Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1904-12-10

ference between men when they are
considered from this point of view
Master and servant, teacher and learn.
or. writer and artisan. discern truth at
the same cost. The light that humanity
acquires in advancing is no doubt OF
the greatest use. but 1t also -multiplies
the number and extent Of human prob
lens. The difficulty is never removed;
the mind always encounters its Obsta-
Gle. The unknown controls us and
hens us in on all sides. But just as
one need not exhaust Il spring TO
quench his thirst, so we need not know
everything to live. Humanity lives and
always has lived on certain elemental
provisions.
We will try to point them out. First
of all. humanity lives by confidence. In
so doing it but reflects, commensurate
with its conscious thought. that which
Is the hidden source of all beings. An
lmperturbable faith in the stability of
the universe and its intelligent order
Ing sleeps in everything that exists.
The flowers. the trees. the beasts of the
field. live in calm strength. in entire Sc
curity. There IS confidence in tie fall
ing rain, in dawning day. in the brook
running TO the sea. Everything that
Is seems TO say: Il am. therefore I
should he. There are good reasons for
this. rest assured"
So, too. mankind lives by confidence.
From the simple fact that he is. man
has within him Tic sufficient reason for
his being-a pledge of assurance. He
reposes in the power which has willei
that he should be. To safeguard this
confidence. TO see that nothing diScon-
certs 1t. TO cultivate it, render it more
personal, more evident-toward this
should tend the first effort of our
thought. All that augments confidence
within us is good. for from confidence
is born the life without haste-tranquil
energy. calm action. the love of life
and its fruitful labor. Deep seated con-
fidcnce is the mysterious spring that
sets in motion the energy within us. 1t
is our nutriment. BY II man lives much
more than by the bread he eats. And
so everything that shakes this conf
dence is eviI-poison. not food.
Dangerous is every system of thought
that attacks the very fact of life, de-
claring IL TO he 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 eS-
tremely simple reflection that might
be made I'm the face Of all this mega
ton. You say life is an evil. Well.
what remedy for il do you offer? Can
you combat IL. suppress II? ! do not
ask you TO suppress your own life, TO
commit suicide-of what advantage
would that be to .us?-but to suppress
life. not merely human life. but life
at its deep and hidden origin, all this
upspringing OF existence that pushes
toward the light and. 10 your mind, is
rushing To misfortune: l ask you TO
suppress the will To live that trembles
through the immensities 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'll
check is il not better TO respect ii
and Use il than To go about making
other people Disguised with it? When
one knows that certain food is danger
Gus TO health lie does not eat IL, and
when certain fashion of thinking
robs us of confidence. cheerfulness and
strength we should reject that, certain
not only that IL is nutriment noxious TO
the mind. but also that il is false. There
is no truth for man but in thoughts
that are human. and pessimism is in
human. Besides, il wants as much in
as in logic. To permit one
self to count as evil this prodigious
thing that we call life one needs have
seen its very foundation. almost TO
have made it. What strange atti-
tude 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 IL was mis-
take. and they had well repeated it.