The weekly register. [volume] (Point Pleasant, Va. [W. Va.]) 1862-1909, 1893-05-09
Harnonr. b FamIlr ia.


have a common purpose, their own
mutual welfare and happiness, but
lit is not necessary that they should
be alike in character, in tastes and
dispositions, or even that they
should always agree in Judgment.
Il has frequently been observed
that husbands and wives who live
together comfortably and maintain
a long honeymoon sometimes differ
very widely IN their characteristics.
One is Complementary to the other,
to use a figure of speech from the
art OF painting. Their dispositions
are not of the same color; they
differ radically, but in such way
as to produce harmony of effect.
That which some people call har-
monr;s mere unison, q much less
complex kind of agreement. Tho
higher effects of music are not those
of unison, but those of harmony.
The notes, though they differ, unite
and blend together. This is the
kind of harmony that should rule
in families. Where there is nothing
but unison there may be peace, but
it is stupid in character. The mem
bers of harmonious family should
sound different notes, but not at
such times as to produce discord.
Nothing is pleasanter than to OBJ
serve a family of this character,
each member with a distinct indi.
viduality, with his own talents and
ambitions, but each in full sympa
thy with the other, and all working
together peacefully and happily be-
cause united by love.
1t would be fatal to the welfare
of such a family TO introduce the
idea of unison, that all should be
made alike and follow the same
paths, interested in the same fields
of labor and enjoying the same
amusements. Such unison would
mean sacrifice of individuality
somewhere, an abandonment of nat
ural dispositions or neglect Of in
born talents.
1t is one of the faults of educa-
ton, carried on as it necessarily is
on the factory system, that it tends
to make men and women alike in
their attainments and their habits
and modes of thought. If men
could afford it, it would be better to
make education true system of
culture ofthe Individual child; but
that being impossible, care should
be taken to protect individuality as
much.as possible, and this can be
done in the home circle by aiming
at harmony, not at unison.
Fashions change in all things.
There have been times when it has
been the aim of gardeners to cut and
prime the trees on lawn to fantas-
ticaI shapes, or else to make them
all grow alike and stand forth like
well dressed sentinels in uniform.
The trees if left to themselves would
grow as nature intended, maintain
ing general form according to
their kind, but with a variety al
most infinite, and such trees the
world has again come to like best,
having become wearied of the
gardeners art as applied to them.
Here and there one will appear
which for some cause OF accident or
environment takes a form that is
Objectionable. Judicious pruning
may restore its good looks without
destroying it's characteristic fea-
lures. So also the children who
are allowed to grow up as nature
intended may develop faults that
need correction, but they should
not have their individuality de-
stroyed in an attempt to make them
like their sisters and brothers.
Unison is not to be decried. 1t
is inoffensive in social life as in
music or in painting, but the higher
laws of harmony produce grandcr
effects in works of art, in musical
composition, and above all in the
home life of the family, where there
should be nothing but love and
sympathy, though the members diff
fer as much as do the trees of one
species in forest Baltimore Sun.
The burglar stepped lightly into
the room.
He moved forward in the dark
with n pistol in one hand and a bot