Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1879-12-28
ssIs Life Worth Liying!"

1d1' col Olo OuCC dSNou AI. UIcCltJ,
in response to a similar question PUT to
him by the great editor: "How do you
know, Mr.. Greeley, when you have sue.
ceeded in a public address?" Mr..
Greeley, not averse to the preparation
Of a joke at his own expense, replied:
when more stay in than go out" Mr..
Mallock's famous question, answered
by himself in weak way, and repeated
by Prof. Miyart, and answered in
stronger way, is practically voted on
every day, by the entire human race,
stay in than go out" for reasons very
much less important than those con-
sidered by Mr.. Mallock and Prof.
Mivart. There are great multitudes of
men who possess neither the Roman
Catholic faith nor rightness OF life nor
love, who yet live out their lives in the
firm conviction that it pays them to
ive-men who are open to no high con-
siderations, such as would have weight
with the MallOcks and Nivarts.
There is a great pleasure in conscious
being. So universal is this that, when
Il man occasionally takes his life, it is
considered by those whom he leaves
behind him as presumptiye proof that
he is insane. We say of man who de-
signedly ends his life that he is not in
his right mind. One of the most pa
thetic things about death is the bidding
good-by to body that has been the
nursery and home of the spirit which it
has charmed through the ministry of so
many senses.
For who to dumb forectfulness prey,
This pleasing, anxious being eer resigned,
Left the precincts of the cheerful day,
Nor cast one longing, lingering look behind?
Men find their pay for living in vari-
GUS ways. Hope may lie to them, but
they always believe her, nevertheless.
The better things to come, of which
substance OF the things desired; that
is, expectation is constant JOY and in
SEPARATION. The pay for this days trou-
bic and toll is in the reward which is
expected tomorrow. That reward may
never come, but the hope remains; and
SO long as that lives it pays to live. It
pays some men to live that they may
make money and command the power
that money brings. To what enormous
tolls and sacrifices the love and pursuit
OF money urge great multitude of
men! The Judgment of these men as
to whether life is worth living is not to
be taken at life's close, when they sum
up their possessions and what they have
cost, but while they are living and act
ing. a man whose life is exhausted
may well conclude that what he has
won is vanity; but it was not vanity to
him while he was winning it.; and, in
the full possession of his powers, he be-
lieyed that life was worth living.
Life is quite worth living to all those
who find engaging objects Of pursuit,
and especially to those who win success
III their pursuits. We repeat. therefore,
chat, by almost unanimous vote, the
human race practically decides every
day that life is worth living. Mr.. NAL
lock thinks it is worth living provided
man has faith in a great church; and
Prof. Mivart--a Catholic himself thinks
LIES highest values are in the doing of
duty and in love. We should be tho
last to claim that happiness is the high
est aim of life, and that, unless that
is secured, life is failure, and not
worth living. TO do right, to sacrifice
ones self Tor love-these are better
things than pleasure. To love and to be
loved-t these are things that pay. To
be conscious of nobility of character
and unselishness of life; to be con-
scious that our lives are brought into af-
fectionate relations with other and har-
monious life-what are these but life's
highest values? What are these but
the highest satisfactions of conscious
being?
If this be true-that character, and
duty, and love are better than pleasure
and better than any success without
them-then there is no human being
who needs to say that life is not worth
living. But the people who do not sue
coed, who are unloved, who live lives of
pain, and want, and weakness is
there for thesep A chance for con-
scious nobility of character and life;
and, il this be not enough, as it rarely
is, O. faith, not in great church, but III
a good God, and an Immortality that
will right the wrongs and heal the
evils of the present life, and round into
completeness and symmetry it's imper-
fections and deformities. Is it not
foolish, after all, to raise the question
OF success or failure in treating life
that is only germinal or macdonald
d. &. Holland, IN ScTi6ner.