HEALTH A DUTY.


Perhaps nothing will so much hasten the time when body and mind will
both be adequately cared for, as a diffusion of the belief that the
preservation of health is a duty. Few seem conscious that there is
such a thing as physical morality.

Men's habitual words and acts imply that they are at liberty to treat
their bodies as they please. Disorder entailed by disobedience to
nature's dictates they regard as grievances, not as the effects of
a conduct more or less flagitious. Though the evil consequences
inflicted on their descendents and on future generations are often as
great as those caused by crime, they do not think themselves in any
degree criminal.

It is true that in the case of drunkenness the viciousness of a bodily
transgression is recognized; but none appear to infer that if this
bodily transgression is vicious, so too is every bodily transgression.
The fact is, all breaches of the law of health are physical sins.

When this is generally seen, then, and perhaps not till then, will the
physical training of the young receive all the attention it deserves.

Purity of life and thought should be taught in the home. It is the
only safeguard of the young. Let parents wake up on this important
subject.

[Illustration: GLADSTONE.]


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VALUE OF REPUTATION.


1. WHO SHALL ESTIMATE THE COST.--Who shall estimate the cost of a
priceless reputation--that impress which gives this human dross its
currency--without which we stand despised, debased, depreciated? Who
shall repair it injured? Who can redeem it lost? Oh, well and truly
does the great philosopher of poetry esteem the world's wealth as
"trash" in the comparison. Without it gold has no value; birth, no
distinction; station, no dignity; beauty, no charm; age, no reverence;
without it every treasure impoverishes, every grace deforms,
every dignity degrades, and all the arts, the decorations and
accomplishments of life stand, like the beacon-blaze upon a rock,
warning the world that its approach is dangerous; that its contact is
death.

2. THE WRETCH WITHOUT IT.--The wretch without it is under eternal
quarantine; no friend to greet; no home to harbor him, the voyage of
his life becomes a joyless peril, and in the midst of all ambition
can achieve, or avarice amass, or rapacity plunder, he tosses on the
surge, a buoyant pestilence. But let me not degrade into selfishness
of individual safety or individual exposure this individual principle;
it testifies a higher, a more ennobling origin.

3. ITS DIVINITY.--Oh, Divine, oh, delightful legacy of a spotless
reputation: Rich is the inheritance it leaves; pious the example
it testifies; pure, precious and imperishable, the hope which it
inspires; can there be conceived a more atrocious injury than to filch
from its possessor this inestimable benefit to rob society of its
charm, and solitude of its solace; not only to out-law life, but
attain death, converting the very grave, the refuge of the sufferer,
into the gate of infamy and of shame.

4. LOST CHARACTER.--We can conceive few crimes beyond it. He who
plunders my property takes from me that which can be repaired by time;
but what period can repair a ruined reputation? He who maims my person
effects that which medicine may remedy; but what herb has sovereignty
over the wounds of slander? He who ridicules my poverty or reproaches
my profession, upbraids me with that which industry may retrieve, and
integrity may purify; but what riches shall redeem the bankrupt fame?
What power shall blanch the sullied show of character? There can be
no injury more deadly. There can be no crime more cruel. It is without
remedy. It is without antidote. It is without evasion.

[Illustration: GATHERING WILD FLOWERS.]


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INFLUENCE OF ASSOCIATES.


If you always live with those who are lame, you will learn to
limp.--FROM THE LATIN.

If men wish to be held in esteem, they must associate with those who
are estimable.--LA BRUYERE.


1. BY WHAT MEN ARE KNOWN.--An author is known by his writings, a
mother by her daughter, a fool by his words, and all men by their
companions.

2. FORMATION OF A GOOD CHARACTER.--Intercourse with persons of decided
virtue and excellence is of great importance in the formation of a
good character. The force of example is powerful; we are creatures of