The Middleburgh post. [volume] (Middleburgh, Snyder Co., Pa.) 1883-1916, 1896-08-13
SOME RAMBLING THOUGHTS.
BY MEMO.
(Copyrighted.)

tCopyrighted.)
| tPenned by layman in the snare
moments of busy career and dedi-
Gated to better understanding of
iife and its varied opportunities.)
BE neither tree nor wave in
your mental makeup. A tree stands,
rooted fast in one spot; wave is
driven hither and thither by every
wind that blows. But in your judg.
ment OF things, be man, free to
move at will, from place to place.
and well able also, if necessary, to
brace yourself against the fiercest
efforts Of a very tempest of argu.
ment. A tree, with its limited
knowledge Of this vast world is the
very counterpart OF some OF US; we
acquire a smattering Of u few sub.
lects, and the very littleness of our
knowledge makes US mad enough to
think we know all that we should
know. We somehow, perhaps from
conceit. for surely it is species of
narrow-guage conceit that will bar
out new ideas. think it shameful
thing to change our opinions. We
cling with all the ramitied rootlets
OF prejudice to one little spot and
progress is not for us the healthful
gales OF discussion pass us by and
we are not moved
BE strong man to defend the
castle OF your opinion, aud be also
wise one, enough to know
when 80 capitulate to stronger than
yourself. The right side of ques
tion in one generation, may be quite
the wrong one in later, better-in
formed age. Ii, therefore. you still
worship the day of little knowledge
you are out-of-date, you are shelv-
ed. you are a Chinaman. This
queue-wearing, parchment skinned
Asiatic is content with the few or
many but necessarily antiquated
things OF ancestors: and he is not
alone for there are Caucasians right
in your neighborhood who resist
with dumb stubbornness all argu-
ment, all advancement. You
may draw together the curtains
Of your mind and say it is as dark
without as il is within; you may
close your ears to the hurrying feet
Of progress and say that everything
is as motionless as you are, but the
only deluded one il yourself.
''The world moves" desperately
and under his breath said poor,
weak, recanting old Galileo, rs he
turned his back on crowd OF &C.
clesiastical sinners. who loved dark
ness rather than light. Those con-
ceit-stuffed effigies of men laughed
him to scorn. and we now hold them
in derision. New facts will force
themselves into recognition and op-
position to them will be as the sand
heaps piled up by children to stay
the progress Of the sea. You no
longer confine yourself to a dreary,
dripping tallow candle, when turn
OF the hand floods your apartment
with electric light. You no longer
deny yourself the succulent tomato
because an earlier generation named
it "love-apple" and dubbed it "pois.
onous."
Would you stand head and shoul-
ders above the small men who echo
the dead. Then be loud-minded
enough to be inconsistent with your
past. No knowledge that you have
had on great subjects has ever been
final. Recognize that and you will
continue to grow. Somehow l have
read, the place I cannot now recall,
that Dead men and fools never
change their opinions You are
alive in moving times, be not then
as If you we're dead. In religion, in
science, in education, and, especial
ly at this moment, in politics, con
slant re-sdjustment of our opinions
is necessary If We would be in the
world and OF it, in its forward swing.
Station d. New York.
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