Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1873-05-28
Wet tho Clay.

Once | stOOu IN Miss llOsmef stuuloi |
looking at statue which she was model.
ing Of the ex.queen of Naples.
Face to face with the clay model, al
ways feel the artists creative power far
more than whom | am looking at the i'm
movable marble
\ touch here -there-and all is changed.
Perhaps, under my eyes, in the twinkling Of
an eye, one trait springs into life and
another disappears.
The queen, who is very beautiful wo-
man, was represented in Miss Ilosmers
statue as standing, wearing the picturesque
cloak that She wore during those bard days
Of garrison life at Gacta, when she showed
herself so brave and strong that the world
said if she, instead Of that very stupid
young man her husband had been king, the
throne need not have been lost. The very
cloak made Of light cloth showily faced
with scarlet, was draped over a lay figure
in one corner Of the room. In the statue
the folds Of drapery over the right arm
were entirely disarranged, simply rough
clay. The day before they had been APP
pareutly finished but that morning Miss
Hosmer had, as she laughingly told US,
"puled it all to pieces again
As She said this she took up large
syringe and showercd the statue from head
to foot with water, till it dripped ard shcne
as if had just been plunged into bath.
Now it was in condition to be nodded.
Many times day this process must be re-
peated, or the clay becomes so dry aud bard
that it cannot be worked
had known this before but never did
| so realize the significant symbolism Of the
act as when looked at this ifeless yet
lifelike thing, to be made into the beauty
of woman, called by her name, and cherish
ed after her death-and saw that only
through this chrysalis of the clay, so cared
| for, moistened, aud nodded, could the marble
obtain its soul.
/ And, as all things | see in life seem to
me to have a voice either for or Of children,
so did this instantly suggest to me that
most Of the failures Of mothers come from
their not keeping the clay wet.
The Slightest touch tells on the clay when
it is soft and moist, and you can produce just
the effect which is desired but when the
clay is too dry it will not yield, aud often
il breaks and cIumbes beneath the un-
skillful hand.
How perfect the analogy between these
two results, and the two atmospheres which
one often sees in the spaces Of one half.
hour in the management Of the same child /!
One person can win from it instantly gen
tie obedience that persons smile is re-
ward, that persons displeasure is grief it
cannot bear, that persons opinions have ut
most weight with it, that persons presence
is a controlling and subduing influence
Another, alas the mother, produces such
an opposite effect that it is hard to believe
the child can be the same child. Her sim.
pest command is met by autagouism or sui.
len compliance; her pleasure and displeas'
ure are plainly Of DO account to the child
aud It's great desire is to get out Of hel
presence
What shape will she make out Of thai
childs soul? She does not wet the clay
She does not stop to consider before eact
command whether it be wholly Just, wheth
er it be the best time to make it, and wheth
er she can explain its necessity. Oh tn,
sweet reasonab.eness of children when disa
= greeable necessities are explained to them
instead of being enforced as arbitrary tyr
annies She does not make them so fee
that she shares all their sorrows and pleas
ures that they cannot help being in turI
glad when she is glad, and sorry when sh'
is sorry She does not so take them int
constant companionship in her interests
each day-the books, the papers she reads
the things she sees-that they learn to hol'
her as the representative of much mor'
than nursery discipline, clothes and breac
and hutter. She does not kiss them ottel
enough, put her arms around them, warm
. soften, bathe them in the ineifable sunshin
e of loving ways. II can't imagine VIII,
children are so much better with you tha
I with me, exclaims such a mother.
: No, she cannot imagine and that is th
j trouble. If she could, all would be right
! ed 1t is quite probable that she is a ia
}, more anxious, self-saerifcing, hard-workin
mother than the neghbor, whose childre
: are rosy and frolicking and afiectionate an
o obedient while hers are pale and fretfu
o aud selfish and sullen.
!. She is all the time working working
;, with eudess activity on hard, dry clay
e and the neghbor, who perhaps half uncon
sciously, keeps the clay wet, is with oae
It half the labor modelling sweet creatures 0
o natures own loveliest shapes
l. Then she says, this poor tired mother
it discouraged because her children tell lie:
" aud irritated because they seem to he
is thankless, " After all, children are prett
d much alike, | suppose. | believe mos
', children tell lies when they are little ; an
is they never realize until they are grown u
ts what paronts do for them"
Here again | find similitude anon
D. the artists who paint or model. Studio
r. are full Of such caricatures, and the har
:. working, honest souls who have made thel
ID believe that they are true reproductions {
% nature and life See my cherub. Al
il not all cherubs such as he ?" and {" Bahol
these trees and this water and how th
d. sun glowed on the day when [ wake
to there p and all the while the cherub
Of like paper doll, aud the trees and ii
water never had any likeness to anythir
II. that is in this beautiful earth But, aft'
10 all this simiitude is short and paltry, Il
a. it is Of comparatively small moment th'
so many men aud women spend their liv'
- in making bad cherubs in marble, and hid
We Gus landscapes in OIL 1t is industry, al
- it keeps them in bread in butter, too,
their cherubs and trees are very bad. Bu
when it is human being that is to
nodded, how do We dare, even with all ii
d. help which we can ask and find in ear
ot and in heaven, to shape il by our touch !
81 Clay in the hands of the potter is not mo
he plastic than is the little ohild's soul in Il
rs. hands of those who tend it. Alas he
gh many shapeless, how many Informed, he
OF many broken do we see ! Who does n
'e believe that the image of God could ha
ais been beautiful on all Sooner or later
'il- will be, thank Christ But what pit
is what loss, not to have had the swe
3D. blessedness OF being even here felow-wor
Die ers with him in this glorious modelling
nd eternity
he
to
ali Whoever learns to stsnd alone must lea
to fall alone.