Norwich bulletin. [volume] (Norwich, Conn.) 1895-2011, 1916-04-08
Sunday Morning Talk
THE ENVIRONMENT THAT MAKES
PEOPLE.

we say that people are MADE Dy their
environment but that is not quite
true. 1t is the particular part of their
environment to which they respond
that makes them. 1t is the part of
your surroundings that you allow TO
make an impression on you, gentle
reader, that does the work in your own
case. Your physical nature can pick
either health or disease out of the at
mosphere. Both are there, waiting TO
be appropriated. Your moral nature,
likewise. may find either food or poison
in it's surroundings.
Let US illustrate. A young man
came from a country town to New
York and fell into loose habits that
finally landed him in the Police Court.
EXcusing his fall to friends at home,
he asked what better fate could be
expected of a fellow whose only home
at night was a hall bedroom, and
whose only chance for amusement the
weller of saloons, cheap theaters, and
gambling Joints with which the re-
gion abounded. He claimed that any
| lad was bound to be ruined in such
surroundings.
He did not take into account that,
| hardly three blocks from his boarding
house, was a finely appointed Y. VI.
9. A. building, where he would have
been welcome He forgot that, near
! by there was a magnificent public
| library Offering it's treasures to him.
| He may not even have noticed that
| daily he passed the doors of three
| churches from the wholesome influence
| of which he held aloof. He did not
| realize that by little search in that
| metropolis, he could have found, al
most any night in the year, some edu-
Cative and enjoyable lecture or con-
| Cert-absolutely free.
The young man was being made by
! his enviroument-but only by that
part of it that ne deliberately selected.
| With what different eyes do men
look out upon the world! One see
the good that is in it and the other
sees the evil One reaches for the
kernel, the other chooses the husk.
Under exactly the same conditions,
moral reactions will vary for each one
of a dozen Individuals. Let the old
rhyme point its own moral:
\ priest and tailor took their way
To view Passaic Falls one day
Thy wonders, Lord the parson cries
Amaze our souls, delight our eyes"
The tailor only made this note:
. on, what place to sponge coat!"
The ability to pick out the worth
while and noble things in life, and tC
leave the trivial and the evil things is
one prime result OF any good educa-
ton. The sister Of the modern science
of eugenics is euthenics. One deals
with heredity and the other with en-
| V1ronment- One takes account Of
taints of blood that predict disease
, and the other studies surroundings and
corrects faults of training in order 4
overcome the taints and swing tn,
, life currents into healthy channels
The most interesting disclosure OF al
this modern study is that of the verI
; great extent to which a bad inherit
ence may be overcome by a good en-
vironment,
My suggestion to our young frient
: William Weakling. who whines that al
things are against him in this evi
i world, is to stir up his moral energies
: He cannot shift the responsibility 70
Il his failure on bad surroundings. With
in certain limits, of course, there is
| big choice open to any of us in tn
v matter of surroundings. No one
o compelled to take poison instead o
t bread even If both are offered to hir
e on the same platter. Doors to the pi
s are open to every man, but so ar
n portals to the nights. Let William sc
e his feet firmly in the way that lead
% upward
el THE PARSON.