Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1904-12-08


living. that the vulgar crowd las not
the wherewithal to procure. It is 50
agreeable to be distinguished! Instead
of conducting ourselves ike rational
beings and Using the means most OBJ
yiouslv 1t T command we arrive, by
dint Of absolute genius, at the most
astonishing singularities. Better off
the track than GA the main line, All
the bodily defects and deformities that
ortho9edy treats give but 4 feeble idea
of the humps, the tortuosities the dis
locations we have inflicted upon our
selves in order to depart from simple
common sense. and at orr own ex-
pense we learn that one does not de-
form himself with impun.ty. Novelty,
aftes all. is ephemeral Nothing en-
dufes bat the eternal commonplace.
rEs Z one departs from that it is to
run tie most perilous risks. Happy
he who IS able to reclaim himself, who
finds tie way back to simplicity.
Good plain sense is not, as is often
imagined the innate possession of the
first chance conner, a mean and paltry
equipment that has cost nothing to
any one / would compare it to those
old folk songs. unfathered, but death
less, which seem to have risen cut of
the very heart Of the people Good
sense is a fund slowly and painfully
accumulated by the labor Of centuries.
1t is a jewel Of the first water, whose
value he alone understands who has
lost it or who observes the lives of
others who have lost it, For my part
gaining it and keeping it for the pos
session of eyes that see and judg-
ment that discerns. One takes good
care of his sword that it be not bent
or rusted; with greater reason should
he give heed to his thought
But let this be well understood: An
appeal to common sense is not an APP
peal to thought that grovels, to narrow
positivism which denies everything it
cannot see or touch. for to wish that
man should be absorbed in material
sensations, to the exclusion of the high
realities of the inner life, is also want
of good sense Here we touch upon a
tender point round which the greatest
| battles of humanity are waging. In
| truth, we are striving to attain q con
| ception of life. searching it out amid
countless obscurities and griefs, and
| everything that touches upon spiritual
realities becomes day by day more
painful Ia the midst OF the grave
perplexities and transient disorders
that accompany great crises of thought
| it seems more difficult than ever to es-
cape with any simple principles. Yet
| necessity itself comes to our aid, as it
| has done for the men of all times. The
| programme of life is terribly simple
after all, and in the fact that existence
| so imperously forces herself upon Us
| she gives rs notice that she precedes
! any idea of her which we may make
| for ourselves ana that no one can put
| off living pending an attempt to under
stand life Our PHILOSOPHERS, our ex
| plantations, our beliefs, are everywhere
| confronted by facts, and these facts,
! prodigious, irrefutable call us to order
| when we would deduce life from our
/ reasonings and would wait to act until
we have ended philosophizing. 1t is
| this happy necessity that prevents the
| world from stopping while man ques-
lions his route Travellers of day,
! we are carried along in a vast move
ment to which we are called upon to
| contribute. but which we have not fore
seen nor embraced in its entirety nor
| penetrated as to its ultimate aims.
| Our part is to fill faithfully the role of
| private which has deyolved upon us,
and our thought should adapt itself to
| the situation. Do not say that we live
/ in more trying times than our ances-
| tors. for things seen from afar are of
ten seen imperfectly. 1t is. moreover,
scarcely gracious to complain of not
having been born in the days Of ones
| grandfather.
What we may believe least contesta-
| BILE on the subject is this: From the be-
| ginning of the world it has Seen hard
| to see clearly; right thinking has been
! difficult everywhere and always In
| the matter the ancients were in no
| wise privileged above the moderns, and
| it might be added that there is no off
| ference between men when they are
| considered from this point of view.
| Master and servant, teacher and learn
er, writer and artisan, discern truth ut
the same cost. The light that humanity
acquires in advancing is no doubt Of
the greatest use but it also multiplies
| tho 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 viii try to point them out First
Of ali, humanity lives by confidence In
so doing it but reflects, commensurate