--- title: Improvement Era description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930. authors: - Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations collections: - periodicals tags: - magazine - improvement-era periodical: Improvement Era volume: 4 number: 2 published: 1900-12 publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations publisher_place: Salt Lake City language: en type: magazine reference: 'Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations, "In Lighter Mood," *Improvement Era* 4, no. 2 (December 1900): 152.' source: url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera0402unse transcription: Transcribed from the Internet Archive scan of each issue (the item for each issue is named in the issue's own source); unnumbered advertising leaves are omitted, printed page numbers are kept as page markers. identifier: improvementera0402unse start_page: 152 end_page: 152 rights: status: public-domain basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1900-12) source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera0402unse publication_year: 1900 note: The Internet Archive item metadata carries a blanket "© Copyright by Intellectual Reserve, Inc." notice. The library owner judged it inapplicable because this issue was published in 1900, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright. --- # In Lighter Mood NOTES. I love the morning for itself, the evening for the promises beyond. Recent experiments strongly indicate that the atom is by no means the ultimate possible form of matter. Professor J. J. Thomson has succeeded in separating water into particles not more than one-thousandth as large as hydrogen atoms. He calls each one a corpuscle. The delight of every American heart is home. The hope of the Republic is in the home. To make the home a seat of holiness and happiness, and in it to prepare characters for their future part in life, is a mission worthy the incarnation of an angel on earth. On the entrance gates to Cornell University, erected by Andrew D. White, the creative benefactor of the institution, is the following inscription: — "So enter that daily thou mayest become more learned and thoughtful; "So depart that daily thou mayest become more useful to thy country and mankind." "Music," says Martin Luther, "is a master which makes the people softer and milder, more polite and more rational. It is a beautiful and noble gift of God. I would not part with what little I know of it for a great deal. You should be instructed in this art, for it makes a capable people; it is indispensable to have music taught in the school. The schoolmaster that will not teach it is not the schoolmaster for me." A good chance alone is nothing. Education is nothing without strong and vigorous resolution and stamina to make one accomplish something in the world. An encouraging start is nothing without backbone. A man who cannot stand erect, who wabbles first one way and then the other, who has no opinion of his own or courage to think his own thought, is of very little use in this world. It is grit, it is perseverance, it is moral stamina and courage that govern the world. How often we read the following signs over the threshold of life: — "For sale: grand opportunities for a song." "Golden chances, for a glass of beer."