Little Falls transcript. [volume] (Little Falls, Morrison County, Minn.) 1876-1894, 1880-01-02
SIS Life Worth Liying2,,

MI. Curtis once asked Mr.. Greeley,
in response to similar question Put to
him by the great editor: How do you
know, MIR. Greeley, when you have sue.
ceeded in public address?" Mr..
Greeley, not averse to the preparation
OF Joke at his own expense, replied:
When more stay in than 60 out" Mr..
Mallock's famous question, answered
by himself in weak way, and repeated
by Prof. Mivart, and answered in a
stronger way, f. practically voted on
every day, by the entire human race,
and decided in the affirmative. "More
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
liye-men who are open to no high con-
siderations, such as would have weight
with the Mallocks and Mivarts.
There is a great pleasure in conscious
being. So universal is this that, when
a man occasionally takes his life, it is
considered by those whom he leaves
behind him as presumptive 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 q 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 forgetfulness prey,
F. Ihis pleasing, anxious being e'er resigned, =.
/ Left the warm precincts of the cheerful day, :
Nor cast one longing, lingering look behindy
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
she tells all men, become, indeed, the
substance of the things desired; that
is, expectation is a constant JOY and in
SEPARATION. The pay for this days trou-
|; bic and ,tpil 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 q great multitude of
menl The Judgment of these men as
to whether life is worth living is not to
be taken at LIES 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-
lieved 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
in their pursuits. We repeat, therefore,
that, by almost unanimous vote, the
human race practically decides every
day that life is worth living. MIR: Nal
lock thinks it is worth living provided 6
man has faith in great church; and
Prof Mivart--a Catholic himself thinks
LIES highest values are in the doing Of
duty and in love. We should be the
last to claim that happiness is the high
est aim Of life, and that, unless that
is secured, life is a failure, and MOI
worth living. To do right, to sacrifice
ones self for love-these are better
things than pleasure. To love and to be
loved-these are things that pay. Tt
be conscious of nobility of characte,
and unselfshness of life; to be con
scious that our lives are brought into af
fectionate relations with other and har
monious ife-what are these but life1
highest values? What are these bu
the highest satisfactions of consciou
being?
If this be true-that character, ant
duty, and love are better than pleasur,
and better, than any success withou
them-then there is no human bein,
who needs to say that life is not WORT
living. But the people who do not sue
coed, who are unloved, who live lives O
pain, and want, and weakness i
there for these' A chance for con
scious nobility of character and life
and, if this be not enough, as it rarel,
| is, o faith, not in a great church, but, il
good God, and an immortality tina
will right the wrongs and heal tn
evils Of the present life, and round int
completeness and symmetry it's impe1
fections and deformities. Is it no
foolish, after all, to raise the questio
Of success or failure in treating if
that is only germinal or fractional?-
j. G. Holland, IN Seribsaer.