The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1870-05-19
A COMMON GRIEVANCE.

\ GROSS INJUSTICE INVOLVED IN BEING BORN.
Among all the grievances that are be-
ing attacked on every side, with more or
less success, | do not remember to have
seen any place given to one which, for its
importance and universal pressure, most
certainly deserves attention. l mean the
grievances involved in the conditions
under which we were born.
just consider the case. You are never
consulted about the matter, or never in
formed of it at all, but it is arranged
behind your back. and one fine morning
you suddenly find yourself pitchforked
into the world, whether you will 60 or
no, while, by refinement of irony, the
event is as often as not made subject
Of rejoicing. Can anything be more un-
fair 1t would be all very we'll if the
world was decent place TO live in, but
we know, from the universal testimony of
moraliss and philosophers, let alone our
own experience, that it is nothing of the
kind and it is certain that anybody with
an average amount of common sense,
would at least think twice before being
willingly brought into it, while 1t is more
than probable that many would, il they
conld, ,unhesItaiingly, refuse to be subjected
to such a trial. Suppose that hundred
years ago the case had been put before
one thus There Is 6 place called the
earth, vale of tears, the only real and
alpable products Of which are wickedness
aud disappointment, unrelieved except by
IL. a -
isfactory character. 1t you go to This
place you will be received, not With kind
ness, but with GOODNESS at the best, prob
ably with cruelty, aud your whole exist
ence will be passed in a state of warfare
with the rest Of the inhabitants. VIII
you then be born 90 Had this question
been put to me, | should most unhesita-
tingly have replied in the negative, and
the longer live the more clearly see
how unfair it is that | should not have
had the option given me of doing so.
1t may be said, however, that 1t is
necessary thai the world should be peo-
pied. Without at all admitting that to
be necessity, must say that even if it
be such, even if 1t be requi site tha: we
sould be born somehow and somewhere
in order to make up the opulation, then,
at all events, the least that could have
been done tor US would have been to allow
us a choice of circumstances. For not
only are we born against orr inclination,
but we are not allowed 70 choose our own
fathers and mothers, nor our age or coun-
try. The result is that the great majoriy
Of people get born at the wrong time, iii
tie wrong place and Of the wrong parents,
and these original mistakes make success
full life simple impossibiity. And yet
by another piece of irony we are all OF
US expected to celebrate the time, TO love
the place, and 10 honor and obey the
parents which have thus been imposed
upon US, and to prefer them TO all those
others which would have been so much
more appropriate.
Surely it is no light grievance this but
what makes it all heavier is that il i,
not in modern times held allowable &c
shake off conditions which have been thu;
compulsorily imposed. Above all things,
said Epictetus, remember that the door
is open and this, no doubt, SO long a:
it was admitted, was good answer tc
those who might complain. But the dool
is now declared to be shut, and those who
would pass out of it are confronted, no
only by the reprobation which the Chris
tian religion has attached 10 such pas.
sage, but by the terrors of actual fine and
Imprisonment. Thus, then, we are
bounded by an iron circle. Brought into
our spheres compulsorily, and maintained
therein arbitrarily, there is no escape
and yet, with ALI this, we are held to bt
liable TO blame if we fail to fill crednabl,
a situation which we have not chosen
from which we cannot escape, and which
in most cases, is the case of all others 70
which we are least suited. Fanny Fau