The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1896-08-08
SOME RAMBLING THOUGHTS.
Written for the Democratic Advocate.
BY MEMO.
[ooPYKIGHTED.l

(Penned by layman in the spare mo-
ments of busy career, and dedicated to
better understanding of life and its varied
opportunities. }
Be neither tree nor a 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 judgment of things, be man,
free to move at will, from place to place,
and well able also, if necessary, to brace
yourself against the fercest efforts of very
tempest of argument. A tree, with its
limited knowledge of this vast world is the
very counterpart of some OF us; we acquire
a smattering of few subjects, and the very
littleness of our knowledge makes us mad
enough to think we know all that we should
know. We, somehow, perhaps from con-
ceit. for surely it is a species OF narrow
guage conceit that will bar out new ideas,
think it a shameful thing to change our
opinions We cling with all the ramltied
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, and be also a wise One,-
wise enough to know when to capitulate to
stronger than yourself. The right side
of a question in one generation, may be
quite the wrong one in later, betterin
formed age If, therefore, you still wor-
ship the day of little knowledge you are
out-of-date, you are shelved you are
Chinaman. This queue wearing, parch
ment-skinned Asiatic is content with the
few or many but necessarily antiquated
things of his ancestors; and he is not alone
for there are Caucasians right in your
neighborhood who resist with dumb stub
bornness all argument, all advancement.
You may draw together the curtains of
your mind and say it is as dark without as
it 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 is yourself
''fhe world moves, desperately and
under his breath said poor, weak, recant-
ing old Calico as he turned his back on
crowd of ecclesiastical sinners, who loved
darkness rather than light Those con-
ceit-stufed effigies of men laughed him to
scorn, and we now hold them in derision.
New facts will force themselves into recog-
milton and opposition to them will be as the
sand heaps piledup by children to stay the
progress of the sea- You no longer con6ne
yourself to a dreary, dripping tallow candle,
when turn of the hand floods your apart
ment with electric light. You no longer
deny yourself the succuent tomato because
an earlier generation named it ''love-apple
and dubbed it poisonous.
Would you stand head and shoulders
above the small men who echo the dead
Then be broad minded enough to be in
consistent with your past No knowledge
that you have had on great subjects has
ever been final Recognize that and you
will continue to grow. Somewhere have
read, the place | cannot now recall, that
dead men and fools never change their
opinions - You are alive in moving times
be not then as if you were dead. In re-
ligion. in science, in education, and. es-
pecially at this moment, in politics, con-
slant REIMBURSEMENT Of our opinions is
necessary if we would be in the world and
of it, in its forward swing.
Sutton d., Neto York,