Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1890-05-05
DISCOdrEHT.
ORIGIN OF rEssIMIsM USUALLY IN
DISAPPOINTED VANITY.
The importance of Educating Children
to Believe in the Bright Side of
Life-The True Sentiment.

Being forced to recognize the vide spread
of the evil frame of mind called pessim-
ism, says Mary E. Blake in the Boston
Post one is tempted to wonder whether
this dark and spurious philosophy would
count so many followers if its name were
less fine, or the habit of mind which forms
it better understood. By far the greater
part of this belief, or want of belief-for
it really attains the dignity of profession
of faith-springs from some of the ugliest
traits that belong to the ugliest side of
weak human nature. 1t is the offspring
of disappointed vanity, Of querulous DIS
content, of unchristian fault-fnding or of
absorbing selGshness. Leaving out the
few who are led irrevocably by some Pc
culiar intellectual twist TO form harsh and
sinister conclusions after close study and
mature reasoning, there are still the many
who fail into line under the banner of
those leaders without any settled convic-
tions or consciousness of any real feeling
in the matter.
Without any struggle of soul or wrench
of conscience, they echo the warning cry
and the wall of despair of their leaders,
never pausing to ask wherefore. They
find fault for the sake of finding fault,
without caring to know why and repro
duce the idiosyncracies, without the vir-
tues, of their prophets. They are like the
copyists of Corot, who reproduce the vague
oh of wi Of bo
mystic atmosphere of airiness and sway
ing motion and soft tangled shadows of
dropping boughs which make the exquisite
Wagner, who founder amid the great
masters discordant harmonies without the
faintest conception CT the soul which made
them splendid.
This being so, would it not be we'll to
look toward the early education of the
child as means of correcting what is be-
coming crying evil in society? If the
larger portion of pessimism springs from
habit rather than conviction, how easy
it would be to prevent the formation of
that habit by training the yet uniformed
intelligence toward appreciation rather
than discomfort! To begin with the man
or the youth, is to begin fourteen or twen-
ty years too late to try to wrench from the
stubborn soil of nature the weeds we have
allowed to grow so far unchecked. The
little creature who is encouraged to delight
in the blue transparency of dazzling sky,
the glory of summer clouds and autumn
sunsets, has an antidote for the gloom of
the dark day and discomfort of the rain
which comes to sadden his young consci-
BUSINESS. Even more, if we have treated
him fairly; if we have not striven to i'm
press him with our own prejudIces and
Iesentments, he will not be saddened or
frightened at any storm or atmospheric
phenomenon. The thunder, the lightning
and the tempest can be made as grand and
beautiful to his understanding as the June
sunshine. 1t is we who train him to find
desolation instead of majesty, and who
surround his life path with bugbears in
stead of friendliness and love- And it is
with the spiritual just as it is with the
material world
The child is prepared to see everything
at its best. Somewhat, but very little, his
zeal should be tempered He must be
taught prudence; he must learn self-denial;
he must, alas be made acquainted with
pain. None of these need in any way con-
fict with the sunny outlook from which
he views the theater of his future trials
and triumphs. A word or a look will
teach him to feel the glow of the brave, or
the thoughtful or the unselfsh act, where
another word or another look would have
impressed him only with the passing an
noyance or pain.
There is q responsive enthusiasm in his
nature which is always ready when it is
touched, and which can be attained by
little encouragement for spiritual comfort
and noble uses through much of the after
life. When we have learned to know the
value of true sentiment as factor in the
strength and happiness of existence we
will be more careful of the methods by
which we endeavor to keep it alive in the
character of the child He is ready now
to accept whatever you offer him. Point
him to the noble, the beautiful, the true;
fill his mind with reverence, with admit
ration, with delight, instead of allowing it
to be tainted already with fimsy dislikes
and peevish fretfulnesses.
For, after all, this is the kernel of the
matter. If the child is allowed to find
fault without question or comment, from
forwardness or boldness, or any other
passing distemper, the wind is being sown
which shall reap the whirlwind. There
should be no objection allowed unless
there is good cause for objection, and
that unhappy phosphorescent brilliancy
which sometimes makes the sharpness of
the small tongue SO pleasing should be
avoided like an element of discord or of
DEATH Too often it springs from the de-
cay of better things, and the bad habit of
pessimism is one OF its liueal descendants.
For some reason or other we are apt to
give more weight to the unkind than to
the kindly qualities of humanity. Tie
opinions of the cynic command more re-
spect than those of the optimist; the
sneer of the scoffer has more effect than
the smile of benevolence
1t does not take the child long to realize
that his position is stronger in most house
holds for his fits of temper and unpleas-
antness; that where amiability is I'M
noticed crossness produces the results
aimed at, and with that conviction the
world has as surely gained grumbler and
lost another honest soul as night follows
day, or the flower bends before the blast
of winter. Only for the unspoiled child
natures dawn shall come again, and
springtime; but for the little, discon-
tented, unhappy, fault-fnding heart,
drifted by the carelessness of its lawful
pilots into those dark and troubled waters,
it would require miracle such as that
which raised Lazarus from the dead to
keep him from going on to the end of his
days as the unhappy mortal the world