Page:The Clergyman's Wife.djvu/296

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294
The Love of Excitement.

ficiently stimulating mental nourishment. Do not deny her amusements, but see that they are rational, that they are intellectually or physically profitable. Supply her with books of deep interest, but let their pages be so pure that they can awaken none but holy thoughts, and impart none but high aspirations. Place her in the midst of agreeable associates, but be certain that they are beings. whose influence will aid in moulding and balancing her character. And, above all, furnish her with agreeable employment. Let her exuberant activity expend itself in work! work! work! To such as she, the most aidant and remediant of agents! Lethe and nepenthe combined! Mark, if the result does not prove that this very love of excitement, the curse and destruction of many a richly dowered spirit, can, through wise direction, be made the medium of developing, perfecting, and beautifying a disposition in which it is inherent.