The record-union., 1898-01-18
SOME RAMBLING THOUGHTS.
BY "Nemo."
(Copyrighted by Dave e Tabor,

Copyrighted by Dave & Tabor.)
Ihere came across my path few
days since young man of wide read
Ing, but not of deep thought, who had
among other things saturated his mind
with the thoughts of Schopenhauer. the
peSslmlst In weary tones he told
or the disappointments and sorrows of
life, Of the selfishness of human beings
OF the savagery into which some of us
find 1t so easy to drop, of the curse of
education in opening before us all vast
fields of learning that Time prevents
us from traversing, of the mockery Of
life in giving US mere peep of great
things and then sending us onward in
to death and darkness. The dreary
catalogue of woe-stricken thoughts
grew more and more irksome as it pro-
gressed, and / fear there were replies
given more forceful than polite. Since
he is one of a class, may 1 just in a
few crowded words repeat some things
that were said during my portion of the
conversation.
l believe that man talks only in
such gloomy fashion when he is an in
tense egotiSt; that he regards the world
as under obligation to circle for him
and his pleasure; that he makes the
center of the universe a mere speck of
complaining humanity; and that his
own little toothache or his own little
misery is alone used in estimating the
feelings of others.
/ believe that rainy days have their
place fully as much as days Of sun
shine in bringing forth the fruits of the
earth. So I believe that none Of us
bring forth our best when all is sun
shine. As the glare and glory of a
blazing sun cause the desert, so perfect
ease of life develops desert men and
women, who make the counterpart Of
the wasted miles of Sahara, in the
wasted years of their lives ardently
spent for self, and therefore hostile to
every other human being. / must be-
lieve this or else regard the Creator
as a mere teaser of men.
I believe that the selfishness of hui
man beings is more talked about than
real. Even among the poor-and that
includes most of us-there is so much
unselfish helping of one another, little
doles of kindness given with free hand
out of almost empty wallets. that one
is compelled to believe that the example
of the majority of us will finally become
the guide of the world. AS Sir Edwin
Arnold says: .'All the poor are piteous
to the poor; so long as the poor last
pity will last, and when the poor and
grief-strained cease pity will no longer
be needed.
/ believe that though savagery and
grossness lurk in the breasts of all of
US there is an increasing control of the
hereditary inner savage, and that the
general orderliness of daily life pro-
claims this truth. To prove it, run
over in your mind the things your i'm
pulses would drive you toward; and
then see how your hesitancy is con-
firmed into active enmity to those feel
ings by your knowledge Of the stand
ard society-made of units like your
self-expects of you. To see what we
were few centuries ago, one might
go to the natives of South Africa. Ac-
cording to the word of a missionary
Bishop, they are so unused to control
by reason of centuries lacking in it, that
at present it is impossible for the Ro-
man Catholic Church to ordain native
priests there. So foreign TO their
thoughts is any desire for self-conquest
on behalf of others that celihacy is an
absolute bar against them. But under
| our civilization, when there is reason