The pioneer press. (Miller, Hand County, S.D.) 1893-190?, 1899-11-23

1t was practically
impossible for me to carry on the
everyday work Of my profession, and
at the same time give up my mind to
the almost appalling undertaking had
in hand. Any spare time that was left
to me, after providing for my days
work, was more than occupied in col
Iecting notes of those particular kinds
of physical and mental or, to coin
word, spirituo-mental phenomena
some of which are, as readers of The
Secret of Life" may see, exceedingly
rare-that i required as groundwork
of my argument, and with the carry
ing on of voluminous correspondence
with such scientific men all over the
world as did not set me down as a
dreamer, or worse. So | had to make
up my mind either to do one thing or
the other, give up my search after the
moral philosophers stone, or surren-
der the lease of my chambers in the
city. For some months / worked dou
bic tides, and hesitated, but at last my
decision could no longer be postponed,
1T must be one thing or the other So
in my perplexity / consulted Fanny,
and having laid the whole matter be-
fore her, asked her which course she
thought | ought to take. Her answer
was prompt and unhesitating. 1t was
to the effect that should give up my
profession and devote myself exclu-
sively to my investigations.
ssyn,, have Cd hrndrad x,oor - live
on" she said, "and therefore will not
starve; and, IL you succeed, you will
achieve immortal fame; for you will
have found the way to minister to
mind diseased, and, if you fail, you
will have acquired an enormous mass
of knowledge which you may be able
to turn to account in some other way.
have no doubt myself on the matter.
Think Of what the reward before you
is"
L did not quite like Fanny's way of
putting the matter. She always seem
ed TO me to dwell too much upon the
personal advantages that would re-
suit from my success. Now such a
Nquest as mine is not for the individual;
1t is for the whole wide world, and for
the millions and millions who are yet
sto live upon 1t. What does it matter
who finds, provided that the truth is
found? Why, any right-thinking man
should be glad, if his circumstances
will permit of 1t to give his life to such
IA cause; aye, even If he knows that, SO
mar as he is concerned, he will never
reach the goal, but be trodden down
and forgotten. He should be glad and
happy, say, IL he can only think that
some more fortunate seeker will be able
TO step pace to forward on his pros
trate form. But, after all, even the
hest and widest-minded women, as /
have found them, will look at things
in a strictly personal light. / do not
e5hink that as a class they care much
! err humanity at large, or would go far
,out OF their way to help 1T; of course, l
mean If they are certain that nobody
will hear of their good work. But this
is only an opinion. Z
\ a pointed this out to Fanny, who
shrugged her handsome shoulders, and
said that really she did not think IL
mattered much which way one looked
at it; the great thing was to succeed.
Well, took her advice, partly be-
cause 1t fell In with my own views. and
partly because l have always paid more
attention to Fanny than to any other
living creature. Indeed, to this day |
hold her Judgment in almost childish
ri 20
me. giving UP the outward and visible
following Of my profession, more espe-
cially as / was then in fair way TO
achieve considerable success in 1t: but
IT had to be done. felt it my duty to
do it, and so l made the best of il.
What was still harder, however, was
the reception that my decision met
possessed, and my friends and ac-
quail stances, They demonstrated with
ne personally and by letter, and an
noyei me in every way, and upon every
1oosS' BILE occasion. Even relatives with
whori had never had the slightest in
tercS1rse thought this good oppor-
tunity to inaugurate an epistolary ac-
.quamtanc One old aunt wrote to ask
what amount of truth there was in the
Tumor that had given up my profess
;sion, and what had taken to in place of
1T? / replied that was devoting myself
80 scientific research. An answer came
by return OF post, to the effect that
having heard that was doing so we'll
AS doctor, she had recognized my
talents in her will. This she had, on
receipt of my letter OF explanation, at
once given instructions to alter by the