Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1875-05-20


apprehension of these things means self
denial. 1t means that some thing must
be given up for the sake of some other
things, some pleasant things for the sake
of some things which may not be imme-
diately pleasant, but which are essential
to the ultimate establishment of our
right to be here on the planet enjoying
the various benefits of existence. AS
soon as possible every child should be
made to know that as life is perpetual
receiving it ought, in all fairness and
honesty and decency, to be perpetual
giving.
And every soul that takes
And gives not on again
Is so a link that breaks
In Heavens love made cham.
AS soon as possible every child should be
made to know that man or woman who
enjoys the pleasures Of existence with
out doing anything to augment the gen.
eral sum of them is pauper and thief;
that he is this no less in broadclOth than
in rags; that no father or mother C,sn
generously absolve him from the claims
which society and God have upon him.
Every consumer who is not at the same
time a producer ought to be heartily
ashamed of himself, or, if not personally
responsible, heartily and righteously in
dignant with those Who have subjected
him to such base position. No drudg
cry is so degrading as mendicancy, though
it be clothed in purple and fine linen. A
scavenger's hook is a more kingly
scepter than a donothing dandy's
cane Do not think, oh, young
man, Or young woman, because your
parents have laid to their bones and
reared fortune that you have right to
live upon it without adding anything
thereto or in any way contributing to the
stock of human benefit. Prof. Cairnes,
says, in recent work: "That useful
function which some profound writer's
fancy they discover in the abundant eX-
penditure of the idle rich turns out to be
a sheer illusion. The wealth accumu-
lated by their ancestors or others in their
behalf, when employed as capital, no
doubts helps to sustain industry; but
what they consume in luxury and idle
ness is not capital, and helps to sustain
nothing but their own Improbable lives,
By all means they must have their rents
and interest as it is written in the bond.
But let them take their proper places as
drones in the hive, gorging at feast to
which they have contributed nothing"
But in order to contribute something
to the general stock of human wealth
and happiness, there must be self-culture.
And in order that there may be self
culture there must first be self-denial.
The little boy must give up his ball and
kite, the little girl her tea-set and doll,
when the school-room doors are opened.
A little further on the youth and maiden
must give up q great many things if they
are going to make any real Roadway in
their studies, great many social
pleasures and distractions. And parents
too must deny themselves no little for
their children's good. The man who is
away from home all day must not keep
his little daughter up far into the night,
either for her pleasure or his own, and
then fancy himself shocked at Abra-
hams sacrifice Of his son Isaac or Her
od's slaughter of the innocents. But it
is SeLfculture that we are speaking
of. At every step this calls for
self-denial. The selfdenial of the
child or youth is very small affair
to that which is demanded further on.
There could not be more absurd anti
thesis than that between self-culture and
self-denial. Whatever gift or faculty it
be that is cultivated, the cultivation of
it involves self-denial. At the concert or
the opera [ am sometimes less inspired
by the singers voice than by the refec-
ton how much self-denial it expresses,
how many things had to be given up
that that might be developed. "To
scorn delights and live laborious days"
is the lot of every man who is devoted to
the higher phases of self-culture. No
doubt, in course Of time, the joys Of in
tellectual advancement, the discovery Of
new truths and new affiliations of the
old, get to be more enticing than any
thing surrendered. 1t must have been
so with Sir Cornwall Lewis when he
said: Life would be so pleasant were
it not for its pleasures" It must be so
with every earnest worker in the higher
walks Of science, literature and art.
But self-denial is not more essential to
self-culture than self-culture to the
noblest exhibitions of self-sacrifce
The self-sacrifce which neces-
states self-culture is the conservation
of our ennobled and perfected selves to
whatever work our hands shall find to
do. A famous recipe for cooking hare