Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-09-10
SUNDAY MORNING TALK.
Right Proportions and How to Get
Them

Much of the trouble of life comes from
the lack of sense of proportion. Grotesque
effects are produced In architecture when
the builder goes ahead regardless or the
length of his lines. THAT tower is too high
for the size of the structure, you say or
What a blight upon the edifice that dor
mer window ISL The feature objected to
does not harmonic with the otherwise sat
isfactory general effect. But when man
goes to work to build a life how often he
forgets all about harmony and proportion!
Take the matter of income, for example.
Most persons know at the beginning of the
year about how much they will have to spend
during the next twelve months. When the
question of an extra outlay arises for this
or that luxury, or when the decision Is
being made as to fixed charge, like house
rent, ought not the expenditure to be con-
sdered with reference to the probable total
outlay of the year? Perhaps you have
money enough In your pocket at the mo-
ment to buy handsome chair, or maybe
the rent of a very comfortable house would
not exhaust your salary each month. but
the real point is: Are you going to be
Obliged to deny yourself books and pictures
in order to purchase the, chair, or are you
likely to have to scrimp your table In
order to live on the avenue!
The way in which people squander that
commodity known as time often betrays
nainfui lack of the sense of proportion. One
reason why ria1dly religious people some
times protest against card-playing, theater-
going and dancing Is that SO many young
persons plunge into these diversions so
deeply that their better life Is submerged
I tremble for the young man who Is at the
theaterg three or four nights in the week.
II modera tie indulgence In this diversion is
an impossibility for him he ought to become
a total abstainer. So with dozen other
interests innocent in Observation-Disclosures,
the collecting mania, club life NO one Is
to be blamed for enjoying them in IA
tional fashion. but when II comes to making
any Of them the central concern of ones
days and ones nights the perspective Is all
awry. good thing INDUCED in to excess
becomes evil. and we are all liable to be
caught and whirled along In the currents
of modern life that sweep one along to ex-
travagances which In our calmer moments
we all see to be irrational and detrimental.
When 1t comes to the appreciation and
grasp of moral and spiritual truth we are
all prone to lose our sense of proportion.
Religious history is full OF instances OF men
clinging to a half truth or partial truth
as though 1t were the entire body of truth
revealed to the mind of men. Most OF the
bitter controversies in the churches have
been due to the failure to appreciate the
other mans truth, or to the disposition to
hold a. truth without regard to its relation
to Complementary truths. Here is the splen-
did doctrine OF mans free will. of the power
lodgedrin him to shape his own destiny: but
here Is the equally splendid doctrine OF
Gods ruiership and control. Why must I
choose between them? Each is essential TO
the building of the perfect temple of truth.
The great remedy for the tendency to lose
the sense Of proportion, the great preserva-
tive OF balance and of poise IL putting the
big things in the center and adjusting
oneself constantly to them. Don't let the
petty and the transient take the place of
the great big concerns that make life truly
interesting. significant and precious. It
doesn't pay the average scholar to spend
the bulk OF his years chasing up tho eccen-
tricitiss of the Greek cfrcumhex accent. It
doesn't pay the average boy to know the
pedigree and name of the leading race
horses in the country. It doesn't pay the
average woman to spend one-haf Of her