It is, likewise, a habit of a selfish tendency; for the hand goes to the mouth merely to gratify a feeling he himself has. But he soon comes to do many other things; and in all his little actions he thinks of self. James will not give John a part of his apple, because he is in the habit of eating apples, and whatever else he can get, always by himself. This is wrong; and if he do not reform his selfish habit, he will be a complete miser when he arrives at manhood.
Habit not only effects our impressions, but our active propensities.
Hardly any habit is the source of more faults than heedlessness. It is especially so in children. Why is that boy sitting idle in his seat at school? Because he is heedless. He has formed the habit of looking off his book, and around the school-room, whenever the eyes of his teacher are turned from him. He has done it so often, that he is not sensible of being idle, until his teacher calls him to attend to his studies. The want of attention not only makes us poor scholars, but poor in purse, and poor as men.
I will tell you an allegory, to show you the sad consequences of heedlessness.
“There is a hill called Experience. Many people are going up this hill. On the top of it is a temple, called the Temple of Truth. On the side of the hill are fruit-trees, bearing good fruits of all kinds; but if the people are not careful, they make themselves sick by eating it, and must take medicine, or they become more and more sick.
“Two men set out to ascend this hill. The name of one was Observation, and that of the other Inattention. Observation looked at everything near him as he went up the hill; and when he became sick, he thought of the fruit which had made him so, and was careful not to eat too much of it and make himself sick again. Inattention, when sick, thought of nothing but of being well again; and when he got well, he ate again; and when he had hurt himself, he got up again and ran on, without minding what hurt him.
“As Observation was going up the hill, he fell in company with Attention, and they walked on together, and soon became friends. Inattention preferred to walk alone. As he was going on his way, he came to a river by the way-side, and, although he did not know how to swim, he jumped into it without thought, and was near being drowned; when Observation and Attention, arriving at the place, pulled him out, and saved his life. The three persons then went on together.
“They soon came to another river, and Inattention, regardless of the dangers which he had just escaped, and of the advice of his fellow-travellers, would go into it, and was drowned, although they tried to save him. So the friends went on without him; and after many years’ travelling, they arrived at the Temple of Truth, on the top of the hill, and were rewarded for their perseverance and care, while Inattention was punished for his negligence and folly.”
We should form the habit of keeping our good resolutions. If we wish to improve, we must see our errors, and resolve to correct them; without such resolutions, we shall always do the same wrong things which we do now. But one point we must never forget; which is, that the oftener we break our good resolutions, the less likely are we to keep any we may form. Samuel is very apt to be passionate. He will, when he is angry, sometimes speak improperly to his father, or strike his little sister. He knows this is wrong, and every night he is sorry for it, and resolves not to get angry the next day. But he has broken just such a resolution so often, that it is growing more and more difficult for him to govern his temper. The only way he can reform, is to form the habit of making resolutions very deliberately, and always carrying them into full execution.
It is important that we acquire fortitude. We must bear many disappointments and much pain so long as we live. If we began to bear them firmly in childhood, we should all make brave, patient, and submissive men. God does not send us troubles without intending to make us better by the use of them. But without fortitude, affliction only hardens our hearts.