The Hope pioneer. [volume] (Hope, N.D.) 1882-1964, 1905-05-04
ALLSHOW COWARDICE
WRITER BITTERLY CONDEMNS
WORLD OF MEN.
Moral Bravery, He Claims, Far More
Rare Than Is Physical-universa!
Dread of Ridicule and Adverse
Opinion.

1t often strikes mel wonder
whether it often strikes others-that
the world is a world Of towards. /
40 not mean physical towards, for
often l am amazed at the physical
bravery displayed by those around
me. l mean mental towards. The
fear OF what is generally called opin-
ion, the widespread, almost universal
fear, is really astonishing. In the
course of my life l have met a great
many people Of a great many nations,
l have met very few perfectly
fearless people who lived according
to their own ideas of what life should
be and thought only of that, never Of
what others would think of them and
OF their actions. Many people pro-
TESS to be fearless. One often hears
the phrase, Il don't are in the least
what anyone thinks of me. I just
go my own way" How easy it is to
say those words, how difficult to car
ny them into action! We do care, we
care far too much. What will Mrs
Smith think? What will Mr.. Jones
say? Has Miss Robinson got her
searching and misinterpreting eye
upon me? Is Master Brown lurking
round the corner ready to run and
say things?" Most of us live in a
reign of terror, whether we be Rus.
slams or not. We have read our Mar.
Gus Aurelius, no doubt, but how little
has the reading profited us!
Now and again one does meet a
mentally fearless person, and it is
then that n fully realizes that one
lives in a world Of towards. Now and
then in the arts arises someone who
has no fear, a Tolstoy or a Watts, and
one. stands amazed, fully conscious Of
the widespread cowardice in litera
ture or in painting. What writer just
plainly says that which is.in his soul
careless of publishers, critics, public:
What painter paints exactly as he
feels and sees, neither striving mere
ly to astonish nor to conceal the
truth? The boldness of the sensa
tionalist is only a, %travesty of the true
bravery-the bravery of the teller q
the truth.
| have met a very few people wht
seemed to me quite fearless mental
ly. One I a remember, who is nov
dead, united complete mental cou
age with complete physical courage
He was a rare creature, and to be al
most worshipped. Sometimes I com
pared the two braveries, of body an,
|'of soul, and the latter seemed to m,
the most wonderful, perhaps becaus
it is so much rarer than the other. |
only we could emancipate ourselve
completely, each for himself, from tn
perpetual fear OF the opinion of otl
ers, how splendidly free life woul
become to us, how much more calm
how much more noble, how muc
more brilliant. But an adverse glanc
from some nobody affects us. A col
shoulder" turned to us alarm us. !
word of hostile comment conveys
sedulously to us by a dear enemy
who thinks we ought to know wha
people are saying about u.s." startle
us, and we hasten to put our neck
beneath the yoke. 81 must be NOR
careful" we say to ourselves.
Oh, what a WEAKNESS of the spiri
it is, this everlasting being Careful
And what does it do for us? 1t stint
us. 1t prevents our growth. l
starves our true nature. 1t rules GU
of u lives many rays of SUNSHINE
that might penetrate into the twiligh
or the darkness that broods about us
Where we might be simple we are al
fected. Where we might be usefu
we are inert. What shadows we star
at, and yet how very few of us woul'
own to being towards. We will &C
knowledge many things: that We ar
pleasure,loving, selfish, vain. proud
irreligious, careless, non-moral even
but that we are towards. never! Gu
cowardice keeps us from admittin!
that great truth.-Robert Kitchens, il
The Queen.