Ellsworth American. [volume] (Ellsworth, Me.) 1855-current, 1904-12-14

running to the sea. Everything that
Is seems to say: II am. therefore
should be. 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 the sufficient reason for
his being-a pledge of assurance. He
reposes In the power which has willed
that he should be- To safeguard this
confidence. TO see that nothing discon-
certs 1t, to cultivate 1t, render it more
personal, more evident-toward this
should tend the first effort of our
thought. ALI 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
fidence is the mysterious spring that
sets in motion the energy within u.s. Il
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 it 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 ex-
tremely simple reflection that might
be made In the face of all this mega
ton You say life is an evil. Well,
what remedy for it do you offer? Can
you combat it, suppress it? / do not
ask you to suppress your own life, to
commit suicide-of what advantage
would that be to us?-but to suppress
lie, not merely human life, but life
at its deep and hiddens origin, all this
upspringing of existence that pushes
toward the light and, to your mind, is
rushing to misfortune; | ask you TIC
suppress the will to live that trembles
through the immensities of space, to
suppress, in short, the source of life
Can you do it? No. Then leave us in
peace. Since no one can hold life in
check is it not better to respect it
and use it than to go about making
other people disgusted with it? When
one knows that certain food is danger
GUS to health he does not eat it, and
when certain fashion of thinking
robs us of confidence, cheerfulness and
strength we should reject that, certain
not only that it Is nutriment noXious to
the mind, but also that it is false. There
is no truth for man but in thoughts
that are human, and pessimism is in
human. Besides, it wants as much in
modesty 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 it was a mis-
take, and they had well repented 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
lives also by hope-that form of conf
dence which turns toward the future.
All life Is result and an aspiration;
all that exists supposes an origin and
tends toward an end. Life is progress
sion; progression is aspiration. The
progress Of the future is an infinitude
of hope. Hope is at the root of things
and must be reflected in the heart of
man; no hope, no life. The same pow
er which brought US into being urges
us to go up higher. What is the mean
ing of this persistent instinct which
pushes us on? The true meaning is
that something is to result from life,
that out of it is being wrought good
greater than itself, toward which 1t
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, to retrieve
his falls and his failures, to escape de
spair even in death, man has need of
hoping always, and sometimes against
all hope. Here is the cordial that sus-
tains him. Had we only logic we
should have long ago drawn the CON
clusion, Death has everywhere the last
word, and 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.
Whenever he encountered woman,
We're she the poorest and Oldest, he
stepped respectfully aside, though his
bare feet must tread among thorns or
in the gutter. 81 do that" he said, Ito
render homage to our holy lady the
Virgin Mary" Let us offer to hope
like reverence. If we meet it in the
shape of blade of wheat piercing the
furrow, a bird brooding on its nest, a