Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1885-10-30
a REFLECTION.
Power Exertcd by Circumstances.
Upon the Human Character.

1nOn luc AIht NklArARfnr
sometimes men seem lifted into for.
,,,e by a strange coming together Of
,oppr events just suited to their needs.
., other times thwarted on all sides bv
snsuitable and inharmon:ous facts
oh CHI seem to congregate perversely.
often the failures and tolls of others
Gown in the earth. grow up and bloom
INTO happy conditions for the fortunes
II others. ''Other men have labored.
and we have entered into their labors."
%1ioneers and forerunners seem to fail.
ss fallen trees do, thrown down and
huried under water and silt; whereas
they are but stored up in minds from
which afterward they give light and
warmth to those who come after them.
The solemn reflection in this matter is
that so much of our environment de-
nends on other human actions, and is
included in education. One
child is born into the midst
II vice. and another into q
home of virtue. One comes into
q stormy. or sordid. or ~lifeless house.
another into q bright. cheerful, ami
mated abode, cnlivened with company.
counscled with conversation, instructed
with books, cheered with pictures.
charmed with music. To such a home
friends come, and not only in abund-
auce, but of a kind like to the home.
Who can measure the difference they
make. or how, as a part of the condf-
t;ons which work so nightly with the
organism, they effect to build up and to
strengthen? or evil comrades, howthey
weaken or destroy? Let it be taken as
plain, therefore, that although on the
one side it be grand, with Glanvil, to
saw that mar yields not to the angels.
nor unto death utterly, save through
the weakness of his feeble will,n vet On
the other side, the will has not it's play
all alone. but is force working and
wrestling with other forces, as the OPP
Grafton of q living organism which can
cultivate its life only in the atmosphere
and climate which belong to it. There
fore circumstance has much to do with
character, and they who reverence
character will look to the circum-
stances.
This leads to a thought which takes
firm hold OF the soul, for it is manifest
from the progress of the race that all
tie conditions together make an cnyir-
onment favorable to virtue: for else,
how could mankind improve? Here,
then, we come upon the thought OF the
domain OF a holy power, the thought
OF God. whose LIE and rule are the
Environment in which goodness has its
help.
some practical thoughts throng. 1t
is not too much to say that a host of
people in the world escape doing ill by
simply doing nothing. Idleness for
them is safety. And mere timiditv may
seem like virtue, because only it has
not the boldness to be bad. As to
charity and Judgment let us not feel
too sure that our own goodness is viz
tue: for who a say how much it may
be happy circumstances We know
rot, indeed, how higher powers NAV
see AMI Judge us, as we Judge in the
education OF brute creatures; nor how
small IL virtues may appear against
tie less and yet greater goodness OF the
more exposed, while we have been shell.
tered SO safely. We should be careful
10 ponder what our environment is. as
related to Il W special traits. If we
are conscious OF some tendency, as we
may be if we examine ourselves,
and then. if our conditions further
tend to excite the same and in.
crease it, we must the more repress. or
at least, govern it. For if it be bad,
We must fear its power; and if it be
good, its excess may be ungainly. But,
II on the other side. we are conscious
Of inactivity in some useful faculty,
and the things about us tend to repress
1t still more, then VIC should the more
~sedulously cultivate it and work at it
that we may bring forth its usefulness
IN spite of the i'll conditions; for this is
the dignitied province of the mind aud
Of the will-of the mind. to Judge of
the influence of our conditions; of the
will, to apply the advantage, or to
codnteract the disadvantage. Thus
may We keep a watch over appctites.
over boon companions, over wanton
acts Of fiery Imagination. oyor mental
worth surrounded with triiling COM
pany. over avarice and sellishness
breathing the atmosphere of accumula-
ton where wealth usurps the honors
that belong only to character. In fine,
Us a gardener mixes soils for his plants,
tie proper soil for each plant. SO to be
able OF set purpose to combine in II
surroundings the elements needful to
our constitution-thi, is wisdom. good
hess and power; for it requires relec-
ton, resolution and q single eye.-St.
LOUIS G{OLc-UcmOcrut.