The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1895-10-31
IGNORANCE OF MEN.

If there be man who owns to him
self that he does not understand his
fellow men, his is the very perfection
of modesty. We may not be clever or
learned or educated or widely expert
enced, but most of us tiatter ourselves
that we can read men. If we 60 into
the remOteSt hamlet in the land, whence
the natives have never Travelled dozen
miles, we shall find the belief firmly
rooted in the consciousness of the viii
layers that they all understand human
nature
We complacently view our set of ac-
quaintances and our everyday sur
roundings, and think of them as the
world. 1t is true that there are sets of
men above and below us whom we have
not actually met; but have we not
heard of them or read of them in books,
and do we not know that such as we
are they are? Yet the ignorance of
the average man is much more remark
able than his knowledge. Life to him
is only what he has observed, and the
chances are that he has observed very
little. 4 sense of the amazing COM
plexity of life is one of the after -growths
of knowledge.
| The man of narrow views and cir
cumscribed experience soon gets to the
tether of his observation, and, if we
visit him at intervals of twenty years,
we shall find him thinking the same
thoughts, talking the same half-truths,
making the same Sententiouslyw wOrded
mistakes as he made them twenty years
ago.
We flatter ourselves that we know
men, but we know only few-that
we can take comprehensive survey
of mankind, but we cannot; and the
speck of our knowledge hides from
view the mass of our ignorance
One of the tests of the narrOWneSs of
the observations on which we generaliZe
may be seen if we trace to its source
the information which we put into cir
culation with the stamp on it of "They
say Who say? We are quite willing
to bolster up some opinion Or bit OF
surmise by this portentouS general au
thority.
But who say? When the question
is pressed home, it will probably be
, found that the "they'' means two OF
! three persons of our acquaintance
. while the great they" the genera
public, is completely ignorant of the
statements we are making or is indif
ferent to them.
The understanding of other classes
than those to which we belong is Otter
the beginning of social improvement
of desire to help or a desire for amend
ment. Little can be done with peOpl
/ who are perfectly satisfied to be as the,
are Men and women who live entirel,
within the circle of their class not onl
do not see Alright and understand thei
neighbors who are outside that class
5 but, having no means of comparison
they do not understand themselves
q They are not aware in what respect
: their ways are offensive, and so the
0 have no desire to alter. The loud bad
S mage and rough jests which seem to u
n so empty and distasteful when W
t come home from the seaside in raj
4 way-car with group of good folk VIII
n are keeping up the fun of their day
Il trip to the end are thoroughly realize
e by them.
Y, One of the party is playing the fot
e in rough, blundering, good-nature
IS way, and the others break out every no
:" and then into the vague exclamation
70 "Well, you are a caution!" 1t is mean
It we may be sure, as note of admiratio
is and not of expostulation. If we cal
not enter into the spirit of the play,
ty quite sure that it is because we do NJ
is understand the good folk. Nor woul
IS, they understand the refinement of Of
s, wit. If they did, they might begin to
TO dissatisfied with the grossness of the
Id own humor.
lg The only satisfactory knowledge
men is that which sees them not on