River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1875-08-13
Talks With the Young People.
No. =.
No. ..
Habit.

hrst seemed very dlthcult, and required
great eff,rt, will be performed with thu
greatest ease, almost involuntarily.
DR.. Abercrombie relates an inciden
like this, illustrating the power of hab
it: A young lady was once playing ;
difficult piece of music in the presence
of her teacher. Her fingers ran over
the keys Of the piano with wonderful
rapidity aud precision. She seemed
very much agitated, and at the close o.
the performance burst into tears. The
cause of her agitation was not the char
acter of the music she had been play.
ing. She had been watching the dying
struggles of bird whose cage hung
over the piano. Her whole attention
had been absorbed by that, and she
had executed the difficult music un.
consciously, merely from the power Of
habit. So our habits control us,--in
very many cases tyrannize over us.
They are very easily formed, but once
acquired, 1t requires the strongest eff
fort to change them. The little acts
of life, the momentary practices OF
every day, ere we are aware of it,
have strengthened into a strong cord
that binds one to good or evil. lave
gone into ''rope.walk" and seen the
process of rope.makiDg. One strand
was stretched so fine and slender that
an infants hand could snap it; then
another equally 6ue was bound about
this; then another ana another, while
each new thread added strength to
the cord, until mighty cable was
formed, capable of supporting the
weight of tons, or of holding large YES.
sells in their mornings. What at FIRST
could not resist the infants strength
now defies giants p over. 1t is pre-
cisely so with habit. An act easily
broken off at first, by constant repeti-
ton grows and strengthens until il
holds 10 bonds the strongest will. How
important then is the formation of good
habits. Your happiness, dear reader,
your success in life, depend entirely
on the formation of correct habits.
And yet it requires almost constant
watchfulness to acquire these. Ii
seems to me, one Of the evidences Of
our depravi;y is the readiness with
which we take to evil. Bad habits
like bad weeds, spring up without much
cultivation; they seem indigenous to
the human heart. have somewhere
read an apologize which forcibly illus
trates the growth of an evil habit.
Abdalah, the scholar, was one day
lingering over his morning repast,
when there came little fly aud alight-
ell on the rim of his goblet. II was
scarcely large enough to be noticeable.
1t slipped particle of syrup and was
gone. Next day it came again and
seemed so beautiful that the scholar
could not find 1t in his heart to drive
il away. So it came day after day,
continually waxing bolder and growing
larger. Soon it appeared as a locust:
then as a singing bird; then in the
form of a man. The greater it grew
the more winning we're its ways.
Every day it consumed more of the
food of Abdallah. Every day he grew
weaker, and tho guest stronger. Ere.
quently he contended against it, but
his power of resistance became less and
less. One day the students missed Alb.
dallah from the assembly room. They
resorted to his chamber, and on open
ing the the door, behold! on the sivau
lay the dead body of the scholar. His
visage was black and swollen, and on
his throat was the mark Of large
hand. The lfttle fly had grown to a
real giant, and destroyed the learned
man.
What means this apologize? Who
can explain it? Now, evil habit isthus
constantly expanding. Il may come
10 at the key-hole, but it will soon
grow too big for the house At first il
may seem too trivial for serious attack,
bu, it will presently prove the death Of
the owner. An evil habit is an elf con.
stantly expanding Let il but once