Page:The Mothers of England.djvu/97

92 only be by destroying the power to will, which is in reality to render the moral character contemptible and weak.

But why should the mother, in her moral training, allow weeds of evil growth to gain the ascendency, before she has planted flowers? Let her begin by keeping alive the wholesome glow of cheerfulness throughout the domestic atmosphere, and melancholy will not dare to spread her gloomy pall over a scene so radiant with joy, as that which is presented by a happy and well-regulated home.

After all, however, it is possible that we do not value cheerfulness as we ought. We look upon it as an ordinary something which belongs to common minds—the property of the milkmaid, the housewife, or the husbandman. Yet, granting all this, we must still acknowledge it to be something which kings can not purchase, though in all probability they often gladly would. And does not the fact of cheerfulness being generally considered as the reward of labor, teach us a pleasant and a useful lesson—that cheerfulness may be procured by industry—by always doing something, and by always having something to do?

It is in this manner, chiefly, that the cheerfulness of infancy is maintained. Childhood is full of activity, and rich in resources and therefore we make a great mistake when we lavish too much of the means of enjoyment upon young children. It is a little later in life that we begin to want the means of being happy; that the pulse of natural joy throbs languidly; and that we seek excitement, to warm us into life and feeling. Nor is it in childhood alone that we see the benefit of cheerfulness, for with plenty of resources, and a cheerful disposition, persons more advanced in life are placed almost beyond the reach of disappointment. It is the dull, the flat, and the unoccupied, who hang their happiness upon an evening party, and who are always dependant upon some extraordinary excitement for breaking the monotony of their fruitless lives. "No one," said Miss Hamilton, "under the necessity of earning their daily subsistence, is in any danger of dying either of grief or love." And certainly that constant occupation which promotes cheerfulness, is the surest protection against diseases of the mind, and especially against melancholy.