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

% in value. of what use are these fine tools at his disposal? By their very excellence to make more evident the faults of him who uses them without dlscernment or without conscience The wheelwork of the great modern machine is infinitely delicate. Care lessness. incompetence or corruption may produce here disturbances of far greater gravity than would have threatened the more or less rudimen- fary organism of the society of the past. There is need, then, of looking to the quality of the individual called upon to contribute in any measure to the workings of this mechanism. This l individual should be at once solid and pItable. inspired with the central law of life to be oneselfgand fraternal. Ev- erything within ussand without us be- comes simplified and unified under the influence of this law, which is the same for everybodysand by which each one should guide his actions, for our essential interests are not opposing: they are identical. In cultivating the spirit of simplicity we should arrive. then, at giving to publicilife stronger cohesion.
 The phenomena offdecomposltion and destruction that we see there may all be attributed to the same cause-laclx of solidity and cohesion. It will never be possible to say how contrary to so- cial good are the trifing interests of caste, of coterie, of church. the bitter strife for personal welfare, and, by fatal consequence, how destructive these things are of individual happi- ness. A society in which each member Is preoccupied with his own well being is organized disorder This is all that we learn from the irreconcilable con ficts of our uncompromising egoism.
 We too much resemble those people who claim the rights of family only to gain advantage from them, not to do honor to the connection. On all rounds of the social ladder we are forever put ting forth claims. We all take the ground that we are creditors; no one recognizes the fact that he is a debtor, and our dealings with our fellows con sist in inviting them, in tones some times amiable, sometimes arrogant, to discharge their indebtedness to us. No good thing is attained in this spirit For, in fact it is the spirit of privilege, thateternal enemy of universal law, that obstacle to brotherly understanding. which is ever presenting itself anew.
 Tn lecture delivered in 1882 M Re nan said that nstion is "a spiritual family" and he added, ''The essential of nation is that all the individuals should have many things in common, and also that all should have forgotten much" It is important to know what to forget and what to remember, not only in the past, but also in our daily life. Our memories are numbered with the things that divide us; the things which unite us slip away. Each of us keeps at the most luminous point of his souvenirs lively sense of his second ary quality, his part of agriculturist day laborer, man of letters, public ot1- cer, proletary, bourgeois, or political or religious sectarian. but his essential quality, which is to be a son of his country and a man, is relegated to the shade. Scarcely does he keep. even c theoretic notion of it. So that what oc cupies US and determines our actions is precisely the thing that separates us from others. and there Is hardly place for that spirit of unity which is as tht soul of people,
 So, too, do we foster bad feeling fl our brothers. Men animated by { spirit of particularism. exclusivenes' and pride are continually elashing They cannot meet without rousins afresh the sentiment of division ant rivalry. And so there slowly heaps up in their remembrance a stock o reciprocal ii will, of mistrust, of ran cor All this is bad feeling with it consequences.
 It must be rooted out of our midst Remember, forgeti This we should say to ourselves every morning, in al our relations and affairs. Remembel the essential, forget the accessory | How much better should we discharg' our duties as citizens if high and low were nourished from this spirit How easy to cultivate pleasant remem brances in the mind of one's neighbo 1 by sowing it with bind deeds and re Training from procedures of which Il spite of himself he is forced to say with hatred in his heart, "Neyer in th world will I forgetP'
 The spirit of simplicity is grea magician. It softens asperities, bridge chasms, draws together hands ant hearts. The forms which 1t takes il tho world are infinite in number, bu never does it seem to us more admira ble than when it shows Itself acros the fatal barrier of position, interes or prejudice. overcoming the greates obstacles, permitting those whom ev l erything seems to separate to under 1 stand one another, esteem one another love one another This is the true SC cial cement that goes into the buildin of a people.
 l THE END.