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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d7b82bc --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,4 @@ +*.txt text eol=lf +*.htm text eol=lf +*.html text eol=lf +*.md text eol=lf diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6f2caf9 --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #56020 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/56020) diff --git a/old/56020-0.txt b/old/56020-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 7d02325..0000000 --- a/old/56020-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,2558 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Power of Truth, by William George Jordan - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most -other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions -whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of -the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have -to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. - -Title: The Power of Truth - Individual Problems and Possibilities - -Author: William George Jordan - -Release Date: November 21, 2017 [EBook #56020] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE POWER OF TRUTH *** - - - - -Produced by Larry B. Harrison, Turgut Dincer and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This -book was produced from images made available by the -HathiTrust Digital Library.) - - - - - - - - - -The Power of Truth - - - - - THE - POWER·OF·TRUTH - - INDIVIDUAL·PROBLEMS - AND·POSSIBILITIES - - BY - WILLIAM·GEORGE·JORDAN - - NEW YORK - BRENTANO'S - - - - - _Copyright, 1902, by Brentano's_ - - _Published August, 1902_ - - _Second Edition, April, 1904_ - _Third Edition, February, 1908_ - _Fourth Edition, November, 1908_ - _Fifth Edition, August, 1911_ - _Sixth Edition, February, 1913_ - _Seventh Edition, February, 1916_ - - THE UNIVERSITY PRESS, CAMBRIDGE, MASS., U. S. A. - - - - -Contents - - - _The Power of Truth_ 1 - - _The Courage to Face Ingratitude_ 23 - - _People who Live in Air Castles_ 41 - - _Swords and Scabbards_ 59 - - _The Conquest of the Preventable_ 75 - - _The Companionship of Tolerance_ 95 - - _The Things that Come too Late_ 115 - - _The Way of the Reformer_ 133 - - - - - The Power of Truth - WILLIAM GEORGE JORDAN - - - - -The Power of Truth - - -Truth is the rock foundation of every great character. It is loyalty to -the right as we see it; it is courageous living of our lives in harmony -with our ideals; it is always—power. - -Truth ever defies full definition. Like electricity it can only be -explained by noting its manifestation. It is the compass of the soul, -the guardian of conscience, the final touchstone of right. Truth is the -revelation of the ideal; but it is also an inspiration to realize that -ideal, a constant impulse to live it. - -Lying is one of the oldest vices in the world—it made its début in -the first recorded conversation in history, in a famous interview in -the garden of Eden. Lying is the sacrifice of honor to create a wrong -impression. It is masquerading in misfit virtues. Truth can stand -alone, for it needs no chaperone or escort. Lies are cowardly, fearsome -things that must travel in battalions. They are like a lot of drunken -men, one vainly seeking to support another. Lying is the partner and -accomplice of all the other vices. It is the cancer of moral degeneracy -in an individual life. - -Truth is the oldest of all the virtues; it antedated man, it lived -before there was man to perceive it or to accept it. It is the -unchangeable, the constant. Law is the eternal truth of Nature—the -unity that always produces identical results under identical -conditions. When a man discovers a great truth in Nature he has the key -to the understanding of a million phenomena; when he grasps a great -truth in morals he has in it the key to his spiritual re-creation. For -the individual, there is no such thing as theoretic truth; a great -truth that is not absorbed by our whole mind and life, and has not -become an inseparable part of our living, is not a real truth to us. If -we know the truth and do not live it, our life is—a lie. - -In speech, the man who makes Truth his watchword is careful in his -words, he seeks to be accurate, neither understating nor over-coloring. -He never states as a fact that of which he is not sure. What he says -has the ring of sincerity, the hallmark of pure gold. If he praises -you, you accept his statement as "net," you do not have to work out -a problem in mental arithmetic on the side to see what discount you -ought to make before you accept his judgment. His promise counts for -something, you accept it as being as good as his bond, you know that no -matter how much it may cost him to verify and fulfil his word by his -deed, he will do it. His honesty is not policy. The man who is honest -merely because it is "the best policy," is not really honest, he is -only politic. Usually such a man would forsake his seeming loyalty to -truth and would work overtime for the devil—if he could get better -terms. - -Truth means "that which one troweth or believes." It is living simply -and squarely by our belief; it is the externalizing of a faith in a -series of actions. Truth is ever strong, courageous, virile, though -kindly, gentle, calm, and restful. There is a vital difference between -error and untruthfulness. A man may be in error and yet live bravely by -it; he who is untruthful in his life knows the truth but denies it. The -one is loyal to what he believes, the other is traitor to what he knows. - -"What is Truth?" Pilate's great question, asked of Christ nearly two -thousand years ago, has echoed unanswered through the ages. We get -constant revelations of parts of it, glimpses of constantly new phases, -but never complete, final definition. If we but live up to the truth -that we know, and seek ever to know more, we have put ourselves into -the spiritual attitude of receptiveness to know Truth in the fullness -of its power. Truth is the sun of morality, and like that lesser sun -in the heavens, we can walk by its light, live in its warmth and life, -even if we see but a small part of it and receive but a microscopic -fraction of its rays. - -Which of the great religions of the world is the real, the final, the -absolute truth? We must make our individual choice and live by it as -best we can. Every new sect, every new cult, has in it a grain of -truth, at least; it is this that attracts attention and wins adherents. -This mustard seed of truth is often overestimated, darkening the eyes -of man to the untrue parts or phases of the varying religious faiths. -But, in exact proportion to the basic truth they contain do religions -last, become permanent and growing, and satisfy and inspire the hearts -of men. Mushrooms of error have a quick growth, but they exhaust their -vitality and die, while Truth still lives. - -The man who makes the acquisition of wealth the goal and ultimatum of -his life, seeing it as an end rather than a means to an end, is not -true. Why does the world usually make wealth the criterion of success, -and riches the synonym of attainment? Real success in life means -the individual's conquest of himself; it means "how he has bettered -himself" not "how he has bettered his fortune." The great question of -life is not "What have I?" but "What am I?" - -Man is usually loyal to what he most desires. The man who lies to save -a nickel, merely proclaims that he esteems a nickel more than he does -his honor. He who sacrifices his ideals, truth and character, for mere -money or position, is weighing his conscience in one pan of a scale -against a bag of gold in the other. He is loyal to what he finds the -heavier, that which he desires the more—the money. But this is not -truth. Truth is the heart's loyalty to abstract right, made manifest in -concrete instances. - -The tradesman who lies, cheats, misleads and overcharges and then -seeks to square himself with his anæmic conscience by saying, "lying -is absolutely necessary to business," is as untrue in his statement as -he is in his acts. He justifies himself with the petty defence as the -thief who says it is necessary to steal in order to live. The permanent -business prosperity of an individual, a city or a nation rests finally -on commercial integrity alone, despite all that the cynics may say, -or all the exceptions whose temporary success may mislead them. It is -truth alone that lasts. - -The politician who is vacillating, temporizing, shifting, constantly -trimming his sails to catch every puff of wind of popularity, is a -trickster who succeeds only until he is found out. A lie may live for -a time, truth for all time. A lie never lives by its own vitality, -it merely continues to exist because it simulates truth. When it is -unmasked, it dies. - -When each of four newspapers in one city puts forth the claim that -its circulation is larger than all the others combined, there must be -an error somewhere. Where there is untruth there is always conflict, -discrepancy, impossibility. If all the truths of life and experience -from the first second of time, or for any section of eternity, were -brought together, there would be perfect harmony, perfect accord, union -and unity, but if two lies come together, they quarrel and seek to -destroy each other. - -It is in the trifles of daily life that truth should be our constant -guide and inspiration. Truth is not a dress-suit, consecrated to -special occasions, it is the strong, well-woven, durable homespun for -daily living. - -The man who forgets his promises is untrue. We rarely lose sight -of those promises made to us for our individual benefit; these we -regard as checks we always seek to cash at the earliest moment. "The -miser never forgets where he hides his treasure," says one of the old -philosophers. Let us cultivate that sterling honor that holds our word -so supreme, so sacred, that to forget it would seem a crime, to deny it -would be impossible. - -The man who says pleasant things and makes promises which to him -are light as air, but to someone else seem the rock upon which a -life's hope is built is cruelly untrue. He who does not regard -his appointments, carelessly breaking them or ignoring them, is -the thoughtless thief of another's time. It reveals selfishness, -carelessness, and lax business morals. It is untrue to the simplest -justice of life. - -Men who split hairs with their conscience, who mislead others by -deft, shrewd phrasing which may be true in letter yet lying in spirit -and designedly uttered to produce a false impression, are untruthful -in the most cowardly way. Such men would cheat even in solitaire. -Like murderers they forgive themselves their crime in congratulating -themselves on the cleverness of their alibi. - -The parent who preaches honor to his child and gives false statistics -about the child's age to the conductor, to save a nickel, is not true. - -The man who keeps his religion in camphor all week and who takes it out -only on Sunday, is not true. He who seeks to get the highest wages for -the least possible amount of service, is not true. The man who has to -sing lullabies to his conscience before he himself can sleep, is not -true. - -Truth is the straight line in morals. It is the shortest distance -between a fact and the expression of it. The foundations of truth -should ever be laid in childhood. It is then that parents should instil -into the young mind the instant, automatic turning to truth, making it -the constant atmosphere of the mind and life. Let the child know that -"Truth above all things" should be the motto of its life. Parents make -a great mistake when they look upon a lie as a disease in morals; it -is not always a disease in itself, it is but a symptom. Behind every -untruth is some reason, some cause, and it is this cause that should -be removed. The lie may be the result of fear, the attempt to cover a -fault and to escape punishment; it may be merely the evidence of an -over-active imagination; it may reveal maliciousness or obstinacy; it -may be the hunger for praise that leads the child to win attention and -to startle others by wonderful stories; it may be merely carelessness -in speech, the reckless use of words; it may be acquisitiveness that -makes lying the handmaid of theft. But if, in the life of the child or -the adult, the symptom be made to reveal the disease, and that be then -treated, truth reasserts itself and the moral health is restored. - -Constantly telling a child not to lie is giving life and intensity -to "the lie." The true method is to quicken the moral muscles from -the positive side, urge the child to be honest, to be faithful, to -be loyal, to be fearless to the truth. Tell him ever of the nobility -of courage to speak the true, to live the right, to hold fast to -principles of honor in every trifle—then he need never fear to face -any of life's crises. - -The parent must live truth or the child will not live it. The child -will startle you with its quickness in puncturing the bubble of your -pretended knowledge; in instinctively piercing the heart of a sophistry -without being conscious of process; in relentlessly enumerating your -unfulfilled promises; in detecting with the justice of a court of -equity a technicality of speech that is virtually a lie. He will -justify his own lapses from truth by appeal to some white lie told to -a visitor, and unknown to be overheard by the little one, whose mental -powers we ever underestimate in theory though we may overpraise in -words. - -Teach the child in a thousand ways, directly and indirectly, the -power of truth, the beauty of truth, and the sweetness and rest of -companionship with truth. - -And if it be the rock-foundation of the child character, as a fact, -not as a theory, the future of that child is as fully assured as it is -possible for human prevision to guarantee. - -The power of Truth, in its highest, purest, and most exalted phases, -stands squarely on four basic lines of relation,—the love of truth, -the search for truth, faith in truth, and work for truth. - -The love of Truth is the cultivated hunger for it in itself and for -itself, without any thought of what it may cost, what sacrifices it may -entail, what theories or beliefs of a lifetime may be laid desolate. -In its supreme phase, this attitude of life is rare, but unless one -can _begin_ to put himself into harmony with this view, the individual -will only creep in truth, when he might walk bravely. With the love of -truth, the individual scorns to do a mean thing, no matter what be the -gain, even if the whole world would approve. He would not sacrifice the -sanction of his own high standard for any gain, he would not willingly -deflect the needle of his thought and act from the true North, as he -knows it, by the slightest possible variation. He himself would know of -the deflection—that would be enough. What matters it what the world -thinks if he have his own disapproval? - -The man who has a certain religious belief and fears to discuss it, -lest it may be proved wrong, is not loyal to his belief, he has but a -coward's faithfulness to his prejudices. If he were a lover of truth, -he would be willing at any moment to surrender his belief for a higher, -better, and truer faith. - -The man who votes the same ticket in politics, year after year, without -caring for issues, men, or problems, merely voting in a certain way -because he always has voted so, is sacrificing loyalty to truth to a -weak, mistaken, stubborn attachment to a worn-out precedent. Such a -man should stay in his cradle all his life—because he spent his early -years there. - -The search for Truth means that the individual must not merely follow -truth as he sees it, but he must, so far as he can, search to see that -he is right. When the Kearsarge was wrecked on the Roncador Reef, the -captain was sailing correctly by his chart. But his map was an old one; -the sunken reef was not marked down. Loyalty to back-number standards -means stagnation. In China they plow to-day, but they plow with the -instrument of four thousand years ago. The search for truth is the -angel of progress—in civilization and in morals. While it makes us -bold and aggressive in our own life, it teaches us to be tender and -sympathetic with others. Their life may represent a station we have -passed in our progress, or one we must seek to reach. We can then -congratulate ourselves without condemning them. All the truths of the -world are not concentrated in our creed. All the sunshine of the world -is not focused on our doorstep. We should ever speak the truth,—but -only in love and kindness. Truth should ever extend the hand of love; -never the hand clenching a bludgeon. - -Faith in Truth is an essential to perfect companionship with truth. -The individual must have perfect confidence and assurance of the final -triumph of right, and order, and justice, and believe that all things -are evolving toward that divine consummation, no matter how dark and -dreary life may seem from day to day. No real success, no lasting -happiness can exist except it be founded on the rock of truth. The -prosperity that is based on lying, deception, and intrigue, is only -temporary—it cannot last any more than a mushroom can outlive an oak. -Like the blind Samson, struggling in the temple, the individual whose -life is based on trickery always pulls down the supporting columns of -his own edifice, and perishes in the ruins. No matter what price a man -may pay for truth, he is getting it at a bargain. The lying of others -can never hurt us long, it always carries with it our exoneration -in the end. During the siege of Sebastopol, the Russian shells that -threatened to destroy a fort opened a hidden spring of water in the -hillside, and saved the thirsting people they sought to kill. - -Work for the interests and advancement of Truth is a necessary part -of real companionship. If a man has a love of truth, if he searches -to find it, and has faith in it, even when he cannot find it, will he -not work to spread it? The strongest way for man to strengthen the -power of truth in the world is to live it himself in every detail of -thought, word, and deed—to make himself a sun of personal radiation of -truth, and to let his silent influence speak for it and his direct acts -glorify it so far as he can in his sphere of life and action. Let him -first seek to _be_, before he seeks to teach or to do, in any line of -moral growth. - -Let man realize that Truth is essentially an _intrinsic_ virtue, in his -relation to himself even if there were no other human being living; -it becomes _extrinsic_ as he radiates it in his daily life. Truth is -first, intellectual honesty—the craving to know the right; second, it -is moral honesty, the hunger to live the right. - -Truth is not a mere absence of the vices. This is only a moral vacuum. -Truth is the living, pulsing breathing of the virtues of life. Mere -refraining from wrong-doing is but keeping the weeds out of the garden -of one's life. But this must be followed by positive planting of the -seeds of right to secure the flowers of true living. To the negatives -of the Ten Commandments must be added the positives of the Beatitudes. -The one condemns, the other commends; the one forbids, the other -inspires; the one emphasizes the act, the other the spirit behind the -act. The whole truth rests not in either, but in both. - -A man cannot truly believe in God without believing in the final -inevitable triumph of Truth. If you have Truth on your side you can -pass through the dark valley of slander, misrepresentation and abuse, -undaunted, as though you wore a magic suit of mail that no bullet could -enter, no arrow could pierce. You can hold your head high, toss it -fearlessly and defiantly, look every man calmly and unflinchingly in -the eye, as though you rode, a victorious king, returning at the head -of your legions with banners waving and lances glistening, and bugles -filling the air with music. You can feel the great expansive wave of -moral health surging through you as the quickened blood courses through -the body of him who is gladly, gloriously proud of physical health. You -will know that all will come right in the end, that it _must_ come, -that error must flee before the great white light of truth, as darkness -slinks away into nothingness in the presence of the sunburst. Then, -with Truth as your guide, your companion, your ally, and inspiration, -you tingle with the consciousness of your kinship with the Infinite and -all the petty trials, sorrows and sufferings of life fade away like -temporary, harmless visions seen in a dream. - - - - -The Courage to Face Ingratitude - - - - -The Courage to Face Ingratitude - - -Ingratitude, the most popular sin of humanity, is forgetfulness of the -heart. It is the revelation of the emptiness of pretended loyalty. The -individual who possesses it finds it the shortest cut to all the other -vices. - -Ingratitude is a crime more despicable than revenge, which is only -returning evil for evil, while ingratitude returns evil for good. -People who are ungrateful rarely forgive you if you do them a good -turn. Their microscopic hearts resent the humiliation of having been -helped by a superior, and this rankling feeling filtering through their -petty natures often ends in hate and treachery. - -Gratitude is thankfulness expressed in action. It is the instinctive -radiation of justice, giving new life and energy to the individual -from whom it emanates. It is the heart's recognition of kindness that -the lips cannot repay. Gratitude never counts its payments. It realizes -that no debt of kindness can ever be outlawed, ever be cancelled, -ever paid in full. Gratitude ever feels the insignificance of its -instalments; ingratitude the nothingness of the debt. Gratitude is the -flowering of a seed of kindness; ingratitude is the dead inactivity of -a seed dropped on a stone. - -The expectation of gratitude is human; the rising superior to -ingratitude is almost divine. To desire recognition of our acts of -kindness and to hunger for appreciation and the simple justice of a -return of good for good, is natural. But man never rises to the dignity -of true living until he has the courage that dares to face ingratitude -calmly, and to pursue his course unchanged when his good works meet -with thanklessness or disdain. - -Man should have only one court of appeals as to his actions, not "what -will be the result?" "how will it be received?" but "is it right?" Then -he should live his life in harmony with this standard alone, serenely, -bravely, loyally and unfalteringly, making "right for right's sake" -both his ideal and his inspiration. - -Man should not be an automatic gas-machine, cleverly contrived to -release a given quantity of illumination under the stimulus of a -nickel. He should be like the great sun itself which ever radiates -light, warmth, life and power, because it cannot help doing so, -because these qualities fill the heart of the sun, and for it to have -them means that it must give them constantly. Let the sunlight of our -sympathy, tenderness, love, appreciation, influence and kindness ever -go out from us as a glow to brighten and hearten others. But do not -let us ever spoil it all by going through life constantly collecting -receipts, as vouchers, to stick on the file of our self-approval. - -It is hard to see those who have sat at our board in the days of our -prosperity, flee as from a pestilence when misfortune darkens our -doorway; to see the loyalty upon which we would have staked our life, -that seemed firm as a rock, crack and splinter like thin glass at the -first real test; to know that the fire of friendship at which we could -ever warm our hands in our hour of need, has turned to cold, dead, gray -ashes, where warmth is but a haunting memory. - -To realize that he who once lived in the sanctuary of our affection, -in the frank confidence where conversation seemed but our soliloquy, -and to whom our aims and aspirations have been thrown open with no -Bluebeard chamber of reserve, has been secretly poisoning the waters of -our reputation and undermining us by his lies and treachery, is hard -indeed. But no matter how the ingratitude stings us, we should just -swallow the sob, stifle the tear, smile serenely and bravely, and—seek -to forget. - -In justice to ourselves we should not permit the ingratitude of a -few to make us condemn the whole world. We pay too much tribute to a -few human insects when we let their wrong-doing paralyze our faith -in humanity. It is a lie of the cynics that says "_all_ men are -ungrateful," a companion lie to "_all_ men have their price." We must -trust humanity if we would get good from humanity. He who thinks all -mankind is vile is a pessimist who mistakes his introspection for -observation; he looks into his own heart and thinks he sees the world. -He is like a cross-eyed man, who never sees what he seems to be looking -at. - -Confidence and credit are the cornerstones of business, as they are -of society. Withdraw them from business and the activities and -enterprises of the world would stop in an instant, topple and fall -into chaos. Withdraw confidence in humanity from the individual, and -he becomes but a breathing, selfish egotist, the one good man left, -working overtime in nursing his petty grudge against the world because -a few whom he has favored have been ungrateful. - -If a man receives a counterfeit dollar he does not straightway lose his -faith in all money,—at least there are no such instances on record in -this country. If he has a run of three or four days of dull weather he -does not say "the sun ceases to exist, there are surely no bright days -to come in the whole calendar of time." - -If a man's breakfast is rendered an unpleasant memory by some item of -food that has outlived its usefulness, he does not forswear eating. If -a man finds under a tree an apple with a suspicious looking hole on -one side, he does not condemn the whole orchard; he simply confines -his criticism to that apple. But he who has helped some one who, -later, did not pass a good examination on gratitude, says in a voice -plaintive with the consciousness of injury, and with a nod of his head -that implies the wisdom of Solomon: "I have had my experience, I have -learned my lesson. This is the last time I will have faith in any man. -I did this for him, and that for him, and now, look at the result!" - -Then he unrolls a long schedule of favors, carefully itemized and -added up, till it seems the pay-roll of a great city. He complains of -the injustice of one man, yet he is willing to be unjust to the whole -world, making it bear the punishment of the wrong of an individual. -There is too much vicarious suffering already in this earth of ours -without this lilliputian attempt to extend it by syndicating one man's -ingratitude. If one man drinks to excess, it is not absolute justice -to send the whole world to jail. - -The farmer does not expect every seed that he sows in hope and faith -to fall on good ground and bring forth its harvest; he is perfectly -certain that this will not be so, cannot be. He is counting on the -final outcome of many seeds, on the harvest of all, rather than on the -harvest of one. If you really want gratitude, and must have it, be -willing to make many men your debtors. - -The more unselfish, charitable and exalted the life and mission of the -individual, the larger will be the number of instances of ingratitude -that must be met and vanquished. The thirty years of Christ's life was -a tragedy of ingratitudes. Ingratitude is manifest in three degrees of -intensity in the world—He knew them all in numberless bitter instances. - -The first phase, the simplest and most common, is that of thoughtless -thanklessness, as was shown in the case of the ten lepers healed in -one day—nine departed without a word, only _one_ gave thanks. - -The second phase of ingratitude is denial, a positive sin, not the -mere negation of thanklessness. This was exemplified in Peter, whose -selfish desire to stand well with two maids and some bystanders, in -the hour when he had the opportunity to be loyal to Christ, forgot his -friendship, lost all thought of his indebtedness to his Master, and -denied Him, not once or twice, but three times. - -The third phase of ingratitude is treachery, where selfishness grows -vindictive, as shown by Judas, the honored treasurer of the little band -of thirteen, whose jealousy, ingratitude, and thirty pieces of silver, -made possible the tragedy of Calvary. - -These three—thanklessness, denial and treachery—run the gamut of -ingratitude, and the first leads to the second, and the second prepares -the way for the third. - -We must ever tower high above dependence on human gratitude or we -can do nothing really great, nothing truly noble. The expectation of -gratitude is the alloy of an otherwise virtuous act. It ever dulls -the edge of even our best actions. Most persons look at gratitude as -a protective tariff on virtues. The man who is weakened in well-doing -by the ingratitude of others, is serving God on a salary basis. He is -a hired soldier, not a volunteer. He should be honest enough to see -that he is working for a reward; like a child, he is being good for a -bonus. He is really regarding his kindness and his other expressions of -goodness as moral stock he is willing to hold only so long as they pay -dividends. - -There is in such living always a touch of the pose; it is waiting for -the applause of the gallery. We must let the consciousness of doing -right, of living up to our ideals, be our reward and stimulus, or life -will become to us but a series of failures, sorrows and disappointments. - -Much of the seeming ingratitude in life comes from our magnifying -of our own acts, our minifying of the acts of others. We may have -overestimated the importance of something that we have done; it may -have been most trivial, purely incidental, yet the marvellous working -of the loom of time brought out great and unexpected results to the -recipient of our favor. We often feel that wondrous gratitude is due -us, though we were in no wise the inspiration of the success we survey -with such a feeling of pride. A chance introduction given by us on the -street may, through an infinity of circumstances, make our friend a -millionaire. Thanks may be due us for the introduction, and perhaps not -even that, for it might have been unavoidable, but surely we err when -we expect him to be meekly grateful to us for his subsequent millions. - -The essence of truest kindness lies in the grace with which it is -performed. Some men seem to discount all gratitude, almost make it -impossible, by the way in which they grant favors. They make you feel -so small, so mean, so inferior; your cheeks burn with indignation in -the acceptance of the boon you seek at their hands. You feel it is like -a bone thrown at a dog, instead of the quick, sympathetic graciousness -that forestalls your explanations and waives your thanks with a smile, -the pleasure of one friend who has been favored with the opportunity -to be of service to another. The man who makes another feel like an -insect reclining on a red-hot stove while he is receiving a favor, has -no right to expect future gratitude,—he should feel satisfied if he -receives forgiveness. - -Let us forget the good deeds we have done by making them seem small in -comparison with the greater things we are doing, and the still greater -acts we hope to do. This is true generosity, and will develop gratitude -in the soul of him who has been helped, unless he is so petrified in -selfishness as to make it impossible. But constantly reminding a man -of the favors he has received from you almost cancels the debt. The -care of the statistics should be his privilege; you are usurping his -prerogative when you recall them. Merely because it has been our good -fortune to be able to serve some one, we should not act as if we held -a mortgage on his immortality, and expect him to swing the censor of -adulation forever in our presence. - -That which often seems to us to be ingratitude, may be merely our own -ignorance of the subtle phases of human nature. Sometimes a man's -heart is so full of thankfulness that he cannot speak, and in the very -intensity of his appreciation, mere words seem to him paltry, petty, -and inadequate, and the depth of the eloquence of his silence is -misunderstood. Sometimes the consciousness of his inability to repay, -develops a strange pride—genuine gratitude it may be, though unwise -in its lack of expression—a determination to say nothing, until the -opportunity for which he is waiting to enable him to make his gratitude -an actuality. There are countless instances in which true gratitude has -all the semblance of the basest ingratitude, as certain harmless plants -are made by Nature to resemble poison-ivy. - -Ingratitude is some one's protest that you are no longer necessary to -him; it is often the expression of rebellion at the discontinuance -of favors. People are rarely ungrateful until they have exhausted -their assessments. Profuse expressions of gratitude do not cancel an -indebtedness any more than a promissory note settles an account. It is -a beginning, not a finality. Gratitude that is extravagant in words is -usually economical in all other expression. - -No good act performed in the world ever dies. Science tells us that no -atom of matter can ever be destroyed, that no force once started ever -ends; it merely passes through a multiplicity of ever-changing phases. -Every good deed done to others is a great force that starts an unending -pulsation through time and eternity. We may not know it, we may never -hear a word of gratitude or of recognition, but it will all come back -to us in some form as naturally, as perfectly, as inevitably, as echo -answers to sound. Perhaps not as we expect it, how we expect it, nor -where, but sometime, somehow, somewhere, it comes back, as the dove -that Noah sent from the Ark returned with its green leaf of revelation. - -Let us conceive of gratitude in its largest, most beautiful sense, that -if we receive any kindness we are debtor, not merely to one man, but -to the whole world. As we are each day indebted to thousands for the -comforts, joys, consolations, and blessings of life, let us realize -that it is only by kindness to all that we can begin to repay the debt -to one, begin to make gratitude the atmosphere of all our living and a -constant expression in outward acts, rather than in mere thoughts. Let -us see the awful cowardice and the injustice of ingratitude, not to -take it too seriously in others, not to condemn it too severely, but -merely to banish it forever from our own lives, and to make every hour -of our living the radiation of the sweetness of gratitude. - - - - -People who Live in Air Castles - - - - -People who Live in Air Castles - - -Living in an air-castle is about as profitable as owning a -half-interest in a rainbow. It is no more nourishing than a dinner -of twelve courses—eaten in a dream. Air-castles are built of golden -moments of time, and their only value is in the raw material thus -rendered valueless. - -The atmosphere of air-castles is heavy and stupefying with the incense -of vague hopes and phantom ideals. In them man lulls himself into -dreaming inactivity with the songs of the mighty deeds he is going to -do, the great influence he some day will have, the vast wealth that -will be his, sometime, somehow, somewhere, in the rosy, sunlit days -of the future. The architectural error about air-castles is that the -owner builds them _downward_ from their gilded turrets in the clouds, -instead of _upward_ from a solid, firm foundation of purpose and -energy. This diet of mental lotus-leaves is a mental narcotic, not a -stimulant. - -Ambition, when wedded to tireless energy is a great thing and a good -thing, but in itself it amounts to little. Man cannot raise himself to -higher things by what he would like to accomplish, but only by what -he endeavors to accomplish. To be of value, ambition must ever be -made manifest in zeal, in determination, in energy consecrated to an -ideal. If it be thus reinforced, thus combined, the thin airy castle -melts into nothingness, and the individual stands on a new strong -foundation of solid rock, whereon, day by day and stone by stone, he -can rear a mighty material structure of life-work to last through time -and eternity. The air-castle ever represents the work of an architect -without a builder; it means plans never put into execution. They tell -us that man is the architect of his own fortunes. But if he be merely -architect he will make only an air-castle of his life; he should be -architect and builder too. - -Living in the future is living in an air-castle. To-morrow is the grave -where the dreams of the dreamer, the toiler who toils not, are buried. -The man who says he will lead a newer and better life to-morrow, who -promises great things for the future, and yet does nothing in the -present to make that future possible, is living in an air-castle. In -his arrogance he is attempting to perform a miracle; he is seeking to -turn water into wine, to have harvest without seed-time, to have an end -without a beginning. - -If we would make our lives worthy of us, grand and noble, solid and -impregnable, we must forsake air-castles of dreaming for strongholds -of doing. Every man with an ideal has a right to live in the glow and -inspiration of it, and to picture the joy of attainment, as the tired -traveller fills his mind with the thought of the brightness of home, -to quicken his steps and to make the weary miles seem shorter, but the -worker should never really worry about the future, think little of it -except for inspiration, to determine his course, as mariners study -the stars, to make his plans wisely and to prepare for that future by -making each separate day the best and truest that he can. - -Let us live up to the fulness of our possibilities each day. Man has -only one day of life—to-day. He _did_ live yesterday, he _may_ live -to-morrow, but he _has_ only to-day. - -The secret of true living—mental, physical and moral, material and -spiritual,—may be expressed in five words: _Live up to your portion._ -This is the magic formula that transforms air-castles into fortresses. - -Men sometimes grow mellow and generous in the thought of what they -would do if great wealth came to them. "If I were a millionaire," they -say,—and they let the phrase melt sweetly in their mouths as though it -were a caramel,—"I would subsidize genius; I would found a college; I -would build a great hospital; I would erect model tenements; I would -show the world what real charity is." Oh, it is all so easy, so easy, -this vicarious benevolence, this spending of other people's fortunes! -Few of us, according to the latest statistics, have a million, but we -all have something, some part of it. Are we living up to our portion? -Are we generous with what we have? - -The man who is selfish with one thousand dollars will not develop -angelic wings of generosity when his million comes. If the generous -spirit be a reality with the individual, instead of an empty boast, he -will, every hour, find opportunity to make it manifest. The radiation -of kindness need not be expressed in money at all. It may be shown in -a smile of human interest, a glow of sympathy, a word of fellowship -with the sorrowing and the struggling, an instinctive outstretching of -a helping hand to one in need. - -No man living is so poor that he cannot evidence his spirit of -benevolence toward his fellowman. It may assume that rare and -wondrously beautiful phase of divine charity, in realizing how often -a motive is misrepresented in the act, how sin, sorrow and suffering -have warped and disguised latent good, in substituting a word of gentle -tolerance for some cheap tinsel of shabby cynicism that pretends to -be wit. If we are not rich enough to give "cold, hard" cash, let us -at least be too rich to give "cold, hard" words. Let us leave our -air-castles of vague self-adulation for so wisely spending millions -we have never seen, and rise to the dignity of living up to the full -proportion of our possessions, no matter how slight they may be. -Let us fill the world around us with love, brightness, sweetness, -gentleness, helpfulness, courage and sympathy, as if they were the only -legal tender and we were Monte Cristos with untold treasures of such -gold ever at our call. - -Let us cease saying: "If I were," and say ever: "I am." Let us stop -living in the subjunctive mood, and begin to live in the indicative. - -The one great defence of humanity against the charge of unfulfilled -duties is "lack of time." The constant clamoring for time would be -pathetic, were it not for the fact that most individuals throw away -more of it than they use. Time is the only really valuable possession -of man, for without it every power within him would cease to exist. Yet -he recklessly squanders his great treasure as if it were valueless. -The wealth of the whole world could not buy one second of time. Yet -Society assassins dare to say in public that they have been "killing -time." The time fallacy has put more people into air-castles than all -other causes combined. Life is only time; eternity is only more time; -immortality is merely man's right to live through unending time. - -"If I had a library I would read," is the weak plaint of some other -tenant of an air-castle. If a man does not read the two or three -good books in his possession or accessible to him he would not read -if he had the British Museum brought to his bedside, and the British -Army delegated to continual service in handing him books from the -shelves. The time sacrificed to reading sensational newspapers might be -consecrated to good reading, if the individual were willing merely to -live up to his portion of opportunity. - -The man who longs for some crisis in life, wherein he may show mighty -courage, while he is expending no portion of that courage in bearing -bravely the petty trials, sorrows and disappointments of daily life, is -living in an air-castle. He is just a sparrow looking enviously at the -mountain crags where the hardy eagle builds her nest, and dreaming of -being a great bird like that, perhaps even daring in a patronizing way, -to criticise her method of flight and to plume himself with the medals -he could win for flying if he only would. It is the day-by-day heroism -that vitalizes all of a man's power in an emergency, that gives him -confidence that when need comes he will and _must_ be ready. - -The air-castle typifies any delusion or folly that makes man forsake -real living for an idle, vague existence. Living in air-castles means -that a man sees life in a wrong perspective. He permits his lower self -to dominate his higher self; he who should tower as a mighty conqueror -over the human weakness, sin and folly that threaten to destroy his -better nature, binds upon his own wrists the manacles of habit that -hold him a slave. He loses the crown of his kingship because he sells -his royal birthright for temporary ease and comfort and the showy -things of the world, sacrificing so much that is best in him for mere -wealth, success, position, or the plaudits of the world. He forsakes -the throne of individuality for the air-castle of delusion. - -The man who wraps himself in the Napoleonic cloak of his egotism, -hypnotizing himself into believing that he is superior to all other -men, that the opera-glasses of the universe are focused upon him and -that he treads the stage alone, had better wake up. He is living in -an air-castle. He who, like Narcissus, falls in love with his own -reflection and thinks he has a monopoly of the great work of the world, -whose conceit rises from him like the smoke from the magic bottle of -the genii and spreads till it shuts out and conceals the universe is -living in an air-castle. - -The man who believes that all humanity is united in conspiracy against -him, who feels that his life is the hardest in all the world, and lets -the cares, sorrows and trials that come to us all, eclipse the glorious -sun of his happiness, darkening his eyes to his privileges and his -blessings, is living in an air-castle. - -The woman who thinks the most beautiful creature in the world is seen -in her mirror, and who exchanges her queenly heritage of noble living -for the shams, jealousies, follies, frivolities and pretences of -society, is living in an air-castle. - -The man who makes wealth his god instead of his servant, who is -determined to get rich, rich at any cost, and who is willing to -sacrifice honesty, honor, loyalty, character, family—everything he -should hold dear—for the sake of a mere stack of money-bags, is, -despite his robes of ermine, only a rich pauper living in an air-castle. - -The man of ultra-conservatism, the victim of false content, who has no -plans, no ideals, no aspirations beyond the dull round of daily duties -in which he moves like a gold-fish in a globe, is often vain enough to -boast of his lack of progressiveness, in cheap shop-worn phrases from -those whom he permits to do his thinking for him. He does not realize -that faithfulness to duties, in its highest sense, means the constant -aiming at the performance of higher duties, living up, so far as can -be, to the maximum of one's possibilities, not resignedly plodding -along at the minimum. A piece of machinery will do this, but real men -ever seek to rise to higher uses. Such a man is living in an air-castle. - -With patronizing contempt he scorns the man of earnest, thoughtful -purpose, who sees his goal far before him but is willing to pay any -honest price to attain it; content to work day by day unceasingly, -through storm and stress, and sunshine and shadow, with sublime -confidence that nature is storing up every stroke of his effort, that, -though times often seem dark and progress but slight, results _must_ -come if he have but courage to fight bravely to the end. This man does -not live in an air-castle; he is but battling with destiny for the -possession of his heritage, and is strengthened in character by his -struggle, even though all that he desires may not be fully awarded him. - -The man who permits regret for past misdeeds, or sorrow for lost -opportunities to keep him from recreating a proud future from the new -days committed to his care, is losing much of the glory of living. -He is repudiating the manna of new life given each new day, merely -because he misused the manna of years ago. He is doubly unwise, because -he has the wisdom of his past experience and does not profit by it, -merely because of a technicality of useless, morbid regret. He is -living in an air-castle. - -The man who spends his time lamenting the fortune he once had, or the -fame that has taken its winged flight into oblivion, frittering away -his golden hours erecting new monuments in the cemetery of his past -achievements and his former greatness, making what he _was_ ever plead -apology for what he _is_, lives in an air-castle. To the world and to -the individual a single egg of new hope and determination, with its -wondrous potency of new life, is greater than a thousand nests full of -the eggs of dead dreams, or unrealized ambitions. - -Whatever keeps a man from living his best, truest and highest life now, -in the indicative present, if it be something that he himself places -as an obstacle in his own path of progress and development, is to him -an air-castle. - -Some men live in the air-castle of indolence; others in the -air-castle of dissipation, of pride, of avarice, of deception, of -bigotry, of worry, of intemperance, of injustice, of intolerance, of -procrastination, of lying, of selfishness, or of some other mental -or moral characteristic that withdraws them from the real duties and -privileges of living. - -Let us find out what is the air-castle in which we, individually, spend -most of our time and we can then begin a re-creation of ourselves. The -bondage of the air-castle must be fought nobly and untiringly. - -As man spends his hours and his days and his weeks in an air-castle, he -finds that the delicate gossamer-like strands and lines of the phantom -structure gradually become less and less airy; they begin to grow firm -and firmer, strengthening with the years, until at last, solid walls -hem him in. Then he is startled by the awful realization that habit -and habitancy have transformed his air-castle into a prison from which -escape is difficult. - -And then he learns that the most deceptive and dangerous of all things -is,—the air-castle. - - - - -Swords and Scabbards - - - - -Swords and Scabbards - - -It is the custom of grateful states and nations to present swords as -tokens of highest honor to the victorious leaders of their armies -and navies. The sword presented to Admiral Schley by the people -of Philadelphia, at the close of America's war with Spain, cost -over $3,500, the greater part of which was spent on the jewels and -decorations on the scabbard. A little more than half a century ago, -when General Winfield Scott, for whom Admiral Schley was named, -received a beautiful sword from the State of Louisiana, he was asked -how it pleased him. - -"It is a very fine sword, indeed," he said, "but there is one thing -about it I would have preferred different. The inscription should be on -the blade, not on the scabbard. The scabbard may be taken from us; the -sword, never." - -The world spends too much time, money and energy on the scabbard of -life; too little on the sword. The scabbard represents outside show, -vanity and display; the sword, intrinsic worth. The scabbard is ever -the semblance; the sword the reality. The scabbard is the temporal; the -sword is the eternal. The scabbard is the body; the sword is the soul. -The scabbard typifies the material side of life; the sword the true, -the spiritual, the ideal. - -The man who does not dare follow his own convictions, but who lives in -terror of what society will say, falling prostrate before the golden -calf of public opinion, is living an empty life of mere show. He is -sacrificing his individuality, his divine right to live his life in -harmony with his own high ideals, to a cowardly, toadying fear of -the world. He is not a voice, with the strong note of individual -purpose; he is but the thin echo of the voice of thousands. He -is not brightening, sharpening and using the sword of his life in -true warfare; he is lazily ornamenting a useless scabbard with the -hieroglyphics of his folly. - -The man who lives beyond his means, who mortgages his future for -his present, who is generous before he is just, who is sacrificing -everything to keep up with the procession of his superiors, is really -losing much of life. He, too, is decorating the scabbard, and letting -the sword rust in its sheath. - -Life is not a competition with others. In its truest sense it is -rivalry with ourselves. We should each day seek to break the record -of our yesterday. We should seek each day to live stronger, better, -truer lives; each day to master some weakness of yesterday; each day -to repair past follies; each day to surpass ourselves. And this is but -progress. And individual, conscious progress, progress unending and -unlimited, is the one great thing that differentiates man from all -the other animals. Then we will care naught for the pretty, useless -decorations of society's approval on the scabbard. For us it will be -enough to know that the blade of our purpose is kept ever keen and -sharp for the defense of right and truth, never to wrong the rights of -others, but ever to right the wrongs of ourselves and those around us. - -Reputation is what the world thinks a man is; character is what he -really is. Anyone can play shuttlecock with a man's reputation; his -character is his alone. No one can injure his character but he himself. -Character is the sword; reputation is the scabbard. Many men acquire -insomnia in standing guard over their reputation, while their character -gives them no concern. Often they make new dents in their character in -their attempt to cut a deep, deceptive filigree on the scabbard of -their reputation. Reputation is the shell a man discards when he leaves -life for immortality. His character he takes with him. - -The woman who spends thousands in charitable donations, and is hard -and uncharitable in her judgments, sentimentally sympathetic with -human sin and weakness in the abstract, while she arrogates to herself -omniscience in her harsh condemnation of individual lapses, is -charitable only on the outside. She is letting her tongue undo the good -work of her hand. She is too enthusiastic in decorating the scabbard of -publicity to think of the sword of real love of humanity. - -He who carries avarice to the point of becoming a miser, hoarding -gold that is made useless to him because it does not fulfill its -one function, circulation, and regarding the necessities of life as -luxuries, is one of Nature's jests, that would be humorous were it -not so serious. He is the most difficult animal to classify in the -whole natural history of humanity—he has so many of the virtues. He -is a striking example of ambition, economy, frugality, persistence, -will-power, self-denial, loyalty to purpose and generosity to his -heirs. These noble qualities he spoils in the application. His -specialty is the scabbard of life. He spends his days in making a solid -gold scabbard for the tin sword of a wasted existence. - -The shoddy airs and ostentations, extravagance, and prodigality of some -who have suddenly become rich, is goldplating the scabbard without -improving the blade. The superficial veneer of refinement really -accentuates the native vulgarity. The more you polish woodwork, the -more you reveal the grain. Some of the sudden legatees of fortune -have the wisdom to acquire the reality of refinement through careful -training. This is the true method of putting the sword itself in order -instead of begemming the scabbard. - -The girl who marries merely for money or for a title, is a feminine -Esau of the beginning of the century. She is selling her birthright of -love for the pottage of an empty name, forfeiting the possibility of a -life of love, all that true womanhood should hold most dear, for a mere -bag of gold or a crown. She is decorating the scabbard with a crest and -heraldic designs, and with ornaments of pure gold set with jewels. She -feels that this will be enough for life, and that she does not need -love,—real love, that has made this world a paradise, despite all the -other people present. She does not realize that there is but one real -reason, but one justification for marriage, and that is,—love; all -the other motives are not reasons, they are only excuses. The phrase, -"marrying a man for his money," as the world bluntly puts it, is -incorrect—the woman merely marries the money, and takes the man as an -incumbrance or mortgage on the property. - -The man who procrastinates, filling his ears with the lovely song -of "to-morrow," is following the easiest and most restful method of -shortening the possibilities of life. Procrastination is stifling -action by delay, it is killing decision by inactivity, it is drifting -on the river of time, instead of rowing bravely toward a desired -harbor. It is watching the sands in the hour-glass run down before -beginning any new work, then reversing the glass and repeating the -observation. The folly of man in thus delaying is apparent, when any -second his life may stop, and the sands of that single hour may run -their course,—and he will not be there to see. - -Delay is the narcotic that paralyzes energy. When Alexander was asked -how he conquered the world, he said: "By not delaying." Let us not put -off till to-morrow the duty of to-day; that which our mind tells us -should be done to-day, our mind and body should execute. To-day is the -sword we should hold and use; to-morrow is but the scabbard from which -each new to-day is withdrawn. - -The man who wears an oppressive, pompous air of dignity, because he -has accomplished some little work of importance, because he is vested -with a brief mantle of authority, loses sight of the true perspective -of life. He is destitute of humor; he takes himself seriously. It is a -thousand-dollar scabbard on a two-dollar sword. - -The man who is guilty of envy is the victim of the oldest vice in the -history of the world, the meanest and most despicable of human traits. -It began in the Garden of Eden, when Satan envied Adam and Eve. It -caused the downfall of man and the first murder—Cain's unbrotherly -act to Abel. Envy is a paradoxic vice. It cannot suffer bravely the -prosperity of another, it has mental dyspepsia because someone else -is feasting, it makes its owner's clothes turn into rags at sight of -another's velvet. Envy is the malicious contemplation of the beauty, -honors, success, happiness, or triumph of another. It is the mud that -inferiority throws at success. Envy is the gangrene of unsatisfied -ambition, it eats away purpose and kills energy. It is egotism gone -to seed; it always finds the secret of its non-success in something -outside itself. - -Envy is the scabbard, but emulation is the sword. Emulation regards -the success of another as an object lesson; it seeks in the triumph of -another the why, the reason, the inspiration of method. It seeks to -attain the same heights by the path it thus discovers, not to hurl down -from his eminence him who points out the way of attainment. Let us keep -the sword of emulation ever brightened and sharpened in the battle of -honest effort, not idly dulling and rusting in the scabbard of envy. - -The supreme folly of the world, the saddest depths to which the human -mind can sink, is atheism. He surely is to be pitied who permits the -illogical philosophy of petty infidels, or his misinterpretations of -the revelations of science, to cheat him of his God. He pins his faith -to some ingenious sophistry in the reasoning of those whose books he -has read to sum up for him the whole problem, and in hopeless egotism -shuts his eyes to the million proofs in nature and life, because the -full plans of Omnipotence are not made clear to him. - -On the technicality of his failure to understand some one -point—perhaps it is why sin, sorrow, suffering and injustice exist in -the world—he declares he will not believe. He might as well disbelieve -in the sky above him because he cannot see it all; discredit the air -he breathes because it is invisible; doubt the reality of the ocean -because his feeble vision can take in but a few miles of the great -sea; deny even life itself because he cannot see it, and no anatomist -has found the subtle essence to hold it up to view on the end of his -scalpel. - -He dares to disbelieve in God despite His countless manifestations, -because he is not taken into the full confidence of the Creator and -permitted to look over and check off the ground-plans of the universe. -He sheathes the sword of belief in the dingy scabbard of infidelity. -He does not see the proof of God in the daily miracle of the rising -and setting of the sun, in the seasons, in the birds, in the flowers, -in the countless stars, moving in their majestic regularity at the -command of eternal law, in the presence of love, justice, truth in the -hearts of men, in that supreme confidence that is inborn in humanity, -making even the lowest savage worship the Infinite in some form. It is -the petty vanity of cheap reasoning that makes man permit the misfit -scabbard of infidelity to hide from him the glory of the sword of -belief. - -The philosophy of swords and scabbards is as true of nations as of -individuals. When France committed the great crime of the nineteenth -century, by condemning Dreyfus to infamy and isolation, deafening her -ears to the cries of justice, and seeking to cover her shame with -greater shame, she sheathed the sword of a nation's honor in the -scabbard of a nation's crime. The breaking of the sword of Dreyfus -when he was cruelly degraded before the army, typified the degradation -of the French nation in breaking the sword of justice and preserving -carefully the empty scabbard with its ironic inscription, "Vive la -justice." - -The scabbard is ever useless in the hour of emergency; _then_ it is -upon the sword itself that we must rely. Then the worthlessness of -show, sham, pretence, gilded weakness is revealed to us. Then the -trivialities of life are seen in their true form. The nothingness -of everything but the real, the tried, the true, is made luminant -in an instant. Then we know whether our living has been one of true -preparation, of keeping the sword clean, pure, sharp and ready, or one -of mere idle, meaningless, day-by-day markings of folly on the empty -scabbard of a wasted life. - - - - -The Conquest of the Preventable - - - - -The Conquest of the Preventable - - -This world would be a delightful place to live in—if it were not for -the people. They really cause all the trouble. Man's worst enemy is -always man. He began to throw the responsibility of his transgressions -on some one else in the Garden of Eden, and he has been doing so ever -since. - -The greater part of the pain, sorrow and misery in life is purely a -human invention, yet man, with cowardly irreverence, dares to throw the -responsibility on God. It comes through breaking laws, laws natural, -physical, civic, mental or moral. These are laws which man knows, but -he disregards; he takes chances; he thinks he can dodge results in some -way. But Nature says, "He who breaks, pays." There are no dead-letter -laws on the divine statute-books of life. When a man permits a -torchlight procession to parade through a powder magazine, it is not -courteous for him to refer to the subsequent explosion as "one of the -mysterious workings of Providence." - -Nine tenths of the world's sorrow, misfortune and unhappiness is -preventable. The daily newspapers are the great chroniclers of the -dominance of the unnecessary. Paragraph after paragraph, column after -column, and page after page of the dark story—accidents, disasters, -crime, scandal, human weakness and sin—might be checked off with the -word "preventable." In each instance were our information full enough, -our analysis keen enough, we could trace each back to its cause, to -the weakness or the wrong from which it emanated. Sometimes it is -carelessness, inattention, neglect of duty, avarice, anger, jealousy, -dissipation, betrayal of trust, selfishness, hypocrisy, revenge, -dishonesty,—any of a hundred phases of the preventable. - -That which _can_ be prevented, _should_ be prevented. It all rests -with the individual. The "preventable" exists in three degrees: First, -that which is due to the individual solely and directly; second, that -which he suffers through the wrong-doing of those around him, other -individuals; third, those instances wherein he is the unnecessary -victim of the wrongs of society, the innocent legatee of the folly of -humanity—and society is but the massing of thousands of individuals -with the heritage of manners, customs and laws they have received from -the past. - -We sometimes feel heart-sick and weary in facing failure, when the -fortune that seemed almost in our fingers slips away because of the -envy, malice or treachery of some one else. We bow under the weight -of a sorrow that makes all life grow dark and the star of hope fade -from our vision; or we meet some unnecessary misfortune with a -dumb, helpless despair. "It is all wrong," we say, "it is cruel, it -is unjust. Why is it permitted?" And, in the very intensity of our -feeling, we half-unconsciously repeat the words over and over again, -in monotonous iteration, as if in some way the very repetition might -bring relief, might somehow soothe us. Yet, in most instances, it could -be prevented. No suffering is caused in the world by right. Whatever -sorrow there is that is preventable, comes from inharmony or wrong of -some kind. - -In the divine economy of the universe most of the evil, pain and -suffering are unnecessary, even when overruled for good, and perhaps, -if our knowledge were perfect, it would be seen that none is necessary, -that all is preventable. The fault is mine, or yours, or the fault -of the world. It is always individual. The world itself is but the -cohesive united force of the thoughts, words and deeds of millions -who have lived or who are living, like you and me. By individuals has -the great wrong that causes our preventable sorrow been built up, by -individuals must it be weakened and transformed to right. And in this, -too, it is to a great degree our fault; we care so little about rousing -public sentiment, of lashing it into activity unless it concerns us -individually. - -The old Greek fable of Atlas, the African king, who supported the world -on his shoulders, has a modern application. The _individual_ is the -Atlas upon whom the fate of the world rests to-day. Let each individual -do his best,—and the result is foreordained; it is but a matter of -the unconquerable massing of the units. Let each individual bear his -part as faithfully as though all the responsibility rested on him, yet -as calmly, as gently and as unworried as though all the responsibility -rested on others. - -Most accidents are preventable—as at Balaclava, "someone has -blundered." One of the great disasters of the nineteenth century was -the Johnstown flood, where the bursting of a dam caused the loss of -more than six thousand lives. The flood was not a mere accident, it was -a crime. A leaking dam, for more than a year known to be unsafe, known -to be unable to withstand any increased pressure, stood at the head of -the valley. Below it lay a chain of villages containing over forty-five -thousand persons in the direct line of the flood. When the heavy rains -came the weakened dam gave way. Had there been _one_ individual, one -member of the South Fork Fishing Club brave enough to have done merely -his duty, _one_ member with the courage to so move his fellows and -to stir up public action to make the barrier safe, over six thousand -murders could have been prevented. - -When a tired engineer, sleepy from overwork, can no longer cheat -nature of her needed rest, and, drowsing for a moment in his cab, -fails to see the red signal light of danger, or to heed the exploding -of the warning torpedo, the wreck that follows is not chargeable to -the Almighty. It is but an awful memorial of a railroad corporation's -struggle to save two dollars. One ounce of prevention is worth six -pounds of coroner's inquest. It is a crime to balance the safety and -sacredness of human life in the scales with the petty saving that comes -from transforming a man into a mechanism and forgetting he has either -a soul or a body. True, just and wise labor laws are part of society's -weapon for fighting the preventable. - -When a terrible fire makes a city desolate and a nation mourn, the -investigation that follows usually shows that a little human foresight -could have prevented it, or at least, lessened the horror of it all. -If chemicals or dynamite are stored in any building in excess of -what wise legislation declares is safe, some one has been cruelly -careless. Perhaps it is some inspector who has been disloyal to his -trust, by permitting bribes to chloroform his sense of duty. If the -lack of fire-escapes adds its quota to the list of deaths, or if the -avarice of the owner has made his building a fire-trap, public feeling -becomes intense, the newspapers are justly loud in their protests, -and in demands that the guilty ones be punished. "If the laws already -on the statute books do not cover the situation," we hear from day -to day, "new laws will be framed to make a repetition of the tragedy -impossible"; we are promised all kinds of reforms; the air seems filled -with a spirit of regeneration; the mercury of public indignation rises -to the point where "fever-heat" seems a mild, inadequate term. - -Then, as the horror begins to fade in the perspective of the past, -men go quietly back to their own personal cares and duties, and the -mighty wave of righteous protest that threatened so much, dies in -gentle lapping on the shore. What has been all men's concern seems -soon to concern no one. The tremendous energy of the authorities seems -like the gesture of a drunken man, that starts from his shoulder with -a force that would almost fell an ox but when it reaches the hand it -has expended itself, and the hand drops listlessly in the air with -hardly power enough to disturb the serenity of a butterfly. There is -always a little progress, a slight advance, and it is only the constant -accumulation of these steps that is giving to the world greater -dominion over the preventable. - -Constant vigilance is the price of the conquest of the preventable. We -have no right to admit any wrong or evil in the world as necessary, -until we have exhausted every precaution that human wisdom can suggest -to prevent it. When a man with a pistol in his right hand, clumsily -covered with a suspicious-looking handkerchief, moved along in a line -of people, and presenting his left hand to President McKinley, pressed -his weapon to the breast of the Chief Executive of the American people, -some one of the secret service men, paid by the nation to guard their -ruler, should have watched so zealously that the tragedy would have -been impossible. Two Presidents had already been sacrificed, but twenty -years of immunity had brought a dreamy sense of security that lessened -the vigilance. We should emulate the example of the insurance companies -who decline certain risks that are "extra hazardous." - -Poverty has no necessary place in life. It is a disease that results -from the weakness, sin, and selfishness of humanity. Nature is -boundless in her generosity; the world produces sufficient to -give food, clothing, and comfort to every individual. Poverty is -preventable. Poverty may result from the shiftlessness, idleness, -intemperance, improvidence, lack of purpose or evil-doing of the -individual himself. - -If the causes do not exist in the individual, they may be found in the -second class, in the wrong-doing of those around him, in the oppression -of labor by capital, in the grinding process by which corporations seek -to crush the individual. The individual may be the victim of any of a -thousand phases of the wrong of others. The poverty caused by the third -class, the weakness and injustice of human laws and human institutions, -is also preventable, but to reach the cause requires time and united -heroic effort of all individuals. - -In the battle against poverty, those writers who seek to inflame the -poor against the rich, to foment discontent between labor and capital, -do grievous wrong to both. What the world needs is to have the two -brought closer together in the bonds of human brotherhood. The poor -should learn more of the cares, responsibilities, unrecorded charities, -and absorbing worries of the rich; the rich should learn more -intimately the sorrows, privations, struggles, and despair of poverty. - -The world is learning the great truth, that the best way to prevent -crime is to study the sociologic conditions in which it flourishes, -to seek to give each man a better chance of living his real life by -removing, if possible, the elements that make wrong easy, and to him, -almost necessary, and by inspiring him to fight life's battle bravely -with all the help others can give him. Science is coöperating with -religion in striving to conquer the evil at the root instead of the -evil manifest as crime in the fruit of the branches. It is so much -wiser to prevent than to cure; to keep some one from being burned is so -much better than inventing new poultices for unnecessary hurts. - -It is ever the little things that make up the sum of human misery. All -the wild animals of the world combined do but trifling damage, when -compared with the ravages of insect pests. The crimes of humanity, the -sins that make us start back affrighted, do not cause as much sorrow -and unhappiness in life as the multitude of little sins, of omission -and commission, that the individual, and millions like him, must -meet every day. They are not the evil deeds that the law can reach -or punish, they are but the infinity of petty wrongs for which man -can never be tried until he stands with bowed head before the bar of -justice of his own conscience. - -The bitter words of anger and reproach that rise so easily to our -lips and give us a moment's fleeting satisfaction in thus venting our -feelings, may change the current of the whole life of some one near to -us. The thoughtless speech, revealing our lack of tact and sympathy, -cannot be recalled and made nothing by the plea, "I didn't think." To -sensitive souls this is no justification; they feel that our hearts -should be so filled with the instinct of love that our lips would need -no tutor or guardian. - -Our unfulfilled duty may bring unhappiness and misery to hundreds. The -dressmaker's bill that a rich woman may toss lightly aside, as being an -affair of no moment, to be settled at her serene pleasure, may bring -sorrow, privation or even failure to her debtor, and through her to a -long chain of others. The result, if seen in all its stern reality, -seems out of all proportion to the cause. There are places in the Alps, -where great masses of snow are so lightly poised that even the report -of a gun might start a vibration that would dislodge an avalanche, and -send it on its death-mission into the valley. - -The individual who would live his life to the best that is within him -must make each moment one of influence for good. He must set before -him as one of his ideals, to be progressively realized in each day of -his living: "If I cannot accomplish great deeds in the world, I will -do all the good I can by the faithful performance of the duties that -come to my hand and being ever ready for all opportunities. And I will -consecrate myself to the conquest of the preventable." - -Let the individual say each day, as he rises new-created to face a new -life: "To-day no one in the world shall suffer because I live. I will -be kind, considerate, careful in thought and speech and act. I will -seek to discover the element that weakens me as a power in the world, -and that keeps me from living up to the fullness of my possibility. -That weakness I will master to-day. I will conquer it, at any cost." - -When any failure or sorrow comes to the individual, he should be glad -if he can prove to himself that it was his fault,—for then he has the -remedy in his own hands. Lying, intrigue, jealousy are never remedies -that can _prevent_ an evil. They postpone it, merely to augment it. -They are merely deferring payment of a debt which has to be met -later,—with compound interest. It is like trying to put out a fire by -pouring kerosene on the flames. - -Jealousy in the beginning is but a thought,—in the end it may mean the -gallows. Selfishness often assumes seemingly harmless guises, yet it is -the foundation of the world's unhappiness. Disloyalty may seem to be -a rare quality, but society is saturated with it. Judas acquired his -reputation because of his proficiency in it. Sympathy which should be -the atmosphere of every individual life is as rare as human charity. -The world is suffering from an over-supply of unnecessary evils, -created by man. They should be made luxuries, then man could dispense -with them. - -The world needs societies formed of members pledged to the individual -conquest of preventable pain and sorrow. The individual has no right -that runs counter to the right of any one else. There are no solo parts -in the eternal music of life. Each must pour out his life in duo with -every other. Every moment must be one of choice, of good or of evil. -Which will the individual choose? His life will be his answer. Let him -dedicate his life to making the world around him brighter, sweeter and -better, and by his conquest of preventable pain and sorrow he will -day by day get fuller revelation of the glory of the possibilities of -individual living, and come nearer and nearer to the realization of his -ideals. - - - - -The Companionship of Tolerance - - - - -The Companionship of Tolerance - - -Intolerance is part of the unnecessary friction of life. It is -prejudice on the war-path. Intolerance acknowledges only one side of -any question,—its own. It is the assumption of a monopoly in thinking, -the attitude of the man who believes he has a corner on wisdom and -truth, in some phase of life. - -Tolerance is a calm, generous respect for the opinions of others, -even of one's enemies. It recognizes the right of every man to think -his own thoughts, to live his own life, to be himself in all things, -so long as he does not run counter to the rights of others. It means -giving to others the same freedom that we ourselves crave. Tolerance is -silent justice, blended with sympathy. If he who is tolerant desires -to show to others the truth as he sees it, he seeks with gentleness -and deference to point out the way in which he has found peace, and -certainty, and rest; he tries to raise them to the recognition of -higher ideals, as he has found them inspiring; he endeavors in a spirit -of love and comradeship with humanity to lead others rather than to -drive them, to persuade and convince rather than to overawe and eclipse. - -Tolerance does not use the battering-ram of argument or the club of -sarcasm, or the rapier of ridicule, in discussing the weakness or -wrongs of individuals. It may lash or scourge the evil of an age, but -it is kind and tender with the individual; it may flay the sin, but not -the sinner. Tolerance makes the individual regard truth as higher than -personal opinion; it teaches him to live with the windows of his life -open towards the east to catch the first rays of the sunlight of truth -no matter from whom it comes, and to realize that the faith that he so -harshly condemns may have the truth he desires if he would only look -into it and test it before he repudiates it so cavalierly. - -This world of ours is growing better, more tolerant and liberal. The -days when difference in political opinions was solved and cured by the -axe and the block; when a man's courage to stand by his religion meant -facing the horrors of the Inquisition or the cruelty of the stake, when -daring to think their own thoughts on questions of science brought -noble men to a pallet of straw and a dungeon cell,—these days have, -happily, passed away. Intolerance and its twin brother, Ignorance, -weaken and die when the pure white light of wisdom is thrown upon them. -Knowledge is the death-knell of intolerance—not mere book-learning, -nor education in schools or colleges, nor accumulation of mere -statistics, nor shreds of information, but the large sympathetic study -of the lives, manners, customs, aims, thoughts, struggles, progress, -motives and ideals of other ages, other nations, other individuals. - -Tolerance unites men in the closer bonds of human brotherhood, -brings them together in unity and sympathy in essentials and gives -them greater liberality and freedom in non-essentials. Napoleon when -First Consul said, "Let there be no more Jacobins, nor Moderates, nor -Royalists: let all be Frenchmen." Sectionalism and sectarianism always -mean concentration on the body of a part at the expense of the soul of -the whole. The religious world to-day needs more Christ and less sects -in its gospel. When Christ lived on earth Christianity was a unit; when -he died sects began. - -There are in America to-day, hundreds of small towns, scattered over -the face of the land, that are over-supplied with churches. In many of -these towns, just emerging from the short dresses of village-hood, -there are a dozen or more weak churches, struggling to keep their -organization alive. Between these churches there is often only a slight -difference in creed, the tissue-paper wall of some technicality of -belief. Half-starved, dragging out a mere existence, trying to fight -a large mortgage with a small congregation and a small contribution -box, there is little spiritual fervor. By combination, by coöperation, -by tolerance, by the mutual surrender of non-essentials and a strong, -vital concentration and unity on the great fundamental realities -of Christianity, their spiritual health and possibilities could be -marvellously increased. Three or four sturdy, live, growing churches -would then take the place of a dozen strugglers. Why have a dozen weak -bridges across a stream, if greater good can come from three or four -stronger ones, or even a single strongest bridge? The world needs a -great religious trust which will unite the churches into a single body -of faith, to precede and prepare the way for the greater religious -trust, predicted in Holy Writ,—the millennium. - -We can ever be loyal to our own belief, faithful to our own cause, -without condemning those who give their fidelity in accord with -their own conscience or desires. The great reformers of the world, -men who are honestly and earnestly seeking to solve the great social -problems and to provide means for meeting human sin and wrong, -agreeing perfectly in their estimate of the gravity and awfulness of -the situation, often propose diametrically opposite methods. They are -regarding the subject from different points of view, and it would be -intolerance for us, who are looking on, to condemn the men on either -side merely because we cannot accept their verdict as our own. - -On the great national questions brought before statesmen for their -decision, men equally able, equally sincere, just and unselfish, -differ in their remedies. One, as a surgeon, suggests cutting away -the offending matter, the use of the knife,—this typifies the sword, -or war. Another, as a doctor, urges medicine that will absorb and -cure,—this is the prescription of the diplomat. The third suggests -waiting for developments, leaving the case with time and nature,—this -is the conservative. But all three classes agree as to the evil and the -need of meeting it. - -The conflict of authorities on every great question to be settled by -human judgment should make us tolerant of the opinion of others, though -we may be as confident of the rightness of the judgment we have formed -as if it were foreordained from the day of the creation. But if we -receive any new light that makes us see clearer, let us change at once -without that foolish consistency of some natures that continue to use -last year's almanac as a guide to this year's eclipses. Tolerance is -ever progressive. - -Intolerance believes it is born with the peculiar talent for managing -the affairs of others, without any knowledge of the details, better -than the men themselves, who are giving their life's thought to the -vital questions. Intolerance is the voice of the Pharisee still crying -through the ages and proclaiming his infallibility. - -Let us not seek to fit the whole world with shoes from our individual -last. If we think that all music ceased to be written when Wagner -laid down the pen, let us not condemn those who find enjoyment in -light opera. Perhaps they may sometime rise to our heights of artistic -appreciation and learn the proper parts to applaud. If their lighter -music satisfies their souls, is our Wagner doing more for us? It is -not fair to take from a child its rag doll in order to raise it to -the appreciation of the Venus de Milo. The rag doll is its Venus; it -may require a long series of increasingly better dolls to lead it to -realize the beauties of the marble woman of Melos. - -Intolerance makes its great mistakes in measuring the needs of others -from its own standpoint. Intolerance ignores the personal equation in -life. What would be an excellent book for a man of forty might be worse -than useless for a boy of thirteen. The line of activity in life that -we would choose as our highest dream of bliss, as our Paradise, might, -if forced on another, be to him worse than the after-death fate of the -wicked, according to the old-fashioned theologians. What would be a -very acceptable breakfast for a sparrow would be a very poor meal for -an elephant. - -When we sit in solemn judgment of the acts and characters of those -around us and condemn them with the easy nonchalance of our ignorance, -yet with the assumption of omniscience we reveal our intolerance. -Tolerance ever leads us to recognize and respect the differences in the -natures of those who are near to us, to make allowance for differences -in training, in opportunities, in ideals, in motives, in tastes, in -opinions, in temperaments and in feelings. Intolerance seeks to live -other people's lives _for_ them; sympathy helps us to live their lives -_with_ them. We must accept humanity with all its weakness, sin and -folly and seek to make the best of it, just as humanity must accept us. -We learn this lesson as we grow older, and, with the increase of our -knowledge of the world, we see how much happier life would have been -for us and for others if we had been more tolerant, more charitable, -more generous. - -No one in the world is absolutely perfect; if he were he would probably -be translated from earth to heaven, as was Elijah of old, without -waiting for the sprouting of wings or the passport of death. It is a -hard lesson for youth to learn, but we must realize, as the old college -professor said to his class of students, bowed with the consciousness -of their wisdom: "No one of us is infallible, no, not even the -youngest." Let us accept the little failings of those around us as -we accept facts in nature, and make the best of them, as we accept -the hard shells of nuts, the skin of fruits, the shadow that always -accompanies light. These are not absolute faults, they are often but -individual peculiarities. Intolerance sees the mote in its neighbor's -eye as larger than the beam in its own. - -Instead of concentrating our thought on the one weak spot in a -character, let us seek to find some good quality that offsets it, just -as a credit may more than cancel a debt on a ledger account. Let us -not constantly speak of roses having thorns, let us be thankful that -the thorns have roses. In Nature there are both thorns and prickles; -thorns are organic, they have their root deep in the fibre and the -being of the twig; prickles are superficial, they are lightly held in -the cuticle or covering of the twig. There are thorns in character that -reveal an internal inharmony, that can be controlled only from within; -there are also prickles, which are merely peculiarities of temperament, -that the eye of tolerance may overlook and the finger of charity can -gently remove. - -The tenderness of tolerance will illuminate and glorify the world,—as -moonlight makes all things beautiful,—if we only permit it. Measuring -a man by his weakness alone is unjust. This little frailty may be but a -small mortgage on a large estate, and it is narrow and petty to judge -by the mortgage on a character. Let us consider the "equity," the -excess of the real value over the claim against it. - -Unless we sympathetically seek to discover the motive behind the act, -to see the circumstances that inspired a course of living, the target -at which a man is aiming, our snap condemnations are but arrogant and -egotistic expressions of our intolerance. All things must be studied -relatively instead of absolutely. The hour hand on a clock does just as -valuable work as the minute hand, even though it is shorter and seems -to do only one-twelfth as much. - -Intolerance in the home circle shows itself in overdiscipline, in -an atmosphere of severity heavy with prohibitions. The home becomes -a place strewn with "Please keep off the grass" signs. It means the -suppression of individuality, the breaking of the wills of children, -instead of their development and direction. It is the foolish attempt -to mould them from the outside, as a potter does clay; the higher -conception is the wise training that helps the child to help himself -in his own growth. Parents often forget their own youth; they do not -sympathize with their children in their need of pleasure, of dress, -of companionship. There should be a few absolutely firm rules on -essentials, the basic principles of living, with the largest possible -leeway for the varying manifestations of individuality in unimportant -phases. Confidence, sympathy, love and trust would generate a spirit -of tolerance and sweetness that would work marvels. Intolerance -converts live, natural children into prigs of counterfeit virtue and -irritatingly good automatons of obedience. - -Tolerance is a state of mutual concessions. In the family life there -should be this constant reciprocity of independence, this mutual -forbearance. It is the instinctive recognition of the sacredness of -individuality, the right of each to live his own life as best he can. -When we set ourselves up as dictators to tyrannize over the thoughts, -words and acts of others, we are sacrificing the kingly power of -influence with which we may help others, for the petty triumph of -tyranny which repels and loses them. - -Perhaps one reason why the sons of great and good men so often go -astray is that the earnestness, strength and virtue of the father, -exacting strict obedience to the letter of the law, kills the -appreciation of the spirit of it, breeding an intolerance that -forces submission under which the fire of protest and rebellion is -smouldering, ready to burst into flame at the first breath of freedom. -Between brother and sister, husband and wife, parent and child, -master and servant, the spirit of tolerance, of "making allowances," -transforms a house of gloom and harshness into a home of sweetness and -love. - -In the sacred relation of parent to child there always comes a time -when the boy becomes a man, when she whom the father still regards but -as a little girl faces the great problems of life as an individual. -The coming of years of discretion brings a day when the parents must -surrender their powers of trusteeship, when the individual enters upon -his heritage of freedom and responsibility. Parents have still the -right and privilege of counsel and of helpful, loving insight their -children should respect. But in meeting a great question, when the son -or daughter stands before a problem that means happiness or misery for -a lifetime, it must be for him or for her to decide. Coercion, bribery, -undue influence, threats of disinheritance, and the other familiar -weapons, are cruel, selfish, arrogant and unjust. A child is a human -being, free to make his own life, not a slave. There is a clearly -marked dead-line that it is intolerance to cross. - -Let us realize that tolerance is ever broadening; it develops -sympathy, weakens worry and inspires calmness. It is but charity -and optimism, it is Christianity as a living eternal fact, not a -mere theory. Let us be tolerant of the weakness of others, sternly -intolerant of our own. Let us seek to forgive and forget the faults -of others, losing sight, to a degree, of what they are in the thought -of what they may become. Let us fill their souls with the inspiring -revelation of their possibilities in the majestic evolution march of -humanity. Let us see, for ourselves and for them, in the acorn of their -present the towering oak of their future. - -We should realize the right of every human soul to work out its own -destiny, with our aid, our sympathy, our inspiration, if we are thus -privileged to help him to live his life; but it is intolerance to try -to live it for him. He sits alone on the throne of his individuality; -he must reign alone, and at the close of his rule must give his own -account to the God of the ages of the deeds of his kingship. Life is -a dignified privilege, a glorious prerogative of every man, and it -is arrogant intolerance that touches the sacred ark with the hand of -unkind condemnation. - - - - -The Things that Come too Late - - - - -The Things that Come too Late - - -Time seems a grim old humorist, with a fondness for afterthoughts. The -things that come too late are part of his sarcasm. Each generation is -engaged in correcting the errors of its predecessors, and in supplying -new blunders for its own posterity to set right. Each generation -bequeaths to its successor its wisdom and its folly, its wealth of -knowledge and its debts of error and failure. The things that come too -late thus mean only the delayed payments on old debts. They mean that -the world is growing wiser, and better, truer, nobler, and more just. -It is emerging from the dark shadows of error into the sunshine of -truth and justice. They prove that Time is weaving a beauteous fabric -from the warp and woof of humanity, made up of shreds and tangles of -error and truth. - -The things that come too late are the fuller wisdom, the deferred -honors, the truer conception of the work of pioneers, the brave -sturdy fighters who battled alone for truth and were misunderstood -and unrecognized. It means the world's finer attitude toward life. -If looked at superficially, the things that come too late make us -feel helpless, hopeless, pessimistic; if seen with the eye of deeper -wisdom, they reveal to us the grand evolution march of humanity toward -higher things. It is Nature's proclamation that, in the end, Right -_must_ triumph, Truth _must_ conquer, and Justice _must_ reign. For -us, as individuals, it is a warning and an inspiration,—a warning -against withholding love, charity, kindness, sympathy, justice, and -helpfulness, till it is too late; an inspiration for us to live ever at -our best, ever up to the maximum of effort, not worrying about results, -but serenely confident that they _must_ come. - -It takes over thirty years for the light of some of the stars to reach -the earth, some a hundred, some a thousand years. Those stars do not -become visible till their light reaches and reacts on human vision. -It takes an almost equal time for the light of some of the world's -great geniuses to meet real, seeing eyes. Then we see these men as -the brilliant stars in the world's gallery of immortal great ones. -This is why contemporary reputation rarely indicates lasting fame. We -are constantly mistaking fireflies of cleverness for stars of genius. -But Time brings all things right. The fame, though, brings no joy, -or encouragement, or inspiration to him who has passed beyond this -world's lights and shadows; it has the sadness of the honors that -come too late, a touch of the farcical mingled with its pathos. Tardy -recognition is better than none at all, it is better, though late, than -never; but it is so much truer and kinder and more valuable if never -late. We are so inclined to send our condemnation and our snapshot -criticisms by express, and our careful, honest commendation by slow -freight. - -In October, 1635, Roger Williams, because of his inspiring pleas for -individual liberty, was ordered by the General Court of Massachusetts -to leave the colony forever. He went to Rhode Island, where he lived -for nearly fifty years. But the official conscience grew a little -restless, and a few years ago, in April, 1899, Massachusetts actually -made atonement for its rash act. The original papers, yellow, faded, -and crumbling, were taken from their pigeonhole tomb, and "by an -ordinary motion, made, seconded, and adopted," the order of banishment -was solemnly "annulled and repealed, and made of no effect whatever." -The ban, under which Roger Williams had lain for over 260 years, -was lifted. And there is no reason now, according to law, why Roger -Williams cannot enter the State of Massachusetts and reside therein. -The action was to the credit and honor of the State; it was right in -its spirit, and Roger being in the spirit for more than two centuries, -may have smiled gently and understood. But the reparation was -really—over-delayed. - -The mistakes, the sin and folly of one age may be partially atoned for -by a succeeding age, but the individual stands alone. For what we do -and for what we leave undone, we alone are responsible. If we permit -the golden hours that might be consecrated to higher things to trickle -like sand through our fingers, no one can ever restore them to us. - -Human affection is fed by signs and tokens of that affection. Merely -having kindly feelings is not enough, they should be made manifest in -action. The parched earth is not refreshed by the mere fact of water -in the clouds, it is only when the blessing of rain actually descends -that it awakens to new life. We are so ready to say "He knows how -much I think of him," and to assume that as a fitting substitute for -expression. We may know that the sun is shining somewhere and still -shiver for lack of its glow and warmth. Love should be constantly -made evident in little acts of thoughtfulness, words of sweetness and -appreciation, smiles and handclasps of esteem. It should be shown to -be a loving reality instead of a memory by patience, forbearance, -courtesy, and kindness. - -This theory of presumed confidence in the persistence of affection -is one of the sad phases of married life. We should have roses of -love, ever-blooming, ever-breathing perfume, instead of dried roses -pressed in the family Bible, merely for reference, as a memorial of -what was, instead of guarantee of what is. Matrimony too often shuts -the door of life and leaves sentiment, consideration and chivalry on -the outside. The feeling may possibly be still alive, but it does -not reveal itself rightly; the rhymed poetry of loving has changed to -blank verse and later into dull prose. As the boy said of his father: -"He's a Christian, but he's not working much at it now." Love without -manifestation does not feed the heart any more than a locked bread-box -feeds the body; it does not illuminate and brighten the round of daily -duties any more than an unlit lamp lightens a room. There is often such -a craving in the heart of a husband or a wife for expression in words -of human love and tenderness that they are welcomed no matter from what -source they may come. If there were more courtships continued after -marriage, the work of the divorce courts would be greatly lessened. -This realization is often one of the things that come too late. - -There are more people in this world hungering for kindness, sympathy, -comradeship and love, than are hungering for bread. We often refrain -from giving a hearty word of encouragement, praise or congratulation -to some one, even where we recognize that our feelings are known, for -fear of making him conceited or overconfident. Let us tear down these -dykes of reserve, these walls of petty repression, and let in the flood -of our feelings. There have been few monuments reared to the memory -of those who have failed in life because of overpraise. There is more -chiseled flattery on tombstones than was ever heard in life by the -dead those stones now guard. Man does not ask for flattery, he does -not long for fulsome praise, he wants the honest, ringing sound of -recognition of what he has done, fair appreciation of what he is doing, -and sympathy with what he is striving to do. - -Why is it that death makes us suddenly conscious of a hundred virtues -in a man who seemed commonplace and faulty in life? Then we speak -as though an angel had been living in our town for years and we had -suddenly discovered him. If he could only have heard these words while -living, if he could have discounted the eulogies at, say even sixty per -cent, they would have been an inspiration to him when weary, worn and -worried by the problems of living. But now the ears are stilled to all -earthly music, and even if they could hear our praise, the words would -be but useless messengers of love that came too late. - -It is right to speak well of the dead, to remember their strength and -to forget their weakness, and to render to their memory the expressions -of honor, justice, love and sorrow that fill our hearts. But it is -the living, ever the living that need it most. The dead have passed -beyond the helpfulness; our wildest cries of agony and regret bring no -answering echo from the silences of the unknown. Those who are facing -the battle of life, still seeking bravely to do and to be,—they need -our help, our companionship, our love, all that is best in us. Better -is the smallest flower placed in our warm, living hands than mountains -of roses banked round our casket. - -If we have failed in our expressions to the dead, the deep sense of -our sorrow and the instinctive rush of feeling proclaim the vacuum of -duty we now seek too late to fill. But there is one atonement that is -not too late. It is in making all humanity legatees of the kindness -and human love that we regret has been unexpended, it is in bringing -brightness, courage and cheer into the lives of those around us. Thus -our regret will be shown to be genuine, not a mere temporary gush of -emotionalism. - -It is during the formative period, the time when a man is seeking to -get a foothold, that help counts for most, when even the slightest aid -is great. A few books lent to Andrew Carnegie when he was beginning -his career were to him an inspiration; he has nobly repaid the loan, -made posterity his debtor a million-fold by his beneficence in -sprinkling libraries over the whole country. Help the saplings, the -young growing trees of vigor,—the mighty oaks have no need of your aid. - -The heartening words should come when needed, not when they seem only -hypocritic protestations, or dextrous preparations for future favors. -Columbus, surrounded by his mutinous crew, threatening to kill him, -alone amid the crowd, had no one to stand by him. But he neared land, -and riches opened before them; then they fell at his feet, proclaimed -him almost a god and said he truly was inspired from Heaven. Success -transfigured him—a long line of pebbly beach and a few trees made him -divine. A little patience along the way, a little closer companionship, -a little brotherly love in his hours of watching, waiting, and hoping -would have been great balm to his soul. - -It is in childhood that pleasures count most, when the slightest -investment of kindness brings largest returns. Let us give the children -sunlight, love, companionship, sympathy with their little troubles and -worries that seem to them so great, genuine interest in their growing -hopes, their vague, unproportioned dreams and yearnings. Let us put -ourselves into their places, view the world through their eyes so that -we may gently correct the errors of their perspective by our greater -wisdom. Such trifles will make them genuinely happy, happier by far -than things a thousand times greater that come too late. - -Procrastination is the father of a countless family of things that come -too late. Procrastination means making an appointment with opportunity -to "call again to-morrow." It kills self-control, saps mental energy, -makes man a creature of circumstances instead of their creator. There -is one brand of procrastination that is a virtue. It is never doing -to-day a wrong that can be put off till to-morrow, never performing an -act to-day that may make to-morrow ashamed. - -There are little estrangements in life, little misunderstandings that -are passed by in silence between friends, each too closely armored with -pride, and enamoured with self to break. There is a time when a few -straightforward words would set it all right, the clouds would break -and the sunshine of love burst forth again. But each nurses a weak, -petty sense of dignity, the rift grows wider, they drift apart, and -each goes his lonely way, hungering for the other. They may waken to -realization too late to piece the broken strands of affection into a -new life. - -The wisdom that comes too late in a thousand phases of life usually has -an irritating, depressing effect on the individual. He should charge -a large part of it to the account of experience. If no wisdom came -too late there would be no experience. It means, after all, only that -we are wiser to-day than we were yesterday, that we see all things in -truer relation, that our pathway of life has been illuminated. - -The world is prone to judge by results. It is glad to be a stockholder -in our success and prosperity, but it too often avoids the assessments -of sympathy and understanding. The man who pulls against the stream may -have but a stanch two or three to help him. When the tide turns and his -craft swiftens its course and he is carried along without effort, he -finds boats hurrying to him from all directions as if he had suddenly -woke up and found himself in a regatta. The help then comes too late; -he does not need it. He himself must then guard against the temptation -of cynicism and coldness and selfishness. Then he should realize and -determine that what he terms "the way of the world" shall not be his -"way." That he will not be too late with his stimulus to others who -have struggled bravely as he has done, but who being less strong -may drop the oars in despair for the lack of the stimulus of even a -friendly word of heartening in a crisis. - -The old song of dreary philosophy says: "The mill will never grind -again with the water that is past." Why should the mill expect to use -the same water over and over? That water may now be merrily turning -mill-wheels further down the valley, continuing without ceasing, its -good work. It is folly to think so much of the water that is past. -Think more of the great stream that is ever flowing on. Use that as -best you can, and when it has passed you will be glad that it came, and -be satisfied with its service. - -Time is a mighty stream that comes each day with unending flow. To -think of this water of past time with such regret that it shuts our -eyes to the mighty river of the present is sheer folly. Let us make the -best we can of to-day in the best preparation for to-morrow; then even -the things that come too late will be new revelations of wisdom to use -in the present now before us, and in the future we are forming. - - - - -The Way of the Reformer - - - - -The Way of the Reformer - - -The reformers of the world are its men of mighty purpose. They are men -with the courage of individual conviction, men who dare run counter -to the criticism of inferiors, men who voluntarily bear crosses for -what they accept as right, even without the guarantee of a crown. They -are men who gladly go down into the depths of silence, darkness and -oblivion, but only to emerge finally like divers, with pearls in their -hands. - -He who labors untiringly toward the attainment of some noble aim, with -eyes fixed on the star of some mighty purpose, as the Magi followed the -star in the East, is a reformer. He who is loyal to the inspiration -of some great religious thought, and with strong hand leads weak -trembling steps of faith into the glory of certainty, is a reformer. -He who follows the thin thread of some revelation of Nature in any -of the sciences, follows it in the spirit of truth through a maze of -doubt, hope, experiment and questioning, till the tiny guiding thread -grows stronger and firmer to his touch, leading him to some wondrous -illumination of Nature's law, is a reformer. - -He who goes up alone into the mountains of truth and, glowing with the -radiance of some mighty revelation, returns to force the hurrying world -to listen to his story is a reformer. Whoever seeks to work out for -himself his destiny, the life-work that all his nature tells him should -be his, bravely, calmly and with due consideration of the rights of -others and his duties to them, is a reformer. - -These men who renounce the commonplace and conventional for higher -things are reformers because they are striving to bring about new -conditions; they are consecrating their lives to ideals. They are the -brave aggressive vanguard of progress. They are men who can stand a -siege, who can take long forced marches without a murmur, who set their -teeth and bow their heads as they fight their way through the smoke, -who smile at the trials and privations that dare to daunt them. They -care naught for the hardships and perils of the fight, for they are -ever inspired by the flag of triumph that seems already waving on the -citadel of their hopes. - -If we are facing some great life ambition let us see if our heroic -plans are good, high, noble and exalted enough for the price we must -pay for their attainment. Let us seriously and honestly look into our -needs, our abilities, our resources, our responsibilities, to assure -ourselves that it is no mere passing whim that is leading us. Let us -hear and consider all counsel, all light that may be thrown on every -side, let us hear it as a judge on the bench listens to the evidence -and then makes his own decision. The choice of a life-work is too -sacred a responsibility to the individual to be lightly decided for him -by others less thoroughly informed than himself. When we have weighed -in the balance the mighty question and have made our decision, let us -act, let us concentrate our lives upon that which we feel is supreme, -and, never forsaking a real duty, never be diverted from the attainment -of the highest things, no matter what honest price we may have to pay -for their realization and conquest. - -When Nature decides on any man as a reformer she whispers to him his -great message, she places in his hand the staff of courage, she wraps -around him the robes of patience and self-reliance and starts him on -his way. Then, in order that he may have strength to live through it -all, she mercifully calls him back for a moment and makes him—an -optimist. - -The way of the reformer is hard, very hard. The world knows little of -it, for it is rare that the reformer reveals the scars of conflict, -the pangs of hope deferred, the mighty waves of despair that wash -over a great purpose. Sometimes men of sincere aim and unselfish high -ambition, weary and worn with the struggle, have permitted the world -to hear an uncontrolled sob of hopelessness or a word of momentary -bitterness at the seeming emptiness of all effort. But men of great -purpose and noble ideals must know that the path of the reformer is -loneliness. They must live from within rather than in dependence on -sources of help from without. Their mission, their exalted aim, their -supreme object in living, which focuses all their energy, must be their -source of strength and inspiration. The reformer must ever light the -torch of his own inspiration. His own hand must ever guard the sacred -flame as he moves steadily forward on his lonely way. - -The reformer in morals, in education, in religion, in sociology, in -invention, in philosophy, in any line of aspiration, is ever a pioneer. -His privilege is to blaze the path for others, to mark at his peril -a road that others may follow in safety. He must not expect that the -way will be graded and asphalted for him. He must realize that he must -face injustice, ingratitude, opposition, misunderstanding, the cruel -criticism of contemporaries and often, hardest of all, the wondering -reproach of those who love him best. - -He must not expect the tortoise to sympathize with the flight of the -eagle. A great purpose is ever an isolation. Should a soldier leading -the forlorn hope complain that the army is not abreast of him? The -glorious opportunity before him should so inspire him, so absorb him, -that he will care naught for the army except to know that if he lead -as he should, and do that which the crisis demands, the army _must_ -follow. - -The reformer must realize without a trace of bitterness that the busy -world cares little for his struggles, it cares only to joy in his final -triumph; it will share his feasts but not his fasts. Christ was alone -in Gethsemane, but—at the sermon in the wilderness, where food was -provided, the attendance was four thousand. - -The world is honest enough in its attitude. It takes time for the -world to realize, to accept, and to assimilate a large truth. Since -the dawn of history, the great conservative spirit of every age, that -ballast that keeps the world in poise, makes the slow acceptance of -great truths an essential for its safety. It wisely requires proof, -clear, absolute, undeniable attestation, before it fully accepts. -Sometimes the perfect enlightenment takes years, sometimes generations. -It is but the safeguard of truth. Time is the supreme test, the final -court of appeals that winnows out the chaff of false claims, pretended -revelation, empty boast, and idle dreams. Time is the touchstone that -finally reveals all true gold. The process is slow, necessarily so, -and the fate of the world's geniuses and reformers in the balance of -their contemporary criticism, should have a sweetness of consolation -rather than the bitterness of cynicism. If the greatest leaders of the -world have had to wait for recognition, should we, whose best work may -be but trifling in comparison with theirs, expect instant sympathy, -appreciation, and coöperation, where we are merely growing toward our -own attainment? - -The world ever says to its leaders, by its attitude if not in words, -"If you would lead us to higher realms of thought, to purer ideals of -life, and flash before us, like the handwriting on the wall, all the -possible glories of development, _you_ must pay the price for it, not -we." The world has a law as clearly defined as the laws of Kepler: -"Contemporary credit for reform works in any line will be in inverse -proportion to the square root of their importance." Give us a new fad -and we will prostrate ourselves in the dust; give us a new philosophy, -a marvelous revelation, a higher conception of life and morality, and -we may pass you by, but posterity will pay for it. Send your messages -C.O.D. and posterity will settle for them. You ask for bread; posterity -will give you a stone, called a monument. - -There is nothing in this to discourage the highest efforts of genius. -Genius is great because it is decades in advance of its generation. To -appreciate genius requires comprehension and the same characteristics. -The public can fully appreciate only what is a few steps in advance; -it must grow to the appreciation of great thought. The genius or the -reformer should accept this as a necessary condition. It is the price -he must pay for being in advance of his generation, just as front seats -in the orchestra cost more than those in the back row of the third -gallery. - -The world is impartial in its methods. It says ever, "you may suffer -now, but we will give you later fame." Posthumous fame means that -the individual may shiver with cold, but his grandchildren will get -fur-lined ulsters; the individual plants acorns, his posterity sells -the oaks. Posthumous fame or recognition is a check made out to the -individual, but payable only to his heirs. - -There is nothing the world cries out for so constantly as a new idea; -there is nothing the world fears so much. The milestones of progress in -the history of the ages tell the story. Galileo was cast into prison in -his seventieth year and his works were prohibited. He had committed no -crime, but he was in advance of his generation. Harvey's discovery of -the circulation of the blood was not accepted by the universities of -the world till twenty-five years after its publication. Frœbel, the -gentle inspired lover of children, suffered the trials and struggles -of the reformer, and his system of teaching was abolished in Prussia -because it was "calculated to bring up our young people in atheism." So -it was with thousands of others. - -The world says with a large airy sweep of the hand, "the opposition to -progress is all in the past, the great reformer or the great genius is -recognized to-day." No, in the past they tried to kill a great truth by -opposition; now we gently seek to smother it by making it a fad. - -So it is written in the book of human nature: The saviours of the world -must ever be martyrs. The death of Christ on the cross for the people -he had come to save, typifies the temporary crucifixion of public -opinion that comes to all who bring to the people the message of some -great truth, some clearer revelation of the divine. Truth, right, and -justice must triumph. Let us never close the books of a great work and -say "it has failed." - -No matter how slight seem results, how dark the outlook, the glorious -consummation of the past, the revelation of the future, _must_ come. -And Christ lived thirty years and he had twelve disciples, one denied -him, one doubted him, one betrayed him, and the other nine were very -human. And in the supreme crisis of His life "they _all_ forsook him -and fled," but to-day—His followers are millions. - -Sweet indeed is human sympathy, the warm hand-clasp of confidence and -love brings a rich inflow of new strength to him who is struggling, and -the knowledge that someone dear to us sees with love and comradeship -our future through our eyes, is a wondrous draught of new life. If we -have this, perhaps the loyalty of two or three, what the world says or -thinks about us should count for little. But if this be denied us, -then must we bravely walk our weary way alone, toward the sunrise that -must come. - -The little world around us that does not understand us, does not -appreciate our ambition or sympathize with our efforts, that seem to -it futile, is not intentionally cruel, calloused, bitter, blind, or -heartless. It is merely that busied with its own pursuits, problems and -pleasures, it does not fully realize, does not see as we do. - -The world does not see our ideal as we see it, does not feel the glow -of inspiration that makes our blood tingle, our eye brighten, and our -soul seem flooded with a wondrous light. It sees naught but the rough -block of marble before us and the great mass of chips and fragments of -seemingly fruitless effort at our feet, but it does not see the angel -of achievement slowly emerging from its stone prison, from nothingness -into being, under the tireless strokes of our chisel. It hears no -faint rustle of wings that seem already real to us nor the glory of -the music of triumph already ringing in our ears. - -There come dark, dreary days in all great work, when effort seems -useless, when hope almost appears a delusion, and confidence the -mirage of folly. Sometimes for days your sails flap idly against the -mast, with not a breath of wind to move you on your way, and with a -paralyzing sense of helplessness you just have to sit and wait and -wait. Sometimes your craft of hope is carried back by a tide that seems -to undo in moments your work of months. But it may not be really so, -you maybe put into a new channel that brings you nearer your haven than -you dared to hope. This is the hour that tests us, that determines -whether we are masters or slaves of conditions. As in battle of -Marengo, it is the fight that is made when all seems lost that really -counts and wrests victory from the hand of seeming defeat. - -If you are seeking to accomplish any great serious purpose that your -mind and your heart tell you is right, you must have the spirit of -the reformer. You must have the courage to face trial, sorrow and -disappointment, to meet them squarely and to move forward unscathed and -undaunted. In the sublimity of your perfect faith in the outcome, you -can make them as powerless to harm you, as a dewdrop falling on the -Pyramids. - -Truth, with time as its ally, always wins in the end. The knowledge of -the inappreciation, the coldness, and the indifference of the world, -should never make you pessimistic. They should inspire you with that -large, broad optimism that sees that all the opposition of the world -can never keep back the triumph of truth, that your work is so great -that the petty jealousies, misrepresentations, and hardships caused by -those around you, dwindle into nothingness. What cares the messenger -of the king for his trials and sufferings if he knows that he has -delivered his message? Large movements, great plans, always take time -for development. If you want great things, pay the price like a man. - -Any one can plant radishes; it takes courage to plant acorns and to -wait for the oaks. Learn to look not merely _at_ the clouds, but -through them to the sun shining behind them. When things look darkest, -grasp your weapon firmer and fight harder. There is always more -progress than you can perceive, and it is really only the outcome of -the battle that counts. - -And when it is all over and the victory is yours, and the smoke clears -away and the smell of the powder is dissipated, and you bury the -friendships that died because they could not stand the strain, and you -nurse back the wounded and flint-hearted who loyally stood by you, -even when doubting, then the hard years of fighting will seem but a -dream. You will stand brave, heartened, strengthened by the struggle, -re-created to a new, better and stronger life by a noble battle, nobly -waged, in a noble cause. And the price will then seem to you—nothing. - - - - -Transcriber's Note - - Obvious typographical errors have been silently corrected. Variations - in hyphenation have been standardised but all other spelling and - punctuation remains unchanged. - - - - - -End of Project Gutenberg's The Power of Truth, by William George Jordan - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE POWER OF TRUTH *** - -***** This file should be named 56020-0.txt or 56020-0.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/5/6/0/2/56020/ - -Produced by Larry B. 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You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of -the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have -to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. - -Title: The Power of Truth - Individual Problems and Possibilities - -Author: William George Jordan - -Release Date: November 21, 2017 [EBook #56020] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE POWER OF TRUTH *** - - - - -Produced by Larry B. Harrison, Turgut Dincer and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This -book was produced from images made available by the -HathiTrust Digital Library.) - - - - - - -</pre> - - - - - -<hr /> - -<div class="figcenter newpage hideepub"> - <img src="images/cover.jpg" alt="Cover" /> -</div> - - - - -<hr /> - -<div class="figcenter newpage"> - <img src="images/i_title.jpg" alt="Title Page" /> -</div> - - - - -<hr /> - -<p class="half-title in0 bold">The Power of Truth</p> - - - - -<hr /> - -<h1>THE<br /> -POWER·OF·TRUTH<br /> -<span class="vspace"> </span><br /> -<span class="small">INDIVIDUAL·PROBLEMS<br /> -AND·POSSIBILITIES</span></h1> - -<p class="center bold in0">BY<br /> -<span class="xlarge">WILLIAM·GEORGE·JORDAN</span><br /> -<span class="vspace"> </span><br /> -NEW YORK<br /> -BRENTANO'S</p> - - - - -<hr /> - -<p class="center bold in0"><i>Copyright, 1902, by Brentano's</i><br /> -<span class="vspace"> </span><br /> -<span class="small"><i>Published August, 1902</i></span><br /> -<span class="vspace"> </span><br /> -<span class="small"><i>Second Edition, April, 1904</i><br /> -<i>Third Edition, February, 1908</i><br /> -<i>Fourth Edition, November, 1908</i><br /> -<i>Fifth Edition, August, 1911</i><br /> -<i>Sixth Edition, February, 1913</i><br /> -<i>Seventh Edition, February, 1916</i></span><br /> -<span class="vspace"> </span><br /> -<span class="smcap small">The University Press, Cambridge, Mass., U. S. A.</span></p> - - - - -<hr /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<h2>Contents</h2> -</div> - -<table summary="Contents"> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><i>The Power of Truth</i></td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_1">1</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><i>The Courage to Face Ingratitude</i></td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_23">23</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><i>People who Live in Air Castles</i></td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_41">41</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><i>Swords and Scabbards</i></td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_59">59</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><i>The Conquest of the Preventable</i></td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_75">75</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><i>The Companionship of Tolerance</i></td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_95">95</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><i>The Things that Come too Late</i></td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_115">115</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><i>The Way of the Reformer</i></td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_133">133</a></td> - </tr> -</table> - - - - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">1–2</a></span></p> - -<div class="chapter"> -<h2>The Power of Truth</h2> -</div> - -<p class="center bold in0"><span class="smcap large">William George Jordan</span></p> - - - - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">3</a></span></p> - -<p class="center bold in0 p3t p2b newpage"><span class="smcap large">The Power of Truth</span></p> - -<p class="drop"><span class="uppercase">Truth</span> is the rock foundation -of every great character. It is -loyalty to the right as we see -it; it is courageous living of our -lives in harmony with our ideals; it is always—power.</p> - -<p>Truth ever defies full definition. Like -electricity it can only be explained by -noting its manifestation. It is the compass -of the soul, the guardian of conscience, -the final touchstone of right. -Truth is the revelation of the ideal; but -it is also an inspiration to realize that ideal, -a constant impulse to live it.</p> - -<p>Lying is one of the oldest vices in the -world—it made its début in the first recorded -conversation in history, in a famous -interview in the garden of Eden. -Lying is the sacrifice of honor to create -a wrong impression. It is masquerading<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">4</a></span> -in misfit virtues. Truth can stand alone, -for it needs no chaperone or escort. Lies -are cowardly, fearsome things that must -travel in battalions. They are like a lot of -drunken men, one vainly seeking to support -another. Lying is the partner and -accomplice of all the other vices. It is the -cancer of moral degeneracy in an individual -life.</p> - -<p>Truth is the oldest of all the virtues; it -antedated man, it lived before there was -man to perceive it or to accept it. It is -the unchangeable, the constant. Law is -the eternal truth of Nature—the unity -that always produces identical results under -identical conditions. When a man discovers -a great truth in Nature he has the -key to the understanding of a million phenomena; -when he grasps a great truth in -morals he has in it the key to his spiritual -re-creation. For the individual, there -is no such thing as theoretic truth; a great -truth that is not absorbed by our whole<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">5</a></span> -mind and life, and has not become an inseparable -part of our living, is not a real -truth to us. If we know the truth and do -not live it, our life is—a lie.</p> - -<p>In speech, the man who makes Truth -his watchword is careful in his words, he -seeks to be accurate, neither understating -nor over-coloring. He never states as a -fact that of which he is not sure. What he -says has the ring of sincerity, the hallmark -of pure gold. If he praises you, you -accept his statement as "net," you do not -have to work out a problem in mental -arithmetic on the side to see what discount -you ought to make before you accept -his judgment. His promise counts for -something, you accept it as being as good -as his bond, you know that no matter how -much it may cost him to verify and fulfil -his word by his deed, he will do it. His -honesty is not policy. The man who is -honest merely because it is "the best -policy," is not really honest, he is only<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">6</a></span> -politic. Usually such a man would forsake -his seeming loyalty to truth and -would work overtime for the devil—if -he could get better terms.</p> - -<p>Truth means "that which one troweth -or believes." It is living simply and squarely -by our belief; it is the externalizing of -a faith in a series of actions. Truth is ever -strong, courageous, virile, though kindly, -gentle, calm, and restful. There is a vital -difference between error and untruthfulness. -A man may be in error and yet live -bravely by it; he who is untruthful in his -life knows the truth but denies it. The one -is loyal to what he believes, the other is -traitor to what he knows.</p> - -<p>"What is Truth?" Pilate's great question, -asked of Christ nearly two thousand -years ago, has echoed unanswered through -the ages. We get constant revelations of -parts of it, glimpses of constantly new -phases, but never complete, final definition. -If we but live up to the truth that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">7</a></span> -we know, and seek ever to know more, we -have put ourselves into the spiritual attitude -of receptiveness to know Truth in -the fullness of its power. Truth is the sun -of morality, and like that lesser sun in the -heavens, we can walk by its light, live in -its warmth and life, even if we see but a -small part of it and receive but a microscopic -fraction of its rays.</p> - -<p>Which of the great religions of the -world is the real, the final, the absolute -truth? We must make our individual -choice and live by it as best we can. Every -new sect, every new cult, has in it a grain -of truth, at least; it is this that attracts attention -and wins adherents. This mustard -seed of truth is often overestimated, darkening -the eyes of man to the untrue parts -or phases of the varying religious faiths. -But, in exact proportion to the basic truth -they contain do religions last, become permanent -and growing, and satisfy and inspire -the hearts of men. Mushrooms of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">8</a></span> -error have a quick growth, but they exhaust -their vitality and die, while Truth -still lives.</p> - -<p>The man who makes the acquisition of -wealth the goal and ultimatum of his life, -seeing it as an end rather than a means to -an end, is not true. Why does the world -usually make wealth the criterion of success, -and riches the synonym of attainment? -Real success in life means the individual's -conquest of himself; it means -"how he has bettered himself" not "how -he has bettered his fortune." The great -question of life is not "What have I?" but -"What am I?"</p> - -<p>Man is usually loyal to what he most -desires. The man who lies to save a -nickel, merely proclaims that he esteems -a nickel more than he does his honor. -He who sacrifices his ideals, truth and -character, for mere money or position, -is weighing his conscience in one pan of a -scale against a bag of gold in the other. He<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">9</a></span> -is loyal to what he finds the heavier, that -which he desires the more—the money. -But this is not truth. Truth is the heart's -loyalty to abstract right, made manifest in -concrete instances.</p> - -<p>The tradesman who lies, cheats, misleads -and overcharges and then seeks to -square himself with his anæmic conscience -by saying, "lying is absolutely -necessary to business," is as untrue in his -statement as he is in his acts. He justifies -himself with the petty defence as the -thief who says it is necessary to steal in -order to live. The permanent business -prosperity of an individual, a city or a nation -rests finally on commercial integrity -alone, despite all that the cynics may say, -or all the exceptions whose temporary -success may mislead them. It is truth -alone that lasts.</p> - -<p>The politician who is vacillating, temporizing, -shifting, constantly trimming -his sails to catch every puff of wind of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">10</a></span> -popularity, is a trickster who succeeds -only until he is found out. A lie may live -for a time, truth for all time. A lie never -lives by its own vitality, it merely continues -to exist because it simulates truth. -When it is unmasked, it dies.</p> - -<p>When each of four newspapers in one -city puts forth the claim that its circulation -is larger than all the others combined, -there must be an error somewhere. Where -there is untruth there is always conflict, -discrepancy, impossibility. If all the truths -of life and experience from the first second -of time, or for any section of eternity, -were brought together, there would be -perfect harmony, perfect accord, union -and unity, but if two lies come together, -they quarrel and seek to destroy each -other.</p> - -<p>It is in the trifles of daily life that -truth should be our constant guide and -inspiration. Truth is not a dress-suit, -consecrated to special occasions, it is the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">11</a></span> -strong, well-woven, durable homespun -for daily living.</p> - -<p>The man who forgets his promises is -untrue. We rarely lose sight of those -promises made to us for our individual -benefit; these we regard as checks we always -seek to cash at the earliest moment. -"The miser never forgets where he hides -his treasure," says one of the old philosophers. -Let us cultivate that sterling honor -that holds our word so supreme, so sacred, -that to forget it would seem a crime, to -deny it would be impossible.</p> - -<p>The man who says pleasant things and -makes promises which to him are light as -air, but to someone else seem the rock -upon which a life's hope is built is cruelly -untrue. He who does not regard his appointments, -carelessly breaking them or -ignoring them, is the thoughtless thief -of another's time. It reveals selfishness, -carelessness, and lax business morals. It is -untrue to the simplest justice of life.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">12</a></span></p> - -<p>Men who split hairs with their conscience, -who mislead others by deft, -shrewd phrasing which may be true in -letter yet lying in spirit and designedly -uttered to produce a false impression, are -untruthful in the most cowardly way. -Such men would cheat even in solitaire. -Like murderers they forgive themselves -their crime in congratulating themselves -on the cleverness of their alibi.</p> - -<p>The parent who preaches honor to his -child and gives false statistics about the -child's age to the conductor, to save a -nickel, is not true.</p> - -<p>The man who keeps his religion in -camphor all week and who takes it out -only on Sunday, is not true. He who seeks -to get the highest wages for the least possible -amount of service, is not true. The -man who has to sing lullabies to his conscience -before he himself can sleep, is not -true.</p> - -<p>Truth is the straight line in morals. It<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">13</a></span> -is the shortest distance between a fact and -the expression of it. The foundations of -truth should ever be laid in childhood. It -is then that parents should instil into the -young mind the instant, automatic turning -to truth, making it the constant atmosphere -of the mind and life. Let the -child know that "Truth above all things" -should be the motto of its life. Parents -make a great mistake when they look upon -a lie as a disease in morals; it is not always -a disease in itself, it is but a symptom. Behind -every untruth is some reason, some -cause, and it is this cause that should be -removed. The lie may be the result of -fear, the attempt to cover a fault and to -escape punishment; it may be merely the -evidence of an over-active imagination; -it may reveal maliciousness or obstinacy; -it may be the hunger for praise that leads -the child to win attention and to startle -others by wonderful stories; it may be -merely carelessness in speech, the reckless<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">14</a></span> -use of words; it may be acquisitiveness -that makes lying the handmaid of theft. -But if, in the life of the child or the adult, -the symptom be made to reveal the disease, -and that be then treated, truth reasserts -itself and the moral health is restored.</p> - -<p>Constantly telling a child not to lie is -giving life and intensity to "the lie." The -true method is to quicken the moral -muscles from the positive side, urge the -child to be honest, to be faithful, to be -loyal, to be fearless to the truth. Tell him -ever of the nobility of courage to speak the -true, to live the right, to hold fast to principles -of honor in every trifle—then he -need never fear to face any of life's crises.</p> - -<p>The parent must live truth or the child -will not live it. The child will startle you -with its quickness in puncturing the -bubble of your pretended knowledge; in -instinctively piercing the heart of a sophistry -without being conscious of process; -in relentlessly enumerating your unfulfilled<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">15</a></span> -promises; in detecting with the justice -of a court of equity a technicality of -speech that is virtually a lie. He will justify -his own lapses from truth by appeal -to some white lie told to a visitor, and -unknown to be overheard by the little -one, whose mental powers we ever underestimate -in theory though we may overpraise -in words.</p> - -<p>Teach the child in a thousand ways, -directly and indirectly, the power of truth, -the beauty of truth, and the sweetness and -rest of companionship with truth.</p> - -<p>And if it be the rock-foundation of the -child character, as a fact, not as a theory, -the future of that child is as fully assured -as it is possible for human prevision to -guarantee.</p> - -<p>The power of Truth, in its highest, -purest, and most exalted phases, stands -squarely on four basic lines of relation,—the -love of truth, the search for truth, faith -in truth, and work for truth.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">16</a></span></p> - -<p>The love of Truth is the cultivated hunger -for it in itself and for itself, without -any thought of what it may cost, what -sacrifices it may entail, what theories or -beliefs of a lifetime may be laid desolate. -In its supreme phase, this attitude of life -is rare, but unless one can <i>begin</i> to put -himself into harmony with this view, the -individual will only creep in truth, when -he might walk bravely. With the love of -truth, the individual scorns to do a mean -thing, no matter what be the gain, even -if the whole world would approve. He -would not sacrifice the sanction of his own -high standard for any gain, he would not -willingly deflect the needle of his thought -and act from the true North, as he knows -it, by the slightest possible variation. He -himself would know of the deflection—that -would be enough. What matters it -what the world thinks if he have his own -disapproval?</p> - -<p>The man who has a certain religious<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">17</a></span> -belief and fears to discuss it, lest it may be -proved wrong, is not loyal to his belief, he -has but a coward's faithfulness to his prejudices. -If he were a lover of truth, he would -be willing at any moment to surrender his -belief for a higher, better, and truer faith.</p> - -<p>The man who votes the same ticket in -politics, year after year, without caring for -issues, men, or problems, merely voting in -a certain way because he always has voted -so, is sacrificing loyalty to truth to a weak, -mistaken, stubborn attachment to a worn-out -precedent. Such a man should stay in -his cradle all his life—because he spent -his early years there.</p> - -<p>The search for Truth means that the -individual must not merely follow truth -as he sees it, but he must, so far as he can, -search to see that he is right. When the -Kearsarge was wrecked on the Roncador -Reef, the captain was sailing correctly by -his chart. But his map was an old one; the -sunken reef was not marked down. Loyalty<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">18</a></span> -to back-number standards means stagnation. -In China they plow to-day, but -they plow with the instrument of four -thousand years ago. The search for truth -is the angel of progress—in civilization -and in morals. While it makes us bold and -aggressive in our own life, it teaches us to -be tender and sympathetic with others. -Their life may represent a station we have -passed in our progress, or one we must seek -to reach. We can then congratulate ourselves -without condemning them. All the -truths of the world are not concentrated -in our creed. All the sunshine of the world -is not focused on our doorstep. We should -ever speak the truth,—but only in love -and kindness. Truth should ever extend -the hand of love; never the hand clenching -a bludgeon.</p> - -<p>Faith in Truth is an essential to perfect -companionship with truth. The individual -must have perfect confidence and assurance -of the final triumph of right, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">19</a></span> -order, and justice, and believe that all -things are evolving toward that divine -consummation, no matter how dark and -dreary life may seem from day to day. No -real success, no lasting happiness can exist -except it be founded on the rock of truth. -The prosperity that is based on lying, deception, -and intrigue, is only temporary—it -cannot last any more than a mushroom -can outlive an oak. Like the blind -Samson, struggling in the temple, the individual -whose life is based on trickery -always pulls down the supporting columns -of his own edifice, and perishes in the -ruins. No matter what price a man may -pay for truth, he is getting it at a bargain. -The lying of others can never hurt us long, -it always carries with it our exoneration -in the end. During the siege of Sebastopol, -the Russian shells that threatened to -destroy a fort opened a hidden spring of -water in the hillside, and saved the thirsting -people they sought to kill.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">20</a></span></p> - -<p>Work for the interests and advancement -of Truth is a necessary part of real -companionship. If a man has a love of -truth, if he searches to find it, and has faith -in it, even when he cannot find it, will he -not work to spread it? The strongest way -for man to strengthen the power of truth -in the world is to live it himself in every -detail of thought, word, and deed—to -make himself a sun of personal radiation -of truth, and to let his silent influence -speak for it and his direct acts glorify it so -far as he can in his sphere of life and action. -Let him first seek to <i>be</i>, before he seeks to -teach or to do, in any line of moral growth.</p> - -<p>Let man realize that Truth is essentially -an <i>intrinsic</i> virtue, in his relation to himself -even if there were no other human -being living; it becomes <i>extrinsic</i> as he -radiates it in his daily life. Truth is first, intellectual -honesty—the craving to know -the right; second, it is moral honesty, the -hunger to live the right.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">21</a></span></p> - -<p>Truth is not a mere absence of the vices. -This is only a moral vacuum. Truth is the -living, pulsing breathing of the virtues of -life. Mere refraining from wrong-doing -is but keeping the weeds out of the garden -of one's life. But this must be followed -by positive planting of the seeds of -right to secure the flowers of true living. -To the negatives of the Ten Commandments -must be added the positives of the -Beatitudes. The one condemns, the other -commends; the one forbids, the other inspires; -the one emphasizes the act, the -other the spirit behind the act. The whole -truth rests not in either, but in both.</p> - -<p>A man cannot truly believe in God -without believing in the final inevitable -triumph of Truth. If you have Truth on -your side you can pass through the dark -valley of slander, misrepresentation and -abuse, undaunted, as though you wore a -magic suit of mail that no bullet could -enter, no arrow could pierce. You can hold<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">22</a></span> -your head high, toss it fearlessly and defiantly, -look every man calmly and unflinchingly -in the eye, as though you rode, -a victorious king, returning at the head -of your legions with banners waving and -lances glistening, and bugles filling the -air with music. You can feel the great -expansive wave of moral health surging -through you as the quickened blood -courses through the body of him who -is gladly, gloriously proud of physical -health. You will know that all will come -right in the end, that it <i>must</i> come, that -error must flee before the great white light -of truth, as darkness slinks away into -nothingness in the presence of the sunburst. -Then, with Truth as your guide, -your companion, your ally, and inspiration, -you tingle with the consciousness of -your kinship with the Infinite and all -the petty trials, sorrows and sufferings of -life fade away like temporary, harmless -visions seen in a dream.</p> - - - - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">23–24</a></span></p> - -<div class="chapter"> -<h2>The Courage to Face Ingratitude</h2> -</div> - - - - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">25</a></span></p> - - - - -<p class="center bold in0 p3t p2b newpage"><span class="smcap large">The Courage to Face<br /> -Ingratitude</span></p> - -<p class="drop"><span class="uppercase">Ingratitude</span>, the most -popular sin of humanity, is forgetfulness -of the heart. It is the -revelation of the emptiness of -pretended loyalty. The individual who -possesses it finds it the shortest cut to all -the other vices.</p> - -<p>Ingratitude is a crime more despicable -than revenge, which is only returning evil -for evil, while ingratitude returns evil for -good. People who are ungrateful rarely -forgive you if you do them a good turn. -Their microscopic hearts resent the humiliation -of having been helped by a superior, -and this rankling feeling filtering -through their petty natures often ends in -hate and treachery.</p> - -<p>Gratitude is thankfulness expressed in -action. It is the instinctive radiation of -justice, giving new life and energy to the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">26</a></span> -individual from whom it emanates. It is -the heart's recognition of kindness that -the lips cannot repay. Gratitude never -counts its payments. It realizes that no -debt of kindness can ever be outlawed, -ever be cancelled, ever paid in full. Gratitude -ever feels the insignificance of its -instalments; ingratitude the nothingness -of the debt. Gratitude is the flowering -of a seed of kindness; ingratitude is the -dead inactivity of a seed dropped on a -stone.</p> - -<p>The expectation of gratitude is human; -the rising superior to ingratitude is -almost divine. To desire recognition of -our acts of kindness and to hunger for -appreciation and the simple justice of a -return of good for good, is natural. But -man never rises to the dignity of true -living until he has the courage that dares -to face ingratitude calmly, and to pursue -his course unchanged when his good -works meet with thanklessness or disdain.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">27</a></span></p> - -<p>Man should have only one court of appeals -as to his actions, not "what will be -the result?" "how will it be received?" -but "is it right?" Then he should live his -life in harmony with this standard alone, -serenely, bravely, loyally and unfalteringly, -making "right for right's sake" -both his ideal and his inspiration.</p> - -<p>Man should not be an automatic gas-machine, -cleverly contrived to release a -given quantity of illumination under the -stimulus of a nickel. He should be like -the great sun itself which ever radiates -light, warmth, life and power, because it -cannot help doing so, because these qualities -fill the heart of the sun, and for it to -have them means that it must give them -constantly. Let the sunlight of our sympathy, -tenderness, love, appreciation, influence -and kindness ever go out from us -as a glow to brighten and hearten others. -But do not let us ever spoil it all by going -through life constantly collecting receipts,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">28</a></span> -as vouchers, to stick on the file of -our self-approval.</p> - -<p>It is hard to see those who have sat at -our board in the days of our prosperity, -flee as from a pestilence when misfortune -darkens our doorway; to see the loyalty -upon which we would have staked our -life, that seemed firm as a rock, crack and -splinter like thin glass at the first real test; -to know that the fire of friendship at -which we could ever warm our hands in -our hour of need, has turned to cold, dead, -gray ashes, where warmth is but a haunting -memory.</p> - -<p>To realize that he who once lived in -the sanctuary of our affection, in the frank -confidence where conversation seemed -but our soliloquy, and to whom our aims -and aspirations have been thrown open -with no Bluebeard chamber of reserve, -has been secretly poisoning the waters of -our reputation and undermining us by his -lies and treachery, is hard indeed. But no<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">29</a></span> -matter how the ingratitude stings us, we -should just swallow the sob, stifle the -tear, smile serenely and bravely, and—seek -to forget.</p> - -<p>In justice to ourselves we should not -permit the ingratitude of a few to make -us condemn the whole world. We pay -too much tribute to a few human insects -when we let their wrong-doing paralyze -our faith in humanity. It is a lie of the -cynics that says "<i>all</i> men are ungrateful," -a companion lie to "<i>all</i> men have their -price." We must trust humanity if we -would get good from humanity. He who -thinks all mankind is vile is a pessimist -who mistakes his introspection for observation; -he looks into his own heart and -thinks he sees the world. He is like a -cross-eyed man, who never sees what he -seems to be looking at.</p> - -<p>Confidence and credit are the cornerstones -of business, as they are of society. -Withdraw them from business and the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">30</a></span> -activities and enterprises of the world -would stop in an instant, topple and fall -into chaos. Withdraw confidence in humanity -from the individual, and he becomes -but a breathing, selfish egotist, the -one good man left, working overtime in -nursing his petty grudge against the world -because a few whom he has favored have -been ungrateful.</p> - -<p>If a man receives a counterfeit dollar -he does not straightway lose his faith in -all money,—at least there are no such -instances on record in this country. If he -has a run of three or four days of dull -weather he does not say "the sun ceases -to exist, there are surely no bright days to -come in the whole calendar of time."</p> - -<p>If a man's breakfast is rendered an unpleasant -memory by some item of food -that has outlived its usefulness, he does not -forswear eating. If a man finds under a -tree an apple with a suspicious looking -hole on one side, he does not condemn<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">31</a></span> -the whole orchard; he simply confines his -criticism to that apple. But he who has -helped some one who, later, did not pass a -good examination on gratitude, says in a -voice plaintive with the consciousness of -injury, and with a nod of his head that implies -the wisdom of Solomon: "I have -had my experience, I have learned my -lesson. This is the last time I will have -faith in any man. I did this for him, and -that for him, and now, look at the result!"</p> - -<p>Then he unrolls a long schedule of favors, -carefully itemized and added up, till -it seems the pay-roll of a great city. He -complains of the injustice of one man, yet -he is willing to be unjust to the whole -world, making it bear the punishment of -the wrong of an individual. There is too -much vicarious suffering already in this -earth of ours without this lilliputian attempt -to extend it by syndicating one -man's ingratitude. If one man drinks to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">32</a></span> -excess, it is not absolute justice to send -the whole world to jail.</p> - -<p>The farmer does not expect every seed -that he sows in hope and faith to fall on -good ground and bring forth its harvest; -he is perfectly certain that this will not -be so, cannot be. He is counting on the -final outcome of many seeds, on the harvest -of all, rather than on the harvest of -one. If you really want gratitude, and -must have it, be willing to make many -men your debtors.</p> - -<p>The more unselfish, charitable and -exalted the life and mission of the individual, -the larger will be the number of -instances of ingratitude that must be met -and vanquished. The thirty years of -Christ's life was a tragedy of ingratitudes. -Ingratitude is manifest in three degrees of -intensity in the world—He knew them -all in numberless bitter instances.</p> - -<p>The first phase, the simplest and most -common, is that of thoughtless thanklessness,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">33</a></span> -as was shown in the case of the ten -lepers healed in one day—nine departed -without a word, only <i>one</i> gave thanks.</p> - -<p>The second phase of ingratitude is denial, -a positive sin, not the mere negation -of thanklessness. This was exemplified in -Peter, whose selfish desire to stand well -with two maids and some bystanders, in -the hour when he had the opportunity to -be loyal to Christ, forgot his friendship, -lost all thought of his indebtedness to his -Master, and denied Him, not once or -twice, but three times.</p> - -<p>The third phase of ingratitude is treachery, -where selfishness grows vindictive, as -shown by Judas, the honored treasurer of -the little band of thirteen, whose jealousy, -ingratitude, and thirty pieces of silver, -made possible the tragedy of Calvary.</p> - -<p>These three—thanklessness, denial -and treachery—run the gamut of ingratitude, -and the first leads to the second, and -the second prepares the way for the third.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">34</a></span></p> - -<p>We must ever tower high above dependence -on human gratitude or we can -do nothing really great, nothing truly -noble. The expectation of gratitude is the -alloy of an otherwise virtuous act. It ever -dulls the edge of even our best actions. -Most persons look at gratitude as a protective -tariff on virtues. The man who is -weakened in well-doing by the ingratitude -of others, is serving God on a salary -basis. He is a hired soldier, not a volunteer. -He should be honest enough to see -that he is working for a reward; like a -child, he is being good for a bonus. He -is really regarding his kindness and his -other expressions of goodness as moral -stock he is willing to hold only so long as -they pay dividends.</p> - -<p>There is in such living always a touch -of the pose; it is waiting for the applause -of the gallery. We must let the consciousness -of doing right, of living up to our -ideals, be our reward and stimulus, or life<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">35</a></span> -will become to us but a series of failures, -sorrows and disappointments.</p> - -<p>Much of the seeming ingratitude in life -comes from our magnifying of our own -acts, our minifying of the acts of others. -We may have overestimated the importance -of something that we have done; it -may have been most trivial, purely incidental, -yet the marvellous working of the -loom of time brought out great and unexpected -results to the recipient of our favor. -We often feel that wondrous gratitude is -due us, though we were in no wise the inspiration -of the success we survey with -such a feeling of pride. A chance introduction -given by us on the street may, -through an infinity of circumstances, make -our friend a millionaire. Thanks may be -due us for the introduction, and perhaps -not even that, for it might have been unavoidable, -but surely we err when we expect -him to be meekly grateful to us for his -subsequent millions.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">36</a></span></p> - -<p>The essence of truest kindness lies in -the grace with which it is performed. -Some men seem to discount all gratitude, -almost make it impossible, by the way in -which they grant favors. They make you -feel so small, so mean, so inferior; your -cheeks burn with indignation in the acceptance -of the boon you seek at their -hands. You feel it is like a bone thrown at -a dog, instead of the quick, sympathetic -graciousness that forestalls your explanations -and waives your thanks with a smile, -the pleasure of one friend who has been -favored with the opportunity to be of service -to another. The man who makes another -feel like an insect reclining on a -red-hot stove while he is receiving a favor, -has no right to expect future gratitude,—he -should feel satisfied if he receives forgiveness.</p> - -<p>Let us forget the good deeds we have -done by making them seem small in comparison -with the greater things we are doing,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">37</a></span> -and the still greater acts we hope to -do. This is true generosity, and will develop -gratitude in the soul of him who -has been helped, unless he is so petrified -in selfishness as to make it impossible. But -constantly reminding a man of the favors -he has received from you almost cancels -the debt. The care of the statistics should -be his privilege; you are usurping his prerogative -when you recall them. Merely -because it has been our good fortune to be -able to serve some one, we should not act -as if we held a mortgage on his immortality, -and expect him to swing the censor of -adulation forever in our presence.</p> - -<p>That which often seems to us to be ingratitude, -may be merely our own ignorance -of the subtle phases of human nature. -Sometimes a man's heart is so full of -thankfulness that he cannot speak, and in -the very intensity of his appreciation, mere -words seem to him paltry, petty, and inadequate, -and the depth of the eloquence<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">38</a></span> -of his silence is misunderstood. Sometimes -the consciousness of his inability to repay, -develops a strange pride—genuine gratitude -it may be, though unwise in its lack -of expression—a determination to say -nothing, until the opportunity for which -he is waiting to enable him to make his -gratitude an actuality. There are countless -instances in which true gratitude has all -the semblance of the basest ingratitude, as -certain harmless plants are made by Nature -to resemble poison-ivy.</p> - -<p>Ingratitude is some one's protest that -you are no longer necessary to him; it is -often the expression of rebellion at the -discontinuance of favors. People are rarely -ungrateful until they have exhausted their -assessments. Profuse expressions of gratitude -do not cancel an indebtedness any -more than a promissory note settles an account. -It is a beginning, not a finality. -Gratitude that is extravagant in words is -usually economical in all other expression.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">39</a></span></p> - -<p>No good act performed in the world -ever dies. Science tells us that no atom of -matter can ever be destroyed, that no force -once started ever ends; it merely passes -through a multiplicity of ever-changing -phases. Every good deed done to others is -a great force that starts an unending pulsation -through time and eternity. We may -not know it, we may never hear a word of -gratitude or of recognition, but it will all -come back to us in some form as naturally, -as perfectly, as inevitably, as echo answers -to sound. Perhaps not as we expect it, how -we expect it, nor where, but sometime, -somehow, somewhere, it comes back, as -the dove that Noah sent from the Ark returned -with its green leaf of revelation.</p> - -<p>Let us conceive of gratitude in its largest, -most beautiful sense, that if we receive -any kindness we are debtor, not merely to -one man, but to the whole world. As we -are each day indebted to thousands for the -comforts, joys, consolations, and blessings<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">40</a></span> -of life, let us realize that it is only by kindness -to all that we can begin to repay the -debt to one, begin to make gratitude the -atmosphere of all our living and a constant -expression in outward acts, rather than in -mere thoughts. Let us see the awful cowardice -and the injustice of ingratitude, not -to take it too seriously in others, not to -condemn it too severely, but merely to -banish it forever from our own lives, and -to make every hour of our living the radiation -of the sweetness of gratitude.</p> - - - - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">41–42</a></span></p> - -<div class="chapter"> -<h2>People who Live in Air Castles</h2> -</div> - - - - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">43</a></span></p> - -<p class="center bold in0 p3t p2b newpage"><span class="smcap large">People who Live in Air<br /> -Castles</span></p> - -<p class="drop"><span class="uppercase">Living</span> in an air-castle is about -as profitable as owning a half-interest -in a rainbow. It is no -more nourishing than a dinner -of twelve courses—eaten in a dream. -Air-castles are built of golden moments -of time, and their only value is in the raw -material thus rendered valueless.</p> - -<p>The atmosphere of air-castles is heavy -and stupefying with the incense of vague -hopes and phantom ideals. In them man -lulls himself into dreaming inactivity -with the songs of the mighty deeds he is -going to do, the great influence he some -day will have, the vast wealth that will be -his, sometime, somehow, somewhere, in -the rosy, sunlit days of the future. The -architectural error about air-castles is that -the owner builds them <i>downward</i> from -their gilded turrets in the clouds, instead<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">44</a></span> -of <i>upward</i> from a solid, firm foundation of -purpose and energy. This diet of mental -lotus-leaves is a mental narcotic, not a -stimulant.</p> - -<p>Ambition, when wedded to tireless -energy is a great thing and a good thing, -but in itself it amounts to little. Man cannot -raise himself to higher things by -what he would like to accomplish, but -only by what he endeavors to accomplish. -To be of value, ambition must ever be -made manifest in zeal, in determination, -in energy consecrated to an ideal. If it be -thus reinforced, thus combined, the thin -airy castle melts into nothingness, and the -individual stands on a new strong foundation -of solid rock, whereon, day by day -and stone by stone, he can rear a mighty -material structure of life-work to last -through time and eternity. The air-castle -ever represents the work of an architect -without a builder; it means plans never -put into execution. They tell us that man<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">45</a></span> -is the architect of his own fortunes. But -if he be merely architect he will make -only an air-castle of his life; he should -be architect and builder too.</p> - -<p>Living in the future is living in an air-castle. -To-morrow is the grave where the -dreams of the dreamer, the toiler who -toils not, are buried. The man who says -he will lead a newer and better life to-morrow, -who promises great things for -the future, and yet does nothing in the -present to make that future possible, is -living in an air-castle. In his arrogance he -is attempting to perform a miracle; he -is seeking to turn water into wine, to have -harvest without seed-time, to have an end -without a beginning.</p> - -<p>If we would make our lives worthy of -us, grand and noble, solid and impregnable, -we must forsake air-castles of dreaming -for strongholds of doing. Every man -with an ideal has a right to live in the glow -and inspiration of it, and to picture the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">46</a></span> -joy of attainment, as the tired traveller -fills his mind with the thought of the -brightness of home, to quicken his steps -and to make the weary miles seem shorter, -but the worker should never really worry -about the future, think little of it except -for inspiration, to determine his course, -as mariners study the stars, to make his -plans wisely and to prepare for that future -by making each separate day the best and -truest that he can.</p> - -<p>Let us live up to the fulness of our possibilities -each day. Man has only one day -of life—to-day. He <i>did</i> live yesterday, he -<i>may</i> live to-morrow, but he <i>has</i> only to-day.</p> - -<p>The secret of true living—mental, -physical and moral, material and spiritual,—may -be expressed in five words: -<i>Live up to your portion.</i> This is the magic -formula that transforms air-castles into -fortresses.</p> - -<p>Men sometimes grow mellow and generous<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">47</a></span> -in the thought of what they would -do if great wealth came to them. "If I -were a millionaire," they say,—and they -let the phrase melt sweetly in their mouths -as though it were a caramel,—"I would -subsidize genius; I would found a college; -I would build a great hospital; I would -erect model tenements; I would show the -world what real charity is." Oh, it is all -so easy, so easy, this vicarious benevolence, -this spending of other people's fortunes! -Few of us, according to the latest -statistics, have a million, but we all have -something, some part of it. Are we living -up to our portion? Are we generous with -what we have?</p> - -<p>The man who is selfish with one thousand -dollars will not develop angelic wings -of generosity when his million comes. If -the generous spirit be a reality with the -individual, instead of an empty boast, he -will, every hour, find opportunity to make -it manifest. The radiation of kindness<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">48</a></span> -need not be expressed in money at all. It -may be shown in a smile of human interest, -a glow of sympathy, a word of fellowship -with the sorrowing and the struggling, -an instinctive outstretching of a -helping hand to one in need.</p> - -<p>No man living is so poor that he cannot -evidence his spirit of benevolence toward -his fellowman. It may assume that -rare and wondrously beautiful phase of -divine charity, in realizing how often a -motive is misrepresented in the act, how -sin, sorrow and suffering have warped and -disguised latent good, in substituting a -word of gentle tolerance for some cheap -tinsel of shabby cynicism that pretends to -be wit. If we are not rich enough to give -"cold, hard" cash, let us at least be too -rich to give "cold, hard" words. Let us -leave our air-castles of vague self-adulation -for so wisely spending millions we -have never seen, and rise to the dignity -of living up to the full proportion of our<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">49</a></span> -possessions, no matter how slight they -may be. Let us fill the world around us -with love, brightness, sweetness, gentleness, -helpfulness, courage and sympathy, -as if they were the only legal tender and -we were Monte Cristos with untold treasures -of such gold ever at our call.</p> - -<p>Let us cease saying: "If I were," and -say ever: "I am." Let us stop living in the -subjunctive mood, and begin to live in the -indicative.</p> - -<p>The one great defence of humanity -against the charge of unfulfilled duties is -"lack of time." The constant clamoring -for time would be pathetic, were it not for -the fact that most individuals throw away -more of it than they use. Time is the only -really valuable possession of man, for without -it every power within him would -cease to exist. Yet he recklessly squanders -his great treasure as if it were valueless. -The wealth of the whole world could not -buy one second of time. Yet Society assassins<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">50</a></span> -dare to say in public that they have -been "killing time." The time fallacy has -put more people into air-castles than all -other causes combined. Life is only time; -eternity is only more time; immortality is -merely man's right to live through unending -time.</p> - -<p>"If I had a library I would read," is the -weak plaint of some other tenant of an air-castle. -If a man does not read the two or -three good books in his possession or accessible -to him he would not read if he had -the British Museum brought to his bedside, -and the British Army delegated to -continual service in handing him books -from the shelves. The time sacrificed to -reading sensational newspapers might be -consecrated to good reading, if the individual -were willing merely to live up to -his portion of opportunity.</p> - -<p>The man who longs for some crisis in -life, wherein he may show mighty courage, -while he is expending no portion of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">51</a></span> -that courage in bearing bravely the petty -trials, sorrows and disappointments of -daily life, is living in an air-castle. He is -just a sparrow looking enviously at the -mountain crags where the hardy eagle -builds her nest, and dreaming of being a -great bird like that, perhaps even daring -in a patronizing way, to criticise her -method of flight and to plume himself -with the medals he could win for flying -if he only would. It is the day-by-day -heroism that vitalizes all of a man's power -in an emergency, that gives him confidence -that when need comes he will and -<i>must</i> be ready.</p> - -<p>The air-castle typifies any delusion or -folly that makes man forsake real living -for an idle, vague existence. Living in -air-castles means that a man sees life in a -wrong perspective. He permits his lower -self to dominate his higher self; he -who should tower as a mighty conqueror -over the human weakness, sin and folly<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">52</a></span> -that threaten to destroy his better nature, -binds upon his own wrists the manacles -of habit that hold him a slave. He loses -the crown of his kingship because he sells -his royal birthright for temporary ease -and comfort and the showy things of the -world, sacrificing so much that is best in -him for mere wealth, success, position, -or the plaudits of the world. He forsakes -the throne of individuality for the air-castle -of delusion.</p> - -<p>The man who wraps himself in the -Napoleonic cloak of his egotism, hypnotizing -himself into believing that he is -superior to all other men, that the opera-glasses -of the universe are focused upon -him and that he treads the stage alone, -had better wake up. He is living in an -air-castle. He who, like Narcissus, falls in -love with his own reflection and thinks -he has a monopoly of the great work of -the world, whose conceit rises from him -like the smoke from the magic bottle of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">53</a></span> -the genii and spreads till it shuts out and -conceals the universe is living in an air-castle.</p> - -<p>The man who believes that all humanity -is united in conspiracy against him, -who feels that his life is the hardest in -all the world, and lets the cares, sorrows -and trials that come to us all, eclipse the -glorious sun of his happiness, darkening -his eyes to his privileges and his blessings, -is living in an air-castle.</p> - -<p>The woman who thinks the most -beautiful creature in the world is seen -in her mirror, and who exchanges her -queenly heritage of noble living for the -shams, jealousies, follies, frivolities and -pretences of society, is living in an air-castle.</p> - -<p>The man who makes wealth his god -instead of his servant, who is determined -to get rich, rich at any cost, and who is -willing to sacrifice honesty, honor, loyalty, -character, family—everything he<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">54</a></span> -should hold dear—for the sake of a mere -stack of money-bags, is, despite his robes -of ermine, only a rich pauper living in an -air-castle.</p> - -<p>The man of ultra-conservatism, the -victim of false content, who has no plans, -no ideals, no aspirations beyond the dull -round of daily duties in which he moves -like a gold-fish in a globe, is often vain -enough to boast of his lack of progressiveness, -in cheap shop-worn phrases from -those whom he permits to do his thinking -for him. He does not realize that -faithfulness to duties, in its highest sense, -means the constant aiming at the performance -of higher duties, living up, so -far as can be, to the maximum of one's -possibilities, not resignedly plodding -along at the minimum. A piece of machinery -will do this, but real men ever -seek to rise to higher uses. Such a man is -living in an air-castle.</p> - -<p>With patronizing contempt he scorns<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">55</a></span> -the man of earnest, thoughtful purpose, -who sees his goal far before him but is -willing to pay any honest price to attain -it; content to work day by day unceasingly, -through storm and stress, and sunshine -and shadow, with sublime confidence -that nature is storing up every -stroke of his effort, that, though times -often seem dark and progress but slight, -results <i>must</i> come if he have but courage -to fight bravely to the end. This man -does not live in an air-castle; he is but -battling with destiny for the possession -of his heritage, and is strengthened in -character by his struggle, even though all -that he desires may not be fully awarded -him.</p> - -<p>The man who permits regret for past -misdeeds, or sorrow for lost opportunities -to keep him from recreating a proud -future from the new days committed to -his care, is losing much of the glory of -living. He is repudiating the manna of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">56</a></span> -new life given each new day, merely because -he misused the manna of years ago. -He is doubly unwise, because he has the -wisdom of his past experience and does -not profit by it, merely because of a technicality -of useless, morbid regret. He is -living in an air-castle.</p> - -<p>The man who spends his time lamenting -the fortune he once had, or the fame -that has taken its winged flight into oblivion, -frittering away his golden hours -erecting new monuments in the cemetery -of his past achievements and his former -greatness, making what he <i>was</i> ever -plead apology for what he <i>is</i>, lives in an -air-castle. To the world and to the individual -a single egg of new hope and determination, -with its wondrous potency -of new life, is greater than a thousand -nests full of the eggs of dead dreams, or -unrealized ambitions.</p> - -<p>Whatever keeps a man from living his -best, truest and highest life now, in the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">57</a></span> -indicative present, if it be something that -he himself places as an obstacle in his own -path of progress and development, is to -him an air-castle.</p> - -<p>Some men live in the air-castle of indolence; -others in the air-castle of dissipation, -of pride, of avarice, of deception, -of bigotry, of worry, of intemperance, of -injustice, of intolerance, of procrastination, -of lying, of selfishness, or of some -other mental or moral characteristic that -withdraws them from the real duties and -privileges of living.</p> - -<p>Let us find out what is the air-castle in -which we, individually, spend most of our -time and we can then begin a re-creation -of ourselves. The bondage of the air-castle -must be fought nobly and untiringly.</p> - -<p>As man spends his hours and his days -and his weeks in an air-castle, he finds -that the delicate gossamer-like strands -and lines of the phantom structure gradually -become less and less airy; they<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">58</a></span> -begin to grow firm and firmer, strengthening -with the years, until at last, solid -walls hem him in. Then he is startled by -the awful realization that habit and habitancy -have transformed his air-castle into -a prison from which escape is difficult.</p> - -<p>And then he learns that the most deceptive -and dangerous of all things is,—the -air-castle.</p> - - - - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">59–60</a></span></p> - -<div class="chapter"> -<h2>Swords and Scabbards</h2> -</div> - - - - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">61</a></span></p> - -<p class="center bold in0 p3t p2b newpage"><span class="smcap large">Swords and Scabbards</span></p> - - -<p class="drop"><span class="uppercase">It</span> is the custom of grateful states -and nations to present swords -as tokens of highest honor to -the victorious leaders of their -armies and navies. The sword presented -to Admiral Schley by the people of Philadelphia, -at the close of America's war -with Spain, cost over $3,500, the greater -part of which was spent on the jewels -and decorations on the scabbard. A little -more than half a century ago, when General -Winfield Scott, for whom Admiral -Schley was named, received a beautiful -sword from the State of Louisiana, he -was asked how it pleased him.</p> - -<p>"It is a very fine sword, indeed," he -said, "but there is one thing about it I -would have preferred different. The inscription -should be on the blade, not on<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">62</a></span> -the scabbard. The scabbard may be taken -from us; the sword, never."</p> - -<p>The world spends too much time, -money and energy on the scabbard of -life; too little on the sword. The scabbard -represents outside show, vanity and display; -the sword, intrinsic worth. The -scabbard is ever the semblance; the sword -the reality. The scabbard is the temporal; -the sword is the eternal. The scabbard is -the body; the sword is the soul. The scabbard -typifies the material side of life; the -sword the true, the spiritual, the ideal.</p> - -<p>The man who does not dare follow his -own convictions, but who lives in terror -of what society will say, falling prostrate -before the golden calf of public opinion, -is living an empty life of mere show. He -is sacrificing his individuality, his divine -right to live his life in harmony with his -own high ideals, to a cowardly, toadying -fear of the world. He is not a voice, with -the strong note of individual purpose; he<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">63</a></span> -is but the thin echo of the voice of thousands. -He is not brightening, sharpening -and using the sword of his life in true -warfare; he is lazily ornamenting a useless -scabbard with the hieroglyphics of -his folly.</p> - -<p>The man who lives beyond his means, -who mortgages his future for his present, -who is generous before he is just, who is -sacrificing everything to keep up with -the procession of his superiors, is really -losing much of life. He, too, is decorating -the scabbard, and letting the sword rust in -its sheath.</p> - -<p>Life is not a competition with others. -In its truest sense it is rivalry with ourselves. -We should each day seek to break -the record of our yesterday. We should -seek each day to live stronger, better, truer -lives; each day to master some weakness -of yesterday; each day to repair past follies; -each day to surpass ourselves. And -this is but progress. And individual, conscious<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">64</a></span> -progress, progress unending and -unlimited, is the one great thing that differentiates -man from all the other animals. -Then we will care naught for the -pretty, useless decorations of society's approval -on the scabbard. For us it will be -enough to know that the blade of our -purpose is kept ever keen and sharp for -the defense of right and truth, never to -wrong the rights of others, but ever to -right the wrongs of ourselves and those -around us.</p> - -<p>Reputation is what the world thinks -a man is; character is what he really is. -Anyone can play shuttlecock with a man's -reputation; his character is his alone. No -one can injure his character but he himself. -Character is the sword; reputation -is the scabbard. Many men acquire insomnia -in standing guard over their reputation, -while their character gives them -no concern. Often they make new dents -in their character in their attempt to cut a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">65</a></span> -deep, deceptive filigree on the scabbard of -their reputation. Reputation is the shell -a man discards when he leaves life for -immortality. His character he takes with -him.</p> - -<p>The woman who spends thousands in -charitable donations, and is hard and uncharitable -in her judgments, sentimentally -sympathetic with human sin and -weakness in the abstract, while she arrogates -to herself omniscience in her harsh -condemnation of individual lapses, is -charitable only on the outside. She is letting -her tongue undo the good work of -her hand. She is too enthusiastic in decorating -the scabbard of publicity to think -of the sword of real love of humanity.</p> - -<p>He who carries avarice to the point -of becoming a miser, hoarding gold that -is made useless to him because it does not -fulfill its one function, circulation, and -regarding the necessities of life as luxuries, -is one of Nature's jests, that would<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">66</a></span> -be humorous were it not so serious. He -is the most difficult animal to classify in -the whole natural history of humanity—he -has so many of the virtues. He is a -striking example of ambition, economy, -frugality, persistence, will-power, self-denial, -loyalty to purpose and generosity -to his heirs. These noble qualities he -spoils in the application. His specialty is -the scabbard of life. He spends his days -in making a solid gold scabbard for the -tin sword of a wasted existence.</p> - -<p>The shoddy airs and ostentations, extravagance, -and prodigality of some who -have suddenly become rich, is goldplating -the scabbard without improving the -blade. The superficial veneer of refinement -really accentuates the native vulgarity. -The more you polish woodwork, the -more you reveal the grain. Some of the -sudden legatees of fortune have the wisdom -to acquire the reality of refinement -through careful training. This is the true<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">67</a></span> -method of putting the sword itself in order -instead of begemming the scabbard.</p> - -<p>The girl who marries merely for -money or for a title, is a feminine Esau -of the beginning of the century. She is -selling her birthright of love for the pottage -of an empty name, forfeiting the -possibility of a life of love, all that true -womanhood should hold most dear, for a -mere bag of gold or a crown. She is decorating -the scabbard with a crest and heraldic -designs, and with ornaments of pure -gold set with jewels. She feels that this -will be enough for life, and that she does -not need love,—real love, that has made -this world a paradise, despite all the other -people present. She does not realize that -there is but one real reason, but one justification -for marriage, and that is,—love; -all the other motives are not reasons, they -are only excuses. The phrase, "marrying -a man for his money," as the world bluntly -puts it, is incorrect—the woman merely<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">68</a></span> -marries the money, and takes the man -as an incumbrance or mortgage on the -property.</p> - -<p>The man who procrastinates, filling his -ears with the lovely song of "to-morrow," -is following the easiest and most restful -method of shortening the possibilities of -life. Procrastination is stifling action by -delay, it is killing decision by inactivity, -it is drifting on the river of time, instead -of rowing bravely toward a desired harbor. -It is watching the sands in the hour-glass -run down before beginning any new work, -then reversing the glass and repeating the -observation. The folly of man in thus delaying -is apparent, when any second his -life may stop, and the sands of that single -hour may run their course,—and he will -not be there to see.</p> - -<p>Delay is the narcotic that paralyzes energy. -When Alexander was asked how he -conquered the world, he said: "By not -delaying." Let us not put off till to-morrow<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">69</a></span> -the duty of to-day; that which our -mind tells us should be done to-day, our -mind and body should execute. To-day is -the sword we should hold and use; to-morrow -is but the scabbard from which -each new to-day is withdrawn.</p> - -<p>The man who wears an oppressive, -pompous air of dignity, because he has -accomplished some little work of importance, -because he is vested with a brief -mantle of authority, loses sight of the true -perspective of life. He is destitute of humor; -he takes himself seriously. It is a -thousand-dollar scabbard on a two-dollar -sword.</p> - -<p>The man who is guilty of envy is the -victim of the oldest vice in the history of -the world, the meanest and most despicable -of human traits. It began in the Garden of -Eden, when Satan envied Adam and Eve. -It caused the downfall of man and the first -murder—Cain's unbrotherly act to Abel. -Envy is a paradoxic vice. It cannot suffer<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">70</a></span> -bravely the prosperity of another, it has -mental dyspepsia because someone else is -feasting, it makes its owner's clothes turn -into rags at sight of another's velvet. -Envy is the malicious contemplation of -the beauty, honors, success, happiness, or -triumph of another. It is the mud that -inferiority throws at success. Envy is the -gangrene of unsatisfied ambition, it eats -away purpose and kills energy. It is egotism -gone to seed; it always finds the -secret of its non-success in something -outside itself.</p> - -<p>Envy is the scabbard, but emulation is -the sword. Emulation regards the success -of another as an object lesson; it seeks in -the triumph of another the why, the reason, -the inspiration of method. It seeks to -attain the same heights by the path it thus -discovers, not to hurl down from his eminence -him who points out the way of attainment. -Let us keep the sword of emulation -ever brightened and sharpened in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">71</a></span> -the battle of honest effort, not idly dulling -and rusting in the scabbard of envy.</p> - -<p>The supreme folly of the world, the -saddest depths to which the human mind -can sink, is atheism. He surely is to be -pitied who permits the illogical philosophy -of petty infidels, or his misinterpretations -of the revelations of science, to -cheat him of his God. He pins his faith -to some ingenious sophistry in the reasoning -of those whose books he has read -to sum up for him the whole problem, -and in hopeless egotism shuts his eyes to -the million proofs in nature and life, because -the full plans of Omnipotence are -not made clear to him.</p> - -<p>On the technicality of his failure to -understand some one point—perhaps it -is why sin, sorrow, suffering and injustice -exist in the world—he declares he will -not believe. He might as well disbelieve -in the sky above him because he cannot -see it all; discredit the air he breathes<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">72</a></span> -because it is invisible; doubt the reality -of the ocean because his feeble vision can -take in but a few miles of the great sea; -deny even life itself because he cannot see -it, and no anatomist has found the subtle -essence to hold it up to view on the end -of his scalpel.</p> - -<p>He dares to disbelieve in God despite -His countless manifestations, because he -is not taken into the full confidence of -the Creator and permitted to look over -and check off the ground-plans of the universe. -He sheathes the sword of belief in -the dingy scabbard of infidelity. He does -not see the proof of God in the daily miracle -of the rising and setting of the sun, -in the seasons, in the birds, in the flowers, -in the countless stars, moving in their -majestic regularity at the command of -eternal law, in the presence of love, justice, -truth in the hearts of men, in that -supreme confidence that is inborn in humanity, -making even the lowest savage<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">73</a></span> -worship the Infinite in some form. It is -the petty vanity of cheap reasoning that -makes man permit the misfit scabbard of -infidelity to hide from him the glory of -the sword of belief.</p> - -<p>The philosophy of swords and scabbards -is as true of nations as of individuals. -When France committed the great crime -of the nineteenth century, by condemning -Dreyfus to infamy and isolation, deafening -her ears to the cries of justice, and -seeking to cover her shame with greater -shame, she sheathed the sword of a nation's -honor in the scabbard of a nation's -crime. The breaking of the sword of -Dreyfus when he was cruelly degraded -before the army, typified the degradation -of the French nation in breaking -the sword of justice and preserving carefully -the empty scabbard with its ironic -inscription, "Vive la justice."</p> - -<p>The scabbard is ever useless in the hour -of emergency; <i>then</i> it is upon the sword<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">74</a></span> -itself that we must rely. Then the worthlessness -of show, sham, pretence, gilded -weakness is revealed to us. Then the trivialities -of life are seen in their true form. -The nothingness of everything but the -real, the tried, the true, is made luminant -in an instant. Then we know whether -our living has been one of true preparation, -of keeping the sword clean, pure, -sharp and ready, or one of mere idle, -meaningless, day-by-day markings of -folly on the empty scabbard of a wasted -life.</p> - - - - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">75–76</a></span></p> - -<div class="chapter"> -<h2>The Conquest of the Preventable</h2> -</div> - - - - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">77</a></span></p> - -<p class="center bold in0 p3t p2b newpage"><span class="smcap large">The Conquest of the<br /> -Preventable</span></p> - - -<p class="drop"><span class="uppercase">This</span> world would be a delightful -place to live in—if it were -not for the people. They really -cause all the trouble. Man's -worst enemy is always man. He began to -throw the responsibility of his transgressions -on some one else in the Garden of -Eden, and he has been doing so ever -since.</p> - -<p>The greater part of the pain, sorrow -and misery in life is purely a human invention, -yet man, with cowardly irreverence, -dares to throw the responsibility on -God. It comes through breaking laws, -laws natural, physical, civic, mental or -moral. These are laws which man knows, -but he disregards; he takes chances; he -thinks he can dodge results in some way. -But Nature says, "He who breaks, pays." -There are no dead-letter laws on the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">78</a></span> -divine statute-books of life. When a man -permits a torchlight procession to parade -through a powder magazine, it is not -courteous for him to refer to the subsequent -explosion as "one of the mysterious -workings of Providence."</p> - -<p>Nine tenths of the world's sorrow, misfortune -and unhappiness is preventable. -The daily newspapers are the great chroniclers -of the dominance of the unnecessary. -Paragraph after paragraph, column -after column, and page after page of the -dark story—accidents, disasters, crime, -scandal, human weakness and sin—might -be checked off with the word "preventable." -In each instance were our information -full enough, our analysis keen -enough, we could trace each back to its -cause, to the weakness or the wrong from -which it emanated. Sometimes it is carelessness, -inattention, neglect of duty, -avarice, anger, jealousy, dissipation, betrayal -of trust, selfishness, hypocrisy, revenge,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">79</a></span> -dishonesty,—any of a hundred -phases of the preventable.</p> - -<p>That which <i>can</i> be prevented, <i>should</i> -be prevented. It all rests with the individual. -The "preventable" exists in three -degrees: First, that which is due to the -individual solely and directly; second, -that which he suffers through the wrong-doing -of those around him, other individuals; -third, those instances wherein he -is the unnecessary victim of the wrongs -of society, the innocent legatee of the -folly of humanity—and society is but the -massing of thousands of individuals with -the heritage of manners, customs and laws -they have received from the past.</p> - -<p>We sometimes feel heart-sick and -weary in facing failure, when the fortune -that seemed almost in our fingers slips -away because of the envy, malice or -treachery of some one else. We bow under -the weight of a sorrow that makes all life -grow dark and the star of hope fade from<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">80</a></span> -our vision; or we meet some unnecessary -misfortune with a dumb, helpless despair. -"It is all wrong," we say, "it is cruel, it -is unjust. Why is it permitted?" And, in -the very intensity of our feeling, we half-unconsciously -repeat the words over and -over again, in monotonous iteration, as if -in some way the very repetition might -bring relief, might somehow soothe us. -Yet, in most instances, it could be prevented. -No suffering is caused in the world -by right. Whatever sorrow there is that -is preventable, comes from inharmony or -wrong of some kind.</p> - -<p>In the divine economy of the universe -most of the evil, pain and suffering are -unnecessary, even when overruled for -good, and perhaps, if our knowledge were -perfect, it would be seen that none is necessary, -that all is preventable. The fault is -mine, or yours, or the fault of the world. -It is always individual. The world itself -is but the cohesive united force of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">81</a></span> -thoughts, words and deeds of millions -who have lived or who are living, like -you and me. By individuals has the great -wrong that causes our preventable sorrow -been built up, by individuals must it be -weakened and transformed to right. And -in this, too, it is to a great degree our fault; -we care so little about rousing public sentiment, -of lashing it into activity unless it -concerns us individually.</p> - -<p>The old Greek fable of Atlas, the African -king, who supported the world on his -shoulders, has a modern application. The -<i>individual</i> is the Atlas upon whom the -fate of the world rests to-day. Let each -individual do his best,—and the result is -foreordained; it is but a matter of the unconquerable -massing of the units. Let -each individual bear his part as faithfully -as though all the responsibility rested on -him, yet as calmly, as gently and as unworried -as though all the responsibility -rested on others.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">82</a></span></p> - -<p>Most accidents are preventable—as at -Balaclava, "someone has blundered." One -of the great disasters of the nineteenth -century was the Johnstown flood, where -the bursting of a dam caused the loss of -more than six thousand lives. The flood -was not a mere accident, it was a crime. -A leaking dam, for more than a year -known to be unsafe, known to be unable -to withstand any increased pressure, stood -at the head of the valley. Below it lay a -chain of villages containing over forty-five -thousand persons in the direct line of the -flood. When the heavy rains came the -weakened dam gave way. Had there been -<i>one</i> individual, one member of the South -Fork Fishing Club brave enough to have -done merely his duty, <i>one</i> member with -the courage to so move his fellows and to -stir up public action to make the barrier -safe, over six thousand murders could -have been prevented.</p> - -<p>When a tired engineer, sleepy from<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">83</a></span> -overwork, can no longer cheat nature of -her needed rest, and, drowsing for a moment -in his cab, fails to see the red signal -light of danger, or to heed the exploding -of the warning torpedo, the wreck -that follows is not chargeable to the Almighty. -It is but an awful memorial of -a railroad corporation's struggle to save -two dollars. One ounce of prevention is -worth six pounds of coroner's inquest. -It is a crime to balance the safety and -sacredness of human life in the scales with -the petty saving that comes from transforming -a man into a mechanism and forgetting -he has either a soul or a body. -True, just and wise labor laws are part of -society's weapon for fighting the preventable.</p> - -<p>When a terrible fire makes a city desolate -and a nation mourn, the investigation -that follows usually shows that a little -human foresight could have prevented it, -or at least, lessened the horror of it all.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">84</a></span> -If chemicals or dynamite are stored in -any building in excess of what wise legislation -declares is safe, some one has been -cruelly careless. Perhaps it is some inspector -who has been disloyal to his trust, -by permitting bribes to chloroform his -sense of duty. If the lack of fire-escapes -adds its quota to the list of deaths, or if -the avarice of the owner has made his -building a fire-trap, public feeling becomes -intense, the newspapers are justly -loud in their protests, and in demands -that the guilty ones be punished. "If the -laws already on the statute books do not -cover the situation," we hear from day -to day, "new laws will be framed to make -a repetition of the tragedy impossible"; -we are promised all kinds of reforms; the -air seems filled with a spirit of regeneration; -the mercury of public indignation -rises to the point where "fever-heat" -seems a mild, inadequate term.</p> - -<p>Then, as the horror begins to fade in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">85</a></span> -the perspective of the past, men go -quietly back to their own personal cares -and duties, and the mighty wave of righteous -protest that threatened so much, dies -in gentle lapping on the shore. What has -been all men's concern seems soon to -concern no one. The tremendous energy -of the authorities seems like the gesture -of a drunken man, that starts from his -shoulder with a force that would almost -fell an ox but when it reaches the hand -it has expended itself, and the hand drops -listlessly in the air with hardly power -enough to disturb the serenity of a butterfly. -There is always a little progress, a -slight advance, and it is only the constant -accumulation of these steps that is giving -to the world greater dominion over -the preventable.</p> - -<p>Constant vigilance is the price of the -conquest of the preventable. We have no -right to admit any wrong or evil in the -world as necessary, until we have exhausted<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">86</a></span> -every precaution that human wisdom can -suggest to prevent it. When a man with a -pistol in his right hand, clumsily covered -with a suspicious-looking handkerchief, -moved along in a line of people, and presenting -his left hand to President McKinley, -pressed his weapon to the breast of the -Chief Executive of the American people, -some one of the secret service men, paid -by the nation to guard their ruler, should -have watched so zealously that the tragedy -would have been impossible. Two Presidents -had already been sacrificed, but -twenty years of immunity had brought a -dreamy sense of security that lessened the -vigilance. We should emulate the example -of the insurance companies who decline -certain risks that are "extra hazardous."</p> - -<p>Poverty has no necessary place in life. -It is a disease that results from the weakness, -sin, and selfishness of humanity. Nature -is boundless in her generosity; the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">87</a></span> -world produces sufficient to give food, -clothing, and comfort to every individual. -Poverty is preventable. Poverty may result -from the shiftlessness, idleness, intemperance, -improvidence, lack of purpose or -evil-doing of the individual himself.</p> - -<p>If the causes do not exist in the individual, -they may be found in the second class, -in the wrong-doing of those around him, -in the oppression of labor by capital, in -the grinding process by which corporations -seek to crush the individual. The individual -may be the victim of any of a -thousand phases of the wrong of others. -The poverty caused by the third class, the -weakness and injustice of human laws and -human institutions, is also preventable, but -to reach the cause requires time and united -heroic effort of all individuals.</p> - -<p>In the battle against poverty, those -writers who seek to inflame the poor -against the rich, to foment discontent between -labor and capital, do grievous wrong<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">88</a></span> -to both. What the world needs is to have -the two brought closer together in the -bonds of human brotherhood. The poor -should learn more of the cares, responsibilities, -unrecorded charities, and absorbing -worries of the rich; the rich should -learn more intimately the sorrows, privations, -struggles, and despair of poverty.</p> - -<p>The world is learning the great truth, -that the best way to prevent crime is to -study the sociologic conditions in which -it flourishes, to seek to give each man a -better chance of living his real life by removing, -if possible, the elements that make -wrong easy, and to him, almost necessary, -and by inspiring him to fight life's battle -bravely with all the help others can give -him. Science is coöperating with religion -in striving to conquer the evil at the root -instead of the evil manifest as crime in the -fruit of the branches. It is so much wiser -to prevent than to cure; to keep some one -from being burned is so much better than<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">89</a></span> -inventing new poultices for unnecessary -hurts.</p> - -<p>It is ever the little things that make up -the sum of human misery. All the wild -animals of the world combined do but trifling -damage, when compared with the -ravages of insect pests. The crimes of humanity, -the sins that make us start back -affrighted, do not cause as much sorrow -and unhappiness in life as the multitude of -little sins, of omission and commission, -that the individual, and millions like him, -must meet every day. They are not the -evil deeds that the law can reach or punish, -they are but the infinity of petty wrongs -for which man can never be tried until he -stands with bowed head before the bar of -justice of his own conscience.</p> - -<p>The bitter words of anger and reproach -that rise so easily to our lips and give us a -moment's fleeting satisfaction in thus venting -our feelings, may change the current -of the whole life of some one near to us.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">90</a></span> -The thoughtless speech, revealing our lack -of tact and sympathy, cannot be recalled -and made nothing by the plea, "I didn't -think." To sensitive souls this is no justification; -they feel that our hearts should be -so filled with the instinct of love that our -lips would need no tutor or guardian.</p> - -<p>Our unfulfilled duty may bring unhappiness -and misery to hundreds. The dressmaker's -bill that a rich woman may toss -lightly aside, as being an affair of no moment, -to be settled at her serene pleasure, -may bring sorrow, privation or even failure -to her debtor, and through her to a -long chain of others. The result, if seen in -all its stern reality, seems out of all proportion -to the cause. There are places in -the Alps, where great masses of snow are -so lightly poised that even the report of a -gun might start a vibration that would -dislodge an avalanche, and send it on its -death-mission into the valley.</p> - -<p>The individual who would live his life<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">91</a></span> -to the best that is within him must make -each moment one of influence for good. -He must set before him as one of his ideals, -to be progressively realized in each day of -his living: "If I cannot accomplish great -deeds in the world, I will do all the good -I can by the faithful performance of the -duties that come to my hand and being -ever ready for all opportunities. And I -will consecrate myself to the conquest of -the preventable."</p> - -<p>Let the individual say each day, as he -rises new-created to face a new life: "To-day -no one in the world shall suffer because -I live. I will be kind, considerate, careful -in thought and speech and act. I will seek -to discover the element that weakens me -as a power in the world, and that keeps me -from living up to the fullness of my possibility. -That weakness I will master to-day. -I will conquer it, at any cost."</p> - -<p>When any failure or sorrow comes to -the individual, he should be glad if he can<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">92</a></span> -prove to himself that it was his fault,—for -then he has the remedy in his own -hands. Lying, intrigue, jealousy are never -remedies that can <i>prevent</i> an evil. They -postpone it, merely to augment it. They -are merely deferring payment of a debt -which has to be met later,—with compound -interest. It is like trying to put out -a fire by pouring kerosene on the flames.</p> - -<p>Jealousy in the beginning is but a -thought,—in the end it may mean the -gallows. Selfishness often assumes seemingly -harmless guises, yet it is the foundation -of the world's unhappiness. Disloyalty -may seem to be a rare quality, but -society is saturated with it. Judas acquired -his reputation because of his proficiency -in it. Sympathy which should be the atmosphere -of every individual life is as rare -as human charity. The world is suffering -from an over-supply of unnecessary evils, -created by man. They should be made luxuries, -then man could dispense with them.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">93–94</a></span></p> - -<p>The world needs societies formed of -members pledged to the individual conquest -of preventable pain and sorrow. The -individual has no right that runs counter -to the right of any one else. There are no -solo parts in the eternal music of life. -Each must pour out his life in duo with -every other. Every moment must be one -of choice, of good or of evil. Which -will the individual choose? His life will -be his answer. Let him dedicate his life to -making the world around him brighter, -sweeter and better, and by his conquest of -preventable pain and sorrow he will day -by day get fuller revelation of the glory of -the possibilities of individual living, and -come nearer and nearer to the realization -of his ideals.</p> - - - - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">95–96</a></span></p> - -<div class="chapter"> -<h2>The Companionship of Tolerance</h2> -</div> - - - - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">97</a></span></p> - -<p class="center bold in0 p3t p2b newpage"><span class="smcap large">The Companionship of<br /> -Tolerance</span></p> - - -<p class="drop"><span class="uppercase">Intolerance</span> is part of the -unnecessary friction of life. It -is prejudice on the war-path. -Intolerance acknowledges only -one side of any question,—its own. It -is the assumption of a monopoly in thinking, -the attitude of the man who believes -he has a corner on wisdom and truth, in -some phase of life.</p> - -<p>Tolerance is a calm, generous respect -for the opinions of others, even of one's -enemies. It recognizes the right of every -man to think his own thoughts, to live -his own life, to be himself in all things, -so long as he does not run counter to -the rights of others. It means giving to -others the same freedom that we ourselves -crave. Tolerance is silent justice, -blended with sympathy. If he who is tolerant -desires to show to others the truth<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">98</a></span> -as he sees it, he seeks with gentleness and -deference to point out the way in which -he has found peace, and certainty, and -rest; he tries to raise them to the recognition -of higher ideals, as he has found -them inspiring; he endeavors in a spirit -of love and comradeship with humanity -to lead others rather than to drive them, -to persuade and convince rather than to -overawe and eclipse.</p> - -<p>Tolerance does not use the battering-ram -of argument or the club of sarcasm, -or the rapier of ridicule, in discussing the -weakness or wrongs of individuals. It may -lash or scourge the evil of an age, but it is -kind and tender with the individual; it -may flay the sin, but not the sinner. Tolerance -makes the individual regard truth as -higher than personal opinion; it teaches -him to live with the windows of his life -open towards the east to catch the first -rays of the sunlight of truth no matter -from whom it comes, and to realize that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">99</a></span> -the faith that he so harshly condemns may -have the truth he desires if he would only -look into it and test it before he repudiates -it so cavalierly.</p> - -<p>This world of ours is growing better, -more tolerant and liberal. The days when -difference in political opinions was solved -and cured by the axe and the block; when -a man's courage to stand by his religion -meant facing the horrors of the Inquisition -or the cruelty of the stake, when -daring to think their own thoughts on -questions of science brought noble men -to a pallet of straw and a dungeon cell,—these -days have, happily, passed away. Intolerance -and its twin brother, Ignorance, -weaken and die when the pure white light -of wisdom is thrown upon them. Knowledge -is the death-knell of intolerance—not -mere book-learning, nor education in -schools or colleges, nor accumulation of -mere statistics, nor shreds of information, -but the large sympathetic study of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">100</a></span> -lives, manners, customs, aims, thoughts, -struggles, progress, motives and ideals of -other ages, other nations, other individuals.</p> - -<p>Tolerance unites men in the closer -bonds of human brotherhood, brings them -together in unity and sympathy in essentials -and gives them greater liberality -and freedom in non-essentials. Napoleon -when First Consul said, "Let there be no -more Jacobins, nor Moderates, nor Royalists: -let all be Frenchmen." Sectionalism -and sectarianism always mean concentration -on the body of a part at the expense -of the soul of the whole. The religious -world to-day needs more Christ and less -sects in its gospel. When Christ lived on -earth Christianity was a unit; when he -died sects began.</p> - -<p>There are in America to-day, hundreds -of small towns, scattered over the face of -the land, that are over-supplied with -churches. In many of these towns, just<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">101</a></span> -emerging from the short dresses of village-hood, -there are a dozen or more weak -churches, struggling to keep their organization -alive. Between these churches -there is often only a slight difference in -creed, the tissue-paper wall of some technicality -of belief. Half-starved, dragging -out a mere existence, trying to fight a -large mortgage with a small congregation -and a small contribution box, there -is little spiritual fervor. By combination, -by coöperation, by tolerance, by the mutual -surrender of non-essentials and a -strong, vital concentration and unity on -the great fundamental realities of Christianity, -their spiritual health and possibilities -could be marvellously increased. -Three or four sturdy, live, growing -churches would then take the place of a -dozen strugglers. Why have a dozen weak -bridges across a stream, if greater good can -come from three or four stronger ones, -or even a single strongest bridge? The<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">102</a></span> -world needs a great religious trust which -will unite the churches into a single body -of faith, to precede and prepare the way -for the greater religious trust, predicted -in Holy Writ,—the millennium.</p> - -<p>We can ever be loyal to our own belief, -faithful to our own cause, without -condemning those who give their fidelity -in accord with their own conscience or -desires. The great reformers of the world, -men who are honestly and earnestly seeking -to solve the great social problems and -to provide means for meeting human sin -and wrong, agreeing perfectly in their -estimate of the gravity and awfulness of -the situation, often propose diametrically -opposite methods. They are regarding -the subject from different points of view, -and it would be intolerance for us, who -are looking on, to condemn the men on -either side merely because we cannot accept -their verdict as our own.</p> - -<p>On the great national questions brought<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">103</a></span> -before statesmen for their decision, men -equally able, equally sincere, just and unselfish, -differ in their remedies. One, as a -surgeon, suggests cutting away the offending -matter, the use of the knife,—this -typifies the sword, or war. Another, as a -doctor, urges medicine that will absorb -and cure,—this is the prescription of the -diplomat. The third suggests waiting for -developments, leaving the case with time -and nature,—this is the conservative. -But all three classes agree as to the evil -and the need of meeting it.</p> - -<p>The conflict of authorities on every -great question to be settled by human -judgment should make us tolerant of the -opinion of others, though we may be as -confident of the rightness of the judgment -we have formed as if it were foreordained -from the day of the creation. But if we -receive any new light that makes us see -clearer, let us change at once without that -foolish consistency of some natures that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">104</a></span> -continue to use last year's almanac as a -guide to this year's eclipses. Tolerance is -ever progressive.</p> - -<p>Intolerance believes it is born with the -peculiar talent for managing the affairs of -others, without any knowledge of the details, -better than the men themselves, who -are giving their life's thought to the vital -questions. Intolerance is the voice of the -Pharisee still crying through the ages and -proclaiming his infallibility.</p> - -<p>Let us not seek to fit the whole world -with shoes from our individual last. If we -think that all music ceased to be written -when Wagner laid down the pen, let us -not condemn those who find enjoyment -in light opera. Perhaps they may sometime -rise to our heights of artistic appreciation -and learn the proper parts to -applaud. If their lighter music satisfies -their souls, is our Wagner doing more for -us? It is not fair to take from a child its -rag doll in order to raise it to the appreciation<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">105</a></span> -of the Venus de Milo. The rag -doll is its Venus; it may require a long -series of increasingly better dolls to lead -it to realize the beauties of the marble -woman of Melos.</p> - -<p>Intolerance makes its great mistakes -in measuring the needs of others from -its own standpoint. Intolerance ignores -the personal equation in life. What would -be an excellent book for a man of forty -might be worse than useless for a boy of -thirteen. The line of activity in life that -we would choose as our highest dream of -bliss, as our Paradise, might, if forced on -another, be to him worse than the after-death -fate of the wicked, according to the -old-fashioned theologians. What would -be a very acceptable breakfast for a sparrow -would be a very poor meal for an -elephant.</p> - -<p>When we sit in solemn judgment of -the acts and characters of those around us -and condemn them with the easy nonchalance<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">106</a></span> -of our ignorance, yet with the -assumption of omniscience we reveal our -intolerance. Tolerance ever leads us to -recognize and respect the differences in -the natures of those who are near to us, to -make allowance for differences in training, -in opportunities, in ideals, in motives, -in tastes, in opinions, in temperaments -and in feelings. Intolerance seeks to live -other people's lives <i>for</i> them; sympathy -helps us to live their lives <i>with</i> them. We -must accept humanity with all its weakness, -sin and folly and seek to make the -best of it, just as humanity must accept -us. We learn this lesson as we grow older, -and, with the increase of our knowledge -of the world, we see how much happier -life would have been for us and for others -if we had been more tolerant, more -charitable, more generous.</p> - -<p>No one in the world is absolutely perfect; -if he were he would probably be -translated from earth to heaven, as was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">107</a></span> -Elijah of old, without waiting for the -sprouting of wings or the passport of -death. It is a hard lesson for youth to -learn, but we must realize, as the old college -professor said to his class of students, -bowed with the consciousness of their -wisdom: "No one of us is infallible, no, -not even the youngest." Let us accept -the little failings of those around us as we -accept facts in nature, and make the best -of them, as we accept the hard shells of -nuts, the skin of fruits, the shadow that -always accompanies light. These are not -absolute faults, they are often but individual -peculiarities. Intolerance sees the -mote in its neighbor's eye as larger than -the beam in its own.</p> - -<p>Instead of concentrating our thought -on the one weak spot in a character, let -us seek to find some good quality that offsets -it, just as a credit may more than cancel -a debt on a ledger account. Let us not -constantly speak of roses having thorns, let<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">108</a></span> -us be thankful that the thorns have roses. -In Nature there are both thorns and -prickles; thorns are organic, they have -their root deep in the fibre and the being -of the twig; prickles are superficial, they -are lightly held in the cuticle or covering -of the twig. There are thorns in character -that reveal an internal inharmony, that -can be controlled only from within; there -are also prickles, which are merely peculiarities -of temperament, that the eye of -tolerance may overlook and the finger of -charity can gently remove.</p> - -<p>The tenderness of tolerance will illuminate -and glorify the world,—as moonlight -makes all things beautiful,—if we -only permit it. Measuring a man by his -weakness alone is unjust. This little frailty -may be but a small mortgage on a large -estate, and it is narrow and petty to judge -by the mortgage on a character. Let us -consider the "equity," the excess of the -real value over the claim against it.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">109</a></span></p> - -<p>Unless we sympathetically seek to discover -the motive behind the act, to see -the circumstances that inspired a course -of living, the target at which a man is -aiming, our snap condemnations are but -arrogant and egotistic expressions of our -intolerance. All things must be studied -relatively instead of absolutely. The hour -hand on a clock does just as valuable work -as the minute hand, even though it is -shorter and seems to do only one-twelfth -as much.</p> - -<p>Intolerance in the home circle shows -itself in overdiscipline, in an atmosphere -of severity heavy with prohibitions. The -home becomes a place strewn with -"Please keep off the grass" signs. It -means the suppression of individuality, -the breaking of the wills of children, -instead of their development and direction. -It is the foolish attempt to mould -them from the outside, as a potter does -clay; the higher conception is the wise<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">110</a></span> -training that helps the child to help himself -in his own growth. Parents often -forget their own youth; they do not -sympathize with their children in their -need of pleasure, of dress, of companionship. -There should be a few absolutely -firm rules on essentials, the basic principles -of living, with the largest possible -leeway for the varying manifestations -of individuality in unimportant phases. -Confidence, sympathy, love and trust -would generate a spirit of tolerance and -sweetness that would work marvels. Intolerance -converts live, natural children -into prigs of counterfeit virtue and irritatingly -good automatons of obedience.</p> - -<p>Tolerance is a state of mutual concessions. -In the family life there should be -this constant reciprocity of independence, -this mutual forbearance. It is the instinctive -recognition of the sacredness of individuality, -the right of each to live his -own life as best he can. When we set ourselves<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">111</a></span> -up as dictators to tyrannize over the -thoughts, words and acts of others, we are -sacrificing the kingly power of influence -with which we may help others, for the -petty triumph of tyranny which repels -and loses them.</p> - -<p>Perhaps one reason why the sons of -great and good men so often go astray is -that the earnestness, strength and virtue of -the father, exacting strict obedience to the -letter of the law, kills the appreciation of -the spirit of it, breeding an intolerance -that forces submission under which the -fire of protest and rebellion is smouldering, -ready to burst into flame at the first -breath of freedom. Between brother and -sister, husband and wife, parent and child, -master and servant, the spirit of tolerance, -of "making allowances," transforms -a house of gloom and harshness -into a home of sweetness and love.</p> - -<p>In the sacred relation of parent to child -there always comes a time when the boy<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">112</a></span> -becomes a man, when she whom the -father still regards but as a little girl faces -the great problems of life as an individual. -The coming of years of discretion -brings a day when the parents must surrender -their powers of trusteeship, when -the individual enters upon his heritage -of freedom and responsibility. Parents -have still the right and privilege of counsel -and of helpful, loving insight their -children should respect. But in meeting -a great question, when the son or daughter -stands before a problem that means -happiness or misery for a lifetime, it -must be for him or for her to decide. -Coercion, bribery, undue influence, -threats of disinheritance, and the other -familiar weapons, are cruel, selfish, arrogant -and unjust. A child is a human being, -free to make his own life, not a slave. -There is a clearly marked dead-line that -it is intolerance to cross.</p> - -<p>Let us realize that tolerance is ever<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">113</a></span> -broadening; it develops sympathy, weakens -worry and inspires calmness. It is but -charity and optimism, it is Christianity as -a living eternal fact, not a mere theory. -Let us be tolerant of the weakness of -others, sternly intolerant of our own. Let -us seek to forgive and forget the faults of -others, losing sight, to a degree, of what -they are in the thought of what they may -become. Let us fill their souls with the inspiring -revelation of their possibilities in -the majestic evolution march of humanity. -Let us see, for ourselves and for them, -in the acorn of their present the towering -oak of their future.</p> - -<p>We should realize the right of every -human soul to work out its own destiny, -with our aid, our sympathy, our inspiration, -if we are thus privileged to help him -to live his life; but it is intolerance to try -to live it for him. He sits alone on the -throne of his individuality; he must reign -alone, and at the close of his rule must give<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">114</a></span> -his own account to the God of the ages -of the deeds of his kingship. Life is a dignified -privilege, a glorious prerogative of -every man, and it is arrogant intolerance -that touches the sacred ark with the hand -of unkind condemnation.</p> - - - - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">115–116</a></span></p> - -<div class="chapter"> -<h2>The Things that Come too Late</h2> -</div> - - - - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">117</a></span></p> - -<p class="center bold in0 p3t p2b newpage"><span class="smcap large">The Things that Come too<br /> -Late</span></p> - - -<p class="drop"><span class="uppercase">Time</span> seems a grim old humorist, -with a fondness for afterthoughts. -The things that come -too late are part of his sarcasm. -Each generation is engaged in correcting -the errors of its predecessors, and in supplying -new blunders for its own posterity -to set right. Each generation bequeaths -to its successor its wisdom and its folly, its -wealth of knowledge and its debts of error -and failure. The things that come too late -thus mean only the delayed payments on -old debts. They mean that the world is -growing wiser, and better, truer, nobler, -and more just. It is emerging from the -dark shadows of error into the sunshine of -truth and justice. They prove that Time is -weaving a beauteous fabric from the warp -and woof of humanity, made up of shreds -and tangles of error and truth.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">118</a></span></p> - -<p>The things that come too late are the -fuller wisdom, the deferred honors, the -truer conception of the work of pioneers, -the brave sturdy fighters who battled alone -for truth and were misunderstood and unrecognized. -It means the world's finer attitude -toward life. If looked at superficially, -the things that come too late make us feel -helpless, hopeless, pessimistic; if seen with -the eye of deeper wisdom, they reveal to -us the grand evolution march of humanity -toward higher things. It is Nature's proclamation -that, in the end, Right <i>must</i> triumph, -Truth <i>must</i> conquer, and Justice -<i>must</i> reign. For us, as individuals, it is a -warning and an inspiration,—a warning -against withholding love, charity, kindness, -sympathy, justice, and helpfulness, -till it is too late; an inspiration for us to -live ever at our best, ever up to the maximum -of effort, not worrying about results, -but serenely confident that they -<i>must</i> come.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">119</a></span></p> - -<p>It takes over thirty years for the light of -some of the stars to reach the earth, some -a hundred, some a thousand years. Those -stars do not become visible till their light -reaches and reacts on human vision. It -takes an almost equal time for the light of -some of the world's great geniuses to meet -real, seeing eyes. Then we see these men -as the brilliant stars in the world's gallery -of immortal great ones. This is why contemporary -reputation rarely indicates lasting -fame. We are constantly mistaking -fireflies of cleverness for stars of genius. -But Time brings all things right. The -fame, though, brings no joy, or encouragement, -or inspiration to him who has -passed beyond this world's lights and shadows; -it has the sadness of the honors that -come too late, a touch of the farcical mingled -with its pathos. Tardy recognition is -better than none at all, it is better, though -late, than never; but it is so much truer and -kinder and more valuable if never late.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">120</a></span> -We are so inclined to send our condemnation -and our snapshot criticisms by -express, and our careful, honest commendation -by slow freight.</p> - -<p>In October, 1635, Roger Williams, because -of his inspiring pleas for individual -liberty, was ordered by the General Court -of Massachusetts to leave the colony forever. -He went to Rhode Island, where he -lived for nearly fifty years. But the official -conscience grew a little restless, and a few -years ago, in April, 1899, Massachusetts -actually made atonement for its rash act. -The original papers, yellow, faded, and -crumbling, were taken from their pigeonhole -tomb, and "by an ordinary motion, -made, seconded, and adopted," the order -of banishment was solemnly "annulled -and repealed, and made of no effect whatever." -The ban, under which Roger Williams -had lain for over 260 years, was -lifted. And there is no reason now, according -to law, why Roger Williams cannot<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">121</a></span> -enter the State of Massachusetts and reside -therein. The action was to the credit and -honor of the State; it was right in its -spirit, and Roger being in the spirit for -more than two centuries, may have smiled -gently and understood. But the reparation -was really—over-delayed.</p> - -<p>The mistakes, the sin and folly of one -age may be partially atoned for by a succeeding -age, but the individual stands -alone. For what we do and for what we -leave undone, we alone are responsible. -If we permit the golden hours that might -be consecrated to higher things to trickle -like sand through our fingers, no one can -ever restore them to us.</p> - -<p>Human affection is fed by signs and -tokens of that affection. Merely having -kindly feelings is not enough, they should -be made manifest in action. The parched -earth is not refreshed by the mere fact of -water in the clouds, it is only when the -blessing of rain actually descends that it<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">122</a></span> -awakens to new life. We are so ready to -say "He knows how much I think of -him," and to assume that as a fitting substitute -for expression. We may know that -the sun is shining somewhere and still -shiver for lack of its glow and warmth. -Love should be constantly made evident -in little acts of thoughtfulness, words of -sweetness and appreciation, smiles and -handclasps of esteem. It should be shown -to be a loving reality instead of a memory -by patience, forbearance, courtesy, and -kindness.</p> - -<p>This theory of presumed confidence in -the persistence of affection is one of the -sad phases of married life. We should have -roses of love, ever-blooming, ever-breathing -perfume, instead of dried roses pressed -in the family Bible, merely for reference, -as a memorial of what was, instead of guarantee -of what is. Matrimony too often -shuts the door of life and leaves sentiment, -consideration and chivalry on the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">123</a></span> -outside. The feeling may possibly be still -alive, but it does not reveal itself rightly; -the rhymed poetry of loving has changed -to blank verse and later into dull prose. -As the boy said of his father: "He's a -Christian, but he's not working much at -it now." Love without manifestation does -not feed the heart any more than a locked -bread-box feeds the body; it does not illuminate -and brighten the round of daily -duties any more than an unlit lamp lightens -a room. There is often such a craving -in the heart of a husband or a wife for -expression in words of human love and -tenderness that they are welcomed no -matter from what source they may come. -If there were more courtships continued -after marriage, the work of the divorce -courts would be greatly lessened. This -realization is often one of the things that -come too late.</p> - -<p>There are more people in this world -hungering for kindness, sympathy, comradeship<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">124</a></span> -and love, than are hungering for -bread. We often refrain from giving a -hearty word of encouragement, praise or -congratulation to some one, even where -we recognize that our feelings are known, -for fear of making him conceited or overconfident. -Let us tear down these dykes -of reserve, these walls of petty repression, -and let in the flood of our feelings. There -have been few monuments reared to the -memory of those who have failed in life -because of overpraise. There is more -chiseled flattery on tombstones than was -ever heard in life by the dead those -stones now guard. Man does not ask for -flattery, he does not long for fulsome -praise, he wants the honest, ringing sound -of recognition of what he has done, fair -appreciation of what he is doing, and -sympathy with what he is striving to do.</p> - -<p>Why is it that death makes us suddenly -conscious of a hundred virtues in a man -who seemed commonplace and faulty in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">125</a></span> -life? Then we speak as though an angel -had been living in our town for years and -we had suddenly discovered him. If he -could only have heard these words while -living, if he could have discounted the -eulogies at, say even sixty per cent, they -would have been an inspiration to him -when weary, worn and worried by the -problems of living. But now the ears are -stilled to all earthly music, and even if -they could hear our praise, the words -would be but useless messengers of love -that came too late.</p> - -<p>It is right to speak well of the dead, to -remember their strength and to forget -their weakness, and to render to their -memory the expressions of honor, justice, -love and sorrow that fill our hearts. -But it is the living, ever the living that -need it most. The dead have passed beyond -the helpfulness; our wildest cries of -agony and regret bring no answering echo -from the silences of the unknown. Those<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">126</a></span> -who are facing the battle of life, still seeking -bravely to do and to be,—they need -our help, our companionship, our love, all -that is best in us. Better is the smallest -flower placed in our warm, living hands -than mountains of roses banked round our -casket.</p> - -<p>If we have failed in our expressions to -the dead, the deep sense of our sorrow and -the instinctive rush of feeling proclaim -the vacuum of duty we now seek too late -to fill. But there is one atonement that is -not too late. It is in making all humanity -legatees of the kindness and human love -that we regret has been unexpended, it is -in bringing brightness, courage and cheer -into the lives of those around us. Thus our -regret will be shown to be genuine, not a -mere temporary gush of emotionalism.</p> - -<p>It is during the formative period, the -time when a man is seeking to get a foothold, -that help counts for most, when even -the slightest aid is great. A few books lent<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">127</a></span> -to Andrew Carnegie when he was beginning -his career were to him an inspiration; -he has nobly repaid the loan, made -posterity his debtor a million-fold by his -beneficence in sprinkling libraries over -the whole country. Help the saplings, -the young growing trees of vigor,—the -mighty oaks have no need of your aid.</p> - -<p>The heartening words should come -when needed, not when they seem only -hypocritic protestations, or dextrous preparations -for future favors. Columbus, surrounded -by his mutinous crew, threatening -to kill him, alone amid the crowd, had -no one to stand by him. But he neared -land, and riches opened before them; then -they fell at his feet, proclaimed him almost -a god and said he truly was inspired from -Heaven. Success transfigured him—a -long line of pebbly beach and a few trees -made him divine. A little patience along -the way, a little closer companionship, a -little brotherly love in his hours of watching,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">128</a></span> -waiting, and hoping would have been -great balm to his soul.</p> - -<p>It is in childhood that pleasures count -most, when the slightest investment of -kindness brings largest returns. Let us -give the children sunlight, love, companionship, -sympathy with their little -troubles and worries that seem to them -so great, genuine interest in their growing -hopes, their vague, unproportioned -dreams and yearnings. Let us put ourselves -into their places, view the world -through their eyes so that we may gently -correct the errors of their perspective by -our greater wisdom. Such trifles will make -them genuinely happy, happier by far -than things a thousand times greater that -come too late.</p> - -<p>Procrastination is the father of a countless -family of things that come too late. -Procrastination means making an appointment -with opportunity to "call -again to-morrow." It kills self-control,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">129</a></span> -saps mental energy, makes man a creature -of circumstances instead of their creator. -There is one brand of procrastination -that is a virtue. It is never doing to-day -a wrong that can be put off till to-morrow, -never performing an act to-day that -may make to-morrow ashamed.</p> - -<p>There are little estrangements in life, -little misunderstandings that are passed -by in silence between friends, each too -closely armored with pride, and enamoured -with self to break. There is a time -when a few straightforward words would -set it all right, the clouds would break -and the sunshine of love burst forth again. -But each nurses a weak, petty sense of -dignity, the rift grows wider, they drift -apart, and each goes his lonely way, hungering -for the other. They may waken to -realization too late to piece the broken -strands of affection into a new life.</p> - -<p>The wisdom that comes too late in a -thousand phases of life usually has an<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">130</a></span> -irritating, depressing effect on the individual. -He should charge a large part -of it to the account of experience. If no -wisdom came too late there would be no -experience. It means, after all, only that -we are wiser to-day than we were yesterday, -that we see all things in truer relation, -that our pathway of life has been -illuminated.</p> - -<p>The world is prone to judge by results. -It is glad to be a stockholder in our success -and prosperity, but it too often -avoids the assessments of sympathy and -understanding. The man who pulls -against the stream may have but a stanch -two or three to help him. When the tide -turns and his craft swiftens its course and -he is carried along without effort, he finds -boats hurrying to him from all directions -as if he had suddenly woke up and found -himself in a regatta. The help then comes -too late; he does not need it. He himself -must then guard against the temptation<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">131</a></span> -of cynicism and coldness and selfishness. -Then he should realize and determine -that what he terms "the way of the -world" shall not be his "way." That he -will not be too late with his stimulus to -others who have struggled bravely as he -has done, but who being less strong may -drop the oars in despair for the lack of -the stimulus of even a friendly word of -heartening in a crisis.</p> - -<p>The old song of dreary philosophy -says: "The mill will never grind again -with the water that is past." Why should -the mill expect to use the same water -over and over? That water may now be -merrily turning mill-wheels further down -the valley, continuing without ceasing, its -good work. It is folly to think so much -of the water that is past. Think more of -the great stream that is ever flowing on. -Use that as best you can, and when it has -passed you will be glad that it came, and -be satisfied with its service.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">132</a></span></p> - -<p>Time is a mighty stream that comes -each day with unending flow. To think -of this water of past time with such regret -that it shuts our eyes to the mighty -river of the present is sheer folly. Let us -make the best we can of to-day in the -best preparation for to-morrow; then -even the things that come too late will be -new revelations of wisdom to use in the -present now before us, and in the future -we are forming.</p> - - - - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">133–134</a></span></p> - -<div class="chapter"> -<h2>The Way of the Reformer</h2> -</div> - - - - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">135</a></span></p> - -<p class="center bold in0 p3t p2b newpage"><span class="smcap large">The Way of the Reformer</span></p> - -<p class="drop"><span class="uppercase">The</span> reformers of the world are -its men of mighty purpose. -They are men with the courage -of individual conviction, men -who dare run counter to the criticism of -inferiors, men who voluntarily bear crosses -for what they accept as right, even without -the guarantee of a crown. They are -men who gladly go down into the depths -of silence, darkness and oblivion, but only -to emerge finally like divers, with pearls -in their hands.</p> - -<p>He who labors untiringly toward the -attainment of some noble aim, with eyes -fixed on the star of some mighty purpose, -as the Magi followed the star in the East, -is a reformer. He who is loyal to the inspiration -of some great religious thought, -and with strong hand leads weak trembling -steps of faith into the glory of certainty,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">136</a></span> -is a reformer. He who follows the -thin thread of some revelation of Nature -in any of the sciences, follows it in the -spirit of truth through a maze of doubt, -hope, experiment and questioning, till the -tiny guiding thread grows stronger and -firmer to his touch, leading him to some -wondrous illumination of Nature's law, -is a reformer.</p> - -<p>He who goes up alone into the mountains -of truth and, glowing with the radiance -of some mighty revelation, returns -to force the hurrying world to listen to his -story is a reformer. Whoever seeks to work -out for himself his destiny, the life-work -that all his nature tells him should be his, -bravely, calmly and with due consideration -of the rights of others and his duties -to them, is a reformer.</p> - -<p>These men who renounce the commonplace -and conventional for higher -things are reformers because they are striving -to bring about new conditions; they<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">137</a></span> -are consecrating their lives to ideals. They -are the brave aggressive vanguard of progress. -They are men who can stand a siege, -who can take long forced marches without -a murmur, who set their teeth and bow -their heads as they fight their way through -the smoke, who smile at the trials and privations -that dare to daunt them. They care -naught for the hardships and perils of the -fight, for they are ever inspired by the flag -of triumph that seems already waving on -the citadel of their hopes.</p> - -<p>If we are facing some great life ambition -let us see if our heroic plans are good, -high, noble and exalted enough for the -price we must pay for their attainment. -Let us seriously and honestly look into our -needs, our abilities, our resources, our responsibilities, -to assure ourselves that it is -no mere passing whim that is leading us. -Let us hear and consider all counsel, all -light that may be thrown on every side, -let us hear it as a judge on the bench listens<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">138</a></span> -to the evidence and then makes his -own decision. The choice of a life-work is -too sacred a responsibility to the individual -to be lightly decided for him by others -less thoroughly informed than himself. -When we have weighed in the balance the -mighty question and have made our decision, -let us act, let us concentrate our -lives upon that which we feel is supreme, -and, never forsaking a real duty, never be -diverted from the attainment of the highest -things, no matter what honest price we -may have to pay for their realization and -conquest.</p> - -<p>When Nature decides on any man as a -reformer she whispers to him his great -message, she places in his hand the staff of -courage, she wraps around him the robes -of patience and self-reliance and starts him -on his way. Then, in order that he may -have strength to live through it all, she -mercifully calls him back for a moment -and makes him—an optimist.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">139</a></span></p> - -<p>The way of the reformer is hard, very -hard. The world knows little of it, for it is -rare that the reformer reveals the scars of -conflict, the pangs of hope deferred, the -mighty waves of despair that wash over a -great purpose. Sometimes men of sincere -aim and unselfish high ambition, weary -and worn with the struggle, have permitted -the world to hear an uncontrolled sob -of hopelessness or a word of momentary -bitterness at the seeming emptiness of all -effort. But men of great purpose and noble -ideals must know that the path of the reformer -is loneliness. They must live from -within rather than in dependence on -sources of help from without. Their mission, -their exalted aim, their supreme object -in living, which focuses all their energy, -must be their source of strength and -inspiration. The reformer must ever light -the torch of his own inspiration. His own -hand must ever guard the sacred flame as he -moves steadily forward on his lonely way.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">140</a></span></p> - -<p>The reformer in morals, in education, -in religion, in sociology, in invention, in -philosophy, in any line of aspiration, is -ever a pioneer. His privilege is to blaze the -path for others, to mark at his peril a road -that others may follow in safety. He must -not expect that the way will be graded and -asphalted for him. He must realize that -he must face injustice, ingratitude, opposition, -misunderstanding, the cruel criticism -of contemporaries and often, hardest -of all, the wondering reproach of those -who love him best.</p> - -<p>He must not expect the tortoise to sympathize -with the flight of the eagle. A -great purpose is ever an isolation. Should a -soldier leading the forlorn hope complain -that the army is not abreast of him? The -glorious opportunity before him should so -inspire him, so absorb him, that he will care -naught for the army except to know that -if he lead as he should, and do that which -the crisis demands, the army <i>must</i> follow.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">141</a></span></p> - -<p>The reformer must realize without a -trace of bitterness that the busy world -cares little for his struggles, it cares only to -joy in his final triumph; it will share his -feasts but not his fasts. Christ was alone in -Gethsemane, but—at the sermon in the -wilderness, where food was provided, the -attendance was four thousand.</p> - -<p>The world is honest enough in its attitude. -It takes time for the world to realize, -to accept, and to assimilate a large -truth. Since the dawn of history, the great -conservative spirit of every age, that ballast -that keeps the world in poise, makes -the slow acceptance of great truths an essential -for its safety. It wisely requires -proof, clear, absolute, undeniable attestation, -before it fully accepts. Sometimes -the perfect enlightenment takes years, -sometimes generations. It is but the safeguard -of truth. Time is the supreme test, -the final court of appeals that winnows out -the chaff of false claims, pretended revelation,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">142</a></span> -empty boast, and idle dreams. Time -is the touchstone that finally reveals all -true gold. The process is slow, necessarily -so, and the fate of the world's geniuses -and reformers in the balance of their contemporary -criticism, should have a sweetness -of consolation rather than the bitterness -of cynicism. If the greatest leaders of -the world have had to wait for recognition, -should we, whose best work may be -but trifling in comparison with theirs, expect -instant sympathy, appreciation, and -coöperation, where we are merely growing -toward our own attainment?</p> - -<p>The world ever says to its leaders, by its -attitude if not in words, "If you would -lead us to higher realms of thought, to -purer ideals of life, and flash before us, like -the handwriting on the wall, all the possible -glories of development, <i>you</i> must pay -the price for it, not we." The world has a -law as clearly defined as the laws of Kepler: -"Contemporary credit for reform<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">143</a></span> -works in any line will be in inverse proportion -to the square root of their importance." -Give us a new fad and we will -prostrate ourselves in the dust; give us a -new philosophy, a marvelous revelation, a -higher conception of life and morality, -and we may pass you by, but posterity will -pay for it. Send your messages C.O.D. and -posterity will settle for them. You ask for -bread; posterity will give you a stone, called -a monument.</p> - -<p>There is nothing in this to discourage -the highest efforts of genius. Genius is -great because it is decades in advance of its -generation. To appreciate genius requires -comprehension and the same characteristics. -The public can fully appreciate only -what is a few steps in advance; it must grow -to the appreciation of great thought. The -genius or the reformer should accept this -as a necessary condition. It is the price he -must pay for being in advance of his generation, -just as front seats in the orchestra<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">144</a></span> -cost more than those in the back row of -the third gallery.</p> - -<p>The world is impartial in its methods. -It says ever, "you may suffer now, but -we will give you later fame." Posthumous -fame means that the individual -may shiver with cold, but his grandchildren -will get fur-lined ulsters; the -individual plants acorns, his posterity sells -the oaks. Posthumous fame or recognition -is a check made out to the individual, -but payable only to his heirs.</p> - -<p>There is nothing the world cries out -for so constantly as a new idea; there is -nothing the world fears so much. The -milestones of progress in the history of -the ages tell the story. Galileo was cast -into prison in his seventieth year and his -works were prohibited. He had committed -no crime, but he was in advance of -his generation. Harvey's discovery of the -circulation of the blood was not accepted -by the universities of the world till twenty-five<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">145</a></span> -years after its publication. Frœbel, -the gentle inspired lover of children, suffered -the trials and struggles of the reformer, -and his system of teaching was -abolished in Prussia because it was "calculated -to bring up our young people in -atheism." So it was with thousands of -others.</p> - -<p>The world says with a large airy sweep -of the hand, "the opposition to progress -is all in the past, the great reformer or -the great genius is recognized to-day." -No, in the past they tried to kill a great -truth by opposition; now we gently seek -to smother it by making it a fad.</p> - -<p>So it is written in the book of human -nature: The saviours of the world must -ever be martyrs. The death of Christ on -the cross for the people he had come to -save, typifies the temporary crucifixion -of public opinion that comes to all who -bring to the people the message of some -great truth, some clearer revelation of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">146</a></span> -the divine. Truth, right, and justice must -triumph. Let us never close the books of -a great work and say "it has failed."</p> - -<p>No matter how slight seem results, -how dark the outlook, the glorious consummation -of the past, the revelation of -the future, <i>must</i> come. And Christ lived -thirty years and he had twelve disciples, -one denied him, one doubted him, one -betrayed him, and the other nine were -very human. And in the supreme crisis of -His life "they <i>all</i> forsook him and fled," -but to-day—His followers are millions.</p> - -<p>Sweet indeed is human sympathy, the -warm hand-clasp of confidence and love -brings a rich inflow of new strength to -him who is struggling, and the knowledge -that someone dear to us sees with -love and comradeship our future through -our eyes, is a wondrous draught of new -life. If we have this, perhaps the loyalty -of two or three, what the world says or -thinks about us should count for little.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">147</a></span> -But if this be denied us, then must we -bravely walk our weary way alone, toward -the sunrise that must come.</p> - -<p>The little world around us that does not -understand us, does not appreciate our -ambition or sympathize with our efforts, -that seem to it futile, is not intentionally -cruel, calloused, bitter, blind, or heartless. -It is merely that busied with its own pursuits, -problems and pleasures, it does not -fully realize, does not see as we do.</p> - -<p>The world does not see our ideal as we -see it, does not feel the glow of inspiration -that makes our blood tingle, our eye -brighten, and our soul seem flooded with -a wondrous light. It sees naught but the -rough block of marble before us and the -great mass of chips and fragments of seemingly -fruitless effort at our feet, but it does -not see the angel of achievement slowly -emerging from its stone prison, from -nothingness into being, under the tireless -strokes of our chisel. It hears no faint<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">148</a></span> -rustle of wings that seem already real to -us nor the glory of the music of triumph -already ringing in our ears.</p> - -<p>There come dark, dreary days in all -great work, when effort seems useless, -when hope almost appears a delusion, -and confidence the mirage of folly. Sometimes -for days your sails flap idly against -the mast, with not a breath of wind to -move you on your way, and with a paralyzing -sense of helplessness you just have to -sit and wait and wait. Sometimes your -craft of hope is carried back by a tide that -seems to undo in moments your work of -months. But it may not be really so, you -maybe put into a new channel that brings -you nearer your haven than you dared -to hope. This is the hour that tests us, -that determines whether we are masters -or slaves of conditions. As in battle of -Marengo, it is the fight that is made when -all seems lost that really counts and wrests -victory from the hand of seeming defeat.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">149</a></span></p> - -<p>If you are seeking to accomplish any -great serious purpose that your mind and -your heart tell you is right, you must -have the spirit of the reformer. You must -have the courage to face trial, sorrow and -disappointment, to meet them squarely -and to move forward unscathed and undaunted. -In the sublimity of your perfect -faith in the outcome, you can make them -as powerless to harm you, as a dewdrop -falling on the Pyramids.</p> - -<p>Truth, with time as its ally, always -wins in the end. The knowledge of the -inappreciation, the coldness, and the indifference -of the world, should never -make you pessimistic. They should inspire -you with that large, broad optimism -that sees that all the opposition of the -world can never keep back the triumph -of truth, that your work is so great that -the petty jealousies, misrepresentations, -and hardships caused by those around you, -dwindle into nothingness. What cares the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">150</a></span> -messenger of the king for his trials and -sufferings if he knows that he has delivered -his message? Large movements, -great plans, always take time for development. -If you want great things, pay the -price like a man.</p> - -<p>Any one can plant radishes; it takes -courage to plant acorns and to wait for -the oaks. Learn to look not merely <i>at</i> -the clouds, but through them to the sun -shining behind them. When things look -darkest, grasp your weapon firmer and -fight harder. There is always more progress -than you can perceive, and it is -really only the outcome of the battle that -counts.</p> - -<p>And when it is all over and the victory -is yours, and the smoke clears away -and the smell of the powder is dissipated, -and you bury the friendships that died -because they could not stand the strain, -and you nurse back the wounded and -flint-hearted who loyally stood by you,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">151</a></span> -even when doubting, then the hard years -of fighting will seem but a dream. You -will stand brave, heartened, strengthened -by the struggle, re-created to a new, better -and stronger life by a noble battle, nobly -waged, in a noble cause. And the price -will then seem to you—nothing.</p> - - - -<div class="chapter"> -<div class="transnote"> -<h2 class="nobreak p1">Transcriber's Note</h2> - -<p>Obvious typographical errors have been silently corrected. Variations -in hyphenation have been standardised but all other spelling and -punctuation remains unchanged.</p> -</div> -</div> - - - - - - - - -<pre> - - - - - -End of Project Gutenberg's The Power of Truth, by William George Jordan - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE POWER OF TRUTH *** - -***** This file should be named 56020-h.htm or 56020-h.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/5/6/0/2/56020/ - -Produced by Larry B. 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