Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1899-08-26

-----------.----------
ions alike as to its origin and cure. He
sees that Il originates inside O man, ana
must be cured from the outside; that
to-work" Is subjective
feeling, only to be overcome by an OBJ
jective you've got TO work" IF you
can't or won't make yourself work. then
I'll make your Is his rousing word TO
the tramp.
Now. what other practical philosophy
than this does every sensible man hnd
himself compelled 10 fall back on when
he comes down TO breakfast on sultfy
August morning, and discovers that
tramp salivary gland and tramp pepsin
gland and tramp taste-nerve and smell
nerve are all lazy, listless, and totally
depraved on the subject of nutmeg
melons. chops, fried potatoes, or even
coffee? III you won't work. then III
make you work. he finally rouses him
self 20 say Appetite comes by eating,
as perspiration by saving wood. SO
there. then-whether you crave II or not
chew and swallow that bit OF chop, or
gulp down that spoonful Of coffee. Aha
already you seem waking up a trinei
Now for another. and still another Dit
Why. you positively begin To enjoy a
breakfast on your own account! Nostrlis
are shifting spontaneously after melon
fragance: jaw muscles are working win
vigor In squeezing out the juicy naVor OF
steak. and, from certain familiar Internal
sensations il is clear as day that the
pepsin founts down below are flowing
merrily as a White mountain brook
The apathetic laziness Is getting routed
out Of you by external stimulus, isn't ~
That was all that was the matterl'
Every man feels lazy when he feels
lazy. This sounds ike a very self-evi-
dent proposition TO enunciate. But II Is
self-evident only on the surface. and is.
I'm reality, so profound a saying that. II
any one of the "Seven Wise Men Of the
World" had had the rare good fortune
to originate II, he would have ecpsed
all his rivals and made his intellectual
and historical fortune. Year after year
may be spent in meditating II. only 10
find the mind getting plunged into
deeper nd deeper depths than plummet
ever sounded For soon there emerges
from the abyss the second stupendois
proposition that every man feels lazy.
not merely when he feels lazy, but, first
and foremost, when he is lazy: in other
words, that he has got TO be lazy before
he can feel lazy. mo cross no crown6'
There are plenty of nervously restless
people who would give their heads to
feel lazy for once I'm their lives but who
never can, because they are never lazy.
They are looking for figs from the
priclSly thstles OF singing and briery
nerves. which is no more rational than
to expect 10 make a soothing poultlce
out Of blistering Spanish flies. What,
then, IL this mystery Of man. and what
can lead him first 10 be lazy, I'm order
afterward 10 feel lazy? The tramp alone
fathoms the abyss of this enigma and
! lowers into IL an electric light that illu-
mines its darkest caverns.
How. then" demands the philosophic
mind. does tho tramp set 10 work TO
achieve what TO him is the chief end of
man. namely, being, and not merely feel
| ing, lazy?" He does not set to work at
| all. He n too wise for that His method
| is passive, not active. He simply lets
every energy and faculty IN body and
mind run down into a state Of inertia-
! pride. ambition, sense of duty, self
respect, obligation to society. In course
| of time he has the qualification Of find
/ ing that not one Of these has activity
enough left in It 10 turn over in its
/ sleep. Never a one Of them ever after
bothers him with an accursed organic
/ intellectual, moral, or emotional dispO-
sition to work, any more than though
they were so many jellyhshes floating
| on summer sea. HIS victory Is com
plete. He is lazy through and through
and so feels lazy through and through.
Now instead OF thoughtfully studying
the tramp and getting all the moral i'm
proyement out Of him one can too many
people simply turn up their noses at hin
in contempt, and so utterly fail TO be
| hold themselves I'm his mirror and to SEE
how much Ike him they are. "There'l
! not a lazy bono IN my bOdyP' one o.
these high and lofty fellows will b.
| heard to cry. Not a lazy bone-leti
| sect Do you ever read a book Of
strong thinker that puts your mind OF
its mettle, or a poem OF n supremer mas
ter that gives wings TO your magma
ton? Do you ever take n brave. indie
| pendent stand on political or social ques
| lions? MOI In these matters neithe
your intellect nor your conscience both
ers you any more than the tramp
bother him. You have let them run down
TO his level Of inertia. They have strucl
work and no longer intrude on you 81
much as a suggestion OF shame at haY
ing such a lazy intellect, lazy magma
ton or lazy conscience. Not even you
breakfast experience on a sultry Angus
dog day Of how appetite comes by eat
ing" has taught you anything beyond &c
"chops and tomato sauce application u
melon, steak, and coffee. and so IL neve
enters your head that you can equal.
stimulate the flow Of the sluggish gas
trio juices Of your mind and soul will
the nutritive rump Of Burke and Web
ster and the fragant Java Of Longfel
| low, Bryant, and Tennyson.