The commonwealth. (Scotland Neck, N.C.) 1896-1929, 1898-01-20
SELFISH,N ESS UNREAL.
OEUT IOllN EOO U IN hUAU.
MANY HELPERS IN THE WORLD,
BETTER MEN FOR THE NEW
CENTURY.
Some Rambling Thoughts.
BY "NEMO."
Some Rambling Thoughts.
BY 'tNEMo."

By NEMOs
/ Copyrighted by Dave & Tabor.)
There came across my path few
days since, young man of wide read
Ing but not of deep thought who hat
among other things, saturated his mint
with the thoughts of Schopenhauer
the pessimist. In weary tones he tolt
of the disappointments and SORROWS o
life, of the selfishness of human beings
of the savagery into which some of III
find it so easy to drop, of the curse o.
education In opening before us all vast
fields of learning that Time prevents
us from traverslng, of the mockery o1
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 I fear there were replies
given more forceful than polite. Since
he is one of class, may I just in a
few crowded words, repeat some things
that were said during my portion of
the conversation?
~
believe that man talks only in
such gloomy fashion when he is such an
intense egoist that he regards the world
as under obligation to circle for him
and his pleasure that he makes the
centre 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 sunshine
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 lite 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. I must be-
believe this or else regard the Creator
as mere teaser of men.
1 believe that the selfshness of hui
man beings is more talked about than
real. Even among the poor-and that
includes most of us-there is so much
unselfsh helping of one another, little
doles of kindness given with freehand
out of almost empty wallets, that one
is compelled to believe that the ex-
ample OF the majority of us will finally
become the guide of the world. As
Sir Edwin Arnold says, Cali the poor
are piteous to the poor" so as long as
the poor last pity will last, and when
the poor and griefstrained cease, pity
will no longer be needed.
/ belieye 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 proveiit, run over
In your mind the things your impulses
would drive you toward and then see
how your hesitancy is confirmed into
active enmity to those feelings by your
knowledge of the standard society
made up of units like yourself expects
of you. To see what we were a few
centuries ago, one might go to the
natives of South Africa. According to
the word OF missionary-bishop, they
are so unused to control by reason of
centuries lacking in it, that at present
it Is impossible for the Roman Catholic
church to ordain native priests there.
So foreign to their thought is any de-
sire for self-conquest on behalf OF others
that cehbacy is an absolute bar against
them. But under our civilization
Persons who are troubled with in
digestion will be interested in the ex-
perience of VIM. 81. Penn, chief clerk
in the railway mail service at Des
Moines, Iowa, who writes: cit gives