Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1881-07-16
lanraster fntelhgenrer.
SATURDAY EVENING, JULY 10. 1881.
The Other Side.

SATURDAY EVENING. JULY 10, 1881.
The Other Side.
Human nature being substantially the
same everywhere, it is doubtful whether
there is any people under the sun VINO
have not in their literature or their le-
gends something akin to that fable In
which it is represented that once upon
time two knights engaged in mortal
Combat over a FURNISHED shield, as to
whether it was of silver or gold, and
only when they lay prOstrate did they
learn that it was silver on the one side
and golden on the other, the view which
it presented differing with the stand
point of observation. The story has
been told so often and in so many differ
ent ways that mankind, it would seem,
might halt at every shield set up in its
way and cautiously examine both sides
before positive opinion was adopted or
expressed. But it is doubtful if the race
has learned much since its primal glory
and its fall. Eve is as weak to flat.
tery now as when the serpent's voice be-
guiled her. Adam is as cOWardly as
when he tlinched before the voice that
called him to divine accountability and
tried to transfer his shame to the woman
God gave him.
There are, popularity speaking, two
sides to everything. The dual tendency
n,,nruv-horn Tho fWn
forces in the moral world, radical and
conservative. have been active since the
world began, like the centre seeking and
centre fleeing powers in physical nat ure.
The moon, albeit she never shows us
but one face has another, darkling
though it goes through space. Even a
bad penny las head and tail an
empty jug has an inside and an outside.
The worst of men are suspected of some
good traits, the best are blamed for some
bad ones.
Whether conscience be a matter of
culture or of moral endowment, by some
such standard man pronounces judg-
ment on his own-and more frequently
on other peoples deeds and thoughts.
With the judgment that he passes upon
himself the world knows little. Confess
sion is mostly Il matter of the closet. 1t
is occasionally that man tells himself
he is wrong but it is only semi-occasion-
ally that Others find it out in that way.
That he with more frequency finds others
fal1 than, CO 10 ctnfn ,ov,f
that will pass without being weighed.
In his judgment of others it would be
well for every ore to ask himself
"HOw often would you see it
just Us he sees it if you occupied
the same standpoint ?" How, often
would you think rs he thinks, feel as
he feels, do rs he does, were you born
with his brthright, imbued with his
prejudices, environed with his associa-
tiOns, moving toward the interests which
lure him on" To every member of So
ciety, Christian and patriot, seeking to
know his duty to his fellow-man, his
country and his God, the question comes
home with serious import, no less than to
nations and every school of thought, for
of all the responsibilities imposed on
weak man none seems more difficult to
discharge and more easy to ignore than
to put yourself in his place. The heaven,
born authority Of the Golden Rule and
the inspiration which guided Paul's ut
terance in behalf Of that Charity which
"beareth all things, believeth all things,
hopeth lll things, endureth all things"
are vindicated in every age and breathe
through every shifting phase of human
life. Truth lies between extremes. The
vessel steers safely in the middle course.
He who would not run afoul Scylla must
likewise watch his bark that it be not
engulfed in the seething waters of Cha
rybdis.
The want of such lookout has led to
most tremendous failures in every de-
partment of human activity. The one
sided tendency of the human mind has
diverted or dwarfed nearly all the great
movements of human progress, retarded
advancement, shriveled heroic purposes
and delayed grand results.
War, to take the most import
ant example, instead of ministering to
the assertion of individual rights and
merely beating down the barriers to
progress, too often is but wild waste
and carnage for the ends of one-sided
ambition religion runs to bigOtry and
fanaticism, science to the pride of INTEL
lect, liberty to license, government to
tyranny, philosophy to barren dogmat-
ism, and politics to baleful partisanship,
because statesmen and preachers, scien-
lists and teachers, politicians and philos-
Ophers, are narrOw-minded and partisan,
ignoring what is good in their opponents
or recklessly championing what is evil
Oh their own side, simply because it is
on their side.
A Wise King.
The end of Mayor King 5 enforcement
of the ordinances regulating the sale