The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1891-01-14
FROM "BITTER-SWEET."
She Makes n Sensible Plea For Purity of
Life.

KIND II. l.. c. FRIENDs-I have been
listening to your interesting conversation
for some time, and have enjoyed it very
much.
As the New Year is the time for form
ing new resolutions, making new plans
and revising old mes for future action, l
imagine it is also a good time to become
acquainted and join in the social talk. 1t
seems that almost every topic has been so
thoroughly discussed that it is useless for
me to try to say much, and l will be con-
tent most of the time to be seen and not
heard. Some days we enjoy COMPANY.
Perhaps it is with some friend we love to
converse freely, because we know we will
be understood, our close sympathy be ing
the key TO mutual thought and feeling. At
times it. is solitude we crave; or again it
is art, music study or work that seemeth
best. Today we are in tune with nature,
and We hold communion with her visible
forms.
1t is so with our reading; we not only
crave, but require different kinds of intel
lectual food. Emerson, Carlyle, or some
other writer OF equal force and strength,
furnish the material that gives US re-
newed life and vigor. Perhaps it is
Shakespeare, Tennyson or Longfellow
that our systems require it may be an in
teresting account of travel, some gu int
lit e sketch or poem, the witty or humor
Gus are the proper condiments. Novels,
such as those written by Scott, Dickens.
Hawthorne and a great many other
authors, are refreshing as a dessert dish,
but the cheapest, the sweetest, the most
nutritious, suitable for every time and oc-
casion, the very best of all novels is the
'stari OF life" the bible.
There are some books, like some people,
and some places, we should avoid with
such it is best to touch not, taste not,
handle not" lest in so doing your minds
become diseased.
Let us be so clean, so pure, that we will
have no desire for that which is unclean.
Yet, "if we become conscious that there
is another side on which we might learn,
look and grow, having our vision cleared,
extended and expanded, we should always
earnestly seek that side, even though we
may lose some of our cherished ideas,
theories or practices. We shall in the
end be gamers, beyond estimation, for on
grain of truth will outweigh a lifetime of
falsities."
On, nv dear books, companions and
solace of many an hour. / become
so fascinated with the loneliness of
your pictures, the idealization of some
truth and presentation of some
idea, that | am carried way from the
realities of this life, and am lost in the
realm of thought. 1t is grand to be able
to zee aud appreciate truth and beauty.
What we admire we strive to become,
we desire we endeavOr to obtain.
BY desiring only what is good we widen
the skirts of light, tread safely along the
straight and narrow path" at last reach
the "pearly gates" and enter into the life
beyond.
"Gano," Virginia Sunbeam" "Jessie
Clyde" "Wyandot Dewlrop," and ever SO
many others that space forbids me- TO
mention, your letters are excellent.
Kind III. i. G.. friends, / will close with
this wish. May the new year hold a germ
of Joy for you that will unfold perennial
flowers through all your future years.
BITTER SWEET"
Albion. Ind. Jan. 10.