The prison mirror. [volume] (Stillwater, Minn.) 1887-1894, 1891-02-19
Other Peoples Sins.

| That mellowing of judgment which comes
to men with widened experience and larger
thought is ripe fruit of genuine wisdom.
AS men grow older they are inclined to
Judge the faults and sins of others with
gentler mind, because they have learned to
know better than they did in youth their
own capacities of SHINING and the conditions
of their own virtue.
We begin life usually with disposition
to hold every ybOdy- except perhaps ourselves
to very rigid observance of what we
conceive to be the moral law, and whenever
our neighbor commits an offense which we
have not ourselves committed we wonder
and condemn. AS we grow older our own
transgressiOns multiply and we learn in
time to be little less harsh. because we
have found frequent occasion to strain
mercy somewhat in behalf of ourselves.
But the majority of us,never quite learn
the ultimate law of judgment as we should.
We learn to judge leniently those faults in
others to which we are ourselves inclined,
but few of us quite so readily forgive in
others the sins to which we have no inclina-
tion on our own part. In other words. we
do not make due allowance for the strength
of temptations that do not beSet us.
And yet the philOsOphic mind must
clearly see that the act of a neighbOr is not
Justly to be measured by the weakness Of
our temptations. but by the strength of his.
which we cannot know. We say, Il would
never have done such thing as that"
when we should say, II have never been
placed in circumstances which Overwhelm-
ingly moved me to that particular SIM"
r. 60 oIohI hIxy tr,r frIrf, fho o0cf of
us realize that our own virtue is largely a
matter of fortunate circumstance; that our
good cOnductis the product of forces out
side of ourselves; that we are mainly the
creatures of misunderstanding in
that term hereditary prediSpOsitiOns, social
environment and all other things that in
fluence conduct and character. We can
never know that we who have not thought
of committing an OffenSe are really stronger
or more virtuOuS than our neighbOr who
has in fact committed it, We do not know
the ultimate truth as to his temptation or
his condition at the moment of his fall into
error. We do not know how much OF
strength may have been required for sue
cessful resistance of the temptation as it
presented itself to him, and we cannot say
that had we been beset precisely as he was
we should have stood fast.
We often think we know all the circum-
stances, but it is doubtful that such is ever
the case. No man can know perfectly the
temperament or even the mOmentary mood
of another, and even external facts are
never completely known and still more GER
tainly they never present precisely the same
aspect to two minds.
In this thought there is no suggestion of
doubt as to human responsibility-only a
warning against the over confident con-
demnation of our fellows and the measure
ment of their sins by our own lack of temp
tation. Not one of us knows what evil he
is capable of. and certainly not one Of us
can know the ultimate measure of anOther's
conduct with an absolutely righteous judg-
ment. The final philosophy of life is not
to be too hard upon each other.-N. Y.
World.