Litchfield enquirer., 1876-11-16
Sour Milk.

We do not propose to deal with the ar- ticle which is apt to figure as deduction from the semi-monthly returns of the milk farmer. We do not treat of the commercial article of milk but of the nor al article known as ''the milk of human kindness" Sweet, it is one of the most acceptable products of the human heart; sour, it is the most detestable of moral beverages. And the market abounds with the sour milk of human kindness to an extent that certainly claims the attention of moral guide and instructor such as the LitchfieId Enquirer claims to be. Indeed. curdled affection is the poison ed product of the noblest hearts. Calm, self-poised people, who always love wise- ly and never too we'll, seldom feel the sting of ingratitude or the bitterness of unrequited affection SO sharply as to em- bitter them against their kind. It is the over-generous. over-confding, over-affec- 1 tionate natures that sour into misanthro- py. Constant disappointments in their relations of trust and affection engender bitternesses, suspicious, and hatreds that often work an entire and most lamentable transformation of character.
 Few natures are strong and sweet enough to bear the failure to attain the objects ot their l1fe's ambition without be- coming more or less soured. Financial failure Is hard; but 1t is social failure that bears hardest on the moral nature. It is a very fine man and a miracle of woman that can bear a fall in the soclal scale without repining to the very last. Yet how full of social as well as financial re- verses is American life ? Hence it hap pens that the pleasantest people we usu- ally meet are the people that are success full. They carry about no sour milk in their hearts; hut there is certain un- pleasant taint of arrogance that is al- most as sure sign of success as the bit ter tone is of unsuccess; so that, after all, the pleasantest people ID the world are those who have failed but are not soured by failure. Unfortunately there are not many of them. ....
 There is great deal of milk soured in the human heart from lack of frank dealing. Next to an honest liking an hon. est dlsliking is the best thing in this world. Unreaulted affection kills no- body! Let a man frankly ask a woman to become his wife and frank refusal does not hurt him permanently. There is mutual respect forever after. But let her daily with his affection, never hon. orably reject nor honorably accept it and he learns not only to hate her but the whole sex she represents. So, too, the broken hearts are mostly women's. sick with hope deferred and with waiting for happiness forever postponed by circum- stances they have no power to control.
 Sometimes the gospel of forgiveness IS awfully perverted. Open malice is hard ly as hateful as the malignant forgiveness that unforgiving natures try to palm off on friends and enemies, and perhaps on themselves, as a genuine article. They offer their estranged brethren sour milk for sweet, and then wonder and lament because it IS not gratefully accepted. Then, too. unwise friends often perpetu- ate differences by insisting on their prema- ture settlement, unaware of the fact that there is nothing that makes a q aarrel so bitter as imperfect reconciliation. Fract- ured friendships, like fractured bones, need certain delay before they can knit together again. :,
 The work of cleansing the heart of it's soured affections is one of the first and hardest of our moral duties Uncleansed, like tainted vessel, it sours every thing that is poured into it. It would be a mar vel if anyone lived long in this world those who cannot return it. It is mis- take that is peculiarly hard to bear. but it often happens without serious fault on either side. The sound heart soon recog. nizes it's mistake, and never allows the an- noyances of incompatibility to rankle into hatred. Time and absence are also won- derful physicians in this as in other troubles. That is very fiery hatred which, without the addition of naw fuel, will not soon burn out. The worst cases are those of incompatible tempers living in forced companionship. It is blunder that amounts to a sin that keeps up such companionships when they can by any possibility be avoided; for the fact that this is such a wide world is one of the most hopeful social facts in it.
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