The new Northwest. [volume] (Portland, Or.) 1871-1887, 1874-09-18
Unseen Work.

The world is full Of martyrs, men and
women whose lives find no record,
whose work finds no mention, but whose
impress is left wherever their hearts
beat, wherever their footsteps tread.
They are the pioneers of our civiliZa-
ton; their bones bleach the earth
which they prepared for occupation and
enjoyment; they dug the roads and
planted the trees which shelter us from
the heat and make garden of the will
derness. They expended their brief
lives in labor of which, without thought
of what it cost, we enjoy the results.
No work, however small, no under
taking, however large, has been accom-
plished without much of this unseen
effort. Wherever we see 4 result, no
matter how insignificant, we may be
certain that unseen agencies have been
engaged for long time i'm bringing it
about, and what we see is the smallest
part Of that which remains behind. The
unwritten stories are the saddest, the
unseen work the hardest, the unknown
prophets the truest, the unthought-of
influences the strongest.
We talk Of education as if it were
confined to the few years and technical
routine of school life, wholly disregard
full of habits, of ancestry, of the whole
past of which the child is made up.
Parents form ideal theories respecting
their children, and are disappointed at
not realizing them, when their whole
past life and parental influences, Of
which the children are the outgrowth,
are opposed to these high-wrought con-
ceptiOns. The conduct of children Is
constantly bringing TO light the unseen
work performed upon them in the past,
and before they saw the light. More
over, what was perhaps but a tendency
or inclination in a parent or ancestor,
| becomes, by the force of new comblna-
/ tions wrought out in the unseen labora-
tory, A passion in the child. The wife
of butcher indulges her craving to see
animals killed in the slaughter-hOusei
| in her child it becomes q horrible in
stinct to torture and murder every little
innocent that comes in his way
Children will soon be recognized as
the pages upon which the record of their
parentage and ancestry are plainly
written. Honor and truth, mutual love
and unbroken faith, will find reeog-
milton quiet, obscure and eventful
though their course-while falsehOod,
treachery, deceit, lying, knavery and
wickedness of every description will
write their history so plainly that he
who runs may read.
One of the strongest incentives on the
part Of parents to the practice of all the
virtues is the result in the lives and
conduct of their children. What we
desire our children to be we must be.
In these cases at least an ounce of prac-
tice is worth a pound of precept. II is
worth nothing to inculcate certain
moral ideas, while our daily life is in di-
rect opposition to our doctrines anu the
If we have planted potato, it is no Use
IN talk cauli-fower. 1t will come up
potato, good or bad, according to the
original stock, aided by past neglect OF
cultivation. This is how unseen work
tells. 1t shows itself in results-resulti
not always commensurate apparently
with the labor and effort, but unmis-
taxable, and fruitful of good or evil tf
those who come after. - Hearth GRo
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