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

energy. calm action, the love of life and
its fruitful labor. Deep-seated conf
dence is the mysterious spring that sets
In motion the energy within us. II is
our nutriment- BY it man lives. much
more than by the bread he eats. And
so everything that shakes this conf
dence is evil-pOison, not food.
Dangerous is every system of thought
that attacks the very fact of life, de-
claring ii to be an evil Life has been
too often wrongly estimated in this
century. What wonder that the tree
withers when its roots are watered with
cOrrOSiVeS And there is an extremely
simple reflection that might be made
in the face of all this negation. You
say life is an evil. Well: what remedy
for it do you offer? Can you combat it,
suppress it? I do not ask you 10 sup
press your own life, to commit suicide.
of what advantage would that be to
1s?-but to suppress life. not merely
human life, but life at its deep and hid
den origin. all this upspringing Of ex-
istence that pushes toward the light
and. 10 your mind. is rushing 20 mis-
fortune; | ask You 10 suppress the viii
10 live that trembles through the inn
mensities of space, TO suppress in short
the source of life. Can you do il? No
Then leave US In peace. Since no one
can hold life I'm check, is ii not better TO
respect il and use it than to go about
making other people disguised with il?
When one knows that certain food is
dangerous to health, he does not eat
IL and when a certain fashion of think
ing robs US Of confidence. cheerfulness
and strength, we should reject that.
certain not only that il is a nUtriment
nOxiCus to the mind but also that II is
false. There is no truth for man. but
IN thoughts that are human, and pessi-
mism is inhuman. Besides. il wants as
much I'm modesty as in logic To per-
NIT ones self to count as evil this pro-
digiOus thing that we call life. one
needs have seen its very fOupndation,
almost TO have made it. What a
strange attitude is that Of certain great
thinkers of our times. They act as if
they had created the world, very long
ago. in their youth, but decidedly it
was a mistake, and they had we'll re-
pented it
Let US nourish ourselves from other
meat; strengthen our souls with cheer
ing thoughts. What is truest for man
is what best fortifies him.
IF mankind lives by confidence, it
u also lives by hope-that form of
confidence which turns toward the fu-
ture. All life is a result and an as
piratiOn, all that exists suppOses an orr
gin and tends toward an end. Life is
progression: progression is aspiration.
The progress of the future is an inini-
tude OF hope. Hope is at the root of
things. and must be reflected in the
heart Of man. No hope. no life. The
same power which brought US into be-
ing, urges US to go up higher. What is
the meaning OF this persistent instinct
which pushes us on? The true mean
ing is that something is 10 result from
life. that out OF it is being wrought a
good greater than itself, toward which
il slowly moves, and that this painful
sower called man, needs, like every
sower, to count on the morrow The
history of humanity is the history Of
indomitable hope, otherwise everything
would have been over long ago. To
press forward under his burdens. to
guide himself in the night, 10 retrieve
his falls and his failures, 10 escape de-
Spair even in death, man has need of
hoping always, and sometimes against
all hope. Here is the cordial that sus-
tains ht;n. Had we only logic, we
should have long ago drawn the con-
clusion: Death has everywhere the
last woodland we should be dead OF
the idea. But we have hope, and that
is why we live and believe in life.
SusO, the great monk and mystic. one
of the simplest and best men that ever
lived. had touching custom; when
ever he encountered a woman. were she
the poorest and oldest. he stepped re-
specially aside. though his, bare feet
must tread among thornS or I'm the
gutter Il do that" he said, Ito rem
der homage TO our Holy Lady, the Vir-
gin Mary" Let US offer TO hope
like reverence. If we meet it in the
shape of a blade of wheat piercing the
furrOw: a bird brooding on its nest: a
poor wounded beast, recovering itself,
rising and continuing its way; a peas
ant ploughing and sowing a field that
has been ravaged by flood or hail; a
nation slowly repairing its losses and
healing its wounlS-under whatever
guise of humanity or suffering it ap-
pears TO us. let us salute il, When
we encounter il in legends. in untutOred
songs. in simple creeds, let US still sa-
lutte IL. for it is always the same,
the immortal daughter
Of God
We do not dare hope enough. The
men of our day have developed strange
timidities. The apprehension that the
sky will fall-that acme OF absurdity
among the fears Of our Gaelic fore
Does the Tain-drop doubt the ocean?
the ray mistrust the sun? Our senile
wisdom has arrived at this prodigy.
II resembles those testy old pedagOgues
whose chief Office is to rail at the
merry pranks or the youthful enthusi-
aSms Of their pupils. II is time 10 be-
come little children once more, to learn
egain to stand with clasped hands and
wide eyes before the mystery around
US; to remember that. in spite Of our
knowledge, what we know is but a tri
fe. and that the world is greater than
our mind. which is we'll; for being SO
it must hold in reserve I'M
told resources, and we may allow r.
some credit without accusing ourselves
Of imDrovidence. Let US not treat IL
as creditors do an insolvent debtor:
we should fire its courage, reight the
sacred fame of hope. Since the sun
still rises, since earth puts forth her
blossoms anew, since the bird builds
its nest. and the mother smiles at her
child. let us have the courage 10 be
men. and commit the rest 10 him VINO
Las numbered the stars. For my part
would might find glowing words 20
say to whomsoeVer has lost heart ~
these times OF dIsiIIusion: Rouse your
hope on: he is sure of being
least deluded who has the daring 20
do that: the most ingenious hope ia
nearer truth than the most rational de-
spair.
a MOTHER source Of light on the
IA path of human life is goodness.
am not OF those who believe in the
natural perfection OF man, and teach
hat society corrupts him. On the con-
trary. of all forms of evil, the one
which. most dismays me is heredity.
But sometimes ask myself how IT Is
hat this effete and deadly virus OF
ow instincts. of vices inoculated in the
nlnnd The whole Assem- blaze of disa Bill