294 



KIDD'S OWN JOURNAL. 



GOOD-NATURE. 



Ix this dull World, we cheat ourselves 

 and one another of innocent pleasures by the 

 score; through very carelessness and apathy. 

 Courted, day after day, by happy memories, 

 we rudely brush them off with this indiscri- 

 minating besom ; the stern material present. 

 Invited to help in rendering joyful many a 

 patient heart, we neglect the little word that 

 might have done it, and continually defraud 

 Creation of its share of kindness from us. 



The child made merrier by your interest 

 in its toy ; the old domestic nattered by our 

 seeing him look so well ; the poor better 

 helped by your blessing than your penny — 

 though give the peimy too ; the laborer 

 cheered on in his toil by a timely word of 

 praise ; the humble friend encouraged by 

 your frankness ; equals made to love you by 

 the expression of your love ; and superiors 

 gratified by attention and respect, and look- 

 ing out to benefit the kindly — how many 

 pleasures here for one hand to gather ; how 

 many blessings for any heart to give ! 



Instead of these, what have we rife about 

 the world? frigid compliment — for warmth 

 is vulgar ; reserve of tongue — for it is folly 

 to be talkative ; composure, never at fault — 

 for feelings are dangerous things ; gravity — 

 for that looks wise ; coolness — for other men 

 are cool ; selfishness — for every one is 

 struggling for his own. 



This is all false, all bad ; the slavery chain 

 of custom, riveted by the foolishness of 

 fashion ; because there is ever a band of men 

 and women who have nothing to recommend 

 them but externals. Their looks are their 

 dresses, their ranks are their wealth ; and, in 

 order to exalt the honor of these, they agree 

 to set a compact seal of silence on the heart, 

 and on the mind, lest the flood of humbler 

 men's affections, or of wiser men's intelligence, 

 should pale their tinsel praise. - 



The warm and the wise too softly acquiesce 

 in this injury done to heartiness ; shamed by 

 the effrontery of cold calm fools, and the 

 shallow dignity of an empty presence. Turn 

 the table on them, ye truer gentry, truer 

 nobility, truer royalty of the heart, and of 

 the mind. Speak freely, love warmly, laugh 

 cheerfully, explain frankly, exhort zealously, 

 admire liberally, advise earnestly. Be not 

 ashamed to own you have a heart — it is no 

 crime ; and if some cold-blooded simpleton 

 greet your social efforts with a sneer, repay 

 (for you can well afford a richer gift than his 

 whole treasury possesses) with a kind, good- 

 humored smile. Then will life pass 

 pleasantly, and the world be full of happy 

 faces. 



KEEPING UP APPEARANCES. 



Had people but resolution enough to be 

 not absolutely indifferent to, or cynically re 

 gardless of, but less solicitous about what 

 others may think of their concerns —of what 

 a load of trouble might they at once relieve 

 themselves ! At least one half of the toil, 

 the anxieties, and the fatigues of life, is oc- 

 casioned by the struggling to cut a figure in 

 that great ceil de barnf, the eye of the world ! 



It may appear strange, yet is it undeniably 

 true, that the regard we universally pay to 

 other people's eyes, puts us to more trouble 

 and expense than almost anything else. What 

 sums of money are squandered away, whether 

 they can be afforded or not ; what trouble, 

 what toil, what fuss, what vexation are sub- 

 mitted to, for no better reason than because 

 our neighbors possess the power of looking 

 at us ! As if other people's eyes did not 

 already tax us sufficiently in the way of what 

 is called "keeping up appearances ! " 



Many even double, or treble that tax, in 

 order to exaggerate appearances, and show 

 themselves to the world in an expensive 

 masquerade ; till, perhaps, they end by 

 becoming really poor — merely through the 

 pains they take to avoid the imputation of 

 being thought so ; or rather through the 

 misplaced ambition of being considered far 

 wealthier than they really are. 



The keeping up of appearances is laudable 

 enough ; but the art of doing so is not under- 

 stood by every one. For instead of regulating 

 appearances according to a scale which they 

 can consistently and uniformly adhere to, a 

 great many persons set out in life by making 

 appearances far beyond what they can afford, 

 and beyond what they can " keep up " at 

 all — at least not without constant effort, pain, 

 or apprehension. Society abounds with such 

 tiptoe people — as they may well enough be 

 described, since they assume the uneasy 

 attitude of walking upon tiptoes, which, 

 though it may do for travelling across a 

 Turkey carpet or hearth-rug, is ill suited for 

 journeying through life, on a road which, 

 though rugless, is, nevertheless, apt to be 

 found rugged, and requires to be trodden 

 firmly if we would keep our footing. 



EVERYDAY LIFE. 



The secret of Happiness consists in striving 

 to make all who are arouud us — happy. How 

 easy this ! How natural ! How truly amiable ! 



From morning till night, is the human mind 

 restless as the troubled sea ! No sooner do men 

 enter the world, than they at once lose their taste 

 for natural and simple pleasures, so remarkable in 

 early life. Every hour do they ask themselves, 

 what progress they have made in the pursuit of 

 wealth and honor? And on they go, as their 

 fathers went before them ; till, weary and sick at 

 heart, they look back with a sigh of regret to the 

 golden time of their childhood. Nature is not to 

 blame for this. "We are the offenders, and deserve 

 to be unhappy. 



