River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1892-05-12
CULTIVATE oENTLENEss.
The art of Making "a Home Out of a
Household.
The immortal poet never said any
thing truer than that

The immortal poet never said any
thing truer than that
Things without remedy
Should be without regard.
The art of not referring TO things
distasteful, unpleasant or disastrous is
very fine one in household life. How
ever greatly an occurrence is to be re.
GREETED, il it is inevitable, if no amount
of discussion or allusion to it can in the
least affect the result, then let it be
ignored, and the sooner it is forgotten
the better. Regrets over this, that or
the other are not only idle, but they are
absolutely demoralizing. The crash of
the best china, or the burglary of the
silver, may be a most disastrous
and inconvenient affair; the loss may be
a serious one, and one even impos-
sible to replace; and still, life should
always be regarded as a question of
values, and a mere accident and
material loss should be very distinc-
lively separated from sorrow or from
a moral failure "The life is more than
meat" Wilderness of character is in
tinitely removed from mere material
prosperity, and may exist without it
quite as well as with.
To hold the tone of life in the home
as something high, pure, consecrated,
indeed. is the one desirab BILE thing. For
conservation is not too high term.
The ideal of character and the
supreme value of achievement in con-
slant spiritual victory, day by day, is
the ideal to which domestic life should
be amenablc. \ child should not
be made to feel as badly be-
cause lac carelessly breaks a
vase or does some other mischief
as if he had yielded to i'll temper, or I'M
truth, or unkindness. Moral wrong,
mental inertia, are serious faults, TO be
constantly striven against and rebulxcd
and eXterminated so far as cducat ton
and influence can make il possible
while the accidents and incider Is of
life-however well it is to teach caution
and care should not be assumed to be
as serious as fault that has to do with
moral character or intellectual growth.
To define very clearly this scale of
values is perhaps the best part of ,
ehild's education.
Faults are often best corrected indi-
rectly. stimulate the virtues, and faults
diminish of themselves. The good
crowds out the evil. The first cure for
darkness is to admit the light. The
surest way to eradicate evil is to call
forth the good. A child should have
the inestimable advantage of always
breathing the atmosphere in which
generous and heroic aims are held as
the essential and significant elements
of life, while material successes or
gains, however desirable, are still rec
ognized as being on lower plane, and
while they may be reasonably desired,
are yet not to be widely sought.
TIE grace of gentle breeding is the
one best gift and grace that can be con-
ferred upon the child, and the key to
this is just appreciation of the true
values of life; the relative values of es-
sential qualities of character. "Thus,
in life, too says Epietetus, this is the
chief business, to consider and discrimi-
nate things; and say: 'Externals are
not in my power; choice is, where shall
/ seek good and evil? Within is what is
my aim But in what is controlled by
others, count nothing goos or evil,
profitable or hurtful, or any such
thing. "-BOStCn Budget.