Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1885-03-20
OUR MINOR ILLS.
The Little Foxes That So Often Spoil the
Vines in the Soul-Garden.

| The Little Foxes That So Often Spoil III
Vines in the Soul-Garden.
1t has often been observed that these
are apt TO be more disquieting and in
tolerable than the greatest trials. Men
| succumb to frets and worries who have
carried themselves bravcly in the pres
ence of real calamities, How does this
happen? Probably they brace them
selves to meet the latter by summoning
up all their of fortitude
and patience. The danger is palpable
and serious, and they prepare them
selves for it in advance. When the
crisis comes, its very magnitude in
spires them with Il sort of heroic faith
and resignation. In general the sorest
troubles are clearly inevitable, and this
fact of inevitablencss enforces q degree
of quiet submission. Real calamities
have, too. for the most part, an authen-
tic, providential character which, es-
pecially for the Christian, is 4 most 81
fencing and subduing circumstance. In
quarrcling with them he is conscious of
fighting against God.
Small troubles, on the other hand.
cheat their victim by their very small
ness into the fancy that they need not
be guarded against, and are indeed
unworthy of serious consideration.
Their insigniiicance encourages the
belief that, as they are not Immediately
alarming in their effects, SO they can
be renledicd or suppressed at any
convenient season. Thus they are
allowed to run on until they become
chronic and incurable.
However it may be accounted fo1
that VIC behave better under heavy
Affections than under petty ills, it is
clear that the latter are our most pesti.
lent and tormenting foes. They inflict
wounds upon the heart which are kept
in q constant state of irritation, provok-
ing cries of pain and snarls of com
plant. They replace peace of mind.
sweetness of temper, and gentleness OF
manner, with habitual fretfulness and
bitterness Of thought and speech. These
small ills of life are the little foxes that
spoil the vines in the soul-garden. They
are the borrowing moles that cut the
roots of plants that would otherwise
bear pleasant flowers and fruits. They
are the bane of our blessings, the poison
in our cup of happiness. Nothing can
be more pitiful than to see a man en-
loying an enviable environment, and
apparently rich in an inward store OF
resources, allowing himself to be stuno
into Il perpetual fury by nettles and
ants.
There was poor Carlyle, for example.
The death Of his father and mother to
whom he was devotedly, almost alb
surdiy attached, he bore with calm dig
nifty. The long, hard pinch of poverty
Which marked his early struggles he
accepted with the courage and patience
OF a rational human being. That
most extraordinary and ex%asperatino
misfortune, the burning of his manu-,
script history of the French Revolution,
could not have been more heroicallv
endured. But over comparatively pal
try ills he howled and whined with all
the kicks and contortions of a spoiled
child denied his toy. The loss of a lit
tie sleep, the growing Of a neighbor' S
cock, the noise Of a carpenters saw in
the house, threw him into paroxysms of
rage and complaint. His failure to
sleep forms the burden of a large part
OF those letters which Mr.. Froude has
lately given to the world. And vet as
he lived to pass the age of fourscore, it
would seem that his insomnia could NOT
have been Of Il very acute or wearing
sort. In reading those letters one i
tempted to denounce this %arch-encmv
ct can't and sham as an arch-humbur
Our harsh Judgment is somewhat mod.
Grated, however, when we stop a little
to observe and reflect. Is it unite car.
tam that we who burn with lndignat,un
against. his odious and exasperatino
tralltles, are nc writing or speaking orr
own condemnation?
The cure Of this evil, it would seon &c
not far to seek. 1t is simply to keen in
mind that little ills are really of move
practical consequence than those recop-
nlzed 10 be great, and that as such the@v
should be more carefully watched onaa
guarded against. 1t is indeed tr,c in
every department of life that practically
the least is the greatest. The formcr
IS constantly occurring; the latter comes
but seldom. The former is all tho
time operative, and is therefore ver1
potential; the latter energies at lono
Intervals, and by its very rarity sng'
gests the conduct appropriate to IS
appearance. To have Il %attention