The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1896-01-08

annie beSaHG, Gne well huOWu
theosophist leader, entitled "The
Place of Peace" copied from "The
Path" and published at the request
Of lady resident of this city.
The rush, the turmoil, the hurry of
modern life are in everybOdy's mouth
as matter of complaint. 81 have no
time" is the commOnest of excuses.
Reviews serve for books; leading arti
eles for political treatises; lectures for
investigation. More and more the at
tentiOn of men and women is fastened
on the superficial things of life; small
prizes of business success, petty crowns
of social supremacy, mOmentary no
toriety in the world OF politics and of
letters-fOr these things men and
women toll, intrigue and strive.
Their work must show immediate re-
suits, else it is regarded as failure; the
winning post must always be in sight,
TO be passed by a swift brief effort with
the roar of the applauding crowd hail
ing the winner. The solid reputation
buiiE up by years of strenuous work /;
the patient toll that labOrs for life
time in field wherein the harvest
can only ripen long after the soWer
has passed out of sight; the deliberate
choice of lofty ideal, too high to at
eompassed in u lifetime; all these
things are passed by with shrug of
good Datured contempt or a scowl of
suspicion. The spirit of the age Is
summed up by the words OF the caus-
tie Chinese cage of yOre: I" He looks
AT an egg and expects TO hear 1t crow"
Nature Is too slow for US, and we for
get that what we gain in speed we
lose in depth. But there are some In
whose eyes this whirling dance OF
zynaGs in the sunlight is not to be all
and end all of human lie. Some in
whose hearts a whisper sometimes
sounds softly, saying that all the
seeming clash and rush Is but as the
struggle of shadows thrown upon a
screen; that social success, bust
ness triumph, public admiration,
are but trivial things at best,
bubbles floating down stream
ret, and unworthy the rivalrle5, the
iealousies, the bitterness their chase
engenders Has life no secret that
doss not lie on the surface? no prop :
lem that is not solved in the stating?
no treasury that is not scattered on
the highway? An answer may DC
found without straying beyond the
experience of every man and woman,
and that answer hides within 1t q
suggestion of the deeper truth that
3nderlies it. After a week or month
OF hurried town life, of small excite
ments, of striving for the little TIL
nmphs of social life, of the eagerness
of petty hopes, the pain OF petty dis
Appointments, of the friction arising
from the Earring OF our selfish selve:
with other selves equally selfish; after
ahis, if We go far away from this mum
and hustle OF life into silent mountain
solitndes where are sounding only the
natural harmOnies that seem TO Dlent
k.~H r al
the rushing of the waterfall sWOlIet
by last nights rain, the rustic OF th'
leaves under the timid feet OF tn
hare, the whisper of the stream TO the
water hen as she slips out OF the reeus
The murmur of the eddy where 1t Iap
against the pebbles on the bank, Tn,
hmm of the insects as they Drus'
through the tangle of the grasses, tn
suck of the fish as they hang In Tn
pool beneath the shade-there, wher
the mind sinks into calm, soothe
Oy the touch of nature far from man
what aspect have the follies, the eS
asperatiOns, of the social world c
work and play, seen through that al
mosphere surcharged with peace
What does it matter if in some sma
strife we failed or we succeeded
What does it matter that we wer
slighted by one, praised by another
We regain perspective by our dIstanc
from the Whirlpool, by our isolatio
from its tossing waters, ana we sc
how small a part these outer tnlnR
should play in the true life OIL maj
So distance in time as Wei as ulS
taDee in space gives balanced Judg
naDt on the goods and ills of lif
We look back, after ten years hs
slipDed away, at the trials, III
lows. the hopes, the disappoln'
ments of the time that there wa
and we marvel why we spent
much of our life-energy on things
little worth. Even LIES Sharpe
pains seem strangely unreal thus co
femplated by personality tnaC ~
greatly changed. Our whole lie w
Ronnd no in the life of another, al
Ali of worth that it held for us seem!
70 dwell in the one blood. "
Thought that our life was laid vast
oDr heart broken, when that OF
trust was betrayed. But IS LID
went on the wound healed ana Ne
fiowers sprang up along our patnWa
I'LL today we can look back WItnout
0niver on an agony that then we
nigh shattered life. Or we broke WI
q friend for better word; how 1o'
ish seem our anger anu eXclteihel
looking back over the ten years gu
OrWe were madly delighted with
hardly won success; how trlVIai
looks, and how exaggerated our u
nmnh. when we see it now in d
proportion in the picture OF our III
then it filled our sky, now it is but
point. But our philosophic calm,
We contemplate the victories aud q
feats of our past across the Interval
spaee or time, suffers All ignomlnloo
breach when we return TO our ual
life and find it not. All the oIu tiis
alities, in new dresses, engrosss e..
"a &C and sOrrOws, with new lace