The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1902-05-25

I mountain crest, crowned Win everlasting
verdure and bathed in mellow Hght, holds
for the weary climber every promise OF
| beauty and repose- But once its height
| is gained and new strength cones Yon
| boulders. gnaried and blaczened legs, all
unseen and unsuspected in the distance,
| disturb and mar the view. The fairer
submits lie still beyond. Yes If he viii
but look behind he wiz note the sharp
| ascent he has made The valley from
which he came lies far below. And 50
we view some Pisgah height. OF character
and achievement, some vision OF a fairer
life and struggle on with upturned face.
but when its summit IS reached as nearly
as our poor strength may attain it. dis
fgurment and imperfection attend US
still. But at least we are higher than We
were Our outlool. is wider The atmos-
phere is purer We can see more clearly
the way that leads to the greater heights
beyond.
And where shall We find our ideals?
Everywhere, without and within--in books
and paintings AID music, in the beauties
of nature and the majesty OF her laws.
in the worthy lives about US and the
great and helpful lives that have been
lived before Us. in the stiH. small voice
within each of US, which distinguishes
that which is good from that which is
evil that which is high from that which
is ignoble. Oh yes. there is no trouble
IN finding the ideals. Every one can find
them. and indeed almost every one has
them in greater or less degree. The
trouble is to follow them-to follow them
tation, through failure and discourage
ment through everything that would pull
us down Nothing more in this world is
more pitiful than the condition of the man
or woman who has entered upon life with
high and noble aspirations and has yet
permitted the accommodating assaults OF
the sordid and unworthy things Of life TO
shatter those ideals and turn them into
thing of Indifference and uockery. IN
stead OF going from strength TO strength
they have gone from strength TO weak
ness. Victory over difficulties. physical.
Intellectual. moral, gives added strength
for future victory. This is the law of life.
Struggle, opposition, strife-these are the
conditions of growth and we can never
hope to gain stability in any course Of life
by following always the line Of least re-
sistance. George Eliot Sounds this phil
osophy 10 its depth. She deals out retri-
button ana wrath, not TO the conventional
william. but to the moral weakling. With
merciless justice she pursues him on his
downward course, as he lets slip his hold,
one by one of the aspirations and ideals
CT his better self. The bottom of the
inclined plane comes at last and the cat
astrophe. unless some moral revolution
intervenes TO save the sinner from HIM
self
1 do not attempt here to enter upon an
enumeration of the worthy and exalting
ideals which every one may set before
himself for guidance and inspiration-in
conduct, in character, in ambition. in
achievement, in usefulness. But whoever
our ideal man or woman may be, what
ever our ideals may be. they should lead
us at last to this thought; that the great
est thing in the world is not to win honor
or fame or wealth or power-though these
are ambitions worthy Of as all-but SO to
live. that the world viii IN some way be
the better for our having lived in it.
The supreme ideal Of history is the life Of
Jesus the Christ; and He himself declared
that He came not to be ministered unto
but 10 minister This means no surrender
of Individual ambition. no foregoing Of
individual success. He who achieves sue
cess for himself in any honorable line Of
human ambition is all the better fitted,
20 make his life count for something rs a
factor in the service of his. fellow raen.
But even If we fall short of all our
homes and expectations-so far short that
failure" seems writ across the story of
our lives-stin it is better thus than
never to have striven toward the light
In Robert Downing's golden words:
What I aspired TO be,
And was not, comforts me;
All could never be.
All. men ignored in me,
This was I worth to God whose wheel
the pitcher shaped"
The whole story Of the heroism that is
in the world will never be told. Monu-
ments viii still be builded TO the captains
and the kings. The glory of those who
have achieved the honors Of the world
Will stu be celebrated in great paseants.
and immortalized in story ard song But
the 'heroisrn OF those who tTy and fail. Of
those who do the work and miss the prize
OF those who aspire 10 the heights and
reach but the level plaintiffs is an I'M
told tale. this is one Of ths inevitable
tragedies Of human life.