The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 05, No. 27, January, 1860 by Various
page 63 of 283 (22%)
page 63 of 283 (22%)
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temptation of unemployed time and energies demanding supply of action.
Little by little these are supplied,--supplied by the billiard-table and its concomitants. It is the same story,--first, rumors, then equivocation, then exposure. Perhaps a petty sum is all; but, to the austere justice of banking, this is as bad, nay, worse than millions. And then a brief paragraph in the newspaper, and one more ruined young man, sulking beside the family-hearthstone, his father's shame, his mother's unextinguishable sorrow,--a candidate for crime, if he have power of mind and spirit to feel, or an imbecile dependant, if he have not. Now preaching, whether lay or clerical, will not do much to prevent this, especially if it be pitched (as it commonly is) upon too high a key. _Preventing_ means, or used to mean, when words had a meaning, _getting beforehand with anything._ And if young Homespun have from the outset something he likes better, he will not take to the ivory balls in pleasant weather, and in rainy weather will be apt to prefer even quite a stupid book to the board of green cloth. Therefore, boys, go,--and girls, too, for that matter,--on flower and moss hunts!--and ye, dear middle-aged people, send them, and go also upon the same! Find something that will tempt you into the woods,--something neither berries nor sassafras,--something which cannot be eaten or sold, but which will simply give you a sense and a love of beauty. These pages have been written to show that it lies at your very doors,--that nothing but stout boots, an old coat or jacket, and an observant eye, is needed. When you come to be saints, or even to be men, there will be plenty of active work to do, if so be that you will only do it. Then, in careful regard to your bodies, you may have hard-trotting (not fast-trotting) horses, pickerel-backed boats, and a billiard-room over the stable,--if your canonization seem to require it. But the saint, if he be true saint, |
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