The patron of husbandry. (Columbus, Miss.) 1875-1883, 1879-05-03
PRUDENCE.

Essential to the highest character, is
Prudence,-that faculty which wisely cal
culates conditions, adapting action to those
conditions. 1t is the brakeman of the
Soul, tempering the speed of its onrush-
ing desires, when those desires are not
consistent with safety. Unfortunately this
inestimable quality is not universal pos
session, and for lack of it many enterpri-
ses go to the wall and many individual
lives are MANNED or utterly ruined. With
out it, energy is wasted and the richest
material for effective working in the world
rendered useless. Caution is quite another
thing and is more commonly seen; it has
its root in sordid selfshness and is charac-
teristic of little minds, but prudence goes
with large and generous natures, either as
the outgrowth of painful experience or as
natural endowment, a self preserving
instinct which goes along with the high
est mental organisms.
However much sincerity and honesty
there may be in mans purposes, however
much truth and righteousness in cause
unless prudence is a controlling influence,
the sincerity and honesty and truth go for
nothing in the success of the man or the
cause. For measures must be adapted to
circumstances, and in order to do this, cir
cumstances must be closely scrutinized.
1t is no inconsiderable test of mans
ability that he can restrain himself from
preclpitate action and check impulses that
spring from the desire to accomplish what
he believes will conduce to the benefit of
the world, himself of course as part of that
world.
Prudence is needed to restrain the inn
petuous action of impulsiye and generous
natures, and to conserve the force which
would else be dissipated. In business, in pol
ltlcs,ln society, it is equally necessar2. In
the management of our farms, our nercan-
tile enterprises, it will bring order out of
confusion,it will call the attention to things
that are neglected as of minor conse-
quence; it will repair decay, cut down ex-
penses that debts may be paid, even if
great immediate sacrifice be involved. 1t
will cause the abandonment of plans that
are not Immediately practicable, and in
culcate the invaluable precept, to s'uake
haste slowly"
Society is dangerous whirlpool to such
as are not governed by prudence To come
under the discipline, into tie conditions,
is needful to individual well being. 1t is
just those persons who are capable of ex-
erting the largest influence, that have an
exuberance of life within them, that are
tempted to rush beyond the bounds and
set aside the conventions that wise con-
servatism has established Prudence dis
Germs that self assertion is self destruction,
and that it is only by a remuneration of
everything of an Individual nature that life
is possible. 1t recognizes that society is
made up of innumerable forces and that
the separate forces must be co-ordinated.
must be tremendously adjusted each to
each and act in consideration of the large
issues to which the whole aggregate of
forces is tending. Say that these forces
constitute an organism of which the sepa-
rate individuals are members, and this will
convey to our minds stronger sense of
the need for subordination of self and for
cooperation. Just as the physical organ
ISM presents complication of ORGANS. t;s.