FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   205   206   207   208   209   210   211   212   213   214   215   216   217   218   219   220   221   222   223   224   225   226   227   228   229  
230   231   232   233   234   235   236   237   238   239   240   241   242   243   244   245   246   247   248   249   250   251   252   253   254   >>   >|  
ther man, but from woman--his mother, his sister, or his wife." [202] Man enters a new world of joy, and sympathy, and human interest, through the porch of love. He enters a new world in his home--the home of his own making--altogether different from the home of his boyhood, where each day brings with it a succession of new joys and experiences. He enters also, it may be, a new world of trials and sorrows, in which he often gathers his best culture and discipline. "Family life," says Sainte-Beuve, "may be full of thorns and cares; but they are fruitful: all others are dry thorns." And again: "If a man's home, at a certain period of life, does not contain children, it will probably be found filled with follies or with vices." [203] A life exclusively occupied in affairs of business insensibly tends to narrow and harden the character. It is mainly occupied with self-watching for advantages, and guarding against sharp practice on the part of others. Thus the character unconsciously tends to grow suspicious and ungenerous. The best corrective of such influences is always the domestic; by withdrawing the mind from thoughts that are wholly gainful, by taking it out of its daily rut, and bringing it back to the sanctuary of home for refreshment and rest: "That truest, rarest light of social joy, Which gleams upon the man of many cares." "Business," says Sir Henry Taylor, "does but lay waste the approaches to the heart, whilst marriage garrisons the fortress." And however the head may be occupied, by labours of ambition or of business--if the heart be not occupied by affection for others and sympathy with them--life, though it may appear to the outer world to be a success, will probably be no success at all, but a failure. [204] A man's real character will always be more visible in his household than anywhere else; and his practical wisdom will be better exhibited by the manner in which he bears rule there, than even in the larger affairs of business or public life. His whole mind may be in his business; but, if he would be happy, his whole heart must be in his home. It is there that his genuine qualities most surely display themselves--there that he shows his truthfulness, his love, his sympathy, his consideration for others, his uprightness, his manliness--in a word, his character. If affection be not the governing principle in a household, domestic life may be the most intolerable of despotisms.
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   205   206   207   208   209   210   211   212   213   214   215   216   217   218   219   220   221   222   223   224   225   226   227   228   229  
230   231   232   233   234   235   236   237   238   239   240   241   242   243   244   245   246   247   248   249   250   251   252   253   254   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

occupied

 

character

 
business
 

enters

 
sympathy
 

thorns

 
affection
 

affairs

 

success

 
domestic

household

 

manliness

 
whilst
 

marriage

 

approaches

 

Taylor

 

garrisons

 

fortress

 

sanctuary

 
uprightness

refreshment

 
principle
 

governing

 

intolerable

 

despotisms

 

rarest

 

social

 

Business

 

consideration

 

gleams


truest

 

visible

 

larger

 
public
 
bringing
 

practical

 

exhibited

 

manner

 

display

 

surely


qualities
 

wisdom

 

labours

 

ambition

 

failure

 
genuine
 

truthfulness

 

guarding

 

sorrows

 

gathers