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JOHN n. SEALS, - Editor and Proprietor.
W. B. SEALS, ■ Proprietor and Cor. Editor,
MRS. MARY E. BRYAN (*) Associate Editor,
ATLANTA, GEORGIA, JUNE 22, 1878.
'A Beautiful Story With a Fine
Moral.—A friend asks ns in regard to the pro
priety of lending “ Johnathan ” to a lady rela
tive. Certainly we should have no hesitation,
about suggesting it to any young lady, and in-
d eed we wish it could be read by every one
We commend it in the first place as a touching
little story most agreeably told. We do not
know when we have seen a sweeter picture than
we have here of the quiet country Village where
Johnathan plied his hammer and the gentle,
lady like school-mistress came to follow her
vocation. The whole scene forms a delightful
idyl which only lacks numbers to leave upon
the mind the impression of being one of the
finest poems in any language.
But beautiful as it is. there was something
besides beauty aimed at by the authoress.
While so eminently pleasing from the charms
of its style, it is made the vehicle for teaching
some very valuable lessons. One of these is the
great truth directly enunciated in Holy Writ
and confirmed by thousands of instances in
human experience, that sin will almost surely
find the sinner. Here we see a man rich, pros
perous, and seemingly of good character who
has done a great wrong to one of the poorest and
feeblest of all the community. Studiously care
ful of his reputation, he has taken every pre
caution to hide his sin, and it seems for a time
that his efforts will be successful. But by a
chain of circumstances, which, though probable
could not have been anticipated, his guilt be
comes known to the very person from whom he
is most solicitous to conceal it, and the cup of
joy is dash away just as he was raising it to his
lips.
But there is another lesson taught, quite as
important and perhaps even more needed than
this. The lovely young school-mistress, poor,
and craving the comforts of wealth for herself
and her mother, promptly resigns the suitor
who has offered her love and is able to give her
the luxuries of an elegant home, when she be
comes aware that he has acted the part of seduc
er. Thus must every woman act who would
preserve free from the slightest stain the purity
of her character. If this course were followed
more, we should have happier women and bet
ter men. Women do not sufficiently appreciate
the fact that they can in a great degree make
men what they would have them be. Of oourse
there are male bipeds who are incapable of be
ing led to a virtuous life by the best of women.
We hops for no such UtODia in wbicll nil j
tuo men shall be gentlemen. But*'there is a
large class who are now more or less licentious
who would not be so if the women whom they
choose to marry would firmly require purity of
life as a requisite to this favor. We know of no 1
valid reason why the high standard of virtue in
sisted upon by the one sex should not be as j
strongly insisted upon by the other.
More ‘Cruel Provocation* than Kate
Sothern had, yet no Murderess
and no ‘Heroine’
There has been an over-full chrism of sympa
thy poured out upon Kate Sothern—the woman
who killed her husband's paramour. Purses
have been made up for her, crowds have flocked
to see her, the press, in many instances, have
glorified her, novices with the pen have rashly
rushed into print as her champions, and women,
gentle and pure, have hailed Ijpr as a heroine—
‘the one woman of ten thousand who dared de-
defend the honor of her home.’ How silly, if
not sinful, some of the sentimental gush has
been!
Every one pities Kate Sothern—young wife
and mother, who in a moment of blind rage stain
ed her hands with blood, but shall she be paint
ed as a Venus, shall she be exnlted as a heroine,
a saint and martyr for no earthly reason but be
cause she has broken the law of God and man
and committed a deed at which the gentle in
stincts of her sex should have recoiled with hor
ror ? Is this sufficient to proclaim her a ‘uoble,
Christian woman,’ a ‘model of her sex,’ and to
paint her as a second Helen with a ‘brow pure
as the dew-bleached magnolia leaf and a form
and face instinct with matchless graces.’ Strip
the facts of their romantic excrescences and
there remains the truth that Kate Sothern,
common place, uneducated and somewhat weak
minded and hysterical girl married a man whom
she knew to be a libertine and entangled with
another woman, and two months afterwards, at
her father's house to which this other woman
came an invited guest, stabbed her insolent
rival, while her friends and the miserable apol
ogy for a husband looked on at the fight; and
then made her escape, leaving her sister, a child
of fifteen, to suffer in ner place, and be con
demned to the penetentiary as accessory to the
deed, because the avenger of blood called for
some object to punish.
This then is Kate Sothern's claim to be called
‘heroine' ‘noble Christian woman’ and ‘martyr.’
Because she committed the orimein a moment
of frenzy, because she is young and has suffer
ed much already, and because she bears the ho
ly title of mother, I rejoice that our good gov
ernor commuted this woman’s death sentence
to ten years of penal servitude and that she is
now comfortably established as one of the cooks
on Col. Smith’s convict-worked farm where she
has the companionship of her sister and of her
husband (if the company of such a husband be
esteemed a blessing) and the presence of her
little child, and where she enjoys, thanks to
Mrs. Smith’s kindness, more real advantages
than she would at her ewn home. I rejoice in
all this, as fully as I honor the kindly sympa
thy and the loyalty to their sex manifested by
the many ladies, North and South, who have pe
titioned Gov. Colquitt for a fuli pardon of Mrs.
Sothern, who have sent her money and advocat
ed her cause. But when she is held up as a
model, and we are told to copy her example and
defend the honor of our homes,” there I beg
leave to withdraw from the army of Kate’s
advocates. Defend our homes! Why, if all
the wo'uen similarly aggrieved should set out
to defend their homes in Mrs. Sothern’s fash
ion, domestio peace would become obselete and
convict-farms” would have more cooks upon
| them than mush to be cooked or male mouths
I to eat it.
! How many women are there in this broad
] land, who have had wrongs imposed upon them
j similar to Kate Sotherns, but far, far greater, yet
I who have borne them silently and given no sign.
“Save fading lips and whitening tresses?”
How many women are there who endure not
only unfaithfulness, but scorn and neglect,
derous hand? Yet no revenge was sought by
this wronged wife, no community was convuls
ed with excitement on her aocount, her children
and her home suffered no want of attention be
cause of her wrongs, no bloody tragedy was en
acted save in the bleeding heart, and ov6r that
was dropped,the curtain of woman’s silent en
durance. Was there no heroism in this? Did
it not take more strength of soul to keep down
the throes of outraged love and trust than to
arm Kate Sothern’s avenging knife ? ‘ Spare
her: I know her temptation,’ wrote a New York
woman of Kate Sothern. Yes; spare her; give
her even full acquittal if you think best, but
never apotheosize such a woman, neve? exalt
her into a heroine, nor fling the glamour of' ro
mance about her, that other women similarly
tempted, may emulate her in ‘heroism’and seek
in her way to ‘ defend the honor of their homes ,
as men do and are acquitted fordoing.’ Men
are not the preservers of home peace and unity.
It is not into their hands that the true regis of
domestic union and purity is committed. If
it were, God pity the broken homes and forlorn
children there would be ! Man stands arrayed
in the brave'nniform of honor and guards the
outer door ofjtke domestic temple, woman is the
priestess who stands beside the altar of the inner
penetralia and keeps ever burning the purify
ing flame of virtue and devotion.
Ah ! too many women have known Mrs. Soth
ern’s temptation—have felt the keen pang of
wrong, the wild frenzy of jealousy, even the
sting of a coarse rival’s taunt, and yet because
duty to themselves, their children and their
God, was paramount to the selfish thirst of re
venge, they have dreamed not of defending the
honor of their homes by bloodshed; they have
taken up the burden of work, the cross of en
durance and found peace and consolation there
in; have throned sweet mother-love on the
ashes of wifely affection, and died with a pray
er on their lips, leaving to their children no
legacy of dark and blood-stained recollections
to cloud the thought of ‘mother. ’ *
Growing Old Gracefully. —A friend
has asked us to say if one can grow old without
becoming unlovely, and if so, how it can be
done. As regards the possibility, our fair friend
has proof in the person of a parent, who though i fo* the sake of their own respect, for the sake
past the age assigned by the Psalmist as the pe- of kee P in g P eaoe in their children’s homes, they
riod of human life, still commands the esteem > endure in silence, only pressing their babies’
and admiration of a host of friends. heads close to their bosoms when the heart
Of the way,
we can only offer the recipe which the Physi
cian gave Lucy Snow; ‘Cultivate happiness.’—
which is but another form of saying, cultivate
goodness. Nothing, we apprehend, will bring
on the marks of age more rapidly than the in
dulgence of depressing emotions, nor will any
thing render the marks more unlovely than the
cherishing of wicked passions. There are in
the lives of many, griefs which no prudence can
evade. But if one suffers with patient resigna
tion, sorrow will purify the heart and impart a
higher type of beauty to the person. If she
would grow old gracefully, she must cherish
faith in God and warm love for her race. These
sentiments will impart to the face that trans
cendent loveliness which a hundred artists have
sought to put upon canvass in their conceptions
of the Mother of our Saviour. It is the fault
more than the misfortune of people if they are
unattractive in old age. It is either because
they have allowed evil passions to hold posses
sion of their hearts, or because they have not
bowed meekly to the will of Providence, and
sought to find a blessing in its sternest decrees.
Again, if we would have age graceful, the life
must have been busy. There must be work for
the hand or the brain, not from the sordid mo
tive of accumulating wealth, but from the high
er wish of benefitting the race. Many very
busy men and women have become intensely
ugly as they grew old;—but it was because they
labored for unworthy objects. An active be
nevolence that is constantly seeking some op
portunity to exercise itself, will invest its pos
sessor with a halo of beauty. Good deeds are
better adornings than diamonds.
The World’s Movers.—The number of
persons who have done anything towards carry
ing the world forward is really small. Even of
our progressive race, the great mass, if unstirred
by a. few master minds, would stand still. It is
owing to the thoughts and acts of a small num
ber of men that we to-day enjoy so large a share
of civil and religious freedom. Left to them
selves, the masses would soon quietly submit to
the domination of some ambitious spirit, or
yield implicitly to priestly rule. What a nation
becomes depends .really on the few men who
oontrol its destinies.
within feds most like breaking, but praying for
the faithless husband, working for him, loving
him, trying to lead him into purer paths? Yet
these women are never called heroines.
I know women in this very city who work and
whose earnings are partly spent by their hus
bands upon wantons. Let me tell you of one
instance because it is parallel to Kate Sothern’s
in so much that the woman, like her, is country
raised, young, poor, unoultured: she is however
far more refined and sensitive than the Pickens
county heroine. This woman has a dissolute
husband and three little children. She has
worked hard all her married life; she keeps her
humble home bright and clean, yet she fails to
win her husband from his vices—vices which
she, marrying at fifteen, pure and untaught in
the world’s wickedness, could not suspect. Last
year, her father gave her the use of a few acres
of land upon which she planted cotton. She
worked it herself, with her little chil d to
heip her. What plowing she hired done, she
paid for by sewing and washing; the hoeing she
and her little boy, ten years old, did themselves.
Her children and herself were without shoes,
without decent clothes. Barefoot, they walked
to the little patch every day, the husband doing
“outside jobs,” and spending his wages himself.
“Never mind,"she would say to her little chil
dren, “when we make our bale of cotton, you
shall have good shoes and whole clothes and can
go to school in the winter.” At last the cotton
was made, picked out by the hopeful, busy fin
gers of mother and children, packed and ready
to be sold. The woman could not take it to
market herself, her child was sick and she
could not go with it She trusted the precious
bale, freighted with so many hopes, to her hus
band. He brought it to Atlanta, was gone two
weeks and came back without a dollar, or a yard
of cloth or other article for his family. Th«
cotton made with so much labor—the cotton that
meant shoes for bare feet and clothes for chilled
limbs during the winter that was now at hand—
this cotton was sold, and its proceeds spent in
a den of infamy. Was not the pang of disap
pointment and wrong, that struck deep to the
wife’s heart as she gathered her children in her
arms and wept with them, greater than the
j sense of injury that nerved Mrs. Sothern’s mur-
Petty Pilfering. —Stealing in a small way
is one of the greatest blisters of Southern hu
manity. Rape indeed is it to find a farmer who
does not hav e to fret over the appropriation of
his fruit, chickens and eggs by those who have
forgotten their fear of the lash and have not
learned to fear the law. What remedy can be
suggested for the evil ? If we should attempt to
arrest, try and punish by fine and imprison
ment every son of Ham who steals a bag of ap
ples or a nest of eggs our counties would be
bankrupted by the costs. Besides, fine and im
prisonment are not penalties which inspire
much terror in the African breast. Few of them
grieve much over the loss of money if they hap
pen to have it, and as for being confined in jail
where they are fed and not required to work,
they regard it as a luxury. Some are hoping
that education will improve the matter. But
we have not yet found that learning ‘ABC
from Webster’s Spelling Book ’ tends at all to
lessen the ccbfounding of meum and tuum in the
Ethiopian hlf in. We most heartily endorse the
position of (Tie negro who advocates the revival
ot whippiip^'* a mode of punishment, and we
think his wisdom deserving of encouragement.
The last would diminish the number of petty
crimes, and ’ye know of nothing else that would.
How Royalty Rides.—Mr. Stephen
son the New York Car-manufacturer is now
building a superb, street car for the use of Dom
Pedro, the Emperor of Brazil. The Dom will
use it in going from his country house to his
executive mansion. It is described as artisti
cally finished in ash, basswood, plain and wild
cherry, and plain and bird’s-eye maple, the roof
of perforated wood. The oolors of the exterior
are the national ones of Brazil—green and gold
—the Brazilian arms occupying the middle pan
els on either side, with Sketches of American
scenery in the other panels, There are five
windows all of plate glass. The metal work is
niokel-plated. The prevailing oolor of the inte
rior is dark blue, the furniture being a sofa, two
chairs, and a centre table in the Eastlake style.
The lambrequins are of dark blue leather, having
black velvet borders and a fringe of wooden
tassels, a large central lamp, on the doors mir
rors, and mirrors between the windows. The
panels are decorated with landscapes, and the
floor will be carpeted with Axminister. Wire
gates protect the platforms, and a life guard is
arranged to prevent persons from getting under
the wheels.’
Pedro’s street car however is surpassed in cost
liness by the saloon rail-way carriage of her Brit
ish Majesty which cost thirty thousand dollars.
Yet the Empress’ Indian subjects are many of
them starving. *
Wll.lt Do YVe Hate.—B. F, Butler says
he does not hate the Southern people, but he
hates their ways. Perhaps he believes that there
is really a distinction in the two, and thinks
himself not quito so bad a man. The difference
however, to our apprehension lies only in the
words. What is it in people we like or dislike ?
Certainly not tberf bodies. We do indeed ad
mire a fine figtT*> in a man, and a beautiful face
of a woman; and! were this all we knew of them,
we might regard them with much such feelings
as we look upon the Apollo Belvidere or the
Greek Slave. But it is the beauty or deformity of
the soul that awakens our love or excites our ha
tred. When the vital spark has fled—when vir
tues no more command our reverence, nor vices
stir our loathing, the cold, lifeless form awakes
in us neither the one sentiment nor the other.
We hasten to hide it away from our sight
Though we may shed tears as we lay it away in
the narrow house, we feel that it is no part of
*w. which we loved—it is not for that moulder
ing clay we weep. Nor would we, like the bar
barous hero of Troy, treat with indignity the in
animate body of him whom while living, we re
garded with the sternest resentment, and op
posed with all the force of hand and brain. It
was not the head,1nor the body, nor the limbs
that we hated, but the spirit within that made
these act in a manner to arouse our indignation.
If Mr. Butler says he hates not our bodies we can
believe him. But if he hates our ways, he to all
intents and purposes hates us.
A Desirable Gift.—What a very desira
ble gift it would be to be able always to say the
right thing at the right time—a gift which we
suspect, however, is possessed only by the
dwellers in Utopia. With this many would be
eloquent who are now but mute inglorious Mil-
tons, and others would be the life of every con
vivial circle who have never been known to say
a fine thing in their lives. Who has not thought
of very brilliant sayings that he could have ut
tered if they had only oqfiurred to him at the
proper time? We think that Greek must have
been a dull fellow who said he had never re
gretted having been silent. Had his imagina
tion been at all active, he would have thought
of hundred of instances in which he missed ma
king himself famous by not having uttered at
the right time the smart sayings which he
thought of a little later. Biographers—if one
should be deemed worthy to be written upon—
supply, as far as they are able, this lack of read
iness on the part of their heroes. It is a strik
ing instance of how men can sometimes merge
themselves into those whom they admire, when
historians put their, own fine expressions into
the months of those about whom they are writ
ing. Porus would have deemed it a happy
thought to have said that he would like to be
treated dike a king,’ but unfortunately it did
not occur to him when brought before his cap-
tor, and if the conqueror of Gaul had said to the
frightened sailor just at the right time, ‘Why
do you fear? You carry Ciesar,’ it would have
afforded him as great pleasure as the conquest
of the Helvetia. Thousands oi ‘the gems of his*
tory’ if carefully examined in regard to authen
ticity would be found to have been not the im-
promptues of those to whom they are attributed,
but the studied wit of the histriographer. Still
we do not mean to say that persons never have
happy thoughts at the right moment. Of course,
they do. But such cases are rare compared
with the instances in which the individual says
nothing or makes an inappropriate speech.
Giving Iutroillictioiis:—When we intro
duce one man to another, we rarely mean any
thing more than to let the parties know each
other’s names. Sometimes, however, even
among men, the introducer becomes a voucher
for the character of the party introduced. This
is, or at least should always be the case when a
man introduces another man to a lady. He
should never do so unless he can vouch for the
standing of the party introduced, for his act is
nothing less than a recommendation. We fear
that this rule is violated tnoughtlessly by many
to whom we should dislike to deny the name of
gentleman. At balls and other social gatherings
young men who are not of a worthy class often
ask for introductions to young ladies, and the
men of whom they make the request have not
the moral courage to refuse. True the rules of
society permit a young lady to pass a ball room
acquaintance unrecognized if subsequent in
quiries have led her to know that he is unwor
thy. But it would be far better if her male
friends would spare her the pain of making
such discriminations by introducing to her on
ly such men as she may safely know.
The Connecting Gink.—Physiologists
tell us that in from five to seven years all the
particles of the human body are changed.
Whether they be correct or not as to the time,
it is quite certain that changes are perpetually
going on in our bodies and that after a time we
have really a different set of bones, muscles and
sinews. How then do we preserve our identity?
How do we retain a consciousness of being the
same persons we were ten, fifteen or twenty
years ago ? Memory is the connecting link. It
is this which binds together the man of yester
day and to-day. Without this faculty, every
period of existence would become a distinct life
with no apprehension of anything preceding it.
Perhaps we appreciate memory sufficiently as
the faculty by which we retain knowledge; but
we are not want to think of it as the sole means
of rendering a personal history possible. Yet
it is true that without this we could not have
the consciousness of having lived, suffered or
enjoyed five minutes ago. Memory makes our
lives.
Drank at the Altar —We are told that
a young man was lately married in this city so
drunk that he could hardly stand long enough
to promise to ‘love and cherish’ the too confid- •
ing creature that leaned on his arm and inhal
ed his odorous breath. Indeed he could never
have ‘stood up to the rack,’ as one of the wit
nesses said, if two of his comrades had not tak
en him out and walked him around, until his
manly pegs were sufficiently sober to admit of
standing upright, though tottering under the
weight of his new responsibility.
The bride did not belong to the new order of
girls, lately inaugurated by that Cincinnati
young lady who refused at the very altar to
marry a young man because his breath smelled
of liquor. Her friends remonstrated; would
she spoil the wedding? ‘Yes,’ said the noble
girl, ‘rather than spoil my life forever. He prom
ised me he would never drink again, he has
broken his promise; he would break his mar
riage vows as well.’ Every true woman and
man should glory in her firmness and good
sense. If all girls followed her example, we
should hear of fewer wretched • wives, and the
practice of ‘'priming' for the marriage ceremony
on the part of the bride groom, would be done
away with. *
The Hero Brothers.—Following the
fine picture of Lieut. Gen. Joseph Wheeler,
already announced as in preparation for
the Sunny South, we shall present a magnifi
cent double picture, appropriately border
ed with martial designs, from one of the
most eminent engravers in the country, of the
Hero-Brothers’ who fell in the terrible ‘Battle
of Atlanta.,’ July 22, 1864,
No more gallant or chivalrous young soldiers
entered the Confederate service, or died more
heroically on the battle field, bravely facing
and fighting the foe, than Capt. Joseph Clay
Habersham, of Gen. Gist’s staff, in Walker’s
division, and Private William Neyle Haber
sham, Jr., Company F, 54th Georgia Regiment;
the noble sons of Mr. William Neyle Haber
sham, of Savannah, Ga. The sketch of their
lives and the record of their heroic death will
melt the hearts of our readers with the deepest
sympathy for the still sorrowing and bereaved,
though patriotic and submissive parents, whose
two sons bravely fell in the same battle, and
within a few hours of each other.
Diet and Physical Development.
Wirtes a gentleman of Indianapolis: ‘In your
recent sensible remarks about the physical de
velopment of girls, you omitted one suggestion
that I confidently expected from one who has
so often written about the influence of diet
upon health. I believe you are a vegetarian;
has diet nothing to do with physical develop
ment?’
Beginning Wrong.—Among the many
false sayings current among men, none is more
erroneous than that a bad beginning makes a
good ending. It is time that people, who are
not discouraged by one, two or a half dozen
failures in the outset, may and most generally
do, eventually succeed by dint of perseverence.
But if they begin wrong, it is anything else than
a favorable augury of a successful career. A
false step need not be irrimediable, but with
very many people it proves to be so. We know
young men who begin life by spending more
than their income; who stretch their credit to
its utmost limits and then betray the confidence
reposed in them. We cannot believe that the
after part of their career will be successful.
Most of them will continue as they begin, and
the end will be suicide or the felon’s cell. But
if they would, as some do, listen to the dictates
of common sense, be taught by experience, and
submit to the hand that corrects their errors,
they may indeed become both better and more
successful men by having begun wrong.
Two Little Girls Smothered in a Trunk.—
An awful catastrophe took place, near Dixon,
Missouri, last week. Mrs. Amelia Moenck,
teacher of German in the Franklin school at
St. Louis, has two little girls of five and eight
years, beautiful and intelligent little creatures,
whom she is obliged to leave with their father
on his farm, near Dixon, a hundred and thirty
miles from St. Louis. School was soon to close, the
mother was fondly anticipating a reunion with
her family when came the cruel dispatch that
both little girls were dead, smothered in a trunk
while playing, their father having gone to town
to mail a letter to his wife. The coming home
of the poor mother was far different from that
her hopes had painted. *
Mr. Henry Grady, by urgent request, will de
liver, in this City oa next Thursday night, his
unique and beautiful lecture, ‘The Patch Work
Palace.’ . *
It certainly has, and though we are not strict
ly vegetarian, and like a broiled steak or Spring
chicken occasionally, we have no doubt that a
diet composed largely of meats especially * fried
meats, ‘fatty’biscuits, highly spiced condiments,
strong coffee, rich pastries etc., is most unfavor
able to pure, sound health, clear complexions
or fine physiques.
Many of the most wholesome and nutritious
articles of food that are almost constant dishes
in other countries are rarely seen upon our
table. The apple, which cooked or fresh is the
chief food of the active Paris grisette, baked
beans that the rosy New Englanders eat three
times a day, oat meal from which the long-lived,
sturdy Scotchman draws his brawn, and muscle,
these seldom appear on the Southern table. The
healthiest and the most nutritious article of
food that we can get is oat meal properly
cooked Some one says:
‘Oatmeal, now found on every gentleman’s
breakfast table, was, a few years ago, used exclu
sively by the Scotch and Irish. Dr. Johnson,
who, in his hatred of the Scotch, lost no oppor
tunity of saying a bitter word against them, de
fined oats as in Scotland food for Scotchmen,
but in England food for horses.
‘Yes,’ answered an indignant Scotchman,
‘where can you find such men as in Scotland, or
such horses as in England?'
We have heard of a shrewd old Scotch mother
who used to make her family eat oatmeal first,
saying: ‘The bairn who eats the most porritch
will get the most meat after it.’ But the bairn
who gained the prize always found himself too
full to enjoy the meat.
It is mentioned in a most charming book, The
Life and Letters of Lord Macauly, that Carlyle,
catching a sight of Macaulay’s face in repose,
remarked, ‘well any one can see that you are an
honest, good sort of a fellow, made out of oat
meal.’
If oatmeal can ‘make such men as Walter Scott,
Dr. Chalmers, and Lord Macaulay, we may well
heap high the porritch dish, and bribe our chil
dren to eat of it. One thing we do know, that
it is far better for the blood and brain than cake,
confections, and the scores of delicacies on
which many pale little pets are fed by their
foolishly fond mothers.
‘The Queen’s Own,’ a regiment of almost gi
ants, recruited from the Scotish Highlands, are,
as Carlyle said of Macaulay, ‘ made of oat meal.’
So boys who want height, and breadth, and
muscle, and girls who want rosy cheeks and
physical vigor, should turn from hot bread and
other indigestibles, to ‘ this food for Scotchmen
and horses.’ *
Cloutlinc Thoughts in YVords.—
Many modern essayists use words of learned
length, and their periods flow with sonorous
grandeur very pleasing to the ear. But what
they are talking about it would take one as
learned as themselves to tell. They write good
English we suppose, though many of their words
are rarely seen outside of a Lexicon. We pre
sume their sentences could be parsed by the
rules of Lindley Murray, though nothing short of
such rigid analysis can ascertain *the relation
which the several clauses bear to each other.
When you have read a whole essay of such
writing, you are at a total loss to determine
which side of the question the author has taken,
nor could you for your life tell where he started,
nor to what conclusion he has arrived. What
a contrast between this grandly obsoure litera
ture, and the clear,{luminous sentences of Mao-
auly. With him the paramount consideration
was to be understood, and to this he hesitated
not to saerfioe any other grace of style. He fre
quently discuss'ed subjects of great abstrusness
yet he never failed to make himself under
stood. The difficulty with our modern philoso
phers is that they have but a dim idea of what
they attempt to write about and of oourse they
cannot make others understand what they do
not understand themselves.