Show AN inexorable LAW habit la the Stron ecat of oar altea the warden of one of our state peni aries said to a visitor that almost the first expression of dissatisfaction on the part of a new prisoner wai wa i called forth by alie routine and TOO of prison life says youths companion some men show intense feeling against it for the first few weeks of their confinement but after two or three hearsy it seems in some cases as if they could not do without it the warden had known discharged prisoners to return and ask for work in side just to get back to the regularity of prison life captains of seagoing vessels and officers of the army observe the same trait of human nature the discipline the inflexible routine which arc irksome to the raw recruit and to the sailor in his earlier voyage lotain so linn a hold on their minds and habits that they prefer not to lire outside of them jack goes back to his ship and the soldier reenlists until each grows gray or death takes them some of Bona partes marshals men of low birth had learned in their youth vulgar tricks of the eye the hand grimaces and foolish laughter even the emperor and his brothers and sisters were not guiltless of such habits he could not rid them of these signs of childish vulgarity they could not rid themselves of them lie could make them kings and queens and they could handle their scepters right royally but old habits ruled them still A century ago john vaux a making the grand tour wrote 1 I was impatient to plunge into the of paris I 1 had not however counted on the hold which old habata had on me they had been cleanly every act word or familiar custom of my pure english life at home held me now like an iron cord I 1 could not plunge into the foul depths I 1 wished to do it but could not there are few young men who do not wish to make their lives solid and enduring let them remember that this inexorable natural law is equally strong in good as in bad habits every high pure aim in his father or mother every honest modest custom ofa young mans home the cleanly life of his boyhood the prayers be learned the habits of reverence of kind unselfish action these are as so many bubnes in the rampart which shall defend him in middle age from storm and ruin |