CULTIVATE A DESIRE TO PLEASE.

BY

MARY ASHLEY TOWNSEND.

N the ossified map of man's abilities, which phrenologists have made of the human skull, to one bump is given special prominence. Like Jove among the Olympian gods of old, it holds the loftiest place. Differ as they may on the other points, Gall and Spurzheim, Combe and their successive brothers in the science of mind, all agree in locating benevolence on the very pinnacle of the cranium. They not only assign to it the highest position in localizing psychic functions, but they freely acknowledge its dominating influence as a moral faculty, and formulate what they call "character," according as this bump is a protuberance or a depression amongst its fellow cranial embossments. From it flow, as trickling waters from hill-top springs, all those approximating faculties which fertilize the heart and quicken it to the growth

of human nature's noblest products. It is the parent of selfabnegation, of honest forgiveness, of warm sympathy with our fellow-creatures, of love, of tenderness, of patience, of constant consideration for others, of that lofty generosity which is great alike in giving and withholding. The culmination of all these qualities is a desire to please, which, in a cultivated man or woman, is admitted to be a crowning grace.

Although at first glance the subject may strike the careless mind as one of those "trifles light as air," scarce worthy of a moment's serious contemplation, a little reflection will convince the most indifferent that the art of pleasing is a momentous power, exerting an incalculable influence upon all matters appertaining to the affairs of men and nations. Its significance may be noted in a thousand forms, in a thousand places, by any observing individual, in a single day. The home, the street, the mart, the most ordinary and familiar scenes connected with daily life, afford ample opportunity for the study of this puissant agent, and are gladdening or dispiriting in proportion as its spirit governs those who people such walks. It is not a new thing. It is old as the ages, and its power both for evil and for good has notched itself all along the centuries. Beneath its assumed beauty, the serpent concealed his hideousness when he whispered into the listening ear of the first mother. Jacob gave tacit acknowledgment of its supremacy in the twice seven years he served for Rachel. Sheba understood its importance when she arrayed herself to appear before Solomon, and it inspired David when, harp in hand, he played before Saul. If its sway cannot be strictly limited to good, it is only because wrong recognizes its merit as a mask, and uses it in the same way that hypocrisy uses religion, and vice uses virtue. But its healthful influence so far outweighs its possibilities for ill, that the latter need not be taken into consideration.

The mere forms and observances of etiquette, valuable as

they are in their way, do not in themselves constitute those ennobling qualities which spring from an innocent desire to please. Manner is the currency of good society, yet too much manner is a dangerous thing, and betrays a lack of the very capacities it aims to express. We may conform coldly to all social usages, omitting no ceremony and scrupulously observing all customs, yet possess neither a winning address nor the first quality which goes to make up that vivifying and beneficent influence, which emanates from sincere warmth of heart. We are taught by one whose knowledge of human nature was as profound as it was unerring, that "one may smile and smile and be a villain," and the same master shows us that "to crook the pregnant hinges of the knee, where thrift may follow fawning," is a manner apart from the nature of genuine courtesy. Richelieu points out the doubt that is born of empty etiquette, when he says of the departing courtier, "He bows too low." [See initial letter.] Franklin bids us to look beneath the cloak of sycophancy for the axe to grind, and by more than one high authority we are warned to beware of him who professes too much. Thus the dangerous surf of shallow ceremony threatens all who move upon the social seas. The earnest cultivation of a pure and lofty desire to please is the Massoola Boat which shall bear them safely across the treacherous breakers.

In these days when our flowing rivers are strangled with the dust of fallen forests, as countless mills convert them into the multifarious forms demanded by the wants of mankind; when our skies are blackened with the smoke of thousands of factories and furnaces; when the railways of traffic spread everywhere under our feet, and the railways of thought stretch everywhere over our heads; when the mountains and seas bow down before the genius of man; when electricity shines out upon the earth like a new born planet, and the steam