The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1896-05-28

1
Some Good in This World.
With no flourish OF trumpets and with
bat a modest membership so far enrolled,
we are confident that the s. ID. OF 5. q.
In II. W. will, in the course of time, be-
come an influential factor In social,
scientific, economic and political spheres,
and will wax in numerical strength with
the revolving of the cons.
As is usually the misfortune with move
ments like this that appear on the surface
to have no other reason for existence than
| the function OF dealing with the abstract,
| the shadowy, the ethereal and so usually
| the abstruse in human existence, the
| Society for the Discovery Of Some Good
in'lhis World W i'll hardly, at the outset,
attract to itself any considerable public
support, or will 1t, without the most
earnest and self-sacrificing endeavor sue
ceed in awakening any fattering measure
Of public interest. Bot, we take 1t, its
| projectors have no too sanguine anticipa-
| tions as to this. They doubtless realize
that the world is given over to gloom
and trouble, that the evil that men do
not only lives after them, but lives with
them before they depart this life--lives
with them and all their neighbors, and
| il there is not enough to go round, they
go out and gather II in for their daily
consumption. From the cradle to the
grave mankind associates in the freest
| intercourse with the gloom Of its en-
| vironment. The few of us who have no
| trou bles OF our own, make 1t business
and pastine to seek out the troubles Of
our fellowmen, to share them and TO take
burdens upon ourselves that shall satisfy
our craving and exalt our souls. We work
and play and preach and pay in an at
mosphcre of trouble. We eat OF it and
the supply occasionally seems to run
short. II our own affairs are SO de-
| praved that they furnish us nothing
but JOY and gladness, we hasten to
re-adjust them or to hunt up somebody
else's affairs that provide an overflow of
cheerlessness for our insatiate appetite.
| And what hours are left to us devoid of
their ration OF gloom we devote sssidu-
ously to reform movements and the rails
ing up OF such horrid spectres as, for ex-
ample, municipal misgovernment.
Generally accepted, however, as Is the
belief that the world is full of trouble
and is going to the bow-wows, fruit
full as are the resources'Sf woe and de-
spair, seemingly ineradicable as is the
apparently quite general sentiment that
everything that is is wrong and only
what is not can possibly be right, as vo-
citerously rampage the prophets of hu-
manity's ruin and the disciples Of despair
up and down the world, for our
selves we incline to the belief that
somewhere in the Businesses of this
world of ours is some good. We are
hardly prepared to state this belief as
positive conviction lest we be confonnded
by the nigh overwhelming plouness
of reform, the herculean task of which
/ 10 ts..,t
furnish q jot Of hope to embarass and
distress its movements. Rather let us ex-
press our belief with apologetic mien and
a becoming spirit that shall make Us con-
tent should we be proved to be hopelessIy
led astray. But we rejoice at the or
ganization OF the society because that
justifies the belief that il really there
Is any good In this world the mem-
bers thereof will in time discover it
and IL there Is not, that fact will be
demonstrated finally and the work of re-
forming things may then proceed with
out exciting any scepticism from the linn
tied few who are stepped in unpardon-
able cheerfulness all the time, reck not
OF the future and of fate and are too
prone to regard many OF the troubles
that keep the rest OF mankind in state
OF delightful worry as all poppycock. We
understand that the researches OF the s.
ID. OF S. q. in 4. w. are to be un dertaken
at once and prosecuted with vigor, that
no stone viii be left unturned in the seek
ing out OF the good and all the resources
OF science and philosophy as we'll as the
limited fund of good spirits that is avail
able will be brought to bear. 1t will be
thsnkless task and will lack public
support and popular sympathy. But IL
| there shou ld after all prove to be any III.