The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1905-03-05


vouthful years. when / read
some of the evil foreboddings
of the men of earlier days, l thought
they we're oVer-anXious and unneces-
sarily disturbed. I do not now think
so IL is true that most persons OF
optimistic views hold throughout lie
that every country es1tselt
TO circumstances; that growth in num-
bcrs is growth in fact and growth III
spirit: that Providence favors the en-
ergetic that a busting, active nation
is going to get the best of existence
even in things that pertain TO the
higher and more spiritual life, ana
that II is only the despairing, the
timorous, or the ill-informed who take
a contrary view of the scheme OF
things But an optimism that SHUTS
out experience, that denies the appn-
cation of the experience OF other ma
lions TO the affairs of ones own, IS not
useful but fallacious and hurts rather
than stimulates. The tendency TO HOOK
at the dark side is not uplifting,
grant But the other tendency OF
never looking at the experience OF the
great historic nations and characters
is worse still. 1t breeds an easy over
confidence in the life of today as III
II were all that could be desired. The
central thing i'm life is mind, and the
envelope of mind is soul. If the NINA
confines its vision to what is imlne>
djately before it and around 1T, II 1t
never chances back for warning or ell
enlargement and never looks along
the path that leads from the present,
it narrows its function and darkenS
the soul. it's envelope. What the hu-
man. rational element in this
mundane life requires Is u Willingness
TO see all that has taken place III the
history of the planet and to be guided
by the lights that have preserved
other human beings from falling INTO
the pit Just now the mind OF the
American people, il seems to me, Is q
triae frivolous because a great deal too
much self-centered. The soul OF
things is by consequence darkened.
The horizon is narrowed. The future
is not propitious because unconsldcred
or discounted by the self-absorption or
the day. We rush to the accumula-
ton of riches We glory in showing
material splendor. We aggrandize the
national sciences because they seem 10
aid us more in the acquisition oil
wealth and magnificence, while We set
small store by the ethical and mental
philosophy because it Involves no
short road to power and greatness.
This is all wrong. No people can be
truly great which is not intellectually
great and which is not a spiritual
people. Money and power are useful
as adjuncts. not as principles. As
people. we should live for higher OBJ
icctS than the mere acquisition OF
great riches and the assured position
among the nations of the earth of a
firSt-clasS power in commercial or
military strength. 1t is we'll TO be
power OF the trst-claSS, no contemn-
ing that; but TO make it the prime
object of national existence, to neglect
the weightier things of national
righteousnesS-this this is the mistake
that all the mightier powers of the
world that have figured in history
have made The road by which they
have advanced to national grandeur
has been one in which the .nobler as
poets of humanity have been lost sight
Of more and more as they progressed
toward the coveted goal. This is
sad commentary on human nature. 1t
shows that men shut their hearts to
the light as self is made the principal
thing. Nothing is so exclusive as sell
fishness-nothing so darkens the
horizon of a real life that ought TO
be a true life, true to God and true
to self.
Oh, well, says one. you are preach
ing. Very true indeed, if saying what
is best for ones self and for humant-
Is at large is preaching. The trouble
is. as / pointed out lately. nations like
individuals. do not believe that they
arc likely TO act as others in similar
CIRCUMSTANCES nave dCleus lHty diG
superior to their predecessors in
knowledge and character. above all in
the former with the guidance of the
past. they assume they Will not COM
init the blunders committed by their
predecessors. 1t is this blind egotisnl
of modern nations and races that hur-
ries them 10 their doom. They can
not escape the consequences of their
cgregious folly. No people is ever
greater than all humanity behind 1T.
Some races in the past are worthy of
emulation in many respects. Thus,
VIC do well TO emulate the Greeks in
The artistic development by which
both art and literature were advanced
further than other nations had gone.
Religiously and officially perhaps we
can learn nothing from them. From
,Iudea we received our spiritual civili-
2ation. Something is learned from
The philosophy of Greece and India,
where the philosophic spirit originat-
cd: for | do not believe that the earlier
Civilizations of Chaldea and Egypt
could give to the modern much aid in
The highest philosophy.
Ia these days of Schlavonian defeats
in the field, ,Sclavoniau unrest i'm civil
life and Sclavonian discomfort in the
provinces, once sovereign empires. the
Intelligent outsider naturally asks "is
this newest race of genuine Aryans in
fsulOpe StnplN cdSIlnS It's Skin OF IS IL
this early going TO the 1emiuition bow
vows" A peoples longings, a peo-
pies life is often expressed i'm its inn
aginativc literature. The Russians
and Poles with some contrary symp-
toms snow themselves sad and
sombrc in their tales and
poems. Any one who has
read much Of Poushkin. Turgen-
Jeff. Gogo or Tolstio knews this state
mcnt is true. Even the dashing, dis
cursivc page of Sienkicwicz crowded
With busy life. eager With hope and
stirring i'm its passion. throws Il shadow
on the spirit of the reader as his eye
elances along. The simple truth is
that the race of which we are talking;
is in a formative stage of civilization
cropping in some things toward the
light. moving in its own heavy way
forward. Its sadness may be, doubt
less is, due to the grinding poverty ri
the great mass below and the gurCeii
and arrogance Of the boyars or mobiles.
The contrast is too striking for har,
mony. Pcsides. there is often lacking