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Show WOMAN'S KXPOXENT. I have sometimes thought that if our gather in Heaven were to deal with his refractory and disobedient children in the perdo way . some intelligent parents emptory, . i iVitn meirs. mere wouia oe a great cuungc come into the world suddenly. I ara i'juite sure, however, I was not. asked or expected to write a dissertation upon the training. of children, but simply to tell you of the child of nature. . . tell the story old, creation's song the ages down Thrilling the mother-hear- t New every day as centuries roll along, v The hfright of motherhoodthe crown. I t --- . Fresh from the royal courts far, far away. All dulv poised "whither in winged flight. There came a fairy creature bless the day Into the motherland of glad delight, This beauteous one brought hither joy and grace Vnu iiiauu uiu uieani ui me inuic i.iuuuu sun,Than erst had been that happy home and place,' Though sacred were its duties to fulfill. The beauty of the little balx; besjxike 'The harmonies which to the soul belong, And all the higher, liner senses woke To the divinest melody of song. ! It is thus the little child comes into our midst, first into the home nest, but gradually into the great, busy, bustling, workaday world. It comes to know evil where it may perchance have thought all was good f ftii rt i i fitiillt' if oil ri limit terrible if it is not wisely taught and carefully guarded. If reared in a home where simplicity of living is the rule of life, and thrill and honesty and all the homely virtues are inculcated in its daily associations, where vanity, pride and prejudice are things unknown, and freedom of thought and action encouraged and strengthened by healthy exercise of rniifd" and body, and above all where reverence fox all that is sacred is taught in precept and by "example then indeed are the environments such as must naturally tend to make the child. "A thing of beauty and a jov forever." And true "to.njy own theory of one's past clinging to the personal character, or development, here let me say, the child allowed to roam, or one incljjied to be niuch in the haunts of nature, grows in, a sense akin to its surroundings, and these rural scenes, these pageantsof nature, these magnificent panoramas, help the cliild to enter, as it were, into the Temple of glory "through the gate called Beautiful." Who would dare to say this admiration of the works of an Almighty hand do not lift the soul of the child intoToftier heights and feast itself in the realms that are fresh with the impress of Him, who has made by His infinite skill and divine power ? Thus tC,, Gray, the poet, says: -- all-thing- s - 'The meanest floweret of the vale, The simplest note that swells the gale, i ne common ram, me air, tne skies, -To him are opening Paradise." The love of nature is a great gift, and one for which no description can prepare us so well, as to be in a sense, to the manner born. The greatest thing in the world is to see something, and yet one might fancy from what we know of some people that they had walked through the world with their eyes shut, or at any rate with them closely veiled. ' In nature we have the. most wonderful varif-fv- . Tt kmnrp than nirturc: nn fbo walls or in the- galleries, for they are e same, but outdoor life, whether in tet-vciior on the earth, is changing file - al-th- every hour, or every moment.. Evidently, as one great writer has said, "The material .world was not made exclusively for the purpose of being painted' Hut. here again I fear I am digressing, and I was not expected to talk about art, and really were I to launch intocolor there is no teUing what extravagances I might indulge in, because it is one of my pet dy, every hobbies. I would not wish that the child might grow up in the woods in order that it might be good, nor yet would I reason that one reared in a crowded city would for that cause alone be bad; but one cannot help recognizing the effect of the .wonderful pageantry of nature upon those who have standing up, went no doubt intoan .extreme but surely we in this day fall into aiioth error, or an extreme equally dangerous when we act as if athletic r ames Vtre the only. thing which b.6ys could learn wKm The love of athletic g runes their: feet. among boys' may be a healthy instinct, but is, in our'opinion, carried too far in so rat of our great schools. Our children born here, though not' brought up in the woods, . have yet an intimate association with the beauties of We have as yet ' no nature. d but cities, lofty mountains whose seem reacn to tne skies, the 10 snowy peaKS canons that are full of beauty and of Vari'etv waterfalls, rivers, brooklets, lakes and an inland sea of surpassing beauty, the wonder and surprise of tourists and scientists; an abundance of fresh air and lauds to cultivate and make beautiful and servicable. The character of our children, brought up among such scenes of nature's manifold grandeur, should be of- - surpassing excellence. They should excel in all the virtues that are most useful and desirable. They should ami must, for it is the prophecy of the future, become physically, mentally, moraUy'and spiritually the greatest statesmen, heroes, scholars, scientists, artists, linguists and preachers of righteousness the world has ever produced; the best and wisest fathers, the tenderest, gentlest and. noblest mothers, examples and teachers of all mankind. Such is to, be their high destiny, and in view of tfie fulfillment of all these things, how shall we order their lives aright ? Temperance and moderation in habits and pursuits ofchildhood; healthy exeicise upon the farm, or in the field a part of the year, "not too much-tloconfinement 'in the schoolroom all the )ear round, but leave some development, "to nature and obeying nature's laws. Study some things from lthe great book of nature, as well as from the books of men. ( densely-crowde- lived much in its realm. One heed not go far for illustrations, not that we are not in favor of progress in its modern sense, but if we .look at the men (leaving women out of the question) who have helped to move the world onward, we must of necessity refer to those that have been brought up, one might almost say, to use a homely phrase, "in the backwoods." . For r instance, Brigham Young, whose ideas of progress in almost all directions are to be seen today on every hand, who founded this great institution of learning from which so many students have gone forth into the great world to build up homes and colonies and establish industries, and to preach the Gospel to those that sit in darkness,-was loni and reared in the Green Mountains of Vermont, and remember those were not bare mountains like ours, but covered with dense forests, from which the great trees were" hewed down to make a clearing for human.habitation. Brother Smoot the president so many years of this Stake of Zion, and whose record is engraven on the hearts of the people here, is another illustration of the same idea, tho' he lived in a different part of the country but where it was new and wild and primitive. i Abraham Lincoln, of the same type, ''There is a pleasure in the pathless woods. was another of the stalwarts bom There is a rapture on the lonely shore, . to just such an inheritance. The founders There is society where none intrudes, y me deep sea, ana music in its roar; of this Church were nearly all of them men I love not man the less but nature more, reared among the scenes of nature and From these our interviews from which I steal acquainted with the hardships of outdoor From all I may, be or have been before, life, as well asvgifted with the rich heritage To mingle with the universe and feel of the love of nature's, haunts. . I. recall What I can ne'er express, yet cannot all conceal.' vividly to. mind more than one of these Nature's noblemen who 'delighted in the Miss LuciK Barron, of Clarendbnrhas poems-o- f nature, because it brought back been elected State Librarian of South recollections of the scenes of childhood and ' Carolina. youth the woods, the brooks, the hills,, the, rocks, fhe wild flowersrthe songbirds, the Que UN Wilheimina was "given away" meadows, the mosses and the ferns. And at her wedding by four peers of the realm, these things impress even the strong Victoria was given away by her uncle. The. natures of men, making them gentle, kindly custom of the bride is an anaway giving and thoughtful, not only, of human beings, a relic of the days when a achronism,, but of animals. Such a one was Brigham woman was a chattel to her male belonging Young. He treated his animals with the relatives. y It seems peculiarly absurd utmost kindness and consideration. it in the case of a queen. Happily In these days of the craze for fresh air is nowadays only a form. It is well known one would naturally suDDOse that th bit that both Victoria and Wilhelmina. chose dren would incline to the studies and I their own husbands. beauties oi scenery in its wilder charartpr instead of which it seems apparent Mrs. L. H. GrEEnwald, of York, Pa., nowadays thar cricket and football and such like is said to be the only woman weather foregames are the order of the dav much tn th She has been emcaster in the country. regret, I had almost said disgust, of the ployed by the government in that .capacity tender-heartemothers, and I might add for twelve years, has.been ofterrconi mended the for exceptional accuracy, and is an acmothers who have not only the tending their knowledged authority on climatology and wounds and bruises, ' but the Mrs. Green wald i also mending of meteorology. their jerses and trousers. ' , president of a woman's organization inter The Roman proverb that a child should ested in scientific research the JNatio be taught nothing but w.hat it can r learn Science Club. -- all-th- e e ' - . d hard-worke- d, over-burden- ed |
