diff options
Diffstat (limited to 'old/56020-h/56020-h.htm')
| -rw-r--r-- | old/56020-h/56020-h.htm | 4140 |
1 files changed, 0 insertions, 4140 deletions
diff --git a/old/56020-h/56020-h.htm b/old/56020-h/56020-h.htm deleted file mode 100644 index 14f9252..0000000 --- a/old/56020-h/56020-h.htm +++ /dev/null @@ -1,4140 +0,0 @@ -<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" - "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> -<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en"> -<head> -<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8" /> -<title>The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Power of Truth: Individual Problems and Possibilities, by William George Jordan</title> - <link rel="coverpage" href="images/cover.jpg" /> - <style type="text/css"> - - -body { - margin-left: 10%; - margin-right: 10%; -} - -h1, h2 { - text-align: center; - clear: both; - margin-top: 1em; - margin-bottom: 1em; -} - -h1 {line-height: 1;} - -.half-title { - text-align: center; - font-size: large; -} - -p { - text-indent: 1.75em; - margin-top: .51em; - margin-bottom: .24em; - text-align: justify; -} - -.p2b {margin-bottom: 2em;} -.p3t {margin-top: 3em;} - -.p1 {margin-top: 1em;} - -.vspace {line-height: 1.5;} - -.in0 {text-indent: 0;} - -.small {font-size: 80%;} -.large {font-size: 125%;} -.xlarge {font-size: 150%;} - -.center {text-align: center;} - -.smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} - -.bold {font-weight: bold;} - -.pagenum { - position: absolute; - right: 4%; - font-size: smaller; - text-align: right; - padding: .2% .1%; - color: #acacac; - background: #ffffff; -} - - -/* Simple Drop-caps */ -.drop:first-letter { - float: left; - font-size: 300%; - line-height: 70%; - padding: 2px 8px 0 6px; -} - -.uppercase {text-transform: uppercase;} - -p.drop { text-indent: -6px;} - - -/* Breaks */ -hr { - width: 45%; - margin-top: 4em; - margin-bottom: 4em; - margin-left: 27.5%; - margin-right: 27.5%; - clear: both; -} - - -/* Table */ -table { - margin-left: auto; - margin-right: auto; - min-width: 35%; - max-width: 80%; - border-collapse: collapse; -} - -.tdl { - text-align: left; - vertical-align: top; - padding-right: 1em; - padding-left: 1.5em; - text-indent: -1.5em; - padding-bottom: .75em; -} - -.tdr { - text-align: right; - vertical-align: top; - padding-right: 1em; - padding-left: 1.5em; - text-indent: -1.5em; - padding-bottom: .75em; -} - - -/* Image */ -img { - padding: 0 0 0 0; - max-width: 100%; - height: auto; -} - -.figcenter { - margin: auto; - text-align: center; - margin-bottom: 1em; - margin-top: 2em; -} - - -/* Transcriber Note */ -.transnote { - background-color: #EEE; - border: thin dotted; - font-family: sans-serif, serif; - color: #000; - margin-left: 5%; - margin-right: 5%; - margin-top: 4em; - margin-bottom: 2em; - padding: 1em; -} - - - -@media screen - -{ - .half-title - { - margin: 6em 0; - } -} - - - -@media print, handheld - -{ - .half-title - { - page-break-before: always; - page-break-after: always; - margin: 0; - padding-top: 6em; - } - - h1, h2, .chapter, .newpage {page-break-before: always;} - - h2.nobreak, .nobreak {page-break-before: avoid;} - - p { - margin-top: .5em; - text-align: justify; - margin-bottom: .25em; - } - - table { - width: 100%; - max-width: 100%; - } - - .tdl { - padding-left: 1em; - text-indent: -1em; - padding-right: 0; - } - - .pagenum { - display: none; - page-break-before: avoid; - } - -} - - - -@media handheld - -{ - - body {margin: 0;} - - p.drop:first-letter { - float: left; - clear: left; - } - - .hideepub {visibility: hidden;} - -} - - </style> - -</head> - -<body> - - -<pre> - -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.) - - - - - - -</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. 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.) - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed. - -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United -States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. Special rules, set forth in the General Terms of Use part -of this license, apply to copying and distributing Project -Gutenberg-tm electronic works to protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm -concept and trademark. Project Gutenberg is a registered trademark, -and may not be used if you charge for the eBooks, unless you receive -specific permission. If you do not charge anything for copies of this -eBook, complying with the rules is very easy. You may use this eBook -for nearly any purpose such as creation of derivative works, reports, -performances and research. They may be modified and printed and given -away--you may do practically ANYTHING in the United States with eBooks -not protected by U.S. copyright law. Redistribution is subject to the -trademark license, especially commercial redistribution. - -START: FULL LICENSE - -THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE -PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK - -To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free -distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work -(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project -Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full -Project Gutenberg-tm License available with this file or online at -www.gutenberg.org/license. - -Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project -Gutenberg-tm electronic works - -1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm -electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to -and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property -(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all -the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or -destroy all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your -possession. If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a -Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound -by the terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the -person or entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph -1.E.8. - -1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be -used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who -agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few -things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works -even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See -paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project -Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this -agreement and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm -electronic works. See paragraph 1.E below. - -1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the -Foundation" or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection -of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual -works in the collection are in the public domain in the United -States. If an individual work is unprotected by copyright law in the -United States and you are located in the United States, we do not -claim a right to prevent you from copying, distributing, performing, -displaying or creating derivative works based on the work as long as -all references to Project Gutenberg are removed. Of course, we hope -that you will support the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting -free access to electronic works by freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm -works in compliance with the terms of this agreement for keeping the -Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with the work. You can easily -comply with the terms of this agreement by keeping this work in the -same format with its attached full Project Gutenberg-tm License when -you share it without charge with others. - -1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern -what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are -in a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, -check the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this -agreement before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, -distributing or creating derivative works based on this work or any -other Project Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no -representations concerning the copyright status of any work in any -country outside the United States. - -1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: - -1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other -immediate access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear -prominently whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work -on which the phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the -phrase "Project Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, -performed, viewed, copied or distributed: - - 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. - -1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is -derived from texts not protected by U.S. copyright law (does not -contain a notice indicating that it is posted with permission of the -copyright holder), the work can be copied and distributed to anyone in -the United States without paying any fees or charges. If you are -redistributing or providing access to a work with the phrase "Project -Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the work, you must comply -either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 or -obtain permission for the use of the work and the Project Gutenberg-tm -trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. - -1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted -with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution -must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any -additional terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms -will be linked to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works -posted with the permission of the copyright holder found at the -beginning of this work. - -1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm -License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this -work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. - -1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this -electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without -prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with -active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project -Gutenberg-tm License. - -1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, -compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including -any word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access -to or distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format -other than "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official -version posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site -(www.gutenberg.org), you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense -to the user, provide a copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means -of obtaining a copy upon request, of the work in its original "Plain -Vanilla ASCII" or other form. Any alternate format must include the -full Project Gutenberg-tm License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. - -1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, -performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works -unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. - -1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing -access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works -provided that - -* You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from - the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method - you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is owed - to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he has - agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the Project - Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments must be paid - within 60 days following each date on which you prepare (or are - legally required to prepare) your periodic tax returns. Royalty - payments should be clearly marked as such and sent to the Project - Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the address specified in - Section 4, "Information about donations to the Project Gutenberg - Literary Archive Foundation." - -* You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies - you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he - does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm - License. You must require such a user to return or destroy all - copies of the works possessed in a physical medium and discontinue - all use of and all access to other copies of Project Gutenberg-tm - works. - -* You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of - any money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the - electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days of - receipt of the work. - -* You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free - distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. - -1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project -Gutenberg-tm electronic work or group of works on different terms than -are set forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing -from both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and The -Project Gutenberg Trademark LLC, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm -trademark. Contact the Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. - -1.F. - -1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable -effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread -works not protected by U.S. copyright law in creating the Project -Gutenberg-tm collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm -electronic works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may -contain "Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate -or corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other -intellectual property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or -other medium, a computer virus, or computer codes that damage or -cannot be read by your equipment. - -1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right -of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project -Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project -Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project -Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all -liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal -fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT -LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE -PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE -TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE -LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR -INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH -DAMAGE. - -1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a -defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can -receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a -written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you -received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium -with your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you -with the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in -lieu of a refund. If you received the work electronically, the person -or entity providing it to you may choose to give you a second -opportunity to receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If -the second copy is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing -without further opportunities to fix the problem. - -1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth -in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS', WITH NO -OTHER WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT -LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. - -1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied -warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of -damages. If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement -violates the law of the state applicable to this agreement, the -agreement shall be interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or -limitation permitted by the applicable state law. The invalidity or -unenforceability of any provision of this agreement shall not void the -remaining provisions. - -1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the -trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone -providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in -accordance with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the -production, promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm -electronic works, harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, -including legal fees, that arise directly or indirectly from any of -the following which you do or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this -or any Project Gutenberg-tm work, (b) alteration, modification, or -additions or deletions to any Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any -Defect you cause. - -Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm - -Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of -electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of -computers including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It -exists because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations -from people in all walks of life. - -Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the -assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's -goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will -remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project -Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure -and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future -generations. To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary -Archive Foundation and how your efforts and donations can help, see -Sections 3 and 4 and the Foundation information page at -www.gutenberg.org - - - -Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation - -The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit -501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the -state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal -Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification -number is 64-6221541. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg Literary -Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent permitted by -U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. - -The Foundation's principal office is in Fairbanks, Alaska, with the -mailing address: PO Box 750175, Fairbanks, AK 99775, but its -volunteers and employees are scattered throughout numerous -locations. Its business office is located at 809 North 1500 West, Salt -Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887. Email contact links and up to -date contact information can be found at the Foundation's web site and -official page at www.gutenberg.org/contact - -For additional contact information: - - Dr. Gregory B. Newby - Chief Executive and Director - gbnewby@pglaf.org - -Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg -Literary Archive Foundation - -Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide -spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of -increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be -freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest -array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations -($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt -status with the IRS. - -The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating -charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United -States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a -considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up -with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations -where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To SEND -DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any particular -state visit www.gutenberg.org/donate - -While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we -have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition -against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who -approach us with offers to donate. - -International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make -any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from -outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. - -Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation -methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other -ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations. To -donate, please visit: www.gutenberg.org/donate - -Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works. - -Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project -Gutenberg-tm concept of a library of electronic works that could be -freely shared with anyone. For forty years, he produced and -distributed Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of -volunteer support. - -Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed -editions, all of which are confirmed as not protected by copyright in -the U.S. unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not -necessarily keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper -edition. - -Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search -facility: www.gutenberg.org - -This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, -including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary -Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to -subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. - - - -</pre> - -</body> -</html> |