The new dominion. [volume] (Morgantown, W. Va.) 1876-1904, 1883-02-03
The Use Of Time.
Our household poet Of blessed memory
teaches us in his psalm of Life that
we ought 50 to live


Our household poet of blessed memory
teaches us in his psalm of Life" that
we ought SO to live
that each tomorrow
FINDS us farther than to-day
How go to live is a question interesting
10 every thoughtful and conscientious
mind Most OF us nil up our DAYS with
the performance of duties required by
our business. our domestic or social po-
sition. But there is always choice be-
tween duties that may be done and du-
ties that must be done. One may spend
an hour every day on the outside of her
head. brushing and dressing it. OF she
may spend tho same hour furnishing the
interior Of this apartment. Here there
is a choice as to the use of time
The mother may occupy all her spare
moments in embroidering her child's
clothes, or she may use the same mo-
ments in opening TO it the ample page of
learning, provided it has been opened to
her. The housewife may diligently keep
the cobwebs from her house and letthem
ga.hcr in her brain. 1t isn't always pos
slble TO keep both free from them. And
so we must choose between what seems
to us the more important and the less
important. Life is too short to do every
thing. Some must have their hair brushed
glossily, must have their children's
clothes embroidered, must have their
walls free from cob webs, must have
a costly variety of dishes on the table
and are less imperative about things that
seem to them of less Importance -inte-
rior furnishings, mighty truths, great
facts of science and of life. 1t is natural
that we should care more for the earth
under our feet, OF which we are part,
than of the stars over our heads which
are at an inconceivable distance from us.
But il is wise to commune with the stars
and through them with their maker and
ours-as to the universe is one, are we
not also part of theinp md it is wise
to allow the great underlying facts and
truths of an existence to get the better
at the little notes that hide them from
our vision.
If one had three hours every day for
two months to devote to study, how much
might be accomplished in that time in
learning the beginning of science,
language, an art. Half an hour every
day during the year is the equivalent of
three hours every day for three months.
There are not many who could not save
thirty minutes daily to devote to their
own improvement. This fragment of
time, rightly improved, would suffice to
keep one in sympathy with the great
thinkers of this and of past ages, would
aid one in keeping up the habit of mental
acquisition, and the love of fresh
knowledge. An hour saved every day
would double this advantage.
The great workers save all the frag-
ments of time, and turn them to good ac
count; thus they seem to create time.
But they have only twenty four hours in
their day as have the rest of mortals.
Their purpose, turning all the odds and
ends of time to account, seems to multi
ply them, even as the five loaves and two
little fishes became twelve basketfuls
after the multitude was fed.
A systematic Lewiston of the day en-
ables one to employ every moment with
profit. This method is adopted by all
whose work amounts to anything. They
have time for everything and every
thing in its time In these days of rail
roads it is comparatively easy for those
who are governed by trains to be sys-
tematic in the use of their time, and the
advantage reaches to all households
whose members come and go on the
trains. But with those not thus circum-
staneed the system must come from
force within them rather than without.
A certain routine established and rigidly
adhered TO will do everything that is
necessary in dividing the day into
periods. The Young can with difficulty
compel themselves to a dligent use Of
time and must be aided by those older
than they, till such habits of industry
and application are formed as will make
them uneasy and restless unless they are
proftably employed. The maxim OF
one of thu OLD masters is good for us all
"Nulla dies size h1ca''-no day with
out line. Observing this with deli
gence and perseverance the year 1885,
may at its close find us very much farther
in knowledge and virtue than we are TO-
day.-N. Y. Tribune.