• Author:
• Editor:
• Newspaper: The Umpire volume V
• Page Number:
• Date: 11 20 1918
• Tags:
• advice

WHY WE SHOULD THINK ONLY OF THINGS WORTH REMEMBERING

One of our great duties towards ourselves therefore, which we cannot begin to under- stand or to practice to soon, is, first, to fill our minds with things worth having and worth being reminded of by association in after years; secondly, to avoid, as far as possible, foolish books, the talk of foolish people, and things of that kind which it is not worth while to have in our minds at all; and, thirdly, to avoid things which are actually wicked or dis- gusting or destructive. These may get into the mind by accident before we know what is happening, and at any moment we are liable to be reminded of them.

Even though the purse be rather lean, let us remember that there is no be‘rter treasure than a mind well filled with beatiful, and valuable memories of noble things seen, noble sounds heard, noble ideas, great poetry, recollections of friends, and so forth. A man with such a mind may say to himself, ““My mind to me a kingdom is,’’ or may talk with Wadsworth of ‘‘that inward eye Wthh is the bliss of all solitude.”’

We cannot express to strongly the - impor- tance of what has been said about filling the mind with good materials for association.

It applies to everybody, whatever his business in life. The artist cannot see too many beautiful sights, the man of science cannot store away in his mind too many truths of different kinds, and who can asso- ciate them together.