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Show GRUMBLERS. "I pity the man," said Sterne, "who can travel from Dan to Beersheba, and cry, ‘Tis all barren;'-and so it is, and so it is all the world over to him who will not cultivate the fruit it offers." "I declare," said I, clapping my hands cheerily together, that "were I in a desert, I would find out wherewith in it to call forth affections. If I could not do better I would fasten them upon some sweet myrtle, or seek some melancholy cypress to connect myself with. I would court their shade, and greet them kindly for their protection. I would cut my name upon them, and swear they were the loveliest throughout the desert. If their leaves withered, I would teach myself to mourn, and, when they rejoiced I would rejoice along with them. The learned Smelfungas travelled from Boulogne to Paris-from Paris to Rome and [unreadable] set out with the spleen and jaundice, and every object he passed by was discolored or distorted. He wrote an account of them, but ‘twas nothing but the account of his miserable feelings." Everywhere we meet Smelfunguses, making all around them cheerless and unpleasant, by their grumbling and fault-finding. They are always smelling out something wrong, something to grumble about. In all vocations of life we find them. In the school, as in the world, far more rust out grumbling than wear out studying. Study is tedious and wearisome to these, and they study least. Drones always have the hardest time. Grumblers make poor scholars, and their lessons are uniformly "hard and too long." The ?? and thought expended in shirking would be ample to master their tasks. Sloth, grumbling, and worry, kill their thousands, where over-study harms one. A curse rests on laziness and grumbling. By the very constitution of our being, they are fitted to beget that torpor and despondency which chill the blood, deaden the nerves, enfeeble the muscles, and derange the whole vital machinery. ??, fidgeting, ennui and anxiety are among the most common causes of disease. On the other hand, high aspiration and enthusiasm help digestion and respiration, and send an increased supply of vital energy to all parts of the body. Courage and work invigorate the whole system, and lift one into a purer atmosphere, above the reach of contagion. The lazy groan and grumble most over their "arduous duties," while earnest workers talk little about the exhausting labors of their profession. Of all creatures, the slothful grumbler seems to be the most worried and worn.-Mother's Magazine. |