St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1897-12-17

serbs in one small brain all vast
t%ruth--or we shall fail to convince
for the snare is set in vain in the
sight Of any bird, and the pit along
a line of argument is never to be
digged in the sight of the victim.
Approach a man in a way that be-
tokens a belief in your own superior
ity; or with a that seems
patronizing. and he is almost sure
to resent it. You have for the mo-
ment forgotten the veneration due to
his individuality. With both OF you,
the whole universe is centered on the
spot of ground that each occupies,
and neither must forget the others
view. Respect the thought of others;
believe in advance that every nan
has ideas-or thinks he has, which
comes to the same thing; and you
will find yourself moving steadily
toward the winning of him, if he is
less firm in his facts and thought and
logic than you. 1t is true indeed
that a successful attack on some one
else's thought is not brought about
merely by force of thought-for force
is too often met with force-but by
careful preparation beforehand suited
to the person attacked, much as a
general disposes of his troops differ
emily at every separate tort assaulted.
This ability to reinforce strength
with skill is one of the secrets of
power among leaders of men.
l remember reading somewhere Of
a misguided enthusiast who looked
over a fence and hailed a young fel-
low in such an alarming tone of
voice that the youth incontinently
fled. What did the stranger then do
but jump the fence and set off in
pursuit! After a long chase he
winded his frightened fugitive. and
then gave him a tract, with some re-
ligious advice bet ween breaths. His
tory does not record the effect; pre-
sumably it is better imagined than
described; but it is to be hoped that
the recording angel used fitting len
iency. Such a well-intentioned one
is he not common apart altogether
from tracts ?-such a one needs to
follow the Contucian advice which
suggests that "ln archery we have
something like the way OF the supe.
rior man. When the archer misses
the center OF the target, he turns
round and seeks for the cause of his
failure in himself"
In matters OF religion and of poll
tics it is especially true that many OF
us do more harm than good by argu-
ing and persuading. In the first
place we often forget that our oppo-
nent. however mistaken he may ap.
pear to US, has in all probability fully
justified to bimseli his own line of
action or belief. This is true in rela-
tion to the fanatical followers of the
oldest vagaries, as well as to devout
believers in religion, pure and unde-
filed. But torgetfulness of this fact
produces hates and distrusts and
cruelties and miseries Unreasonable.
In a prolonged walking tour in V,r.
ginia came cros a peculiar sect on
Chincoteaque Island. Their member
ship was less than a hundred, yet
they felt that they alone of all the
myriads IN earth would get to
Heaven. Strange as it may sound,
they were quite sincere in their in
depreciation of the Bible, both on
this point and another, to the effect
that all marriages and all offspring,
prior to the "sancti6cation" of the
parents, were illegitimate. l often
recall this experience to guard
against narrowness of view, and for
my readers sakes | mention it here
also.
And these poor people will serve to
point another moral, to the effect
that abuse is not argument, for they
were driven from their homes with
shot-guns and still cling desperately
to their beliefs down in the swamps
of the Carolinas. Abuse by tongue
may not break bones, but 1t does not
heal resentments; ranking sores
bleed on increasingly when the human
mind stoops to abuse.
Finally, know what you do know,
and know it thoroughly. Know
what you do not know and hold your
tongue thereon while you open your
mind, and furthermore choose silence
rather than speech, the living OF
truth rather than the proclaiming of
it, the attitude of learning rather
than the pose of prophet.