Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1905-01-14
CHAPTER IN.


NoToRIETY AND THE NOTORIOUS GOOD.
~ NE of the chief puerilities Of
tisement. To emerge from
~ obscurity. to be in the public
eve, to make oneself talked Of-some
people are SO consumed with this desire
that we are justified in declaring them
attacked with an itch for publicity. In
their eyes obscurity is the height of ig-
nominy, so they do their best to keep
their names in every mouth. In their
obscure position they look upon them
selves as lost. like shipwrecked sailors
whom n night Of tempest has cast on
some lonely rock and who have re-
course to cries. volleys. fire. all the sig
nails imaginable to let 1t be known that
they are there. Not content with set
ting off crackers and innocent rockets.
many, to make themselves heard at
any cost, have gone to the length Of
perfidy and even crime. The incendi-
airy Erostratus has made numerous dis
ciples. How many men of today have
become notorious for having destroyed
something of mark, pulled down-or
tried to pull down-some mans high
reputation: signaled their passage, in
short, by a scandal, a meanness or an
atrocity,
This rage for notOriety does not surge
through cracked brains alone or only
in the world of adventures. charla-
tanS and pretenders generally. 1t ha3
spread abroad in all the domains of
life, spiritual and material. Politics,
literature. even science. and, most obi
Gus of all. philanthropy and religion
are infected. Trumpets announce Il
good deed done. and souls must be
saved with din and clamor. Pursuing
its way of destruction, the rage for
noise has entered places ordinarily ST.
lent, troubled spirits naturally serene
and Initiated in large measure all activ
ity for good. The abuse of showing
everything. or, rather, putting every
thing on exhibition, the growing inca
pacity to appreciate that which chooses
TO remain hidden and the habit of esti-
mating the value of things by the rack
ct they make have come to corrupt the
judgment of the most earnest men, and
one sometimes wonders il society will
not end by transforming itself into n
great fair, with each one beating his
drum in front of his tent
Gladly do we quit the dust and din
OF like exhibitions TO go and breathe
peacefully in some faroff nook of the
woods, all surprise that the brook is SO
limpid, the forest so still, the solitude
SO enchanting. Thank God there are
yet these uninvaded corners! How
ever formidable the uproar, however
@ia IoI nI
it cannot carry beyond a certain limit
1t grows faint and dies away. The
realm of silence Is vaster than the
realm Of noise. Herein is our consola-
ton
Rest a moment on the threshold of
this infinite world of inglorious good,
of quiet activities. Instantly we are
under the charm we feel in stretches
OF untrodden snow. IN hiding wood
flowers, in disappearing pathways that
seem to lead to horizons without bourn
The world is so made that the engines
or labor, the most active agencies are
every where concealed. Nature affects
a sort Of coquetry in masking her op-
erauons. 1t costs you pains to spy her
out. ingenuity to surprise her. IL you
would see anything but results and
penetrate the secrets OF her laborato-
ries. Likewise in human society the |
forces which move for good remain in !
visible, and even in Our individual
lives; what is best in us is incom-
buried in the depths of us.
And the more vital are these sensibil-
tiles and intuitions, confounding them I
selves with the very source OF our be- !
ing, the less ostentatious they are. |
They think themselves profanci by ex-
posture to the light of day.
There is a secret and inexpressibIe |
JOY In possessing nj the heart Of ones /
being, an interior world known only 1
10 God, whence, nevertheless. come i'm |
pulses. enthCsiasms. the daily renewal |
or courage and the most powerful mo-