Year: 1865

HAO


Mrs. Standfast is woman of high
tone, and possessed of power of moral
principle that impresses one even as
sublime. All her perceptions of right
and wrong are clear, exact, and minute ;
she is charitable to the poor, kind to the
sick and suffering, and devoutly and
earnestly religious. In all the miautie
of woman's life she manifests an incon-
ceivable precision and perfection. Every
thing she does is perfectly done. She is
true to all her promises to the very letter,
and so punctual that railroad time might
be kept by her instead of chronometer.


Yet, with all these excellent traits,
Mrs. Standfast has not the faculty of
making a happy home. She is that most
hopeless Of fault-fnders-a fault-fnder
from principle. She has high, correct
standard for everything in the world, from
the regulation of the thoughts down to
the spreading of sheet or the hemming
of towel and to this exact standard
she feels it her duty to bring every one
in her household She does not often
scold, she is not actually fretful, but she
exercises over her household calm, in
flexible severity, rebuking every fault
she overlooks nothing, she excuses moth
ing, she will accept of nothing in any part
of her domain but absolute perfection
and her reproofs are aimed with true
and steady point, and sent with force
that makes them felt by the most obdurate.


Hence, though she is rarely seen out of
temper, and seldom or never scolds, yet
she drives every one around her to des-
pair by the use Of the calmest and most
elegant English. Her servants fear but
do not love her. Her husband, an i'm
pulsive, generous man, somewhat incon-
siderate and careless in his habits, is at
times perfectly desperate under the accu-
mulated load of her disapprobation. Her
children regard her as inhabiting some
high, distant, unapproachable mountain
top of goodness, whence she is always
looking down with reproving eyes on
naughty boys and girls. They wonder
how it is that so excellent mamma
should have children who, let them try to
be good as hard as they can, are always
sure to do something dreadful every day.


The trouble with Mrs. Standiast is,
not that she has a high standard, and not
that she purposes and means to bring
every one up to it, but that she does not
take the high way. She has set it down
that to blame a wrong dOer is the only
way to cure wrong. She has never learned
that it is as much her duty to praise as to
blame, and that people are drawn to do
right by being praised when they do it,
rather than driven by being blamed when
they do it.


Right across the way from Mrs. Stand
fast is Mrs. Easy, pretty little creature,
with not 1.-THE of her moral worth--a
merry, pleasure-loving woman, of no par
ticular force of principle, whose great
object in life is to avoid its disagreeables,
and to secure its pleasures.


Little Mrs. Easy is adored by her hus-
band, her children, her servants, merely
because it is her nature to say pleasant
things to every one. is a mere fact of
pleasing, which she uses without knowing
it. While Mrs. Standfast, surveying her
well-set dining-table, runs her keen eye
over everything, and at last brings up
with "Jane, look at that black spot on
the saltspoon am astonished at your
carelesSness p Mrs Easy would say,
"Why, Jane, where did you learn to set
a table so nicely All looking beauti-
fully, except-ahl let's see-just give
rub to this saltspoon now all is quite
perfect" Mrs. Standfast's servants and
children hear only of their failures these
are always before them and her. Mrs.
Easy's servants hear of their successes
She praises their good points tells them
that they are doing well in this, that, and
the other particular and finally exhorts
them, on the strength of having done so
many things well, to improve in what is
yet lacking Mrs Easy's husband feels
that he is always hero in her eyes, and
her children feels that they are dear, good
children, notwithstanding Mrs. Easy some
times has her little tiffs of displeasure,
and scolds roundly when something falls
out as it should not


The two families show how much more
may be done by very ordinary woman,
through the mere instinct of praising and
pleasing, than by the greatest worth,
piety, and principle, seeking to lift human
nature by lever that never was meant
to lift it by.


Mrs. 81. b. Stone in Atlantic for Feb


--ssaes-


Now, AND THEN.-When, four years