St. Landry clarion. (Opelousas, La.) 1890-1921, 1900-11-17
ON THINKING.
The Manner and Matter OF Onc's
Thoughts u Good Test OF
Ones Character.

| d
/ Much of our thinking is pointless. 1t
has no aim. How much brain tissue
people waste .bilding air castles. What
use is it to think on what we would do
if we hadssbeen borna prince or prin-
cess? What use is it to think on past
troubles? No doubteyou have, as Miss j
Wiggin suggests, been through seas
! of trouble, but that isno reason why
you should be eyerlashngly splitting
/ up brine But you will ifs you don't
watch your thinking.
Some times we go SO far as to think
on things positively vicious. man
may go on drunken spree in his mind,
though he has notm oney enough to.d do
it in reality. When c man gets into
1 that habit he is IN danger of fastening
certain pictures son~the walls of MEM
DRY which he will notebe able to take
down by and by Sometimes we think
ON things to damage other people. It
is. said that the skill usedsin making
some samples of counterfeit money
would be sufficient to ena blela a man to
make an honest living easily. How vast
an amount of energy is expended in
thinking evil! And.a1l theswl1ile 1T is :
possible for us to be thinking ON good
things. The world is full of them and
i the mind will graYitate toward them If
/ we train it right.
Why not think beautiful things? The
beauty of nature48is mere asingly att
tractive to many. We can hardly be-
lieve the story that Petrarch was the
1 first man for centuries to climb
mountain simply to enjoy the beauty
of the prospect.
A beauty even more rare appears in
. life. Modern Stephens are laying down
/ their lives without malice for the sake
| of those who care nothing for them.
/ Why not think more on the quiet hero
/ isms. unselfshness, self-effacement Of
/ everyday life? Doing so will steadily
sweeten any temper4and give courage
to the most dependent.
But you say that this is easy for.
those who live in houses of beauty and
with people Of refinement, but your
lot is cast close to the soil. amid con-
4 stant struggles for existence. That
makes it harder. in some ways. But
| this is true: Manual labor often leaves
/ the mind free to go off into excursions
/ while the work goes on. On what kind
of excursions does it go? 4 Thatdepends
on itself. It may revel in beauty and
truth while the hands are soiled.
Does it?
A man may control his thoughts.
Did You ever. make it a rule to have
some carefully chosen themes to think
on when it CHANGED that you have a
spare moment? Perhaps it is some
sweet face of the long ago, now shut
out from your sight, but not from
memory; or some heroic deed. or some
snatch of high song, or some picture
1 yon saw somewhere which remained
with you. And your mind has formed
the habit, when it is free, of return
ing to those things for feast. Itlis
well. That kind of thinking enriches
the thinker in, he very act
AS a man thinketh in his head 70 ii
/ he. This is a delightful or an awful
fact, as we live in one way or in am
other. We may, indeed, test our lives
| by asking ourselves what are my stock
l ldiCtijS3S IpI IHEiE Is IJ
/ power which can drag a man to helln
that. mans thoughts involuntarily and
steadily turn to the things which are
trne and lovely and Of good report.
That man carries his Heaven with him.
w. r. Mckee, in Chicago Standard.
Discourtesy ms a Sin.
Social duties are Christian duties.
What a man owes to his fellow1nen he
owes to God. It has been said that
po1iteness is very much like an air
cushion, because, while there is moth
ing much inside it, it adds SO greatly
to the comfort of 1ife's journey Yet
politeness is a Christian duty just be-
cause it adds to the comfort of life's
/ journey. Christ came to fulfill the
| prophetic exhortation "Comfort ye.
the people The apostle laid this as
a Christian duty upon His disciples
| when He wrote to them 'sBe coufte-
GUS" When man is tempted to
boast that his heart is all right,
though his speech and manner may be
| rough, one is tempted to ask whether
speech ana manner ought to give the
/ lie to the heart. God never made or
meant men to be like chestnut burs-
sharp without, though good within.
Be not. then, like the elephant of
/ which Shakespeare says: He hath
joints, but none for courtesy" Out of
the fullness Of the heart let the mouth
and the actions and all theAways of
life Speaks. S. Times.
True sympathy.
True sympathy is not mere sensi-
/ tfveness to the suffering. of others, as
if they were strangers. 1t is that feel-s
ing Of the suffering of others which
arises from a consciousness Of identity
between ourselves aud thera.-R. u.
] Benson.