The commercial. (Union City, Tenn.) 190?-193?, 1904-08-19
GOLDEN SILENCE
Is Our Only Means of Real Commu-
nication.

III Is IDLE 10 tnlnk That Dy mean
of words any real communication
can ever pass from one man t
another.
The lips or tongues may repre-
sent the soul, even as a cipher OF
number may represent picture
of Nemling, but from the mo
ment that we have something t.
say to each other we are compeli
ed to hold our peace, and if al
such times we do not listen to the
urgent commands of silence, invis.
ible though they be, we shall have
suffered an eternal loss that all the
treasures of human wisdom can.
not make good, for we shall have
let slip the opportunity of listen.
ing to another and of giving exist
ence, be 1t only for an instant, to
our own, and many lives there are
in which such opportunities do
not present themselves twice.
1t is only when life is sluggish
within us that we speak; only at
moments when reality lies far
away, and we do not wish to be
conscious of our brethren.
And no sooner do we speak
than something warns us that the
divine gates are closing.
Thus it comes about that we hug
silence to us and are very misers
of it, and even the most reckless
will not squander it on the first
conner.
There is an instinct of the su
perhuman truths within us which
warns us that it is dangerous to
be silent with one whom we do not
wish to know or do not love, for
words may pass between men, but
let silence have had its instant of
activity and it will never efface it.
self, and indeed the true life, the
only life that leaves trace be-
hind, is made up of silence alone.
Bethink it we'll, in that silence
to which you must again have re
course, so that it may explain it.
self by itself, and if it be granted
to you to descend for one moment
into your soul, into the depths
where the angels dwell, it is not
the words spoken by the crea-
ture you loved so dearly that you
will recall, Or the gestures that he
made, but it is, above all, the 81
lences that like sacred echoes come
back to you, for it is the quality
of those silences which will ensue.
As we advance through life it is
more and more brought home to
us that nothing takes place that is
not in accord with some curious
preconceived design, and of this
we never breathe u word. Wei
scarcely dare let our minds dwell
upon it, but of its existence, some
what above our heads, we are alb
solutely convinced.
The more fatuous of men smiles
at the first encounter, as though |
he were the accomplice of the des-
tiny of his brethren. And in this
domain even those who can speak
the most profoundly realize-they,
perhaps even more than others
that words can never express the
real, special relationship that ex
lists between two beings.
Were l to speak to you to this
moment of the gravest thing of
all-of love, death or destiny
it is not love, death or destiny
that | should touch; and, my eff
forts Notwithstanding, there would
always remain between us truth
which had not been spoken, which
we had not even thought of speak
ing, and yet it is this truth only,
voiceless though it has been, which
will have lived with us for an in
slant, and by which we shall have
been wholly absorbed. For that i
truth was our truth as regards
death, destiny or love, and it was
ia silence only that we could per
,eive it. And nothing save only
The silence will have had any i'm ]
portance.
"My sisters" says the child in
he fairy story, ''you have each of !