The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1882-10-20
Moods,

tower room containing two windows on
each side. OF the eight windows, seven
were set with glass Of diverse tints and
one was unlimited. The effect was very
curious. Though the garden around
the tower was in the height of summer
bloom. there were one or two windows
that gave it the appearance of mid
winter. Not even the vivid red of the
geraniums could pierce through the
deadening tint and gladden. the eye.
! The day without was one of rarest love-
illness, but these windows draped the
sky with gloom and wrapped the earth
as in the mantle of death.
Prisoned. as if in such tower, do We
all live, and our moods are the windows
through which we look out upon life.
Sometimes we have q vision through un-
tinted media, and see things in the
are minds so constituted that they see
thus most of the time, but such minds
are rare. There are very few bat are
conscious not only of changes IN the
angle of their vision at different times,
but of q change in the quality of the
light which makes vision possible; and
so, though some of us have great faith
in ..first impressions" we are slow in
committing ourselves to any important
movement or measure until we have
looked at it on all sides and in the light
of our varying moods. "Sleep is q
good adviser" said the great Napoleon,
and it is great changer of moods IS
well as of angles of vision.
Ma<Ac ora sppnv-,aro Ill, ovA rs
rious as tho tints made from the three
primary colors, with white and black
added. They are as various as temper
aments, and hereditary and acquired
tendencies. and as innumerable as the
elements that compose character. Some
people are so constituted that they go
through all moods in turn and zone
never knows where to find them"
Others have prevailing moods and can
be reckoned on with considerable GER
tainty. Others have such control of
their moods that they can be reckoned
on with absolute certainty, and there
are some SO simple and homogeneous
in the elements of their composition
that thew seem to have no phases. but
wear an equal tint at all times and I'M
der all circumstances. They are gems
with one or two facets only, so to speak.
while the victim of a thousand varying
moods throws off reflected rays from as
many facets.
Moods multiply our senses indefinite
ly and enable us to touch men and ma
ture in innumerable ways that would
otherwise be impossible. They multi
ply our sympathies and open to US the
comprehension of possibilities that
could not otherwise be at all perceived.
He who has been in an angry mood has
an insight into criminal life that he
could have gained in no other way. The
petition in the Lords Prayer For
give us our debts as we forgive our
debtors touches the universal heart
and in it mercy and peace kiss each
other.
Polite society is organized on the pre-
sumption that people will control their
moods sufficiently to obey the conven-
tional rules agreed on for the guidance
of the social body. 1t is not polite to
show anger or resentment or scorn or
any of the evil passions. Ones man.
ners like his attire must be conformed
to "the mode" and the more elegant
they are the higher the social grade and
influence of the wearer. Polite society
is therefore in many respects a beauti-
full mockery in which most men and
women aim to seem what they would
be, rather than to be what they would
seem. 1t has its uses and its limitations.
1t requires self-control of its votaries.
measured courtesy toward others and
an apparent respect of their rights and
feelings irrespective of moods. This is
as it should be, but the reactions from
the requirements of polite society, Just
and necessary as they are, sometimes
work great wretchedness in homes.
You shall see an individual all smiles
and sunshine when in the reception or
concert-room who. as soon as the glare
of publicity is exchanged for the tenn
pered light of home becomes nl-tem-
pered. sharp and utterly disagreeable.
Moods that are restrained in the pres
ence of strangers because their indul-
gence would be fatal to social reputation
defenseless children and helpless in
feriors, and what is worst of all, without
conjunction or consciousness of out
rageous action. Some people act as
though they thought home to be .
place where they had full license to
act out all their worst moods
and lenses, and open all the
safety-valves of passion, so that they
may be able to contain themselves when
they 90 out from home. This is des-
ecration of the very holy of holes, a
proclamation of the citadel of life. II
there is any place where unhappy
moods, evil passions, evil tendencies,
should be brought under law and guild
ance that place is home, the fountain
and center of life, the cradle of all that
is sweetest, purest, noblest and most
vital to the interests of the race. Be-
cause the sky is draped with pail to our
eyes we need not insist that everybody
should look through our window at it;
because a fit of Indigestion sets Us at
odds with all the world we need not
throw pepper into everybody else's eyes
and set them at odds with the whole
frame of things; because a mood of re-
igious fervor sweeps US away. we need
not therefore anathematize all who do
not join us in it as infidels and repro
bates; because we weep at the grave of
buried love We need not try to hush the
voice of merriment in all other hearts.
The perfect control and restraint of
ones moods can come only through an
approximately perfect knowledge OF
ones self. If one is aware that he has
in his make up granitic element of the
old Puritan character he will know how
to allow for moods of intolerance that
will sometimes sweep over him; if he
knows that he inherits from some an
cestor q violent mood or a tendency to
melancholy he will guard against these
besetments and so of all the rest Thus
working with the best in ourselves and
ooppaIlipr tho owl in ~ 20 L..o,-,o