Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1904-12-03

practIca1 ideal or man. everywhere
in life we see certain quantities OK
matter and energy associated for GER
tain ends. Substances more or less
crude are thus transformed and car
ried to q higher degree OF organization.
1t is not otherwise with the life OF
man. The human ideal is to trans
form life into something more excel
lent than itself. We may compare ex-
istence TO raw material What it is
matters less than what is made of II.
as the value of work of art lies
in the Towering of the workman's
skill. We bring into the world with US
different gifts. One has received gold.
another granite, Il third marble. most
Of us wood or clay. Our task is to
fashion these substances. Every one
knows that the most precious material
may be spoiled. and he knows. too,
that out of the least costly an immor-
tai work may be shaped. Art is the
realization of q permanent idea in an
ephemerai form. True life Is the
realization of the higher virtues-jus
tice. love, truth. liberty. moral power
in our daily activities. whatever they
social conditions the most diverse and
with natural gifts the most unequal.
1t Ia not fortune or personal advan-
taGe, but our turning them to ac-
count, that constitutes the value Of
life. Fame adds no more than does
length of days Quality is the thing.
Need we say that one does not rise
to this point of view without strug-
gle? The spirit Of simplicity is not an
Inherited gift, but the result of labo-
rious conquest. Plain living, like high
thinking, is sinpliication. We know
that science is the handful of ultimate
principles gathered out Of the tufted
mass of facts, but what groupings 20
discover them. Centuries of research
are often condensed into n principle
that line may state. Here the moral
life presents strong analogy with The
scientific. 1t. too, begins in certain
confusion, makes trial Of itself. seeks
TO understand itself. and often mis-
takes. But by dint of action and eH-
acting from himself strict account Of
his deeds man arrives at a better
knowledge of life. Its law appears to
him, and the law is this: Work out
your mission. He who applies himself
to aught else than the realization Of
this end loses in living the raison d'etre
of life. The egotist does so, the pleas
ure seeker, the ambitious; he con-
sumes existence as one eating the full
corn in the blade; he prevents 1t from
bearing its fruit; his life IS lost. Who
ever, on the contrary, makes his life
serve q good higher than itself. saves 1t
in giving it. Moral p-ecepts which to
n superficial view appear arbitrary and
seem made to spoil our zest for life
have really but one object-to preserve
us from the evil of having lived In
vain. That Is why they are constantly
leading us back into the same paths;
that is why they all have the same
Do not waste your life; make
1t bear fruit; learn how to give Ii in
order that it may not consume itself.
Herein is summed up the experience OF
humanity. and this experience. which
each man must remake for himself, Is
more precious in proportion as it costs
more dear. Illumined by its light, lie
makes q moral advance more and more
sure. Now he has his means of Orien
tation. his internal norm to which he
may lead everything back, and from
the vacillating, confused and complex