The Southern Literary Messenger, Vol. I., No. 8, April, 1835Various
General
The Southern Literary Messenger, Vol. I., No. 8, April, 1835
Various
American literature -- 19th century -- Periodicals
A different case would be that of a youth of mercurial temper, and
warm feelings, who had grown up in habitual love and reverence for his
parents and his Maker, and whose buoyant spirit and restless temper,
and keen appetite for enjoyment, might render him impatient of such
restraint. Even in this case I should not too readily relax it. I
should endeavor if possible to ascertain whether it might be enforced
without impairing those tender and reverential sentiments. If so, I
should enforce it. If not, I would yield with undissembled reluctance,
but without reproach. I should endeavor to draw him into a contest of
generosity, with a hope that he would not long consent to be outdone.
But in no case would I surrender the end for the means, and do
violence to the best, and kindliest, and holiest affections of the
human heart, and run the risk of destroying them, by restraining a
youth from things not evil in themselves, but only evil in their
tendencies. The only antidote to the love of pleasure, is the love of
God. In truth the great evil of the love of pleasure, is that it is an
antidote to the love of God, and when the authority of God is used to
force one away from a much coveted enjoyment, there is danger that it
may but make him love God less, and pleasure more. But it is the
saying of a wise man, that where an appetite for any thing actually
exists, the best security against excess, is in a regulated
indulgence; and to this indulgence I would resort with an humble hope
that my pupil might find wisdom to add this too to the list of
blessings experienced at the hands of his Maker, until the victory
should at last result to him to whom it belongs.
For the remaining case of a young man having no taste for such
pleasures, and content to spend his time in reading and meditation, I
would prescribe nothing more than this; that he should not be
encouraged to bless God that he was not as other men, but be kept on
the alert by a warning that sin enters into the heart by more avenues
than one.
For the Southern Literary Messenger.
EXTRACTS FROM MY MEXICAN JOURNAL.
Festival of San Agustin de Las Cuevas--El Paséo de Las Vigas.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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