PAGE 8
Let Every Man Mind His Own Business
by
Her brother wept with her; nor dared he again to touch the point so solemnly guarded. The next day Augusta parted from her children, hoping something from feelings that, possibly, might be stirred by their absence in the bosom of their father.
It was about a week after this that Augusta one evening presented herself at the door of a rich Mr. L., whose princely mansion was one of the ornaments of the city of A. It was not till she reached the sumptuous drawing room that she recognized in Mr. L. one whom she and her husband had frequently met in the gay circles of their early life. Altered as she was, Mr. L. did not recognize her, but compassionately handed her a chair, and requested her to wait the return of his lady, who was out; and then turning, he resumed his conversation with another gentleman.
“Now, Dallas,” said he, “you are altogether excessive and intemperate in this matter. Society is not to be reformed by every man directing his efforts towards his neighbor, but by every man taking care of himself. It is you and I, my dear sir, who must begin with ourselves, and every other man must do the same; and then society will be effectually reformed. Now this modern way, by which every man considers it his duty to attend to the spiritual matters of his next-door neighbor, is taking the business at the wrong end altogether. It makes a vast deal of appearance, but it does very little good.”
“But suppose your neighbor feels no disposition to attend to his own improvement–what then?”
“Why, then it is his own concern, and not mine. What my Maker requires is, that I do my duty, and not fret about my neighbor’s.”
“But, my friend, that is the very question. What is the duty your Maker requires? Does it not include some regard to your neighbor, some care and thought for his interest and improvement?”
“Well, well, I do that by setting a good example. I do not mean by example what you do–that is, that I am to stop drinking wine because it may lead him to drink brandy, any more than that I must stop eating because he may eat too much and become a dyspeptic–but that I am to use my wine, and every thing else, temperately and decently, and thus set him a good example.”
The conversation was here interrupted by the return of Mrs. L. It recalled, in all its freshness, to the mind of Augusta the days when both she and her husband had thus spoken and thought.
Ah, how did these sentiments appear to her now–lonely, helpless, forlorn–the wife of a ruined husband, the mother of more than orphan children! How different from what they seemed, when, secure in ease, in wealth, in gratified affections, she thoughtlessly echoed the common phraseology, “Why must people concern themselves so much in their neighbors’ affairs? Let every man mind his own business.”
Augusta received in silence from Mrs. L. the fine sewing for which she came, and left the room.
“Ellen,” said Mr. L. to his wife; “that poor woman must be in trouble of some kind or other. You must go some time, and see if any thing can be done for her.”
“How singular!” said Mrs. L.; “she reminds me all the time of Augusta Howard. You remember her, my dear?”
“Yes, poor thing! and her husband too. That was a shocking affair of Edward Howard’s. I hear that he became an intemperate, worthless fellow. Who could have thought it!”
“But you recollect, my dear,” said Mrs. L., “I predicted it six months before it was talked of. You remember, at the wine party which you gave after Mary’s wedding, he was so excited that he was hardly decent. I mentioned then that he was getting into dangerous ways. But he was such an excitable creature, that two or three glasses would put him quite beside himself. And there is George Eldon, who takes off his ten or twelve glasses, and no one suspects it.”