The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1901-10-03
Paper Read Before the Cha,uauqua Circle.

Paper Read Before the Cha,aauq,1a Circle.
q URROUNDED as we are here
by living examples that have
~ been judged, it may seem out of
place to speak about judging
each other; but as putting man behind
prison bars and in striped, checkered
Or plain prison suit, does not change
his nature very much, but as he in spite
of this remains man, so his faults
will cling to him, and let us hope his
good traits too.
If speak about judging man 1 do
not mean that men who have done
wrong should not be liable to judg-
ment at all I,-heaven forbid! for then
chaos would reign-but that this judg-
ment, pronounced by the proper author
tiles, should be sufticient-in other
words, that no man should create him
self a Judge of others, be it here or in
the outside world. "Who art thou that
thou wilt judge another mani" Quite
apart what the book of books tells us
about judging each other, every one
no matter who he is-should be very
careful as to giving his judgment
about his fellow man. But how is it.
When we hear about a man of our
acquaintance, or, say, some promi-
nent man, having gone wrong we
wonder, and we say: "How could he
ever do such a thing? I never could
or would have done this" Of course
not, thou incompatible paragon! but
did you ever ask yourself what might
have driven this man to do the wrong
act? Did you ever put yourself in his
place? Doyou know the circumstances
of his wrongdoing? Were you ever as
sorely tempted as he may have been
No man can ever know the particulars
about another, much less the motives
for his actions. Did it ever occur to you
to set to work and find excuses for him i?
He may not excuse himself, and prob
ably does not expect to be excused by
his fellow men, but that can be no
excuse for us to judge him as harshly
as possible.
Every man is to very great extent
simply creature of circumstances.
, .o A good hearted
n. boy may become
a philanthropist
or spendthrift; courageous one a
hero or bully; an inquisitive one an
inventor or whatever he will
be in his later life depends on his sur
roundings in youth, the examples he
sees, the teachings he receives. Even
if we give full credit to the general
saying that man can make of himself
whatever he pleases, we have, in judg-
ing him, to take into consideration his
social and moral surroundings, his
temperament, his early education-in
fact so many things that we are simply
unable to form any right judgment
whatever.
AS rule you will find the hardest
judges of other men among the
youthful. This, in my opinion, can
only be explained by the fact that
young men, and very properly too,
have their high ideals; they are full OF
the highest aims; they think, in the
exuberance of their youth, that nothing
is unattainable for them, nothing so
high that they cannot reach it; they are,
in short, full of the highest motives.
And right here let me say, and / think
only say what you think yourselves,
that it would be pity if youth did not
feel in this way. But in this idealism
there just lies the germ of the harsh
Judgment of others. They think them
selves unable to do mean thing, and
accordingly judge the doers of these
things with the strictest severity. In
the course of time they become more
acquainted with the real world, their