The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser. (Upper Marlborough, Md.) 1882-1925, 1898-09-16
u r"ten for TIE ENQUIRER.
MORAL ENVIRONMENTS.
BY LADY COOK, nee TENNESSEE c. CLAFLI


OF the environment. We have passed
from conjecture to certainty, and are
now able to predicate what changes
would cnsue under certain given cir
cumstances. So many students of
physical phenomena. including men of
the most powerful minds, have been
continuously y en- I'll in investigating
and interpreting the laws of Nature
during the last half century. that
numbers Of her most secret pages
have become more or less an open
book. Before this, however, the vagu-
est notions prevailed. An able writer
of the 18th century says: II am salts
fled that every country produces peo-
pie Of the same bulk, features, and
and compleNions, it did two thousand
years ago; and whenever new set of
people take possession of country,
they become like those who inhabited
it before in a very few generations. If
a swarthy Scythian or Tartar, of a
short squat make, flat nose, thick lips,
and little black eyes set deep in his
head, were to be transported into Ger
many Gas many nations of the Scythi-
ans were formerly his posterity, in a
hundred or two of years, would infalli-
bly, be tall, lusty fellows, of fair COM
plexions, and regular features, as the
present Germans are. For notwith-
standing we all sprung from one origi-
nal, our features and complexions,
our stature, and even tempers, vary
according to the part of the world we
happen to be planted in. There is
som, thing in the air, the soil, the diet
or manner of life, which makes the in
habitants of one country appear as if
they were cast in different mould
from those of the othcr' This state
ment, however, was only partially cor
rect. Locality alone would not pro-
duce these changes, because environ
ment, powerful as it is, is only one
factor out of many in producing evo-
lutionary changes, and can deterioate
as well as improve. 1t may bring
about great physical alterations, may
enlarge, dwarf, may metamorphose an
organ, distort or bcautify structure,
but the essential character Of the ami
NAL or plant will remain the same
Habit and race are equally potent in
etfecting variations, but perhaps the
most powerful of all is selection.
Nevertheless the fact remains that
environment has prodigious influence
in forming physical character. 1t is
the same in the mental and the moral
world. Our intellectual culture main
ly depends upon our mental environ
ment, as our moral culture upon our
moral environment. If a child of the
most illiterate parents be closely as
sociated from early infancy with per-
sons of culture, the chances are many
to one that he will also will be cultur-
ed. He may not hare the wide men-
tai grasp Of one born from stock of
intellectual ancestors, but he will have
certain improved grasp, and his
mind will be harmonizcd to the tone of
theirs. Their. are not many even
amongst those of hereditary culture
who rise to great intellectual heights,
but all acquire an intellectual tone
which adds to the refinement and en-
joyment OF iiiie The love of knowledge,
for its own sake, apart from any nc
tion of utility, is one OF the most de-
lightful of intellectual passions. And
this they all possess in a higher or
low u ucSlcc Hcii lutciicNGutt cil-
vironmcnt elevates, as it were, and
spiritralizes every sense. They see,
for instance, with other eyes, and hear
with ears, than those who have not re-
ceiveI their mental advantages. And
their perceptions may become so re-
fined that even the meanest things of
Nature become objects of absorbing
interest and beauty.
Now all this is Il distinct gain, bet
ter it may be, than wealth or power,
for it gives us something which we
are always able to enjoy, and which no
one can take from us. Nevertheless
high culture may co-exist with great
vices, and many intellectual men have
become abandoned voluptuaries, max
ing their great requirements subser-
Went to evil. Thus splendid physical
and mental powers may be destructive
to their possessors unless they are
controlled by correct moral feeling
Consequently suitable moral envir-
onment is necessary to enable us to
develop the higher faculties Of our na-
ture, and to perfect the whole man.
A good physical constitution is emf
nently desirable; extensive mental ac-
quirements are also to be diligently
attained so far as we are able; but a
sound moral constitution will do more
for the real happiness and welfare of