LECTURES AND ESSAYS READ AT INSTITUTES. 227 



of temper and amiable spirits. A house whose avenues of daily expenses are 

 not well guarded, will not be apt to furnish means for occasional luxuries. 

 And as all beauty acts with a moral influence upon our hearts, so I say, a house 

 with naked walls and destitute of the many little simple, bright adorniugs, 

 which so enliven and cheer our hearts, is not the best home in which to feed 

 our moral natures. A few days since I visited in a home made so pretty by 

 the skill and taste of the young wife, that I felt it would be wrong not to show 

 my appreciation of her effort. I said (I presume with a good degree of 

 enthusiasm): "I think your house is so pretty, so bright, so cheery." I 

 watclied for a moment the blush on her cheek, and then came the reply that 

 pleased me above all others: "That's just what Charlie says. He says the 

 moment he opens the door, it seems so bright and cheerful." Who cau say 

 what may be the infllience of such a home over a man with any appreciative 

 faculty in his nature J' Had he seen the ornaments, one by one, he would 

 have thought them of no worth, but by skillfully arranging, by properly blend- 

 ing the colors, by brightening up dark corners, by filling in the waste places, 

 the house was made beautiful, and the home became lovely, the inmates 

 happy. 



Think not that happiness is a property that exists in the ornaments. What 

 will produce joy m one household, may not in another. Study to know the 

 tastes of your husband. Learn the wishes of your own wife. Inquire after 

 the pleasures of your own son. Purchase the delights of your own daughter. 

 Eest content, nay, not so, but count yourself happy, if you can by any means 

 bring joy into your own home. Think carefully before you say to a friend, I 

 would not indulge my husband in this; or I would not do that for my wife. 

 You know not what you may be doing. What costs you one dollar, may cost 

 your neighbor one dollar and much unhappiness therewith. Prescribe for 

 another in buying and selling stock. Let another advise with you in matters 

 of loss and gain, but you alone must best understand how to make your own 

 home. Make it a place where Contentment sits enthroned, where a welcome 

 ever awaits you; whose warmth and love robs all vexation of its anger, takes 

 all weight from annoyances, and redeems you from care. In darkness and 

 trouble it will lead you away, to taste the fullness of joy which the good 

 inherit. It will strengthen your every virtue. And then, when you have this 

 almost perfect home, over against you is set an enemy, the destroyer Death, 

 whose shafts, sooner or later, will surely be sent to gather its inmates to that 

 perfect home, in the beautiful house of Our Father, which has many mansions. 



RELATION OF THE FARMER TO THE DISTRICT SCHOOL. 



BY MRS. W. T. ADAMS. 

 LRead at Grand Rapids Institute.] 



Mr. PrEvSident, Ladies and Gentlemen, — I have tried in vain till the 

 last week to think of something to say on the subject chosen for me. I have 

 repeatedly asked myself, why did your committee want me to write anything 

 on this subject when there were teachers from our Agricultui*al College and the 

 learned men and women who might have been chosen from our city and 

 vicinity? Till I could solve this problem it was of no use for me to try to 

 write. This morning when washing the lamp chimneys the answer came to 



