Fayette County herald. [volume] (Washington [Washington Court House], Fayette County, O. [Ohio]) 1860-1???, 1872-02-01
Fireside Philosophy.

Fireside Philosophy.
Home and family have come down
to US in their integrity and apprecia-
ton from the TeutoDic race In the
earliest days of which we have authen-
tic record, the pagan Germans revered
woman and priced chastity. To this
day the Englishman's house is his cas-
tie, not only in the eye of the law, but
in his affections, habits, and customs.
No Englishman lives, if he can help it,
in house containing more than one
tenement. He hides it behind high
walls, amid deep shrubbery. His doors
are not opened to a stranger without
cause shown. His hospitality is not
for the public eye. He is cautious to-
ward, if not cold to, those who seek
his acquaintance. But once within the
sacred precincts, and, practically
speaking, all reserve is banished.-
Confidence is full and free; the mind
and heart are laid open; suspicion
sleeps, and frank intercourse prevails.
The Scotch carry both their caution
and their open heartedness still furh-
er. It is very naughty but common
saying in bonnie Scotland that you
never quite know a man till you have
been fou with him. What is meant
is, that not until one has passed the
ordeal of intimate and unrestrained
socially is he to be enrolled as broth
of the guild, and entitled to the privi-
! leges of the house and the rights of
frindship.
! Americans are neither so retiring in
the first place, nor SO lavish in their,
confidence at last. Ours is a sort of
best, room intercourse. 1t smacks of
the conventionalities of the parlor. It
does not say to the guest: s'There is
your room. Dinner at six Make
yourself comfortable" Nor, as among
! themselves, do the members of our
households SO fully enjoy homelife as
do the same class in Great Britain
We do not give so much time to each
other, nor do we so completely sepa-
rate the business of life from its pleas
ures. W. are not so absorbed, save
in large cities, during business hours,
and we do not free ourselves so com
pletely from care at any time. The
strain upon the merchant, the manu-
facturer, the professional man is con-
slant and wearing; we grow old fast,
and we get nervous and dyspeptic long
before we grow old.
Reason enough there is for this haste
this labor, and even this worry, to tht
ordinary mind Have we not millions
of acres of land to be subdued anc
! cultivated? Towns to build up? Rail
roads to construct? Cloth to make
p and goods to transport? Are we not
e in word, young, vigorous, growing
= nation, with everything to do-the fu
ture all before US? Grant it. AnC
e yet are we to ignore the graces ant
f blessings of life Man lives not b,
q bread alone, we are told upon th
highest authority; and it is question
= whether we do most effectually secur
the material end when we overloo
k or postpone the aesthetic part of ou
It nature. Is it not a fact that the mai
|. who goes from his home in the morn
p ing, fresh from cordial interchane
of sentiment with his family, followe
5 by the kind expression of interes
1t from those nearest to him, joyous wit
l. the remembrance of fpleasant faces an
II glowing words of love, is better pr
pared to meet the cares and vexatior
e Of business than he who feels that ne
l. ther wife nor child has sympathy wit
n or for him. And, on the other hanC
in this is just as true of the wife, who,
20 her sphere, has just as many tribul
tions, just as much care, and who, b
a. sides, is naturally more sensitive, mo-
Is dependent upon the magnetism of
~ warm and buOyant companionship.
= One would think, from perusal
~ the popular literature Of the day, tn
the great problem is how easiest ar
>, oftenest the marital relation might
- dissolved, rather than how it can al
~ should be made the happiest, holes
most blessed relation of life. The
is no fallacy more common or mo
i'm pernicious in its influence than th
which holds that escape from prese
annoyances or troubles will secu
;, freedom from all vexation and sorro
> This is not, and is not intended to /
me a world of perfect happiness. Eve
IN state, condition, and calling, has
es' peculiar trials as well as its espec
= advantages. No home will be hap
lis without forethought, self denial, a
or the bearing of one another's burdel
e's They who fly, or would fly, from
FOR reasonable restraint, who are not "
ling to do as well as be done by, {
not likely to find contentment in iso
ton or promiscuous society. Whet
is er prompted by an ignoble and inC
tbo fensible selfishness, or by vain ID
M that happiness, like the rain, ia
70 alike on the just and the unjust, or
In the still more idle fancy that the cal
100 belongs to the Saints, and that e0e
md the Saints, it will be found by {
100 sooner or later, that it is wiser as W
ur- as more profitable in every way to +
ere ones shot-to give always Qnjd Z
ra,n to ntinld a r1n1Inh 10 NO nxrnnf