Ellsworth American. [volume] (Ellsworth, Me.) 1855-current, 1905-03-08
CHAPTER XIV

a
world of strength and beauty. He can
make conquest of it who has sufficient
energy to detach himself from the IA
tal rubbish that trammels our days.
It will not take him long to perceive
that In renouncing some surface salts
factions and childish ambitions he in
creases his faculty of happiness and
his possibilities of right judgment.
These results concern as much the
private as the public life. 1t is incon-
testable that in striving against the fe-
verish will to shine, In ceaslng to make
the satisfaction Of our desires the end
of our activity, In returning to modest
tastes, to the true life, we shall labor
for the unity of the family. Another
spirit will breathe In our homes, Great
ing new customs and an atmosphere
more favorable to the education OF chill
dren. Little by little our boys and girls
will feel the enticement Of ideals at
once higher and more reallzable and
transformation of the home will in
time exercise its influence on public
spirit
As the solidity Of wall depends
upon the grain of the stones and the
consistence of the cement which binds
them together, so also the energy of
public life depends upon the individual
value of men and their power Of cohe-
sion The great desideratum Of our
time Is the culture Of the component
parts OF society, of the individual man.
Everything In the present social or
ganism leads us back to this element.
In neglecting 1t we expose ourselves
to the loss of the benefits Of progress.
even to making our most persistent eff
forts turn to our own hurt. II in the
midst of means continually more and
more perfected the workman diminish
es in value. Of what use are these fine
tools at his disposal? By their very
excellence to make more evident the
faults of him who uses them without
discernment or without conscience.
The wheelwork of the great modern
machine Is infinitely delicate. Care
lessness incompetence or corruption
may produce here disturbances of far
greater gravity than would have
threatened the more or less rudimen-
tary organism of the society of the
past There is need. then, of looking to
the quality of the Individual called
upon to contribute in any measure to
the workings Of this mechanism. This
Individual should be at once solid and
pliable, inspired with the central law
of life to be oneself and fraternal. Ev-
erything within us and without us be-
comes simplified and unified under the
influence of this law, which is the
same for everybody and by which each
one should guide his actions, for our
essential interests are not opposing;
they are Identical. In cultivating the
spirit of simplicity we should arrive.
then, at giving to public life stronger
cohesion.
The phenomena of decomposition and
destruction that we see there may all
be attributed to the same causeLlack
of solidity and cohesion. 1t will never
be possible to say how contrary to So
cial good are the trifing interests of
caste, Of coterie. of church. the bitter
strife for personal welfare. and, by
fatal consequence. how destructive
these things are Of individual happi-
ness. A society In which each member
Ia preoccupied with his own well being
is organized disorder. This is all that
we learn from the irreconcilable con-
fiicts of our uncompromising egoism.
We too much resemble those people
who claim the rights of family only
to gain advantage from them, not to do
honor to the connection. On all rounds
of the social ladder we are forever put
ting forth claims. We all take the
ground that we are creditors; no one
recognizes the fact that he is debtor,
and our dealings with our fellows con-
sist in inviting them, in tones some
times amiable, sometimes arrogant, to
discharge their Indebtedness to US. No
good thing is attained In this spirit.
For, in fact, 1t is the spirit of privilege,
thateternal enemy of universal law, that
obstacle to brotherly understanding,
which is ever presenting itself anew.
In lecture delivered in 1882 NJ. Re
nan said that nation is "a spiritual
family" and he added, THE essential
or a nation is that all the individuals
should have many things in common,
and also that all should have forgotten
much" 1t is important to know what
70 forget and what to remember, not
only In the past, but also in our daily
lie. Our memories are numbered with
the things that divide us; the things
which unite us slip away. Each of us
Keeps at the most luminous point of his
souvenirs lively sense OF his second
airy quality, his part of agriculturist,
cay labOrer man of letters Dt1hijc Off
Ger, proletary, bourgeois, or political or
religious sectarian, but his essential
quality, which is to be son Of his
country and man, is relegated to the
shade Scarcely does he keep even a
heoretc notion of 1t. So that what oc-
cupies us and determines our actions ia
precisely the thing that separates us
rom others. and there Is hardly place