Signal-Copiahan. (Hazlehurst, Copiah County, Miss.) 1885-1888, 1886-09-02
INDIVIDUAL CONTINUITY.
The Name Ropo by which . Mans Sue
eessIvs Acts Are Held Together.


cesslvs Acts Are Held Together.
How much, moreover, has tho mere
circumstance of our always carrying
the same name To do with our sense OF
continuity AS look over my old let.
tcrs, here is the too familiar address on
NIL the faded envelopes; these certainly,
you would say. were addressed to very
me. But when open one to read, II
scents TO me il can hardly have been
'I" who wrote the juvenilities to
which these things arc in response. II
was another being to whom they came
fresh from the mail
Like letters unto trembling hands:"
another being who read them with tho
cagcrncss and responsive thoughts that
/ do now certainly seem to remember
by some strange witchcraft OF self
substitution. like that of Sigurd and
Gunnar upon the Flaming Hcath-al-
most as il they had been my vertable
own. He bore my name. drew checks
with my signature, even went so fur as
to pay my bills-tlat person in the
past But in any other sense / am
hardly prepared to own him as my
actual and continual self. ! rather
look upon him as the chick upon the
egg-shcll, the moth upon the cracked
cocoon, the man ut the microscope
upon the film Of protoplasm. with the
musing consciousness: "Such rs thou
art. once was !"
Siacc we actually 60 through these
mctamorphoscs in life, it would be a
significant and appropriate act, II only
it were permitted us. to shed our names
from time to time. The other day,
when suddenly awakcd once for all
from an old nightmare Of Illusion. why
might Inot then and there have mott
ed to the extent of my namcP Or that
hour when l flung aside particular
opinion which had long ridden my
minds shoulders, like IN Old Man OF
tho Sea. why should there not have
gone with it the designation of the be-
ing whose lite had been thus spoiled.
letting the new man start with new
hcraldic device? Something of this
sort, It is true, does happen when a
person throws oil his early nickname.
and assumes the togd ririiiS of the full
combination of baptismal titles
through which his parents have
made him imposing or ridiculous to
the ear; and at last, it may be.
adds the initials Of dignity by
which his college or his church has
ministcrcd To his vanity. ''Dicky,' be-
comes "Dicl. aud then iuil Richard, "
and then "thc Reverend Doctor" or
"thc Bishop" or 1.-The cN-Nicc-Prcsi-
dent" These developments are but the
outward and audible symbols of mys-
tcrious inner transformation. The eve
Vice-President. bald now. glazed, Gi
that bc proper term for the taking
on of spectaclcs) and wise, would no
more wish to BE- held responsible for
the views he expressed in youth than
he would chirp and twit,cr again a,
the charms of the girl he left behind
him. or answer TO the maternal or sor-
oral call of "Dicky."
More than this it would perhaps not
bc safe to permit to us in the way OF
escape from our proper labels. 1t is
necessary that society should hold us
TO strict accountability for our sue
cessivc selves, and the name Is the rope
by which these are held together. The
world must keep track of us, like g
great policc.-AnireW Hedbrooke. ~
atlantic.