The San Francisco call., 1904-12-12
MORE INTERESTING Than
4 NOVEL THE Study
OF HUMAN lives.
BIZ D1P0thI Fenim0re.

~ ARK you those kindling eyes
ssfkI with lov Ell g h I
, The buoyant step. and
flash OF laughter gay? ?
Bright burn the bonfres of a
human heart.
To hold the wolves Of memory at
bay"
How little We know Of the people
about us. We see them. not as they
really are. but as our own experience
fits Us 10 see them. To untried youth
the night-watch Of 4 sorrowing soul
may look ike midnight revelry. II is
only despair which teaches one the
value of a laugh. the frtility OF tears.
The act OF observing the people
about you with the view Of penetrat-
ing the secret romance of their lives is
in more respects than the obvious one.
like reading a noEel. When you read
a book what IS il that you gain? Do
yop get the fullness Of the writer's
thought? You have his words. and
what they mean 10 you: but that is
all you have. What they meant TO
him who wrote them il is beyond your
power even 10 know.
Just so with the human document.
When you have closed this book what
have you that you did not have be-
fore? Have you the facts Ct anoth-
er's life? Yes, possibly you have the
facts, but they do not necessarily con-
stitute the truth about the one whom
you have been studying. The only
truth that you have gained is that
which. in your Interpretation Of an
others acts and motives, you have dug
out of your own soul.
This IS the reason why we womeh
judge man by his capacity for loy-
ing. Love is our natural life. and de-
ternines. therefore. our standard OF
value In our eyes the man who, by
word or act, refuses 20 recognize the
power of love. dwarfs his own proper
tions. We feel that MS inherent egot-
ism, which was certainly meant by his
Creator TO carry him toward the goal
of his desires. is like 2 loose sail flap
ping in the wind, retarding his prog
ress. instead of helping him onward.
OF course, in taking this view OF
things We are not reading men; we are
reading ourselves. Whv men are thus
and so it is beyond a woman's power
to fathoIn She can see in the men
about her qualities that she herself pos
sesses. She can interpret their acts by
the effect that they have. upon her
own life. She can perceive the infiu-
ence Of her own personality in the pow
er that she has for good or evil. 1t is
her right-the gift alike of instinct ana
Of logic-to believe in a masculine
strength, which is the complement of
her feminine weakness. Beyond this
point she cannot go by any arts OF
divination which heaven has given her.
4 reader Of these articles has written
TO NE that he thinks that 1 am gen
erous TO men. 1 trust that no one of
you viii think that | am ungenerous
to women when / say that ] think the
responsibilities of the world they live in
rests mainly on their shoulders. They
set the fashion in love as well as in
morals. For many OF the failings OF
men the women have only themselves
to blame. They have been too wasteful
Of their heritage and too careless OF
their privileges.
II is as the English moralist declares
the buckling on of a knights armor
by his lady's hand in days OF old means
more TO us than a mere caprice of ro-
mantle fashion. Rather it is the type
of an eternal truth-'that the souls
armor is never well set to the heart
unless a woman's hand has brsced it;
and it is only when she braces il loose
ly that the honor of manhood fails