Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1885-07-12

body owed rs, love, ana iAltnt anu ivy"'g'
How quickly did our broken banks begin
sgsin their reckless discount How prompt.
" we're our foreclosed mortgages OF heart
released
From "Altruistic Faith"
The Eastern mystic realizes that mans
life, as men live it, being filed with selfish
passion, is cot worth lying-cannot be ID
the nature Of things. Il is in vain TO try to
make it so. The individual will never sub
ordinate selfish passion to sltruisticfaith--
passion will subtly work for sell, and surely
undo any strivings of the faith Tor Diners
il is time wasted to attempt to make the
ego good for something; it is good for moth
ing. good only to losel One cannot be
was not meant to be (since he cannot BEL
anybody in particular; therefore the sum
mum bonum is to lose the one in the all,
which is Nirvana. he does not even dwell
upon the possibility of q noble alternative.
II is inconceivable that this full blooded ego,
living his intense individual life, can ever,
save as the dupe of demon deceivers, who
prevent perception and destroy reflection,
have constant thrill of exultstion in his
individual life, because he knows that there
has good come to the race which, except
for bis individual life, would not have come.
No, NO; the only best is to lose the ego, the
only bliss is the luxury ofits notification.
The Eastern mystic does well on bis plane.
His choice is noble since he has NO more 10
choose from; he admits no better than his
best. But his plane is below the highest;
he dwells upon the stair, and forever misses
the landing!
Many more than the Eastern move on
this plane, dwell on this stair, and miss the
landing. But our Western Buddhist cannot
be 60 joyous in bis pessimism, because he
cannot be so selfish. He belongs to the
breeze impelled, forward moving race of the
restless, pushing genius, the genius which
admits no condition good enough to be let
alone. This Western thinker knows that
the intensest individual life is the highest
duty Of the man created in Gods
image; that the supremest iv.
ing is to fully briug out
that image Of the Father in the child, in the
iiarthest development and finest finish of
that child, separate and distinct from all
other individuals of the human family; and
he feels the pain of this responsibility, which
no one can lift from him-this responsibility
of the development and finish Of this ego;
that ego whom he can never hide from final
0mnipotent scrutiny and sentence. And
he knows, because ofhis fatal certainty here,
that he cannot innocently give the Eastern
mystic his company. He knows that the
Eastern mysic's highest would be his very
lowest. He knows his life can be worth
living, that therefore he can never
be blameless in losing it He knows that
whatever it may consciously be to
the Brahmin, to him it must consciously
be the most hideous and gigantic selishness
to put up all things behind him, except the
extinction Of self; to sit cross.legged under
a palm.tree exiinguishing the ego. e.,
throwing of all responsibilities to others, in
order to attain the eternal responsibility.
No; we of the West writhe and vince
under the truth; we would willingly shirk
it, but we cannot. Each of US is born to be
somebody in particular to himself or her
self, and to others. This is the only solu.
ton of our being at all; and if it does
not answer the question. Is life worth
living? Then there is no answer
From Essay on "Htstory."
+ ;; = y
1t is, therefore, this sympathy with the
past which can unlock the inner balls of
history and reveal to US its grandeur. Des-
titute of this, we are ever outside. We can
get date, end name, and event, but we can
never get at the company; these things are
but the furniture of the feast; by them we
make no acquaintance with the guests. 1t
is as if one walked in he forest with eyes
upon the ground, picking up the fallen
leaves of last years summer. Such an one
has in his possession bit the hebariun of
the past He has walked in the forest and
picked up the fallen leaves Of date, and
event, and career, and LAID them away IN
the pages of his memory. This is the
chroaieler, and this is much. 1t is very
good 70 have an heT5arium. Far grander
is it, think to walk in the forest with eyes
to the green foliage overhead, cognizant of
the life which animstes all penetrated with
its bounty as it thrills tie silences and winds
up the arteries Of the koge veterans of the
woods; feeling the mould beneath trembling
with the common ife.Aood. This.is the
historian;
Away, then, with that twarfng notiso Of
history which makes it mere record Of events,
and gives It's place to this TINE notion whieh
makes it the drama Of humanity. Let rs
cease TO look in its pages for date and
event; let us commence to leok thesein for
the formative ideas Of the ages, and for the
holders of these IDEAS, the nsn behind the
thought, the makers OF history. Let NJ
study career as means only to the end
character. Let us realize that history is the
shrine of humanity, humanity essential in
its essence in past. present, future, wherein
is stored the ego-the thou and theI..
We have now lost wrong and acquired
right notion Of the the true character Of his
tory-s right notion which raises it to the
level Of psychology-a discourse concern
ing the soul of man; and this % truth,
but ,ot the whole truth. Another notion
must be added which shall raise It 10 the al
tituds Of theology discourse concern
ing God, for this it surely is.
How shall we study history?
In order to study history that we shall get
from it the most tina. can be gotten, ] think
three Qualities are indispensable: con-
science, imagination, industry.
WoSkmen and master! Industry is the
hand which, with unasgging patience, chips
f ON those conglomerstes called histories,
the petri6ed fact. Imagination is the recre-
alive breath which, falling close and ardent
upon this fossil fact, restores to il life, and
gathers back from cat the past Its whole en-
vironment; and conscience is the righteous
regulator and critic of the work of both.
Industry is essential He who would pens-
trate into the complex facts Of history in
order that he may. in turn, be penetrated
with the indivisible and universal truth Of
history, must not &ach before work. Morn
ing BY morning mast he 60 faith to his toll;
and Is in the evening he bring home little
spoil yet must be not complain. Much of
his day must be spent in the rejection Of
the spurious ores which tAll beneath his
hammer, for not until be has A5orieusly ex-
cavated them, holding them of apart for
careful scrutiny and comparison with the