86 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



March 



.r, 1^ 



"POETKY, MUSIC, AND HEALTH." 



The leading article in Dr. "HaU's Journal of 

 Health," for January, has the title which is the 

 caption of this article. We take the title and the 

 sentiments which follow it, and should be glad to 

 lay every one of them before the reader if it 

 would leave room for that variety which a news- 

 paper must have. They begin by showing the 

 mood and the manner in which many persons come 

 to their meals at the table. Of all places, there 

 is none where it is more important that the mind 

 should be genial and overflowing with kindly 

 feeling, than when we take our meals. If afflic- 

 tion of mind, body, or estate, be upon us,, all our 

 powers should be exerted to banish it from the 

 mind while we are eating. Among ancient cus- 

 toms it was usual to have music during the meal, 

 and may be now for aught we know, among some 

 people. At any rate, the conversation at such 

 times should be of a cheerful and hopeful charac- 

 ter. It is not a good time to discuss the costli- 

 ness of articles of food, the death or absence of 

 relatives or friends, or reverses in business. These 

 tend to cast a gloom over the mind, check the nat- 

 ural energies of the system, and induce disease 

 and discontent. After speaking of the mutual 

 duties of each member of the household, Dr. Hall 

 says : — 



"The 'music' then, which the wife should 'prac- 

 tice,' in order to have a healthful influence over 

 the ])hysical, moral, and mental nature of a man, 

 restraining him from vice, and crime, and glut- 

 tony, and late hours, and drunkenness, and the 

 poetry which she should recite to him every day, 

 are the music and poetry of a tidy home, of cleanly 

 and well-behaved children, of quiet and respectful 

 servants, of a table spread so invitingly that if 

 only bread and milk and butter were there, they 

 would taste like nectar and honey just from the 

 hive ; while the all-pervading and happy influence 

 of a quiet, loving, and lady-like wife, sanctifies 

 the whole household, and makes it a community 

 of love, of enjoyment, of domestic beatitude. 



There must be music and poetry too in the hus- 

 band ; he must strive daily to deport himself to- 

 ward the woman who has borne him children, with 

 a like respect and deference and consideration and 

 gentleness, to that which he was accustomed to ex- 

 hibit sh(u-tly before the marriage ceremony had 

 made them one. We say 'strive,' for many a 

 time it will require an effort, a moral power akin 

 to the heroic, for there is much in the life of al- 

 most every man of business, so wearying, depress- 

 ing, and often harrowing to the whole nature, that 

 he would be more than mortal, if under their in- 

 fluences, when the physical nature is tired with la- 

 bor, he could exhibit the beautiful amenities of an 

 elevated domesticity, without some summoning up 

 to his aid, all the latent power within him, to re- 

 call the feelings and affections and deportment of 

 the happy days of courtship. 



Let the dutiful and loving daughter 'practice' 

 that other 'music-lesson' for her mother's sake, 

 the willingness to learn ; to practice it so diligent- 

 ly, that there need never be a repetition of a moth- 



er's counsel, or direction or advice. Said a moth- 

 er to me once : 'I never recollect the time when I 

 found it necessary to repeat a wish to any child of 

 mine : I have only to half tell it when it is done.' 

 Happy mother ! dear loving children ! How I 

 wish there were more such ! I know there are too 

 many daughters who are directly the reverse ; who 

 seem to think that a mother's advice is out of 

 date ; her counsel old fogyish, and all her pains 

 to show her how to do things, are not only disre- 

 garded, but are listened to or witnessed with the 

 utmost impatience, as evidenced by the surly 

 look, the unsightly frown, or some disrespectful 

 exclamation. Poor child ! every one of these will 

 be a dagger to your heart ; the more painful as 

 you grow older; striking deeper and deeper as 

 years roll on, causing many an hour of sadness by 

 day, and of remorse, oh ! how grinding ! in the 

 sleepless hours of midnight, so many of which are 

 the lot of old age." 



The truth is, as farmers, we have given almost 

 exclusive attention to whatever we have thought 

 would improve our physical condition, and greatly 

 neglected those higher moral efforts which would 

 elevate, ennoble and make happy our whole be- 

 ing. We have too little imagination — too little 

 poetry — too little music — too little health ! These 

 are not wanting because they are not within our 

 reach, but because we do not receive them when they 

 are offered. God's bounty spreads them in our 

 paths as daisies deck the fields in July, but they 

 fall upon indifierent hearts and die there, as the 

 flower withers and perishes at our feet for want 

 of culture and care. 



Let us change in this particular. While we 

 will not neglect to improve the soil, let us deter- 

 mine to improve the mind. How many cheap 

 ways there are in which we can do this, and call 

 up new pleasurable scenes and emotions without 

 trenching upon what are deemed the absolute du- 

 ties of life. How much the garden might do, 

 with its flowers, its beds of vegetables, its climb- 

 ing plants, and trees, birds. How much the Sab- 

 bath morning, or evening song, where both mu- 

 sic and poetry breathe their hallowing influences 

 into the soul, and inspire and strengthen it for 

 the trials of life. How much good books, — nar- 

 rative, poetry, philosophy, scientific, horticultural 

 pictures of nature and art, books of the imagina- 

 tion, and books like Prof. Dick's "Christian Phi- 

 losopher, or Sidereal Heavens," would fill our 

 hearts with glowing imagery, and content with life, 

 and really open to us the gateway to heaven ! 



0, how a deeper, holier sentiment, — a senti- 

 ment that embraces (^e pure, lovely and beautiful 

 in all animate and inanimate things, — that yearns 

 for every human being because that being is God's 

 child, — O, how such a sentiment in our rural pop- 

 ulation would transform our farms, and homes, 

 and hearts ! 



These things are "moral music and moral poe- 

 try ; these promote the health of the heart. They 



