The Family Circle [pp. 387-389]

THE FA MIL r CIRCLE.
by the cords of affection, how it induces them with
loving hearts to return to the paternal roof!
0, that parents would lay this subject to heartthat by untiring effort they would so far render home
more happy, that their children and domestics shall
not seek for happiness in forbidden paths!
HOMNE AFTER BUSINESS HIOURS.-The road which
the man of business travels in pursuit of competence
and wealth is not a macadamized one, nor does it
ordinarily lead through pleasant scenes and by wellsprings of delight. On the contrary, it is a rough
and rugged path, beset with "wait-a-bit " thorns, and
full of pitfalls which can only be avoided by the
watchful care of circumspection. After each day's
journey over this worse than turnpike road the wayfarer needs something more than rest; he requires
solace-and deserves it. He is weary of the dull
prose of life, and athirst for its poetry. Happy is
the man who can find that solace and poetry at home.
Warm greetings from loving hearts, fond glances
from bright eyes, and welcome shouts of children,
the many thousand little arrangements for comfort
and enjoyment that silently tell of thoughtful and
expectant love, the gentle ministrations that beguile
us into an old and easy seat before we are aware of
it; these and like tokens of affection and sympathy
constitute the poetry of life which reconcile us to the
prose of life. Think of this, ye wives and daughters
of business men!
GOOD BREEDING.-I believe this matter of good
manners and good breeding to be chiefly in the hands
of mothers. It is as easy to teach a child to say,
"Thank you for the bread," as "Give me some
bread;" as easy to accustom a family of c.hildren to
bid their parents good morning upon ordinary, as
guests on extraordinary, occasions. Let there be
no "company manners." Convince children by example, no less than precept, that the best they have
to offer in matter and manner should be laid before
those they love most earnestly. A boy taught at ten
to enter the parlor and bow to his mothler's firiend,
will do it with ease and self-possession at twenty.
For what, after all, is ease of manner but politeness
long practiced and incorporated as an unconscious
constituent of the individual? It may be well for us
to remember the original significance of gentleman,
gentlewoman-terms which I fear would never have
grown out of the blustering carriage of a large class
of modern gallants. "Gentle blood," and "noble
lineage" were synonyms in those old days. "Suazviter
in modo, fortiter in re," was the Latin proverb, and
it has often occurred to the writer that we, of the
present generation, are more in danger of forgetting
the mildness of manner than the strength in deed.Sprinogyeld Republican.
PLEASANT NEIGHBORS.-One's pleasure, after all,
is much affected by the quality of one's neighbors,
even though one may not be on speaking terms with
them. A pleasant, bright face at the window is
surely better than a discontented, cross one; and a
house that has the air of being inhabited is preferable
to closed shutters and unsocial blinds, excluding
every ray of sunlight and sympathy. We like to see
glancing, cheerful lights through the windows of a
cold night, or watch them as evening deepens, gradually creep from the parlor to the upper stories of the
houses near us. We like to watch the little children
go in and out the door, to play or go to school. Wre
like to see a white-robed baby, dancing up and down at
the window in its mother's arms, or the father reading his newspaper there at evening, or any of these
cheerful impromptu home glimpses, which, though
we are no Paul Pry, we will assert make a pleasant
neighborhood to those who live for comfort instead
of show. Sad, indeed, some morning on waking, it
is to see the blinds down and the shutters closed,
and know that death's angel, while it spared our
threshold, has crossed that of our cheerful neighbor;
sad to miss the robed baby from the window, and
see the little coffin at nightfall borne into the house;
sad to see innocent little faces pressed at eventide
against the window pane, watching for the "dear
papa" who has gone to his long home.
A SUNNY TEMPER.-YOU gain nothing by fretting;
you only waste your strength by it. Choose your
work, plan as skillfully as you can, put your whole
heart in what you are about to do, and leave the rest
to a kind Providence that overlooks not a single one
of us. Do you know how many years of your life
and happiness are;zortaza,ed by this habit of worrying? And, after all, what does it accomplish? How
does it help you on? How much strength does it
bring to you in your labors and exertions? Nonenone whatever. A ruffled temper all the time throws
to the surface the "mire and dirt" of the nature; it
does not combine the best elements, and help them
to work together to the best advantage, but only the
worst, and gives them alone all the chance. A beautiful sunny temper is no sign1 of weakness, as many
suppose, but of strength and harmony of character.
It shows that there is a power seated at the center of
the being, that shows how to administer government.
Lord Clarendon wrote of anger, that it is the most
impotent passion that occupies the mind of man; it
effects nothing it goes about, and Ihurts the man possessed by it more than any other against whom it is
directed. He knew the human heart. The worst
of anger is, if you give the reins to it for once, it is
still more difficult for you to keep them yourself next
time, and makes over just so much to the enemy.
But a cheerful temper is like the genial sun, in whose
warm rays all men like to bask. The possessor of
such may not, perhaps, make as many stare and
tremble at his barbed phrases of satire or scorn, but
he will certainly make more devoted and lov ing
friends, and, what is more, be very sure to kee, them.
How TO BE HtAPIPY.-In order to be happy, one
must be on good terms with his pillow, for the nightly
reproaches it can make must be heard; yet it is never
so delicious, so tranquil, as after a day on which one
has performed some good act, or where one is conscious of having spent it in some useful or substantial
employment.
389
I