Saint Mary's beacon. [volume] (Leonard Town, Md.) 1867-1983, 1878-01-11
Good Intentions.

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favorable time foz retrospective and in-
Irrespective thoaght, and the individual.
man or woman, must be superficial In
deed who at the close OF one era and
the heginning of another, marked by 50
much that Is interesting in the way Of
events, domestic and social, does not
take in review circumstances and &C
tions which have Influenced their lives,
and resolve, IN 30 far rs mental consti-
tuition win permit them, TO exercise
moral and Intellectual functions, 20 guard
- future lrnsn Fhe misinkfs and errors
Of the past.
He'll has been popularity and mis-
chievously said TO be paved with good
ictentions''-but if this be true, il must
be true Of heaven also. Intention must
pFecede every good act and five do not
always fulfill our best intentions, Il is
still better TO have them. 10 be stimu-
lated by them, 10 be stirred 10 endeaVor
or regret, than not to be moved or in
fuenced al all. '------ -
"Tis better to have loved and lost,
than never to have loved" says the
poet, and so of good intention, il ~ bet
ter than hard brutality or cynical indif-
ference; the heart or mind capable OF
intention may be stimulated to action.
A great help to good intention is def
mite purpose to act upon. Probably the
principal reason why our good resolves
so often 60 astray and are finally lost
sIght OF altogether is because they have
no distinct aim or object. We senti-
mentalize a little over our own short
comings, indulge in good deal Of self
pity ,and determine in a general way to
turn over a new leaf, or take "new
departure, as the modern phrase goes.
But we have not decided in what d.
rection our endeavor is to be made, or
the precise shape II is 10 assume, for it
seems somehow absurd to make res
oIution about some small thing which is
or ought to be a mere matter of course,
it would be a waste Of power-we
feel that our resolution would gain in
force as well as in glory by having an
object of sufficient importance to work
upon. So for want of the purpose the
resolve comes 10 naught, and in our ig-
norance we permit our bark to drift,
because no land Of great promise is
in sight, and we neglect the many in
lets near by, where, in sunshine and
shadow, flowers grow, and not only
rest and content, but truest satisfaction
and pleasure may be found.
Relinquishing the great object which
so rarely looms up before US all at once,
il at all, or precisely where and how we
expect to find il, let us see to what ev-
cry day uses we may put the good in-
tentions, with which we will begin the
New Year.
Knowing that the human capacity has
ITS limits, and that il is much greater
for intention than fuIfllment, we will
not expect or try TO do too much; but
first undergo little self-examination TO
see where we stand, and then bend our
energies toward the work that it seems
most desirable to accomplish.
II has been said, and the young be-
lieve that the world lies oil before US
where 10 choose, but tins is rarely true
of any individual, man or woman, and
il is very doubtful if it would conduce
to happiness il Il were. The first and
most necessary lesson to learn is our
limitations, and that what We desire TO
do is not always what we can do well,
or can do at all. II seems at FIRST sight
as though each individual person stand
ing complete, and to a certain extent
alone-isolated from the rest of the
world-could, il endowed with ordina-
ry faculties, select from the habitabIe
globe the place and circumstances which
are TO surround and influence his life.
But every one who has lived few years
knows that this is not possible; they
know that the ties Of birth, OF family, OF
kindred, of position, and circumstance,
hold them as closely and securely to a
certain spot, and TO routine which, ar
ranged in the first place by others, af-
terward becomes habitual, as If they
were confined by ropes and chains.
Will, IL is true, can in measure con-
troll circumstance, and the power TO do
this, the force which molds events, and
other human wills, we call character.
But this is The ffuit Of growth and ex-
perience. What we can do in youth
is, first, to accept cheerfully the condi-
tons in which we find ourselves; Sec
ond,s perform the duties belonging to
them well and thoroughly; third, direct
will and effort toward improving them,
and TO that end improve ourselves.
There is nothing we are, and nothing
We desire to be that viii not yield in
fnItely more Of satisfaction il we pre-
pare for It by self-cultivation. You,
my dear little reader, are q young girl
at home, but Oh so anxious to leave it
and mix in the great world, or possibly
travel, or do some great good, such as
build an asylum. or found libraries, and
BECAUSE you cannot do these things You
VIII not do what you can do, relieve
your mother of some Of her cares, teach
your younger sister music, help the boys
with their lessons, act as secretary to
your tired father, be general helper TO
the whole family, and study French or
German, or music. or drawing between
times, and at odd moments. Set in the
midst of the society about which you
love to read, you would feel only awk-
ward and out of place. Their habits,
their very language would be an un-
known tongue 70 you, and by the time
Won became familiar with them perhaps
you would feel that the game was not
worth the candle.
Turned adrift in the Old World your
condition would be still more pitiable.
Thorough enjoyment Of travel, and re-