Ellsworth American. [volume] (Ellsworth, Me.) 1855-current, 1905-01-04
The Simple Life
By CHARLES WAGNER
Translated From the French by Mary Louise Hendee

easy-duty that wish to speak.
We have yearly three or four high
feast days and many ordinary ones.
There are likewise some very great and
dark combats to wage, but beside these
is the multitude of plain and simple
duties. Now, while in the great en-
counters our equipment is generally
adequate, 1t Is precisely in the little
emergencies that we are found want
ing. Without fear of being misled by
paradoxical form of thought, l af-
firm, then, that the essential thing is
to fulfill our simple duties and exercise
elementary justice. In general, those
who lose their souls do so not because
they fail to rise to difficult duty, but
because they neglect to perform that
which is simple. Let us illustrate this
truth.
He who tries to penetrate into the
humble underworld of society is not
slow to discover great misery, physical
and moral. And the closer he looks
the greater number of unfortunates
does he discover, till in the end this
assembly Of the wretched appears to
him like great black world, in whose
presence the individual and his means
Of relief are reduced to helplessness.
1t is true that he feels impelled to run
to the succor Of these unfortunates,
but at the same time he asks himself,
what is the use?" The case is GER
tainly heartrending. Some, in despair,
end by doing nothing. They lack
neither pity nor good intention, but
these bear no fruit They are wrong
Often man has not the means to do
good on large scale, but that is not
a reason for failing to do 1t at all. So
many people absolve themselves from
any action on the ground that there is
too much to do! They should be re-
called to simple duty, and this duty
in the case of which we speak is that
each one. according to his resources,
leisure and capacity. should create re-
lations for himself among the worlds
disinherited. There are people who by
the exercise of little good will have
succeeded in enrolling themselves
among the followers of ministers and
have ingratiated themselves with
princes. Why should you not succeed
In forming relations with the poor and
In making acquaintances among the
workers who lack somewhat the ne
cessities of life? When a few families
are known, with their histories, their
antecedents and their difficulties, you
may be of the greatest use to them by
acting the part Of a brother with
the moral and material aid that Is
yours to give. 1t is true you will have
attacked only one little corner, but
you will have done what you could
and perhaps have led another on to
follow you. Instead of stopping at
the knowledge that much wretched-
ness. hatred, disunion and vice exist
In society you will have introduced
little good among these evils. And by
however slow degrees such kindness as
yours is emulated the good will sensi-
bly, increase and the evil diminish.
Even were you to remain alone in this
undertaking you would have the as
surance that in fulfilling the duty,
plain as a child's, which offered itself
you were doing the only reasonable
thing. If you have felt it SO. you have
found out one of the secrets Of right
living.
In its dreams mans ambition en-
braces vast limits, but it is rarely CIV
en- us to achieve great things, and even
then a quick and sure success always
rests on groundwork of patient prep
aration. Fidelity in small things is at
the base of every great achievement.
We too often forget this, and yet no
truth needs more to be kept in mind,
particularly in the troubled eras of his
tory and in the crises of individual life.
In shipwreck a splintered beam, an
oar, any scrap of wreckage. saves us.
On the tumblIng waves Of life, when
everything seems shattered to frag-
ments, let us not forget that a single
one of these poor bits may become our
plank of safety. To despise the rem
nants is decentralization.
You are a ruined man, or you are
stricken by q great bereavement, or,
again. you see the fruit of toilsome
years perish before your eyes. You
cannot rebuild your fortune, raise the
dead, recover your LOST TOLL, ana IN the
face of the inevitable your arms drop.
Then you neglect to care for your per
son, to keep your house, to guide your
children. All this is pardonable, and
how easy to understand! But 1t is ex-
ceedingly dangerous. To fold ones
hands and let things take their course
is to transform one evil into worse.
You who think that you have nothing
left to lose will by that very thought
lose what you have. Gather up the
fragments that remain to you and keep
them with scrupulous care. In good
time this little that is yours will be
your consolation. The effort made will
come to your relief, as the effort miss
ed will turn against you. If nothing
but branch is left for you to cling
to, cling to that branch, and if you
stand alone in defense of losing cause