Rensselaer Union, Volume 7, Number 34, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 May 1875 — Leisure Hours. [ARTICLE]

Leisure Hours.

There are few things in which, as a nation, we are more deficient than in the matter of leisure. It does not enter our plans of life; we make little or no provision for it; we take it, if at all, by snatches, as boys have stolen Iruit, -and often feel a somewhat similar guilt in enjoying it. From infancy up the same influence surrounds us. Parents who give the most serious thought and attention to their children’s education, carefully selecting their teachers and schools, and’aiding them with faithful home instruction, are frequently quite ignorant of the character of the companions or books or diversions which occupy their leisure hours. The young, setting out in life, often arrange with method and system their life work, giving to its consideration their wisest judgment and most earnest thought, and yet form no plans for the hours when they shall throw off care and lay aside work. In mature life men and women engage in the,,strife and turmoil of business and the unflagging industry of labor with a zeal and assiduity truly laudable, but scarcely spare much less any serious or systematic attention, upon the time when nature compels them to lay aside work and recruit their tired energies. Even as the time approaches when old age lifts the heavy burden of labor from the weary frame, there is hardly any provision made for the occupation of tne time thus set at liberty, and too often the aged parent, after a long and tiresome life, sinks into an enforced and unhappy idleness, thus incurring some degree of contempt from the young and strong, because he has never had any systematic resources for leisure hours.

The fact is that, while we justly respect labor, we most unjustly despise leisure. In our haste to appreciate the value of time and award its just honors, we forget that there is a time when men and women must relax, must throw off the weight of care and w’ork, and that time is as truly deserving of careful plan and arrangement as any other—nay, even more valuable in some important respects than the hours of active exertion. Forjnost work has, of necessity, something of compulsion in it, and even the most deliberate self-compulsion, honestly and earnestly practiced from the best motives, while it gives a firm basis to character, cannot round it off and bring it into beautiful proportions. This can only be the work of complete liberty and must depend greatly upon the existence of leisure and the use made of it. The over-busy man who thrusts this truth out of sight and reserves no time for domestic enjoyment, or social converse, or personal enjoyment, cuts off his real progress, hinders his development, narrows down his mind to a single line of thought, and thus renders himself just so much less effective as a power in society and so mnch less capable of happiness as an individual. He imprisons himself within a small and confined range of thought and action, shutting out a thousand good influences which might brighten his life and cause it to reflect radiance upon others. The worst result, however, that issues from this habit of ignoring or neglecting leisure hours is the evil that insidiously creeps into them. In proportion to our estimate of the value of anything will be the care we shall take of it. The precious gems that are so rare are seldom mislaid, wasted or injured. So, because the importance of work is appreciated, and its value acknowledged, we select it with our best judgment, we systematize and arrange its hours, we devote to it our most earnest energies. And because leisure time is undervalued and its significance not understood we suffer it to run to waste, we lose it without regret, or, what is still worse, we suffer it to become appropriated by the lower and baser parts of our nature.

For this reason it is that leisure hours are hours of temptation—hours when vice and evil of every kind come in their most alluring forms’to fill up the vacancy. If these seasons had been recognized, and filled with wholesome, natural enjoyment and refreshments, how much of the sickening and vicious corruption that now goes under the false name of pleasure might have been prevented. This thought may be worthy the attention of those who are so zealous in their efforts to suppress vice. There can be no doubt that the Continental people owe much of their temperance and morality to the numerous gardens, concerts and other innocent diversions whicn are freely open to them, and which encourage whole families to unite in seasons of rest and enjoyment. Whatever can foster the habit of family happiness and fill the hours of leisure with rational pleasure will deal a heavier blow upon vice of every kind than the severest legislation can possibly inflict. Used rightly, our leisure hours would be not only the happiest, but the most valuable we have. They should be made the instruments of quickening faculties that have lain dormant, of cultivating the taste, of elevating the imagination, of developing the social instincts, of nurturing friendships, of drawing closer the domestic ties. If they are thus used we cannot fail to become broader, better balanced, more efficient, happier men and women. _ ' _ But to accomplish this we must no onger undervalue these hours, or suffer ourselves to drift through them without pilot cr helm. We must give to them, as we now do to the hours of toil, the benefit of our most careful thought, our wisest judgment and our best-laid plans. We must draw our children gently from foolish and hurtful gratifications to those which are innocent and elevating. We must help and comfort our erring brothers and sisters by substituting healthful and pure enjoyments for noxious stimulants and debasing indulgences. We must so regulate our own leisure as to purify, strengthen and elevate our character, and to bring it' into full and rounded proportions that labor alone can never produce. The leisure hours will be among the greatest blessings of humanity, and their influence will give a double efficiency to the hours of toil.— New York Mercantile Journal.