The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1883-12-02

Gated Dy the cyHlc scnooi VI
philosophy. whose chief ex-
ponent was the eccentric Diog-
enese. He believed that the
surest way to put all men in a posi-.
tion to have all their wants gratlfied,
is to limit those wants to as few as,
possible. Nor was he a mere theorist
put became a living example of
what he taught. But he seems not
to have been aware of one peculiar
characteristic of the human race /;
that no man can be happy whose
wants can all be gratified at his
pleasure; he must always have
something to lock forward to. but a
something which he has reasoD-
able hope of attaining no matter
how much it may be beyond bis
present reach. An aphorism OF the
celebrated Swift will apply here
very appropriately: "The stolcal
scheme of supplying our wants by
looping off our desires islike cutting
off our feet when we want shoes"
It requires no argument to show
that no advancement can. be made
in civilization, unless there is at
least one small portion of the people
so well provided for, that they are
not compelled to work solely for the
purpose of obtaining a livelihood,
but have great deal of leisure
time, which some may choose to
spend to no purpose, but which
others will no doubt improve by
working with the brain rather than
with their hands. 1t is to this class
of men that the civilization of the
world is indebted, and we are maxi
ing rapid strides; still they are none
too rapid, and the number of brain
workers in the field is by no means
too great. The number may be in
creased with no danger of bad conse.
quences, but this can be done only
by looking forward and preparing
ourselves beforehand.
We often hear men say that they
have been obliged to work their
way through the world up to an
independency without any assist
ance from their parents, and their
children can do the same, for al they
care. A man who has no further re-
gard for his children than that, ought
not to have any. 1t is 10 higher a
sentiment than that of brute for
it's offspring. In fact it seems TO us
not nearly SO high. The one follows
the instincts of nature implanted IN
it, the other does the same, but in
addition has been blessed witt |
human feelings, which raise him
immeasurably above the other, and ]
vet he chooses to lower himself toI
the level of the other by throwing
aside the use of those very qualities
that he should prize above all others.
And if he will not limit his
bestial and sensual desires in order
to crafty the far nobler sentiment
of paternal affection, the least thing
he can do is to give his Offspring the
same advantage that he himself en-
joyed from his parents. But he
will say: started out with nothing
and that is all my children need eX-
pect of me. Yet if he will reflect
for a moment only, he must con-
clude that the advantages of child
born now and thirty or fifty years
ago are not the same. We need not
20 very far to illustrate the truth of
our proposition; we shall find plenty
of good examples around US. The
opportunities that man had thirty
years ago of doing well, and grow
ing rich in this Territory were, we
believe, much better than they are
now: that is, in general. So the man
who now throws his children upon
the world without giving them any
start in life, is not doing 30 well by
them as his parents did with him'
It is not always necessary that
wealth should be boarded up for
children to squander when they
come into possession of it, but there
is far better and surer method OF
investing ones means for the benefit
of children. 1t is to give them an
g education, sound and practical, a
legacy which no one can rob them
of. and one which they cannot
if they will. But by this
we do not mean an education which
enables one to parse sentence corS
rectly from beginning to end, and
vet to make grammatical errors in
almost every utterance, nor that
-