The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1896-06-08
ON HOW TO BE GOOD.
Mrs. Charlotte Perkins Stets0n
Gives Practical Advice
In Her Lecture at Hamilton
Hall Last Night.
A Serene Mind Comes from Practice
You Have Moral Muscles
Which Need Training.

Mrs. Charlotte Perkins stetson was
greeted last night by a fair sized, but
enthusiastic audience at Hamilton hall.
How to be good, and how to stay
good" was the subject Of her enter
tanning discourse.
The lecturer believes that the soul,
the temper, the emotions, may be
trained and developed just as a part of
the body may be by proper exercise
You do not have to know the begin
ming nor the end. you have to know the
present. 1t is not necessary for US to
have been at the creation of the world,
nor to be in at the death to know how
to live according to natural law.
THE growth from savagry to civil
ization has been a growth of human
love and kindness Since progress is a
growth of kindness I say to myself that
it is right to be kind. The savage ma
ture was made fierce, cruel, by his be-
havior and his surroundings. He had
to hunt for his dinner-and regret to
say mat many of US still have to hunt
for our dinners. The savage had to
kill game for his living, and it was ma
tural for him to have the traits he pos
sessed.
our present notions of morality are
based on religion and not on natural
law. Religion is of comparatively re
the bible that was not true before it
was written. 1t is simply the express
sion Of law IApplausel.
NOW. what do we regard as the
highest trait Of character Many Of US
think there is nothing to equal unself-
ishness, but have seen one member of
a family so unselhsh that he impover-
ished the whole household. Justice is
higher than unseIhshness.
Courage is a good thing. Tt is not,
as people seem to think a. distinctively
: masculine virtue. If courage IS good
for man, bravery is good for a wo~
man. If a thing is bad for a woman it
is wrong for a man. I do not believe
in one law for a man and another for
a woman. There is no law that sup
ports that except our social law.
Courage is as much honor to a wO-
man as to a man How can we over
come fear2 Learn to shoot a pistol.
You have a horror of it. but you know
you can do it because others have done
it. Then go around the dives. if neces-
sary.
IF we wish to change ourselves for
the better SO that in ten years our best
friends wont know US. how viii we go
about it? Suppose that there is a given
virtue which We wish to attain.
"Our system of behavior develops our
moral muscles. Traits of character de-
pend upon our behavior. Take a butch
err, a baker a lawyer and let them
march to war, and in five years they
are soldiers, not lawyers bakers or
| butchers.
Take for instance, the case Of per
sons with a quick temper or an unruly
tongue. They say things which they
wish afterWard they could recall. They
do not think before they speak Their
brain works automatically and indie
pendently. When person says a thing
to them which displeases, their brain
I Just fires something back Immediately.
IF electricity is applied to frogs legs
/ after the frog is dead they win kick
and twitch, but there is no life there.
/ So it is with the brain of a quick tenn
I pered person. There is no thought, but
when a fancied insult is given, your
brain, like the frogs legs, just kicks
/ back LAPplausel-
The way it should be is: the sound
/ enters your ears it reaches the brain;
YOU must get those brain cells to work
I ing on it; you say to yourself he has
4 said SO and SO, if it is insulting you be-
gin to think what you viii reply; you
/ may grin to yourself, perhaps all this
! takes place in half a second BY so
! training ones self there is no reason
/ for ever saying anything you viii re-
! gret.
II overcame an unruly tongue. I gave
! myself two years. After resolved, I
/ didn't think of it again for a month
/ then I thought of it in a fortnight; then
I in a week, all the time 4 was gong on
4 just as j had always been. Finally be-
I gan to think of it just after 7 had said
4 things I didn't want to. Then thought
Of it one day just before i was going to
I say a thing, and didn't say it; the next
/ day I stopped myself twice the next
/ day three times, and so on.
'aThe way to train a trait is practice
every time YOU think of it, but never
I tire yourself. 1t is like learning to hold
/ your shoulders back Don't throw them
/ back and hold them there until they
l ache. Just throw them back every time
I you happen to think you are STOPPING
4 over
"Then the way to keep good is what
I is known to every Oarsman, every run
I ner. every athlete. Keep In practice
! you don't need to be sorry; you don't
/ need to be miserable; you don't need
/ to be a thing but cheerful and happy If
you want to"
] Mrs. Stetson viii lecture tonight at
Hamilton hall on THE Heroes We Need
] Today"
Friday afternoon she will be rendered
air