Lessons in Life; A Series of Familiar EssaysHolland, J. G. (Josiah Gilbert)
Philosophy
Lessons in Life; A Series of Familiar Essays
Holland, J. G. (Josiah Gilbert)
Conduct of life
Having brought every thing down to the animal basis in their homes
and in their lives, their intercourse with other men will
naturally betray the ideas upon which they live. They are usually
very blunt men, who "never go round" to say any thing, but who
blurt out what they have to say in a manner entirely regardless
of the feelings of others. They enter each other's houses with
their hats on, and "help themselves" when they sit at each other's
tables, and affect great contempt for the courtesies and forms of
polite life. They are exceedingly afraid of being looked upon as
"stuck up;" and if they can get the reputation of being able to
mow more grass, or pitch more hay, or chop and pile more wood, or
cradle more grain, than any of their neighbors, their ambition is
satisfied. There is no dignity of life in their homes. They cook
and eat and live in the same room, and sometimes sleep there, if
there should be room enough for a bed. There is no family life
that is not associated with work, and no thought of any life that
is not connected with bodily labor; and if they sit down five
minutes, either at home or at church, they go to sleep. Their
highest intellectual exercise is that which is called out by the
process of swapping horses, and the selling of their weekly
product of eggs and butter at the highest market price. They
invariably call their wives--"the old woman," or "she;" and if
they should stumble into saying, "my dear," in the presence of a
neighbor, they would blush at being self-convicted of unjustifiable
politeness and unpardonable weakness.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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