Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1879-09-05
Cultivation of Mind,

uC WIN IOSC-OuSug lto OA0hShCc
tangled, knotty, rough. and bushy. can
be seen in some out-of-the-way corner
of some neglected pasture-land. There
it stands with hundred others, in the
early spring.time, its leaves thick, ILL
proportioned. and unpretentious, with.
out attractions or beauty, and sur
rounded by decayed branches of trees,
brush, stumps, and trunks, that some
neglectful farmer has allowed to remain
-unsightly objects, and evidencing his
nature and characteristics. The light
hearted, romping child OF nature, in his
careless strayings and ceaseless pere.
CARNATIONS, searching in forgetful mood
for the first flowers and opening beau
ties of the season, unheeding passes by
this rose bush, unconscious of those
adornings which, later in the season,
will grace and make Leautiful its pres
ent unbecomingness. 1t may he that
he will come in contact with the thorns
that protrude from its many branches,
and receive as q reward for his negli-
eence, the impression of them in his
flesh. A long red scratch is the effect,
and, smarting under the pain thus ex-
perienced, he may frown upon the un.
slightly shrub with its cruel appurte-
nances, andigaze with much dislike upon
the cause of his suffering.
By and by, under the genial influence
OF the summer sun, the soil becomes
warm, the chemical forces Of nature are
set at work, the vegetable world, under
their influence, is endowed with repro
ductive tendencies, and is imbued with
life giving and expanding properties.
The roots of trees and plants and
shrubs take up substance from the
earth their leaves absorb and drink in
the invigorating aud sustaining
fluids of the air leaves shoot forth
from million silent coverings, expand
and send off refreshing orders to purify
and sweeten the evening breeze and
thus outward nature is adorned and
made glad.
The wild rose.bush feels the in
fuence; buds make their appearance
on its numerous branches, and feeling
the warmth of the sun, the invigora.
ting influence of the air. and drawing
sustenance and substance from the 81
lent and enduring forces of nature,
they gradually expand, and finally I'M
fold their beauties, and the rose in full
bloom opens up its happy colors to the
admiring gaze of him who had looked
upon its parent with contempt, as some
thing to irritate and hate rather than to
please and love.
AS with the wild rose. bush, so it is
with men. Without education they are
neither ornaments to, nor useful mem
bers of, society. The educated and re-
fined come in contact with them in some
obscure and unfrequented portions of
the earth, and pass them by, merely
needing their uns;ghtliness, or, becom-
ing too familiar, receive their thorns.
They need the genial and expanding in
huence Of education and refinement to
make them useful and ornamental. The
physical condition of man may be COM
pared to the bush without the rose.
Put substance into his mind, and he
will be adorned with beauties that will
attract the admiring gaze of the passers-
by, and by thus attracting, he may
throw off sweet odors that shall please
many a way worn traveller be the Oh.
ject of the special care and protection
of his fellows, and cause their gratitude
to rest on him for his many virtues.
No man of education and refinement
can come in contact with one who is
uneducated and vulgar, without dis
gust and injury to his feelings. 1t is
an unsightly object, that wounds and
irritates his better feelings ind though
he may be disposed to pity rather than
to loathe, he can not resist the impress
sion of the finer and more tender i'm
pulses of his mind, and those impulses
excite the feeling of loathesomeness.
But take that one, undeveloped and
vulgar as he now is, educate him, and
subject him to the influence of refine
ment, and his former impulsiveness
will give place to amiable and beautiful
traits /; he will be sought after and ad.
mired, and brought forth from his
former obscurity to receive the respect
and love Of his fellows.
10 those who esteem themselves, or
are esteemed by others, to be vulgar
and uneducated, 1 would say, come
forth. Examine the nature of those
forces that control you turn your
thoughts inwardly, and, beholding the
imperfections that exclude you from
the social world, study to rise above
them. Submit yourselves to the in
fiuences of improvement, and you will
soon expand, and become worthy
better condition. This is duty which
you owe to yourselves, but no more to
yourselves than to society. For on
these conditions society would escape
your thorns, and you would not live in
vain, and
T.. Ego down
To the vile dust from whence you sprung,
Unwept unhonored and unsung"