The Fairy Godmothers and Other Tales Page 12

who after reproaching him with the bad use he hadmade of his precious gift, gave him a world of good advice andinstruction.

  There is no doubt that after that time, Joachim was seen dailystruggling against his bad habits; and that by degrees he became ableto exercise his mind in following after the good and beautiful insteadof after the bad and ugly. It was a hard task to him for many a longday to fix his flighty thoughts down to the business in hand, and todismiss from before his eyes the ridiculous images that oftenpresented themselves. But his Mother's wishes, or the Genie's advice,or something better still, prevailed. And you cannot think, of whatwonderful use the Genie's gift was to him then. Once turned in a rightdirection and towards worthy objects, he found it like a sort offriend at his right hand, helping him forward in some of the mostinteresting pursuits of life. Ah! all the energy he had once bestowedon imitating lisps and stuttering, was now engaged in catching thesounds of foreign tongues, and thus taking one step towards thecitizenship of the world. And instead of wasting time in gazing at thesinging master's face, that he might ape its unnatural distortions--itwas now the sweet tones of skilful harmony to which he bent hisattention, and which he strove, and not in vain, to reproduce.

  The portfolio which he brought home to his Mother at the end ofanother half-year, was crowded with laborious and careful copies fromthe best models of beauty and grace. And not with those only, for manya face could be found on its pages in which the Mother recognized someof her son's old companions. Portraits, not of the mere formation ofmouths and noses, which in so many cases, viewed merely as forms, aredefective and unattractive, but portraits of the same faces, uponwhich the character of the inward mind and heart was so stamped thatit threw the mere shape of the features far into the background.

  Thus with the pursuit of his favourite art, Joachim combined "thatmost excellent gift of charity;" for it was now his pride and pleasureto make the charm of expression from "_the good points_" his oldfriend had talked about, triumph over any physical defects. The veryspirit and soul of the best sort of portrait painting. And here, mydear young readers, I would fain call your attention to the fact ofhow one right habit produces another. The more Joachim laboured overseizing the good expression of the faces he drew from, the more he wasled to seek after and find out the good points themselves whence theexpression arose; and thus at last it became a _Habit_ with him to tryand discover every thing that was excellent and commendable in thecharacters of those he met; a very different plan from that pursued bymany of us, who in our intercourse with each other, are but too apt tofasten with eagle-eye accuracy on failings and faults. Which is a verygrave error, and a very misleading one, for if it does nothing else,it deprives us of all the good we should get by a daily habit ofcontemplating what is worthy our regard and remembrance. And sostrongly did Joachim's mother feel this, and so earnestly did she wishher son to understand that a power which seems bestowed for worldlyends, may be turned to spiritual advantage also, that when hisbirthday came round she presented to him among other gifts, a littlebook, called "The Imitation of Jesus Christ." It was the work of anold fellow called Thomas a Kempis, and though more practical books ofpiety have since been written, the idea contained in the titlesuggests a great lesson, and held up before Joachim's eyes, Him whomone of our own divines has since called "The Great Exemplar."

  This part of our little hero's 'Lesson of Life,' we can all take toourselves, and go and do likewise. And so I hope his story may beprofitable, though we have not all of us a large Genie-gift ofImitation as he had. With him the excess of this power took a verynatural turn, for though he possessed through its aid, considerablefacilities for music and the study of languages also, the course ofevents led him irresistibly to what is usually called "the fine arts."And if the old dream of the royal chariot and the twelve jet blackhorses was never realized to him, a higher happiness by far was his,when some years after, he and his Mother stood in the council house ofhis native town; she looking up with affectionate pride while heshowed her a portrait of the good young King which had a few hoursbefore been hung up upon its walls. It was the work of Joachimhimself.