The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1905-02-16


ones own mental attitudes and motives
of conduct is an essential element OF
good living But quite other is this ex-
IRENE vigilance, this incessant obser-
vation of ones life and thoughts. this
dissecting Of oneself. like q piece Of
mechaDisn 1t is waste OF time ard
goes wide OF the mark. The man who.
to prepare himself the better for walk
ing, should begin by making q rigid
anatomical examination Of lis means
of lOcomotiOn would risk dislocating
something before he had taken a step.
You have what you need to walk with.
then forward, Take care not to fall.
and use your forces with discretion
Potterers and scruple mongers are soon
reduced to inactiOn 1t needs but
glimmer of common sense to perceive
that man is not made to pass his life
IN a self centered trance.
And common senseAlo you not find
what is Designated by this name he
coming as rare asAthe common sense
customs of other days? Common sense
has become an old story We must
have something new. and we create
a Fictitious existence, a refinement of
living. that the vulgar crowd has not
the wherewithal TO procure 1t is so
agreeable to be distinguished Instead
Of conducting ourselves like rational
beings and using the means most OBJ
viously at our command we arrive by
dint of absolute genius. at the most
astonishing singuiarities. Better of
the track than on the main line, All
tie bodily defects and defOrmitics that
OrthOpCdy treats give but feeble idea
Of the humps. the tortuosities. the dis
locations W have inflicted upon our
selves in order to depart from simple
common sense and at our own eX-
pensc we learn that one does not de-
form himself with impunity. Novelty,
after all, is ephcmeral Nothing en-
dures but the eternal commonplace,
md if one departs from that it is to
tun the most perilous risks. Happy
he who is able to reclaim himself, who
finds the 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 tC
any one. l would compare it 10 those
old folk songs, unfathered, but death
less, which seem to have risen out of
the very heart Of the people. Good
sense is a fund slowly and painfully
accumulated by the labor of centuries.
1t is Il 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
I think no price too great to pay for
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 he not bent
or rustcd; 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 q
tender point. round which the greatest
battles of humanity are waging. In
truth. we are striving to attain a con
ception of life searching it out amid
countless obscurities and grefs. and
everything that touches upon spiritual
realities becomes day by day more
painful. In 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 il
has done for the men of all times The
programme of life is terribly simple
after all. and in the fact that existence
so imperiously forces herself upon us
she gives us notice that she precedeS
any idea of her which we may make
for ourselves and that no one can put
off living pending an attempt to under
stand life Our PHILOSOPHERS, our ey
plantations, our beliefs, are everywhere
confronted by facts, and these facts
prodigious, irrefutable, call us to order
when we would deduce life from oul
reaSOnings and would wait to act unit
we have ended philosophizing. 1t is
this happy necessity that prevents the
world from stopping while man CUES
lions his route. Travellers of day
we are carried along in vast move
ment to which we are called upon t
contribute, but which we have not fore
seen nor embraced in its entirety MOI
penetrated as to its ultimate aims
Our part is to fill faithfully the role O.
private, which has devolved upon US
and our thought should adapt itself t
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 no
having been born in the days of ones
grandfather.
What we may believe least contesta
bic on the subject is this: From the be
ginning of the world it has been hare
to see clearly; right thinking has beer