Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1875-11-03
is well prepared for it, he cannot /
know until he has read it.

~ ZIG do erroneous as any,, is often
met with. 1t is the idea that all the
members of family ought at least
to try to do, and study the same
things. Is it true that parents hay
ing the requisite education should
feel under obligations to superintend
the studies Of their daughters whose
school education is finished? Must
the father give up his study OF the
currency question, and the mother
lay by her book of travels or her
novel to learn French with one
daughter and microscopic Botany
with another? Perhaps another
daughter has taste for archaeology,
what then? That is an exceptional
home in which any member can
carry on three or four lines of study
at the same time, and certainly, now
when it is SO impossible to go over
all the fields of knowledge, the stu
dies taken up after school days are
over, should be selected with refer
ence to the taste and capacity of the
individual student. Undoubtedly if
all the members of a family engage
in the same pursuit, the united in
terest seems to result in more rapid
progress Of all, but most families
cannot be SO united. A profitable
study for one may be a waste of
time for the other; recreation for
all but one, may be an intolerable
task for that one. The tendency of
this idea is to prevent all study and
all advancement. Many a woman
feels aggrieved when her husband
taken up study in which she cap
not join; and if you ask her to study
something else with you, she an
swers, with Look of surprise and
mild reproach, "not without my
husband" Unless we can. have the
same thought at the same time, let
us cease to think, seems to be her
prayer.
During the season OF pleasure
travels in the summer, it often hap
pens that a family is broken up for a
time, each member going to diff
ferent place. Does any one suppose
hey are less harmonious when they
meet again in the fall? On the
contrary we all know they are more
entertaining to each other than they
ever were before. The new &C
quaintances each has made, the
places and the customs he has seen
are described over and over again
to the others, and the knowledge he
has gained becomes the knowledge
of the whole family. If there are
seven in the family, they have gain
ed seven times as much as though
they had spent the summer togeth-
er. In families where each makes
the mental excursions that invite
him most, the result is not less bene-
fetal. If he comes back renewed,
the others gain by it. If he comes
back unchanged, and as it were
empty handed, he is like many peo-
pie who travel on the railroad and
see nothing. Nobody is the worse
because he went away, AMI the fault
is in his own constitution, not in his q
falling to take the same road with
his friends.
It is in families where there are
occasional separations, physical and
mental, that the virtues of self re-
lance and individuality and the best
forms of friendship are most often
seen.
There is nothing like looking our
wrongs squarely in the ace, and courag
eously defying them. have. learned
never to cover before misfortune, but
to make great bound for the reins, TAX
ing them in my own hands, and leisurely
considering the matte in all its bearings
reduce it to philosophical Interpretation,
/ will not be ridden over rough-shod; II
my heart is breaking, must drive. Then
/ can make great leaps over rough places
but shall drive with slow and nerveless
hand around dead bodies. Fate may
guide the reins, but let me hold them
Martha c. Woodward.