The Newtown bee., 1892-10-14
The Bee Buzz.


you only take US at our best! And isn't
that really the way we should take one
another? Every one is good for some
thing; indeed, must be good for some
thing, if only to warn others how good
for nothing it is just possible for one to
be. Yes, every one has his forte. A. is
good talker, splendid at that. Never
does much else to be sure, but just hear
him talk. How grandly he sets forth
ideas, new and old and paints in glowing
colors the possibilities of the case. If
you want to start a good thing going, his
your man. He has Imagination, and can
inspire other men with half a dozen
thoughts to every one that ever entered
his own head.
Now there is B., his neighbor, who
never says anything, but he is all the
while doing something that needs to be
done. He is a man of deeds. A. will
talk all day and, perhaps, never think to
do anything about it. B. will listen and, 3,
quietly do the thing to be done. And so
it is that all the good gifts of men work
together for the best good of all. And,
accordingly, we ought to honor each
ones gift and rejoice in it.
A crank is fellow ali on one side.
And he is usually on the off side. If he
is man, he is most likely to be small
man and a good deal like a woman; but,
if he is d woman, he is apt to be large
and more like man. If he has an idea,
it is pretty sure to be but half an idea
and the other half of it at that. A real
crank, generally speaking, has a small
head and a large conscience. He is,
therefore, bound by all considerations to
do what he believes to be right, even if
he bursts the boiler of the universe in do
ing it and does a thousand times more
evil than good thereby. The crank is
supposed to be power to turn things
around; but there is nothing so hard to
turn as a crank; and it is often attached
to something which can't stand much
turning over. 1t has always been held
by ordinary mortals that every shingle
has been exploded, at least so far as
cranks go. There are some kinds of
shingles, probably, which have but one
side to them. The most of men shun
experiences with grindstones. The
crank serves "a purpose, no doubt. The
best use we can think of is that he warns
other people to beware of the conceit of
ig -orance.
In a little book addressed to young
men are these words: ''Purity is power.
Vice and vigor are as far apart as good
and evil. Nothing enfeebles man like
sin. The deadliest error that can mis-
lead men is that vice is necessity. 1t is
not the vigor and fulness of young life
that make it necessary to sin. 1t is the
tampering with the temptation, the
indulgence of degrading thoughts, the in
decent story and the scrofulous novel.
If man deliberately and wilfully gives
himself up to the fatal spell of passion
and then complains that vice is a neces-
sity, he is hypocrite and stands self
condemned. Purity is not impossible.
Thousands of young men could testify
that the conquest of sensual temptations
is comparatively easy, when the body is
kept in health by wholesome exercise
and the mind fully occupied by lofty
thoughts
Herbert Spencer says of gambling !:
s'Fhat it tends toward the ruin of the
gambler; that it risks the welfare of fam
lily and friends; that it alienates from
business and leads into bad company
these and such as these are the reasons
given for condemning the practice. Rare
ly is there any recognition of the funda-
mental reason. Rarely is gambling con-
demned because it is kind of action by
which pleasure is obtained at the cost of
pain to another. The normal obtainment
of qualification, or of the money which
purchases qualification, implies, firstly,
that there has been put forth equivalent
effort of kind which, in some way, fur
theirs the general good; and implies, Sec
ondly, that those from whom money is
received get, directly or indirectly. equiv
alent satisfaction. But in gambling, the
opposite happens. Benefit received does
not imply effort put forth and the happi-
ness of the winner involves the misery of
the loser. This kind of action is, there
fore, essentially anti-social, sears the
sympathies, cultivates hard egoism and
so produces a general deterioration of
character and conduct" !"
Suppose that there is no hereafter for
US. That when man dies, we bury
him, body, soul and all; he returns to
the dust and that is the end of his person
ality. No resurrection. no continuity of
being. Still that man lives in the life of
the world and his works do follow him.
Nothing is ever lost in thought, word or
deed. Is it not best to live right in any
case 40. o. Wright.