The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1899-09-13


how man can bury himself in a news
paper just as he can IN a farm, or mer-
chandise, or profession He may make
il mere adjunct, widen the farm out
into a market, or other interest; he con-
tinues his thought on the same old level,
no rotation. He thinks the same
thing night and day, Sunday and week
! day No one will ever become roundly
educated and know the causes of things
back of the phenomena, who does not, at
! times, lay aside the newspaper for the
book. Nothing will so clear the thought
and fertilize the brain as an hour with
| Emerson, or Lowell, or Ruslxin, or
| Bryant, or a Thousand more such choice
minds. When you close the lids of such
books and your mind flies back to its
task it is with conscious reinforcement
of power.
Now why should there be rotation of
thought? What is the purpose? Many
see in it only the whirling of top: they
set themselves "a humming" and Ego it"
until they grow giddy and topple over.
That is the voluptuaries idea; it is the
worlds amusement plan: it is its work
plan; it ends fatty enough. That kind
of rotation becomes humdrum There
is no sound more monotonous than the
droning of top; there is no life that
gets to be duller than ceaseless round
of pleasure or ceaseless round of toll.
The first object i'm rotation of thought
is to rest the mind, as you rest the
muscles or the field. The second object
is to strengthen the mind. 1t is an active,
not passive process. The third OBJ
ject is to project the mind like a missile
toward life's high purpose. The shifting
of the mind from object to object, is like
lacking the ship on the sea to get bet
ter purchase of the wind upon the sails.
1t is the harbor we are steering for: we
are upon voyage, not upon an excursion.
This venerable objection remains
Where is the time? | am busy, how
can | get space from my work TO
read and think of other things? There
is one answer TO that objection. To
every human creature on this earth, one
day in seven, if not another moment.
was given, in which to let the work lie
quiet and think of other things. No
man has excuse if he throws down the
bars to that enclosure and fills it with
the tramplng feet of his ordinary toll.
There need not be an ignoramus or dull
minded person on this planet if that
one seventh of time be used Alright.
Physical and intellectual law sets apart
that opportunity for rotation of thought
as much as does the decalogue.
e. q IL. L.. Il. n
impress. | am not preaching when l
state it; CLEAN it from everything: from
nature, from authors, from history, from
experience. The world reflects it like
mirror from every face and object that
looks into it, Turn where you will, your
own face will at last confront that fact.
And that is that the outcome of this
world and our human life is moral, not
physical, not even mental Character
hinges upon the moralities; our being
here at all is moral questions: your toll
will be sifted into its prudential and
moral elements: every value will have
its moral unit. The life, the home, the
state, stand upon the walls of morality
Get to the core of everything; break off
the outside organisations and you will
find morality, like a diamond, flashing
within
Then why not men think more about
morality? Why not make that part of
the rotation? Why not devote a part
of the time to the virtues and graces of
a right life? Why not bring character
and the purity of the home and the
stability of the state and the wellbeing
of men, into the rotation? AS a class
we do not. We give the best acres of
our brain to thoughts of wheat and corn
aud grass, and crowd thoughts of moral
ity away into fence corner We let the
women and the homilists have that lit
tie patch to till. We will attend to the
broad fields of the utilities. In that
way the brain and life of the mere sower
and reaper of the earth becomes barren
and will not grow the best crop that God
ever meant should be harvested.
Let every man and woman take time
to think of moral questions and proceed
upon moral laws and work to moral is
sues. Let such thought come i'm the
daily round make it a part of the rota-
ton. You will find the happy result in
every other segment of the revolving
wheel of life.
believe that this little company will
assent to this. | believe that the larger
company of the thoughtful, the world
around, will assent to it. | have only
asserted it here because my theme would
not be complete without it.
Though you rotate your thought
through the whole range of agriculture
and science and literature and human
history, the circle will not be complete
until you have assembled to where dwell
the moralities.