The Birmingham age-herald., 1904-12-04

W oelltVe IQaI bllupi4S-I| ..
 tain external characteristics oy Wnicn
 1t may be recognized and in wnicn It
 really consists. Simplicity and loWly
 station, plain dress, q modest dWelling'
 slender means, poverty-these things
 seem to go together Neyertneiess tnls is not the case. Just now l passed three men on the street the first in hls
 carriage. the others on foot an1 one of them shoeless. The shoeless man ooes
 not necessarily lead the least complex
 life of the three. It may be, indeed
 that he who rides in his carriage Is sin cere and unaffected, in spite of his po- sition, and is not at all the slave or his
 wealth. It may be also that the pedes'
 trian in shoes neither enyies him who rides nor desplses him who goes un- shod; and lastly it is possible that uh- der his rags, his feet in the dust, the third man has a hatred of slmpnclly' of labor, of sobriety, and dreams only of likeness and pleasure, for among the least simple and straightforward of men must be reckoned professional beggars, knights of the road, parasites and the whole tribe of the obsequious and envious, whose aspirations are summed up in this-to arrive at seizlng a morsel, the biggest possible, of that prey which the fortunate of earth con sume.
 And to this same category, little matter what their station in life, be- long the prodigate, the arrogant, the niserly, the weak, the crafty. Livery counts for nothing; we must see the heart. No class has the prerogative of simplicity; no dress, however hum- ble in appearance, is its unfailing badge. It's dwelling need not be garret, a hut, the cell of the aacetic nor the iowliest flsherman's bark. Un- der all the forms in which life vests itself, in all social positions. at the top as at the bottom of the ladder, there are people who live simply and others who do not We do not mean by this that simplicity betrays itself in no visible signs, has not its own habits, its distinguishing tastes and ways; but this outward show, which may now and then be counterfeited, must not be confounded with its es- sence and it's deep and wholly inward source. Simplicity is a state of mind. It dwells in the main intention of our lives. A man is simple when his chief care is the wish to be what he ought to be-that is, honestly and nat urally human. And this is neither so easy nor so impossible as one might think. At bottom it consists in put ting our acts and aspirations in ac- cordance with the law of our being, and consequently with the eternal in- tention which willed that we should be at all. Let flower be a flower, a swallow a swallow, rock rock, and let man be a man, and not fox, a hare, hog or q bird of prey. This is the sum of the whole matter.
 Here we are led to formulate the practical ideal of man. Everywhere in life we see certain quantities of matter and energy associated for cer- tain ends. Substances more or less crude are thus transformed and car. ried to higher degree of organization It Is not otherwise with the life of man. The human ideal is to trans form life into something more excel lent than itself. We may compare ex istence to raw material. What it is matters less than what is made of 1t, as the value of a work of art lies in the Towering of the workman's skill. We bring into the world with us different gifts. One has received gold, another granite, a third marble, most of us wood or clay. Our task is to fashion these substances. Every one knows that the most precious material may be spoiled, and he knows, too that out of the least costly an immor- tai work may be shaped. Art is the realization of a permanent idea in an ephemeral form. True life is the realization of the higher virtues-jus tice, love, truth, liberty, moral power in our daily activities, whatever they may be. And thi life is possible in social conditions the most diverse and with natural gifts the most unequal It is not fortune or personal advan- tage, but our turning them to ac- count, that constitutes the value of life. Fame adds no more than does length of days. Quality is the thing.
 Need we say that one does not rise to this point of view without a strug- gle? The spirit of simplicity is not an inherited gift, but the result of labo- rious conquest. Plain living, Ike high thinking, is simplifcation. We know that science is the handful of ultimate principles gathered out of the tufted mass of facts, but what gropings to discover theml Centuries of research are often condensed into a principle that line may state. Here the moral life presents strong analogy with the scientific. It, too, begins in a certain confusion, makes trial of itself, seeks to understand itself, and often mis- takes. But by dint of action and ex- acting from himself strict account of his deeds man arrives at a better knowledge of life. Its law appears to him, and the law is this: Work out your mission. He who applies himself to aught else than the realization of this end loses in living the raison detre of life. The egotist does so, the pleas ure seeker, the ambitious; he con sumes existence as one eating the full corn in the blade; he prevents it from bearing it's fruit; his life Is lost. Who ever, on the contrary. makes his life serve a good higher than itself, saves it in giving it. Moral precepts which to a superficial view appear arbitrary and