The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1885-01-15
COMMON SENSE
One Of the Most Uncommon ThingI
We Meet With in this World.

One the most uncommon things
We meet with is pla IN common sense.
1t is the possession not of one com
mon mind, but the possession Of q
sense common to a thousand minds.
The person gifted with common
sense sees things as they look to
the average mind when once their
true relations have been defued. To
illustrate: The late Chief-Justice
Church was wont to say in the ear
ly years OF his practice, when q
case came before him s. he law
ought TO be" thus and so; when his
partner consulted the books, the
statute invariably confirmed tue
view which the Chief-Jus;ice had
taken. The great law givers the
world have been men Of supreme
common sense. The blindness OF
passion, the mists of prejudice, the
bouds of bigotry, the narr@wness of
eOnVentionalism, could not warp or
dim or distort their clear and far
vision.
Common sense is not an accretion
from without, but a growth from
within. Schools and colleges can
not endow their pupils with com
mon sense; many a learned fool and
crank and woodenhcad rejoices in q
diploma. Church AID theological
schools do not endow their disci-
pies and students with common
sense Hear this from the superin-
tendents Of the Congregational
Home Missionary Society: eve
deeply regret that not all our minis
ters have been literally educated.
and yet many who have enjoyed all
the advantages of college and semi
nary training are hOpelessly ineffi
cient; due sometimes to a lack of
common sense. The latter is abso-
lutely fatal to success in our work
Learning may be acquired, an un-
consecrated man may come to know
deep spiritual experience, but in
case of a man born without com
mon sense, we know of no remedy
but death. We have lit
tie hope of relief from ordaining
councils. From time t, time we
hear of a man who is refused ordi-
nation on dectriDal grounds, but
never because he lacks brains, com
mon sense or force OF character
Religion has been defined to be
"sanctified common sense" The
first requisite for a successful min
lister has been well said to be com
mon sense, then riety. In all the
professions, in all the trades and
industries of the world, he who is
most gifted with common sense will,
other things being equal, achieve
the largest success.
We hardly agree with the senti-
ment quoted above that in case OF a
man born without common sense
there is no remedy hut death. The
blind learn to substitute other sen
ses, in a great degree, for the sense
of sight. The dumb learn to speak
mechanically. The deaf read
speech on the lips. Those born
without common sense may be
taught, if they are taken young
enough, to act as though they had
it in some small measure, and thus
make it become a second nature to
them, and those in whom it is but
as a grain of mustard seed may cpl
tivate 1t with reasonable hope of a
tolerable fruitage.
Il is only two hundred and fifty
years since "GaliIeo, at the age of
seventy-two years, on his knees,
and clad only in a shirt of sack
cloth,' was forced to ahjure his
theory, based on scientific methods
of inquiry, that the earth revolved
around the sun. For all the ages
before him men had believed the
earth to be the center of the uni
verse, and that all the heavens re-
volved around it. We laugh at the
ignorance and foolishness Of those
who could believe so preposterous a
doctrine, but We are foolish as they.
How many a man and woman be-
lieve and act on the theory that
they are each individually the cen
ter of the moral and social universe
and that everything revolves around
them. Common selse is the scien-
tifc method applied to the affairs of
common life. 1t gives man power
to see the true relations of himself
to others and to the facts Of life,
and to act in harmony with these
relations.--N. Y. Tribune