Rensselaer Union, Volume 7, Number 10, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 November 1874 — Limit Your Wants. [ARTICLE]

Limit Your Wants.

Lord Bolingbroke, in his “ Reflections Upon Exile,” says: “ Our natural and real wants are confined to narrow bounds, while those which fancy and custom create are confined to none.” Young men who are just entering upon life, and forming the habits which are likely to adhere to them to its close, will do well to treasure up in memory these true and instructive words of one of England’s finest writers and most philosophic statesmen 1 “ Our natural and real wanfs are confined to narrow bounds.” It is surprising how little it is that is absolutely essential to man’s existence, and, if he will take an intelligent and considerate view of life, to his comfort and happiness. Intellectual enjoyments are comparatively cheap. The cultivation of the mind, which atfordß the highest and the only enduring satisfaction, can be pursued on an income quite insignificant for the supply of luxuries. Our physical wants are very few if we preserve our tastes simple as they are by nature. To eat, to drink, to exercise, to sleep, to keep warm and to be sheltered; a small sum will supply all these necessities. The pleasures which are pure, and which tend to our improvement, -are within the reach of almost every one. But the wants which fancy and custom create, as Lord Bolingbroke well says, are confined to no bounds. It is against these that young men on the threshold of life should sedulously guard. Beware of luxurious and expensive habits. The gratification of them m> y cost you much of the labor and time which, if given to intellectual cultivation, w,quld be far more conducive to happiness. It is easy to do without that which yoi| have never indulged in. It is hard to leave ofl habits, however extravagant and absurd. When you are to decide about adopting a mode or style ot living, consider well whether it is certain that, without inconvenience, you will be always able to preserve it. The only safe rule is to keep your wants within narrow bounds. —Pen and Pl> w. —ln the ordinary course of business two telegrams were recently sent from New York to London, and answers received to one in thirty and to the other in thirty-five, minutes actual dine. Each message was transmitted 3,600 miles and passed through the hands of eighteen persons. The message and reply in each case passed through the hands of thirtysix persons, and traveled over 7,000 miles in thirty to thirty-five minutes. —The new trade dollar prepared especially for circulation in Japan and China has already displaced $9,000,000 of Mexican coin in those far-off realms. —ln 1873 it cost $63,500 to distribute SB,OOO among the poor of Boston through the interposition of certaii fraudulent charitable societies.