The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1904-11-27

koOn tNlhk. But quite otner Is TINS
extreme vigilance. this incCssant OBJ
servation of ones life and thoughts
this dissecting OF ones self. like a
piece of mechanism. 1t is a waste OF
time. and goes wide of the mark The
man who. to prepare himself the bet
ter for walking, should begin by MAX
ing q rigid anatomical examination OF
his means of locomotion, would risk
oisIocating something before he had
taken step. You have what you need
TO walk with. then forward, Take care
not to faA and use your forces with
discretion. Potterers and scruple-
mongers are soon reduced TO inaction
it needs but a glimmer of common
sense to perceive that man is not made
10 pass his life in Self-centered
trance.
And common sense-do you not find
what is designated by this name be-
coming as rare as the common sense
customs Of other days? Common sense
has become an old story. We must
Rave something new-and We create q
fictitious existence. a refinement of
iivinS, that the vulgar crowd has not
the Wherewithal 10 procure. Ii is SO
agreeable to be distinguished, In
stead Of conducting ourselves like ia
tiOnal beings. and using the means
most obviously at our command. we
arrive, by dint of absolute genius, at
the most astonishing singularities.
Better of the track than on
the main line. All the bodily
defects and defornities that orthopedy
tIea ; give but a feeble idea Of the
humps. the tortuosities. the disIoca-
tons we have inflicted upon ourselves
in order 10 depart from simple common
\
learn that one does not deform him
self with impunity. Novelty. after all
is ephemerai. Nothing endures from
that. it is TO run the most perilous
risks Happy he who is able 10 re-
claim himself. who finds the way back
to simplicity.
Good plain sense is not. as is often
imagined, the innate possession of the
INST chance CONNER, mean and
paltry equipment that has cost moth
ing 10 anyone. l would compare il to
those old folk-songs, unfathered but
dcathlesS, which seem to have risen
out Of the very heart of the people
Good sense is a fund slowly and pain
fully accumulated by the abor of
centuries. 1t is a jewel of the first
water. whose value he alone under
stands who has lost il, or who observes
the lives of others who have lost it.
For my part. | think no price too
great to pay for gaining it and keep
ing It, for the possession of eyes that
see and a judgment that discerns. One
takes good care of his sword, that II
be not bent or rusted; with greater
reason should he give heed to his
thought
But let this be we'll understood: an
to common sense is not an ap-
peal to thought that grovels. to mar
row positivism which denies every
thing it cannot see or touch. For to
wish that man should be absorbed in
material sensations. to the exclusion
OF the high realities of the inner life,
is also want Of good sense. Here we
touch upon a tender point, round
which the greatest battles of human
ity are waging. In truth We are striv-.
ing TO attain "A conception Of life
searching il out amid countless
and griefs; and everything
that touches upon spiritual realities
becomes day by day more painful. In
the midst of the grave perplexities and
transient disorders that accompany
great crises Of thought, il seems more
difficult than ever TO escape with any
simple principles. Yet necessity itself
comes to our aid, as it has done for the
men Of all times. The programme of
life is terribly simple after all, and in
the fact that existence so imperiously
forces herself upon us, she gives us
notice that she DFecedes any idea of
her which we may make for ourselves.
and that no one can put off living
pending an attempt to understand life.
Dur PHILOSOPHERS. our explanations.
to I.
by facts. and these facts. Drodigious,
Irefutable, call us 90 order when we
would deduce life from our reasOnings,
and would wait to act until we have
ended philOsophizing 1t is this happy
necessity that prevents the world
rom stopping while man questions his
'Cute. Travellers of a day. we are
carried along in a vast movement to
which We are called upon to con-
ribute but which we have not for
seen, nor embraced in its entirety. nor
penetrated as to it's ultimate aims.
Dur part is to fiji faithfully the role of
private. which has devOlved upon us.
md our thought should adapt itself to
he situation. Do not say that we live
n more trying times than our ances-
crs. for things seen from afar are
,ften seen imperfectly; ii is moreover
scarcely gracious to complain of not
having been born in the days Of ones
What we may believe
east cOntestable on the subject is
his: from the beginning of the world
t has been hard 10 see clearly: right
linking has been difficult everywhere
md always. In the matter the ancients
we're in no wise privileged above the
and ii might be added that
here is no difference between men
when they are considered from this
,oint of view Master and servant.
eacher and learner writer and artisan
discern truth at the same cost The
light that humanity acquires in adj
ancing is no doubt of the greatest
se; but it also multiplies the number
nd eXen of human problems, The
ifficulty is never removed. the mind
lways encounters its obstacle The un-
nOWn controls US and hens us in on
II sides. But just as one need not
xhaust a spring to quench his thirst,
o we need not know everything to
I've. Humanity lives and always has
we'd OH certain elemental provisions.
We Will try to point them out. First
( all. humanity lives by confidence.
n so doing it but reflects. commensur-
te with its conscious thought, that
Which is the hidden source of all be-
ngs. An imperturbable faith in the
liability of the universe and its intel
gent ordering, sleeps i'm everything
hat exists. The flowers. the trees. the
casts of the field, live i'm calm
trength. IN entire security. There is
0nfdence in the falling rain. in dawn.
Is day, in the brook running to the
Ed, Everything that is seems to say:
l am. therefore ] should be; there are
God reasons for this, rest assured.
So. too. mankind lives by confidence.
rom the simple fact that he is. man
as within him the sufficient reason for
is being-a pledge Of assurance
e reposes in the power which has
lied that he should be. To safeguard
lis confidence, to see that nothing
sconcerts il. TO cultivate it. render IL