The San Francisco call., 1899-06-04


respondents to whose toll the people of
this country are indebted for their
knowledge of European affairs, the
Gar of Russia is not satisfied with
either his empire, his epoch, his work
or himself. He is reported to have re-
Gently said that civilized man has
woven around him in his civilization so
many customs, conventionalities, pro-
prietieS, etiQuettes and artificial re-
strictions of all kinds that he no longer
has freedom either for good work or
joyous pleasure; that all he undertakes
is sure to end in failure and that no
life worth living is possible for serf or
sovereign.
About the time that report concern
ing the Car was filling space in the
papers there came story of a Denver
man who, having been told by his
physicians that one lung is gone and
his days of life are few, turned all his
property into cash, left his beloved wife
and hastened to Chicago to have good
time before he died. When found by
the pursuing wife he was in a glorious
state Of hilarity, with dancing girls
around him, singing gay songs over the
remnants Of what had been a delectable
feast.
The two stories taken together form
q good basis for a merry philosophy
The first teaches that If one submit to
the bondage Of society he can have no
fullness Of life, even though he wear
a crown and be an autocrat; while the
second shows that even one-lunged,
dying man may find his short life a
continual round of varied joys If he
break away from duty, as butterfly
breaks from a chrysalis. and emanci-
pate himself t. do what he will, when
he will and how he will to satisfy his
thirst and crafty his soul.
Count Leo Tolstoi has told US there
are three religions in the world and
only three; there never were any more,
there never can be any less; and every
intelligent being is compelled by the
very law of his intelligence to believe
one of the three. The dogma is based
upon the self-evident truth that every
intelligent being is conscious of the eX-
istence of itself and of something which
is not itself, and necessarily forms
some judgment concerning the relation
which the one bears to the other.
The self is the soul, and that which is
not self is the universe, and there are
but three conceivable relations between
them. It may be assumed that the soul
is supreme and has a right to use the
universe for it's pleasure or its profit;
or that the established order of the uni
verse is supreme and the soul must con-
form to its laws: or that there is a
power above both the soul and the uni
verse. to which the soul must surrender
itself and which it must obey though
such obedience imply not only the sac
rifice of the desires of the heart, but
the breaking of all laws of existing in
stitutions.
The Car believes his soul to be sub
ordinate to the established order of
things; he will bear life as a weary
burden rather than be false to his duty
to his crown, his station and his state
The Denver man believes the world to
be a garden wherein his sovereign soul
has right to every fruit and flower it
can gather Tolstoi believes that both
are sinners, for he would sacrifice en-
pres and pleasures, duties and drinks,
to divinity with an equal Willingness.
There is no need for any one to fret
this Sunday morning in trying to de-
termine which is right. Let us re-
member the saying of the prayer book:
I'VE are all miserable Sinners, and
put away any 81 question of the devil
that while each is sinner the Denver
man is having the best time.
Mrs. Stanford's decree that the num-
Der of women students at Stanford
University shall never exceed 500 at any
time is one of the most curious re-
strictions that has been placed in these
days upon the aspiring ambitions of
our girls. There is danger it appears
that Stanford might become something
like a woman's college, with girls
enough to form a woman's rights con-
vention every day, but not men enough
to organize football team once a year
The right of Mrs. Stanford to regulate
her family monu.hent in any way that
suits her taste is not to be questioned.
Those who have swag may swagger as
they please. The public interest in the
question lies in the new proof thus
given of the force with which women
are pushing their way into the more
intellectual walks of life They are not.
crow ling men out, for the paths of
learning are oper to all and are broad
enough for all but they are f1ocking in
while the men are staying out. Just
why that should be objected to is not
so clear to the outside world as it is
to those within the charmed university
circle. That he institution would lose
prestige if it lost it's football team is,