon assumed; but when we strive
TO strip them, It's being flayed alive"
My attention was directed toward this
subject by the request of an eminent di-
vine that | would write an article for the
Independent on the habit of using t0bdcco.
to which replied that it was scarcely
fitting that so new a convert should as
sumo the position of lecturer to others
on habit abandoned only last spring
But may say on this particular point,
without even apparent inconsistency,
that every years habit in that line makes
it more difficult to surrender it, even for
health's sake. At first, as is well known,
the system rejects it, as it rejects tartar
emetic. Nature, however, finally surren-
ders the contest and yields to its sway
1t becomes a companion and solace;
even more-a second nature, indeed.
When, at last, prudence, or duty, or
health, or example induce you to discon-
tinue it, there comes another struggle,
sharper than the first, and perhaps more
doubtful. 1t is the contest between habit,
on one side, and will, on the other, with
temptation and appetite giving constant
aid and comfort to the former, while the
latter must fight its battle alone, without
such powerful allies on its side
Bacon asserts that "habits, wisely form
ed, become truly a second nature, as the
common saying isl and, believing that
those unaotsely formed become the same,
it may not be improbable to look at a
few of the common everyday habits Of
mankind that are not wisely formed, and
which we should seek to eradicate from
our lives, as the farmer seeks to eradicate
the Canada thistle from his field.
D17actng.-No man ever became a
drunkard, lived drunkard's life, died
drunkards death, and filled a drunkard's
grave as a matter of free choice. No
one ever became an excessive drinker who
did not begin by the habit of being
moderate very moderate drinker. If it
were the habit of all not to take the first
step, and thus not become moderate
drinkers, the unutterable horrors and woe,
the restitution and crime, which result
from this master evil of intemperance
would cease. Wives and children, and
friends and communities, would not
mourn over loved ones thus dishonered
and lost But it IS the habit of drinking
becoming the law of their being and OF
their daily life. the lack of resisting
power resulting from this terrible thrall-
dom, the fever of habitual temptation
and appetite. which causes that yearly
death-march of sixty thousand OF our
people to the saddest of all deaths and
the saddest of all graves, followed, as
mourners, by half million of worse
than widowed wifes and worse than or
phaned children.
Profdnity Perhaps no offense against
the laws of God and the laws of man is
more directly traceable to habit than the
vile imprecatiOns which so often, on the
highway, shock and sadden the passer-by.
The brutal language addressed to brutes
and beasts of burden: the attempted in
classification of private conversation, even
the profane language SO often used IN
schoolboy quarrels or the heated contro.
verses of partisans, seems prompted
more by unwise and unrestrained habit
than by actual wickedness OF heart. car
by wear the habit grows, however, into a
second nature, until at last its victim finds
il impossible TO cast it of, and it becomes
the fruitful parent of other evil habits.
ave are not worst at once.
The course of evil begins so slowly,
And from such slight source, an infants mana
Could stem its course with clay.
But let the stream grow deeper,
And philosophy. aye, and religion. TOO,
May strive in vain to stem the headong torrent.
Temper. Like fire, temper, wisely con
trolled, is often an excellent servant but,
uncontrolled, a dangerous master Besides,
il must rule or serve. Without mental
power over it, sudden fits of passion often
overcome prudence, justice, even love IT.
self, the obligations of business, and the
ties of lifelong friendship while a phllos-
opher has affirmed that every ebullition
Of ungovernable tempers, every hot out.
burst of passion shorten ones life. lleld
to the habit, and it soon becomes your
daily disposition. Master it, and it ceases
to affict you. He is more than three,
armed who can be calm and self -contalned
when the poisoned arrows of malice or OF
hate pierce the most cruelty. For the IN
spired record declares, in language which
combines counsel with prophecy lie
that is slow to anger is better than the
mighty, and he that ruleth his spirit than
he that taketh city" And, if Tillotson
was correct when he said that LANCER IS
short fit of madness" how should all VINO
desire to have healthy mind in healthy
BODY guard themselves against the tenn
porary insanity it creates.
BachJiting. How much of this wee
there is all around us / need not attempt
to estimate. So important, apparently,
was II in the Creators mind to condem IL
that one of the Ten Commandments tthe
NINTH seems primarily aimed against IT;
and David tells us in the Psalms aIiat
among those who are to abide IN my
tabernacle will be found che that back
biteth not with his tongue; while Paul,
in III. Corinthians, specially denounced
enyyinrs, strifes. and backbitings. Not
ONLY is its influence felt in bearing false
witness directly against our absent neigh-
bor: but in the appetite for retailing the
defamatory words of others against nun.
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