Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1889-01-17
ACCURACY AND TOLERANCE.
Two Qualities More Important than any
Others for the Uses of Life.

From the Fortnightly Review.
''The two principal rules and lessons of life, :"
says Mrs. Cash, (which George Eliot gave to a
young friend were: First, be accurate, and Sec
ond, my dear child, the great lesson of life is
tolerance" These lessons, indicated by
George Eliot in her ripened wisdom as more
important than any others for the uses of life,
are taught by Shakespeare in a large and gen.
erous manner, although indirectly and without
demonstration, after his own dramatic method.
For what is this reality, and adhesion to the
fact, and severity, and moderation shown in
his writings but a way of saying, "Be accu-
rate" Recognize the facts and laws of life
and falsify nothing; do not wander vaguely
in the void or in a shadow-land of
fantasies and pale distractions; know
men and women for what they are
indeed, blinking neither the evil
also says, ssBe tolerant" For Shakespeare
severity is not of a kind which makes him
grim. He is at once full of exquisite pity and
full OF joyous laughter. And in this he shows
Dante is indeed definite, exact, severe; he, il
ever any teacher, says to his pupil, BE
| accurate" And in the midst of his severity
there spring up in Dante's nature wells of the
finest pity and tenderness. But Dante,
although he can be piteous, is grim, and il
Joyous or genial. But Shakespeare. who SAYS,
like Dante, BE accurate, land is as exact and
definite as Dante, says also. BE tolerant" and
he is at once exquisitely pitiful for human sor.
row, and full Of measureless laughter at the
Notwithstanding play of human life. He adj
dresses himself to meet the world like young
| athlete, who has a vigorous delight in the
grapple and the tug. and who smiles while
yet he is thoroughly in earnest. portion OF
this joyous seriousness is impaired by Shakes.
peare to each of his true disciples. We fee
that life, he educates US to see it. is full OF
countless possibilities of good. This world o,
| ours is a world well worth our inhabiting, and
| to make it yield up its treasures-treasures oil
love, of truth, OF beauty and Of joy-we shall
do well to bestir ourselves with cheerful zeal
It's not easy to see how any one can be accu'
rate in George Eliot's or Shakespeare's way
! without being also tolerant. For their accuracy
| is not that of the pedant or the dogmatist an
accuracy of fixed lines, but the mobile accuracy
of the dramatist, a swift and unerroneous tran.
sition from point to point of sympathy. Half
of the intolerance and injustice of the world
arises from an inability to conceive, or al
least to enter into and enjoy other types OF
character than our own; an inability Ia
| understand with rapidity and exactness the
postrlres Of intellect and the emotional
| attitudes of our fellows If we receive a
quick enjoyment from the play of various life
| around us we can hardly be intolerant; but in
order to receive such enjoyment we must be
sure in our perceptions and correct in our in
| terpretations of the visible phenomena. We
learn through our imagination to play thou.
| sand parts in the drama of human existence,
and learn even to observe the behavior of our
| own hearts with an amused dramatic eye MOI
| does this dramatic habit OF feeling necessarily
produce in us defect of moral force, if we
cultivate spirit of fidelity not only to the null.
tiform minor facts of life, but also to those
! large and abiding facts which we name the
laws of life. 1t is possible to be 1.-the and al
| the same time firm. No other firmness, in
| deed, is half SO valuable as that which is bou.
yant and elastic-the firmness, not of a corpse
grown rigid, but of an athlete ready for the
spring.