Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1876-03-22
False Affection,

Is SO KIM AS 10 De CTucI. tt&
1t seems a rough assertion, as if in
life where even the first law of nature
tends to concentrate upon self, where we
live for ourselves and die by ourselves, it
were possible to love others too much.
and by any means possible to love those
too much who love us in return.
1t is not "tOO much" however. Of
which we speak. Nobody, it is safe to
say, was ever loved too much. The world
is so hard experience has so sad a side,
even, if its other side be joyous; we meet
with so much indifference and neglect:
need to make the most of it, and need EN-.
phatically all the love that can be poured,
like precious oil, upon us. 1t is not that
any one is loved too much; it is that they
are loved not wisely, but toe we'll"
But it is not to be disputed that love ad
ministered unwisely is injurious. With
food we can none of US dispense; but food
given too richly and too frequently, and
without regard to its effects, would be
ruinous to US all. We should never think
of subjecting a cherished house plant to a
too luxurious heat; we known that undue
warmth would wither its tender leaflets
and shrivel it to worthlessncss; nor would
we think Of enriching it with too unctu-
Gus soil or with too much sunshine, lest
either its roots be rotted or itbe drawn to
blossom till all its strength is Slapped, and
it blossoms itself to death. Why, then,
should we subject our more tender human
plants to fate from which we shrink
both for ourselves and our mute play
things? {m
Too much petting, too much plying of
our children, too much indulgence, too
much sparing and saving from trouble
and from natural suffering, too much at
tention to securing for them that happi
ness which it is wholesomer and better in
every way that they should secure for
themsclves--all that is equivalent to the
devitalizing weather, to the root.and
tiber-rotting richness of compost that kills
the Towering plant in our windows.
Why should we pity them, indeed
They are young! While one is young, is
he to be pitied? Those who haveslost
youth, that greatest of possessions, will
declare to you that all else is naught
While people have the elasticity, the
strength, the health, the buoyant happi-
ness of that growth which is momently
and unconsciously appropriating to itself
all the forces Of the universe, are they to
he pitied because they can not wear gowns
of gold cloth or eat pound-cake toast for
breakfast? Youth itself is treasure and
| happiness enough. When one is young,
| ii seems to those who are old he cannot be
! very miserable, nor for any long time to-
gether. Then hope springs like heaven
| over us; then we have the present, and en-
| Joy the future too then we are unaware of
our bodies, that burden which, the mo-
ment we find ourselves carrying, we cease
| to be young. Pity the youngy AS well
| pity the sky that burns blue, the river that
runs, the flower that blows.
| But we pity them, says this injudicious
elder with whom we are dealing, because
the future lies before them---the future
that we have tried and found so hard
| True, we answer, the future may be hard:
| nobody knows what fate has in store. But
just as likely it may be easy; and whether
or no, IL is only going to make it so much
| the harder to them to soften and emascu-
late them in the beginning by the receipt
| of SO much pity that they learn to pity
| themselves, and are shrinkingly bowed
| down twice as easily as if, unacquainted
with danger, they boldly went forward to
the work. Those who prepare themselves
to enter a fight for the belt of the worlds
championship do not first lie down and
luXuriate and lead soft, emollient days,
but tougher themselves in every muscle
| to meet the blows ahead.
| And if we should not pity them, why,
either, should we indulge them, that is,
| beyond the limit of healthy indulgence?
Is the dear one to have any happiness at
all, by-and-by, when we have taught him
to expect the qualification of every idle
| wish, and he comes upon that period
| which has no indulgence for him save
| that which he wrings from 1t hard hand
eds is he, moreover, any better, any
| loftier or stronger spiritually, for never
having been taught sclf-surrender, never
having been habituated to the practice OF
fittings that lift one high among the
| heroes and demi- gods
To spare trouble now in any remarka-
Die degree to the children that we love is
scarcely anything more than to insure
them double quantity of it byand-by.
Now, in their elastic health and spirits,
| trouble rolls off them like rain drops off Il
| leaf; but having seen it., they are not to be
| taken by surprise by it hereafter, and are
| not stunned and made helpless by the
shock when they find it standing in their
path.
1t is not, indeed, desirable, with view
| to the development Of their characters,
that they really should be entirely un-
touched by trouble. There are noble
qualities which only that rude touch brings
out-courage, determination, torbearance,
| compassion for others, hatred OF wrong;
! and it would be "A poor and false aifec-
ton Chat would leave their characters so
one sided and imperfect as the absence Of
| these and similar traits would make 1t.
Poor child" says the unwise guardian,
she is going to come to his kingdom
soon enough; he little knows the coil
there is before him; let him enjoy himself
while he can. | don't mean that he shall
| Lnau. tAcre is any irnnhle In the Mnrll ILL