Newspaper Page Text
8
WomaNsW
Entered at Second-Class Postage Rates.
A LITERARY AND DOMESTIC MAGAZINE,
PUBLISHED MONTHLY.
FIFTY CBNTS ) f FIYB CBNTS
FBR YBAR. ) ( PBR COPY.
Editbd by KATE GARLAND,
aaaisrao st ths ■ ■•t talbnt.
I have more than once made reference
on this page to the importance of mental
activity, and expressed regret that so
many of us, by keeping our minds in idle
ness, allow all our ideas to lie dormant.
The subject seems to me of sufficient im
portance to justify almost any amount of
time spent in its consideration, and I wish
to refer to it at greater length than I have
yet done, with the hope that it may lead
others to give it their attention, and there
by accomplish good. We have all heard a
great deal about the mischief wrought by
idle hands, and no one will dispute that
honorable and congenial occupation is the
true basis for happiness and usefulness.
Not only is it essential to individual con
tentment and necessary to the advance
ment of mankind that we should be em
ployed, but proficiency in any line of
work can only be attained through that
continual practice which leads to experi
ence and perfection. Take the skilled
mechanic, and see the years of labor which
he must expend ere his hands can shape
and temper and polish the products of his
practical art. Take the lawyer, and see
how he must familiarize himself with
authorities, acquaint himself with business
customs, and with the principles and pecu
liarities of customs in general, before the
world will trust him as a safe legal guide.
Take the physician, and see how broad
must be his researches, how varied his ex
periences, before we feel willing to have
him guard the flickering flame of life in a
loved one who is sick. Would the sur
geon’s knife be safe ih the hands of one
who had never studied his profession or
tested his skill ?
< •
•
In all lines of labor, from the most in
tricate, delicate and difficult, to the most
simple and commonplace, the same laws
are at work—no worthy results without
well directed and persistent effort. The
jugglers of Japan have accomplished their
feats by long practice. The Indian has
been able to use bow and arrow with
marvellous effect because of practice. The
musician has charmed the ears of listeners
only after years of persistent application;
the artist has imitated the tints of nature
only after much effort and many failures.
In all lines of work it is the same—the
dexterous hand is the hand that has had
practice and training.
We are ready enough to admit this as
regards accomplishments of a physical and
mechanical nature, but what do we to
wards a mental development? Are we
not often so alarmed for the results of idle
hands that we overlook the more serious
trouble to come of idle minds ? I fear
that the great majority of us are going
through life dealing in mental monosylla
bles, as it were, and never drilling our
minds sufficiently to know even the mil
itary commands on life’s battle-field. We
ask and answer simple questions about the
weather and a few others of our most fa
miliar topics; we indifferently inquire to
know the ‘‘news,’’and actually get up a de
gree of enthusiastic interest if some one
near us gets into trouble, or a bit of scan
dal reaches our ears. But as to casting
our mental vision over the broad expanse of
life’s beauties and responsibilities—we sel
dom think of it. We have erected a very
small habitation for our mental selves,
and we are too fond of mistaken ease to
venture therefrom. The sunlight of
knowledge which shines on the mountain
tops of broadminded thought is entirely
too glaring for us; we mistake the needs
of the human plant, and live in the very
cellar of our mental abode lest the rays of
light may dwarf or wither it. And then
when the shadow of trouble is cast over
the small window to our lives, we are
shut off from every view of earth’s glad
ness or heaven’s glory. It is a sad
thought to me—ignorance prevailing
when knowledge is so bountiful, and so
easily within the reach of all who possess
the mental energy to acquire it.
*
* *
“But I have never had educational
advantages,” you say.
All the world’s a school, and all the
men and women merely pupils. Experi
ence is the principal teacher, and nature
has provided a full corps of assistants;
there is not one of these so humble that
we may hesitate to receive instruction
therefrom —not one so high that the least
of us may not aspire to share its knowledge
or its secrets. The blue arch that shelters
us, the sun, moon and stars which light
our dwelling place, the land and water,
the woods, the birds, the flowers, the
flocks and fields and fountains, the mead
ows and the mountain peaks—these and
the many thousands of other objects about
us, constitute a course of learning such as
God’s school alone can offer; each is a book
that none are too young nor yet too old to
read; you and I are pupils placed here to
turn leaf by leaf and learn as we will—
and yet teachers, with many looking to us
to suggest the studies and point the way
to development. There is no limit to our
learning, except that which we may pre
scribe by mental inactivity or moral in
difference. No other school ever bestowed
a diploma so priceless; it is the reward of
success and happiness for honorable and
untiring effort, and in bestowing it our
Supreme Ruler will point out its true sig
nificance by the plaudit: ‘‘Thou hast been
faithful over this work, I will give thee
higher fields in which to labor.”
Sincerely do I wish that all could have
the advantage of education in the general
ly accepted sense of the term; wisely ap
plied, it is a great help in mastering the
studies which confront us in the school of
life. But I venture to say that if some
power could produce a healthy mental ac
tivity throughout the civilized world, if
each man and woman could be induced to
think on the problems of home and happi
ness, of great questions of government or
small acts of kindness, of beauty and
charity and godliness, of the greatest
good to the greatest number—if this could
be brought about, the world be put to
thinking, it would result in more for edu
cation, for humanity and for God than the
schools and colleges of man can ever ac
complish.
*
* •
“I read and read and read, but can re
member none of it,” said a friend to me
some time since.
And the trouble is simply that she does
not think. She is constantly taking beau
tiful pictures but never stops to develop
them, and all their beauty is lost. She
climbs the rugged mountain side to enjoy
a view of the rich fields beneath, but no
sooner reaches the top than her eyes are
closed to all the grandeur about her, and
just as well had she never climbed. She
complains that no gems repay her efforts
in the mines of knowledge, but forgets
that with all her delving she has not
paused to search for gems, nor even meas
ured the worth of those which have been
exposed to her hasty view.
I am not surprised that my friend does
not remember what she reads, and she
need not expect an improvement until she
combines her course of reading with a
course of thinking. I want her to change
her plan; she may not go through so
many books, but I am sure that she will
derive greater benefit from the few than
she has from SlAay. It may sometimes be
WOMAN’S WORK.
more profitable to spend a whole day of
thought over the first sentence in a book,
than to finish reading that book in a day ;
if the first sentence is not suggestive, per
haps one a little further on will afford food
for reflection. Don’t be afraid to weave
some of your own ideas in with those of
the author. It is no disrespect to him,
but rather it is proof that he has written
well, if seeds have been sown for cultiva
tion in your brain. Not only does the
combination of reading and thinking
strengthen the memory, store the mind
with knowledge which is permanently im
pressed thereon by the mind’s individual
action, and bring the reader into a near
ness with the writer’s ideas which can be
secured in no other way, but it opens up
the world of books to thousands who could
not otherwise enjoy this luxury and real
necessity to culture. If Mrs. Jones must
have a day of leisure to sit and read a
book, the book must remain unread, for
Mrs. Jones—good housewife that she is—
has no leisure days. And yet, the fact that
she must do most of her domestic work, by
no means argues that she cares nothing for
reading, that she should be deprived of its
pleasures and benefits, or that she is less
capable of comprehending and appreciat
ing the contents of a good book, than is
her neighbor who has no household cares
to engage mind or hands. Let not Mrs.
Jones envy the opportunities of her neigh
bor for literary culture. While this neigh
bor is reading book after book, and casting
them aside only to say that she finds little
of merit in them, or that she can remem
ber but little of their contents, let Mrs.
Jones select a good book to be read without
in any way encroaching on her daily du
ties, though they be numerous. If she has
adopted that system which should govern
in all work, that orderly arrangement of
duties and utensils which will accomplish
the greatest amount of work with the
smallest outlay of time and strength, she
will be able to sit, after the noon meal has
been served and the dining room put in
readiness for tea, and read a chapter in
that book while she is resting from her la
bors. And when this chapter is complet
ed, and she again goes about her house
work, there is an excellent opportunity for
reflection on what she has read.
*
* *
Perhaps there is some idea expressed
that bears on a phase of life which she has
never contemplated. Perhaps there has
been introduced a character who leads her
into new paths of human nature, and
brings to view a weakness or a power
which she had not conceived. Perhaps
there is an old man who will lead her im
agination back into the long ago when
the pace of life was less rapid than now
when her grandparents lived in affeetion
ate simplicity and dreamed not of the fol
lies that were to come after them Per
haps there isa young girl who looks out from
the midst of that one chapter, and wins
your admiration by a smiling face and hap
py disposition. Here, then, is a field for
much delightful speculation. Look ahead
and dream out the future of that girl
weave garlands of flowers fur hanging
along the pathway of a true woman,'and
take note of the webs whish will be woven
by Satan’s spiders for entangling the feet
which wander even a little distance from
that pathway. Mark the disposition of
this girl or that boy, and ponder well the
influences that are brought to bear by par
ents and associates; think of your own
example to those about you, and consider
seriously your responsibilities, if into your
keeping is given a mind and a character
which must be developed and prepared
for future manhood or womanhood. Look
if you <.an, into the hearts of those lovers
—not many books omit lovers entirely—
and see the secret purposes buried there.
Are they pure and consecrated, and will
they blossom into those flowers of noble
effort which shed a fragrance and a beauty
in the garden of life, or do treacherous
thorns reach up to prick the unsuspecting
flower lover? Weigh the qualities of
manhood and womanhood and find if they
are such that God indeed would join to
gether, or does the man represent that cold
and unappreciative nature which were
better in a marble stature, and the woman
that weak impassiveness that were less
harmful in the feelingless doll which she
represents ?
***
Can’t read a book in a day or a week ?
Fortunate then, my dear woman, for you
will have time to analyze that book as you
go, and when it is finished you will know
something, not alone of its contents, but
there will have been formed a better un
derstanding of your own weaknesses and
powers, of our fellow creatures and how
near akin to them we are, of Nature and
the songs which we may always hear
when near her instruments, of God and
his bountiful mercies to all who trust Him.
There is never an end to a good book;
the author has finished his work, but we
may graft his ideas onto our own, and
keep them always productive. After all,
it depends entirely on ourselves. No au
thor can do his part and that of the reader
also. The good we derive from his work
depends on the capacity which we may de
velop for thinking. A gentleman recent
ly agreed with me on this subject to such
an extent as to say : “The world does not
need books or book knowledge—it needs
individual thought.” I could not go so
far as this, but I expressed myself then as
now, that books are of but little impor
tance unless the reading of them is to be
accompanied by a line of independent
thought, followed by a deepening of our
mental powers, and a broadening of our
views.
•
* *
“But I have no time to read,” you
say.
Can’t take an hour a day for restful
reading ? I wish you could. I know how
busy you are kept, looking after the home
which is your greatest pride, and in which
faithfulness to duty will bring such glories
as rulers of nations have not known; but
I think you may arrange your work so
that a little recreation can be had. Econ
omize steps and strength, teach the chil
dren to assist you in keeping things in
their places, and thereby maintaining
proper order in the home. Do some think
ing right here in your housework, and see
if a reasonable amount of headwork will
not simplify matters and relieve burdens
to a great extent. But if you cannot find
a short while each day which you can call
your own for reading and for rest, don’t
despair. If you can't read, why just de
termine to think all the more. Maybe
you can have a book or paper or verse be
fore you, or near you, while the dinner is
being cooked, the dishes washed, or the
sewing machine made to serve the family.
Glance when you can to the words before
you; memorize them, criticise them, meas
ure their language and their meaning.
Thus may bits of knowledge be stored
away, and by working with a busy mind
our tasks go by most pleasantly. No time
is lost from household duties, but many a
sting is taken from household cares, for
the mind which has congenial occupation
will not take time to corrupt the body by
dwelling on its hardships.
• •
“I have A poor memory, anyway, and
cannot train myself to think.”
Very strong evidence that you have
neglected your God-given powers, my
dear, and the sooner you commence a sys
tematic course of mental activity, the bet
ter it will be for you. Don’t expect very
much at first; if you can’t read over a
poem and repeat it without further trou
ble, it is no evidence of a weak memory,
nor of inability to train your thoughts’
Great results are usually achieved by slow
degrees, and we will do well to go back to
the truths about “little drops of water
little grains of sand,” which we were
taught in childhood. It is a mistaken
idea that some persons aro born with
knowledge, while others can never attain
it. There are few imbeciles, and there is
far less difference in the natural mental
capacity of individuals than most of us
imagine. To my mind the “bright” men
and women are those who have exercised
their mental organs, and gradually widen
ed their scope by activity, rather than al
low idleness to dwarf them. The “dull”
person has simply shut himself or herself
up in mental idleness and courted a stag
nation of ideas. An arm that is never
used will lose its strength and shrivel
away, because it was made to be em
ployed. A brain that is never exercised
can never be a healthy brain Mothers
fathers, I hope you will guard your
children and yourselves against this sacri
fice of man’s highest power for usefulness
Encourage thought—consideration of great
thingsand small things. When the Tittle
toddlers ask questions, it means that their
minds are taking that exercise which na
ture intended; don’t be too lazy to answer
them. A lazy person is a disgrace to self,
to parents and to God; do all you can to
reduce the number of mental and physical
drones in this great hive of humanity If
you have been negligent of yourself, you
are neither too young nor too old to begin
the development of your resources • if
you have contributed towards the dwarf
ing of another’s powers there will be no
time so good to make amends as NOW.