Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1904-12-02
not better to learn To estimate It and

uOt DeIteT 10 learn TO IL anu
employ 1t than to try to disgust 9th
ors with 1t? When one knows that a
certain food is dangerous to health
one does not eat it. And, when a
certain fashion of thinking takes
away our confidence, our joy and our
strength, we should reject 1t, certain
that not only it is a detestable food
for the mind, but that 1t is false.
There Is 40 truth for man but in hui
manizing thoughts, and .pessimism is
inhuman. Besides, it lacks modesty
as well as logic. To dare to find that
prodigious thing called life evil one
must have seen the very foundation
almost to have made it. What n
strange attitude is that of certain
great thinkers Of the times. In truth,
they act as if they had created the
world in their youth, a very long time
ago, but now they are convinced that
1t was a decided mistake.
Let us nourish ourselves from other
meat, fortify our souls by comforting
thoughts. For man that which is tru-
est Is what strengthens him the most.
If humanity lives by confidence, it
lives also by hope. Hope is that form
Of confidence which turns toward the
future. All life is a result n an
inspiration. All that is supposes a
point of departure and tends toward
a point of arrival. To live is to be-
come; to become is to aspire. The
immense Become is infinite hope!
There is hope at the root of all things,
and that hope is reflected in the heart
of man. Without hope, no life. The
m power which made us to be in
cites us to mount still higher! What
Is the sense of that tenacious instinct
that drives us to progress? The true
meaning is that there should result
something from life hat it elabor-
ates for itself, a good greater thar it.
self, toward which it moves slowly,
and that this dolorous sower who is
called man needs like all sewers to
count on the morrow. The history of
humanity is one of invincible hope.
Otherwise 1t would have been ended
long since. To walk under his bur
dens, to guide himself in the night, to
rise again from his falls and his ruins,
not to abandon himself to death even,
humanity needed to hope ever and
sometimes even against all hope.
That is the cordial that sustains us.
If we had had but logic we should
long since have drawn this conclu-
sion; the last word is everywhere to
death, and we would have died of
that thought. But we have hope, and
it is for that that we live and believe
in life.
Suso, the great monk and mystic,
one of the simplest and best men that
ever lived, had a touching habit. Ev-
cry time that he met a woman, the
oldest and the poorest, he stepped re
sectfully aside, though to do that he
must set his bare feet among the
thorns or in the muddy gutter. Il do
that" he said, Ito render homage to
our holy lady, the Virgin Mary! Let
us render to hope a like reverence.
If we meet it under the form of a
spear of wheat which pierces the fur
row, the bird which brOods and feeds
her nestlings, Of a poor wounded ami
NAL which gathers itself together, rises
and continues its way, of a peasant
who labors and sows a field ravaged
by inundation or hail, of a nation
which slowly repairs its losses and
heals it's wounds, under no matter
what humble and suffering exterior,
salute it.. When we encounter it in
the legends, the untutored songs, In
the simple beliefs, salute it AGAIN.
For 1t Is the same always, the immor-
tai, the indestructible daughter of
God!
We do not dare hope enough. The
man of these days has become
strangely timid. The fear that the
sky HAY fall. that acme of a|bsurdity
of fear, believed in by our Gallo an
cestors, has entered into our own
hearts Does the drop Of water doubt
the ocean, the ray mistrust the sun?
Our senile wisdom has realized that
prodigy. 1t resembles those cross old
pedagogues whose principal office con
sisted in railing at the playful mis-
chief, or the Juvenile enthusiasms of
their young scholars. 1t is time to
become little children once more, to
relearn to join the hands, and open
wide eyes before the mystery which
wraps us around, to remember that
in spite of our knowledge we know
but little, that the world is larger
than our brains, and that that is for
tunate, for it is sc prodigious it must
hold unknown resources, and we can
accord it some credit without accus-
ing ourselves of improvidence. Let
us not treat it as creditors do an in
solvent debtor. We should reani-
mate its courage and relight the holy
flame of hope! Since the sun rises
still, since the earth puts forth new
blossoms, since the bird builds its
nest, since the mother smiles at her
child, let us have courage to be men,
and leave the rest to Him who num-
bers the stars! AS to me, l wish |
could find words of fame to say to
mboavor faa1o hic boort bOWod dOmp