Savannah courier. (Savannah, Tenn.) 1885-1979, 1886-04-01

IN order to appear at a party in a low
necked dress. We are simply con-
temptuous-not surprised-when she
vets her feet and ruins her boots be-
cause rubbers hide the pretty shoes and |
make the feet look larger. But when
a woman famous for her common
sense in most of the affairs of life does |
precisely the same thing, and perhaps
with even less temptation, it seems a
Stiffness surprising all comprehension.
The boy who after game
OF ball drinks great draughts
OF ice water to cool his heated
blood, or goes into the river for the
same purpose, is checked whenever
possible and severely reprimanded at
all times. When the wise physician
shows some equally stupendous stu
pidity concerning the commonest
hygienic laws, remonstrance is para
iyzed upon our lips by an overwhelm-
ing amazement. tits the same sort of
amazement which we feel when we see
aperson whose name is a synonym for
prudence in most matters deliberately
eat something which he knows always
Injuries him, or trust to a tradesman
who has habitually deceived him, or
lend money to man who never pays
him, or marry woman who can never
please him.
There is no greater proof of the stu
pidity of sensible people than the mar
riages that some of them make. If love
be, as is sometimes asserted, matter
wholly of the heart, matrimony an af-
fair entirely independent Of the head,
then some of the matches made by some
gifted individuals may in a measure
be accounted for. A man with strong
domestic taste and aversion to society
marries a fashionable fiirt, and the
quiet fireside for which he most ardent
~ longed is the one thing he can never
hope to have. The sensitive, conscien-
tious woman marries man who runs in
debt for the very ring he places on her
finger, and her life with him means one
long modification and misery.
As frequent as foolishness in mar
riage is foofshness in the management
| OF children, such stupidity as would
brand the parents as idiots, were it not
for their sense in all other matters.
The skillful, thrifty housekeeper, care
fully trained herself, and appreciative
of all household excellences, allows her
daughter to dawdle through the days
Ignorant of every thing that can make
her useful, or can make home COM
Portable. The hard-headed. honest, in
dustrious farmerlets his son slip away
from the farm to the city, and sends
after him supplies of money which he
is fully aware support him in idleness
and profligacy. The imbecility of Sec
ond childhood seems to be reached and
surpassed in the dealings of some of
these sensible people with their own
children.
Who will dare to define common
sense, that least common, as we some
times think, of all human endowments,
and yet the quality most essential to
every hour of existencep Our almost
unconscious definition of a sensible per-
son is: Zone who thinks and acts as
do But this becomes ludicrous
one when we reflect that according to
such definition there would be as
many standards of sense as there are
individuals in the community. Cor
thodoxy is my doxy, and heterodoxy is
every thing that differs from it" is a
statement quite as often made concern
| ing our social as our religious notions.
II for fear of offending we do not say
it aIoud, we nevertheless live under its
conS. ction, and assume that those who
differ from us are in the wrong. Of
course IF we did not think so we should
agree with them., - 49,
1t is, however, fair to concede that
the sensible person is the one who in
social life is loved by his family and
friends, and respected by his neighbours;
in commercial life, one who is honest
and successful, securing the largest re-
turns from the least investment of the
money and labor; in professional life,
one punctilious in all engagements,
true to all trusts and obligations, clear
sighted and reliable. In all cases the
sensible person is the one who most
perfectly adapts himself to his circum-
stances and surroundings, who submits
uncomplainingly to the inevitable, who
strives at all times to do unto others as
he would have others do unto him, and,
in short, in the words of one of oul
latter-day scientists, "harmonizes with
his environments. We. al
In every community there is always
|, class which illustrates these virtues
! in an uncommon degree, who attract
admiring attention for their remarka
Bile Judgment, tact and success, the out
growth of the most fully developed
common sense. 1t is to these person,
! that we naturally look for all that j,
more satisfactory. We feel defraudet
when it fails us, and argue that if sucf
! a lack of sense can be shown by per
sons possessing so much, there is it'll,
| to hope for from the less gifted mass o
, mortals. DE- c-f
Il 1t is possible that we ourselves ar,
! Illogical and consequently unreason
able. 1t does not necessarily follow
. THAT because a man possesses min.
talents he must have the tenth also
, We must take what we find, glad {,
get so much, not complaining becaus,
,, there is no more. Human nature /
fallible. When men and women ar,
, found so symmetrically and fully de
! veloped that they display no singh
! spot of weakness or folly, truly we shall
have reason to expect the foretold mil
: lenium. "A fellow-feeling makes u
, wondrous kind" and a consciousness
, of our own Shortcomings should b
, the most powerful plea for considers
ton to others.-C. B. lie Rotc Il
Psychological Journal