The Caucasian. (Clinton, N.C.) 188?-1913, 1892-02-11
DIXON--lNGRRS0LL.
CONTINUED from first Page

creed. and yet he has proteSsed 1t.
sragst to bring 10 y0li this morning
this message. That no man tr3Io pre-
tends to lore his feIiozo man oan hold
sltch q creed.
CREATION t-2T,iE'
Because: First-Such creed would
reduce history to the wall Of an infinite
eeries of al<rtions and make creation
the one great crime. II happiness
which is the qualification Of self, be thu
chief end Of life. then this life is vain
Man Is forever ycarring and thirstire
for that which fees from him. There i
no surer way Of losing life than to sooA
life thus for itself. Life is a ceaselese
round OF to:l-worb. work, work! Never
satisfied, never content, never attaining
that for which the heart cries. Even the
men most successful in the history Of
this worl1-nen whose names have
echoed around the globe, men like Won
Moltke, Of Germany-e@clairl at the end
Of life, at has been all a series Of disap-
pointments."
If the chief end Of life be the gratiica
ton Of self, and this be happiness, VIC
live in a most unhappy world. The his
tory Of the past, the story OF the present.
both Of men and of nations. is the story
of suffering, of anguish, pain. Of injus-
tice, cruelty and wrong. To me the
future redeems the past from contempt.
toll in hope because believe in con,
summation of the forces Of good in the
future. 1 am content that my own life
shall fail to crafty self if it shall add
to the sum total of the good. The only
real happiness found in this world today
is in the laying down of self and thus
finding self truly in the good of others.
The world is a dismal failure if the chief
end of man be the end outlined in the
gospel of good victuals and good clothes.
| believe in good victuals and good
clothes, but to make them the end Of life
is to reduce the world to a miserable
failure.
THE INFINITE HORROR.
Second-Such a creed would make
death the common lot of all, the supreme.
unthinkable tragedy Of the universe
starless. hopeless, horrible. If this graft
fication Of self be all there is worth mans
exertion, then death throws over the
world the mantle of black despair. With
such a creed we must agree with Halleck
when he says:
Come to the bridal chamber, Death,
Come to the mother when she feels
For the first time the firstborn's breath;
Come inconsumption's CHASTITY form,
The earthquakes shock, the ocean storm;
Come when the pulse beats high and warm
With festive song and dance and wine
And thou art terrible!
The grave, the shroud, the pail, the bier.
And all we know or dream or fear
OF agony is thine.
If this be the true meaning of life, then
every heart must echo the cowardiy
shrek of poor old Seneca when he cries:
Though all my crooked limbs with palsy shake,
Though l be blind and deaf with many an acb e,
Though every nerve be racked with torturing
pain,
Give me but life, dear life; I'll not complain!
We know that the end Of the physical
world is certain wreck. Death with a
final shrek Of victory will rise and sur
vey the infinite tragedy Of the wreck Of
time. The most magnificent monuments
of mans genius are perishing. The
pyramids of Egypt are crumbling at the
touch of time. Your magnificent mon
uments, palaces, temples, domes Will
one day crumble and be swept as ashes
in the dust heap OF creation. This is the
voice of science, the voice Of God. The
end Of every man, then, by such phi
losophy must be an appalling catastro-
phe. The colonel himself seems to have
recognized this in the sad words which
he speaks over the grave of his fallen
brother. He says: For whether in
midsea or among the breakers of the
farther shore, a wreck at last must mark
the end of each and all. And every
life viii, at its close, become
a tragedy as sad and deep and dark as
can be woven of the warp and wool and
mystery Of death"
THE CREED OF SELF.
The philosophy Of pessimism is the
only philosophy possible to the man who
processes the creed of epicurean happi-
ness. Pessimism is she only working
theory Of life for such creed. Pessi-
mism is another name for the philosophy
of supreme selfshness. The pessimist is
yet to live who did not prove to the
world in himself the source Of his phiIos-
ophy. Schopenhauer, in modern times,
is the master of this school of pessimism.
In writing to his publishers Of his own
work he says, Its worth and impor
lance are so great that l do not venture
to express it, even toward you, because
you could not believe me- and he pro-
ceeds to quote a review (which speaks
of me with the highest praise as the
greatest philosopher of the age, which is
really saying much less than the good
man thinks. Sir" he said to an un-
offending stranger who watched him
across d table 'hote, where he acted the
part Of the local "lion" habitually, sir,
you are evidently astonished at nv
appetite. True, eat three times as
much as you, but then have three times
as much mind!'' Such was the man who
declared that this is the worst possible
world that could have been made. He
judged the world of course by himself.
BY that standard we heartily agree with
him.
A DOG FIGHT
Ihlrd-Such q creed robs the record
OF humanity of all glory and reduces
the story OF the human race to the shift
ing scenes OF d miserable farce. It gives
to human life a philosophy as debasing.
as degrading, as false as hell itself
When self is erected into standard.
and happiness made the end, each midi
Vldual, Of necessity. becomes the creator
OF his own standard of happiness. The
colonel would dig out in his brain a
dome, In which he would allow winged
notes to rise to glory and reverberate in
the dome. But l knew young man
who declared that he had a very small
opinion Of the music of an orchestra.
He honestly declared that he would
much prefer any day to see a dog fight.
He said he would leave the greatest
musical performance in the world to
hear and witness a fight between two
ours. TO his mind the howl and snarl
and growl of ours engaged in deadly
combat was the only music worthy Of
the serious attention of the world.
W here will we find the standard of han
piness9
THEATER PANIC.