The Kinsley graphic. [volume] (Kinsley, Kan.) 1890-1940, 1891-07-10
REDUCE YOUR 0ENoMlNAToR.
Two Ways OF EquaHzing AttaLnments and
Desires.


Two ways OF EquaIizing AttaLnments and
Desires.
To most earnest people life is hard
and fast, and growing continually
harder and faster, and to many 1t is be-
coming more and more burning ques-
ton how they shall meet, like men and
women, the demands of each day with
out falling under the condemnation OF
that law. 1t would be comparatively
easy for the society fellows. if they had
any deasire so to do, to settle their
problem by following Carfyle's plan,
and reducing their denominatOrs. He
makes it very clear to all those who
have passed beyond the stage of child
hood, and consequently do comprehend
the nature OF a fraction-an impossible
thing for child to do, because it lies in
the region of relativity-that our wishes
and desires stand to our abilities either
pecuniary or mental, in the same rela-
ton as the denominatOr of a fraction
TO its uumeratOr. and that the value OF
the fraction of each one OF US eX-
presses in terms easily written
down the total amount of our solid
happiness or cOntentment. In this view
it follows that there are always two
possible ways of increasing the amount
OF the latter-and this is no doubt the
main object toward which are directed
most of the efforts of most mcn-name-
Iy, to increase our numeratOr by in
creasing our possessions, or to diminish
our denominator by decreasing the total
amount of our desires. The first of
these ways is the only one generally
" perceived by the majority of people,
and the one to which they bend all
their efforts, but it is often the impOs-
sible way, while the other path lies al
ways open to most people, with abso-
Iutely sure result. Since that result
that alteration in the value of the frac-
tion-is what we are many of us after,
IL may be surprising that the always
.availa BILE and sure method is not more
generally selected. But, as has been
said to many of us there is no liberty
of choice left open Forced by the
demand of the working world to which
we belong, we have already reduced
denOminatOr to a surprisingly low fig
ure We find a positive pleasure, as we
walk in the city, in seeing shops loaded
with innumerable things that we do
not want, and would not have even if we
could. Even in the matter Of books the
number which we care to own grows
smaller day by day instead of larger.
We have learned the great lesson that
It is easier to climb at once to the high
hills, and drink from the springs which
run there, than to accept the diluted
stuff which is delivered to us in con-
duits often not of the cleanest. This
lesson, once acquired frees one from
many perplexities, and confers a not in
considerable amount of liberty. besides
giving las a feeling of buOyant health
which the dweners in the lOHlands, who
depend upon aqueducts, and are subject
to all the incOnveniences resulting
from negligent or incompetent con
tractors and engineers, never car
know. With regard to society, too, the
number of houses into which we do not
desire to enter is infinitely larger thar
that of those to which we aspire. Ant
IL cOnfers almost a feeling of royalty *
see so many people around US who dc
not hesitate at any sacrifice or any eff
fort TO obtain an introduction into Ger
tain circles of society to which no en-
treaties of our best-meaning friend:
would be able TO drag US for a single
evening. We have had so much to dc
all our lives that we have learned the
value of time, and we are blessedly
thankful for it, for nobody who has no
lived life of constant labor can posi-
bly, know the exquisite delight of
whole half-hour IN which one has a.
last the right to do what she pleases
The 6fty years Of Europe hold NOR,
conscious throbbing life than a cycle O
Cathay. and even if we had the libert,
of choosing, we would take the fift,
years.-By Anna c. Brackett, in HaI
per's Magazine.