Richmond planet. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1883-1938, 1903-03-28
ADAPTATION.
God and Eternity Che Only Explain
alton for some Things THAT
Arise in This Life.

The round man in the square hole
and in the round hole the square man"
is often said; and people seem aston
ished, as they say it, as if the occasion
which provokes The remark were an
unusual thing. But a little reflection
shows that in reality this is almost
the rule rather than the exception.
Who does not know, for example, a
clergyman who would have made an
excellent banker or physician, a pro-
fessor who would have been a great
strategist, a soldier who would have
been tirst-rate man of affairs?
Of course, when it is said that for
persons to miss their vocation is by no
means uncommon, the truth of the
saying has to be discounted by making
due allowance for that forward and
delusive faculty" as Butler calls it,
the imagination. People are only too
apt, which is quite another thing, to
imagine themselves misplaced. 1t is
soothing to wounded self-love to fat
ter oneself that one could have done
much better, had the lot fallen in fair
er ground.
The environment, says the Saturday
Review it must be admitted, seems in
nine cases out Of ten singularly map
propriate. 1t seems so. Is it so really?
Cannot we, even with our very limited
vision, see that the difficulties inherent
in our surroundings are often the very
thing needed for the discipline of life,
for the training and perfecting of
whatever of good is in us? Life is
called a race. 1t is an obstacle race,
and the winners are those who sur
mount the worst obstacles bravely and
wisely. A sensible teacher has said:
Find out what occupation a boy or
girl likes best and seems aptest for,
and develop this liking, this aptitude;
but don't forget that things uncon-
genial must be done also, for the sake
of self-control." Suppose, after all,
the old story were true that this life
is but a training for another, that the
really important world were yet to
come? That story which the world is
ever deridinU. hut 70 which II oh
stinately returns; that belief which
materialism puts on one side, but long
experience of human nature seldom
fails TO replace. On that hypothesis
certainly much in life becomes intelli-
gible of which no other theory can
make anything but farce. If the whole
play is played out here, undeniably
life is very often nothing but farce,
some times solemn, sometimes squalid
That a man with one great capacity
should through all his life be hindered
by circumstances either external or
of his own character from turning thGt
capacity to account is waste a gen.
eral loss. SO vast. so indefensible that,
If this life were all, there could be
nothing for il but bitter laugh. If,
however. life here were but prelude
to the real thing yet to come, il might
economically he perfectly sound to de-
bar the man of one capacity from using
il until he had gone through a certain
discipline that would enable him ulti-
mately to use it to greater effect. In
fact, il is exactly what n sensible par
emit does with child that early dis
closes particular gift. He deliberate
~ prevents him making use of ii until
he attains n certain maturity. What
are ten years TO 60; what then are 60
to eternity?