The age-herald., 1899-01-19
THREE BEST THINGS
 IN THE WORLD

From the New York Journal.
 If you had choice of all qualities which man can possess, which three would you declare most important?
 This question is submitted as interesting every man. We give our answer; if yours is different, send it here.
 Self-control. Justice. Imagination-Those we think the most important elements in the human makeup. A man fully equipped with all three would be greater than any the world has known.
 Self-control you must start with.
 Alone it makes life worth while It frees you from the danger of remorse, the wasted time of self-reproach. It sees opportunities as they come; saves you from damaging temptation. It is as important to a brain as is physical equilibrium to a work of masonry.
 A man without self-control building out of plumb, cannot endure.
 Justice-it is the foundation of all repu- tation worth having. It is to man as nec- essary as the compass to the ship. It is the compass. Justice will give reputation for greatness though you create nothing. It will win affectionate reverence in life and gratifying gravestone at life's end.
 Imagination-Greatest gift to man. It finds him grovelling here, pithicoid little ness
 The rough hair is gone from his body. His thumb has lost it's monkey smallness; he walks flat on his feet.
 But beyond that he has naught else to thank material nature for.
 All the rest comes to him from imagina- tion. Marvellous work she performs. She takes naked man with his low forehead, with his gruntings and whistlings through his teeth, and makes of him what man was meant to be.
 Very slowly she works, but ceaselessly. Her task is not nearly ended. At her first glimmerings mans real life begins He learns from her to add wood to fire No monkey ever did 1t. That stamps him a man.
 Soon, with her help, he leaves the earth and travels off ten thousand million miles into space. He counts the suns in the milky way, travels in the air, under the water, harnesses lightning, controls nature By imagination he is made captain of this earthly ship on which he travels through space.
 only imagination separates Archimedes working at his problems in the sunlight from the vile soldier that slaughtered him.
 Shakespeare rattling his ale pot and Jo- hanna shaking her bars at the Zoo are alike, save for the difference of imagina- tion.
 self-control to balance you. ne,
 Justice to guide you. I,
 Imagination to lend creative power.
 "Equilibrium direction, creation" IT,
 The trinity ardently to be desired.
 The constant tendency of thought is to evolve from apparent complexity perfect simplicity.
 Long, long ago Plato announced that ap- parent dlnerences are deceptive; that all things existing come from one casting-the mind of God, which he names idea"
 Similarly today the solemn thinking Ger mans tell you that matter and force are identical, that the interchangeable charac- ter of forces-heat, light, magnetism, etc. is part of the a, b, c of proved phenomena.
 haeckel stops digging up old bones and classifying sea microscopic organisms long enough to write "Monism," expressing his belief that God is anything and everything, from Orion to tumble-bug.
 Similarly it is quite easy to show that the selected three-Self-control, Imagination and justice-are in reality one. Each exists as part of the other. Each is made up of the other two.
 But this column is not devoted to any save simple things.
 The question is this, once more:
 What are mans three most useful quali- ties-which three would you possess?
 Do not call this question idle or believe that we cannot hlange ourselves. We can
 Napoleon said: Never believe that a man ever changed his temperament"
 But Napoleon often said that which was foolish and that was one of the times.
 It ought to delight you to know that you can change yourself if you want to, as you can change the arrangement of your back parlor
 Try it. It is hard work, but good exer- else.