The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1906-12-22

lSauluS matter III tnlS Dig type, which |
is, after all, the only thing that fits |
the needs of those who have been
stricken with blindness late in life. 1t
seems to me 1 can give my people no
better Christmas gift than this But I |
need help.
1t will take a great deal of moneysto |
carry out my plans-more than $40, |
know-and so l am not going to make |
any presents to my seeing friends this |
Christmas. Perhaps you will think |
am making a queer request but |
don't think anything would give me
more happiness than to have the peo- |
pie who love me best put the money
that was to have bought a gift for me |
into the fund for my blind"
1t goes almost without saying that
the girl had her wish. Her simple lit
tie message found its way into many
heart, and weeks before she had dared
to hope for it the fund was complete
and the order for stereotyping the book
on it's way.
= \ \ +
There is resignation in the spirit OF.
the oriental religions and PHILOSOPHERS
which sometimes has bsen sorry or
amusing to the enterprising western
ers, who believe no lot so bad but that
they can better it, and who think
there is a way wherever there is a will.
We interpret the spirit or resignation
and contentment as signifying lethar-
gy,, apathy, Indifference, lack of en-
| terprise, want of vim, energy; we think
people are resigned to i'll fortune be-
cause they are too INDECENT to effect
| the needed improvements. "Kismet,"
| 1T is fate" is a weaklmg's cry, a
towards cry. Maybe so. Yet not al
ways so. There is another side to the
shield.
We remember, in the golden verses
of PythagOras, the counsel to Support
with patience thy lot, be it what it
may, and never repine at II, But en-
| deavor what thou canst to remedy it."
Resignation does not necessarily inn
ply apathy but it does mean that
there is no repining, no fretting at fate,
no worry" as moderns have it,
Things are accepted as the inevitable
results of causes that, have been set
up somewhere in the past, either some
| immediate past that we remember
that we can lay our fingers on, or, if
not that, some remote bygone day
which was none the less fact in our
| existence because it now is forgotten.
The idea of reincarnation which per-
| vades all oriental philosophy, and
which saturated early Christianity, ac-
counts for all fortunes. either good or
bad, as the natural issue of results in
the ceaseless chain of cause and effect
which links moment with moment, day
with day. year with year, life with life.
What happens, then, must happen.
We cannot help it. 1t is the fate form
ed of the eternal law of causation.
Worry is useless. 1t does not better
things. 1t only eXhausts valuable en-
ergies that could be applied usefully
to mend matters.
For what we can do, and wisely, is to
set up those causes which will operate
for our advantage both now and here.
after. Since the world does move by
law, since there is cause and effect and
not chance governing the universe, we
confidently may build for tomorrow
We may be true architects of our fates
Hence the wisdom, the nationality OF
, the injunction not to waste precious
powers in repining at our lot, but tC
endeavor what we can to remedy it.
\ \ \ 4
Recently a certain professor was lee
turing on Mature Studies in the
I Schools" and was endeavoring to i'm
e press the pleasure and importance O.
3 a close observance of nature SpeakinC
e of flowers, he was exhibiting a daisy
to the class, pointing out its beauties
and reminding them that the flower
and mankind were creatures of the
a Supreme Being. He added by way of
emphasis: THE Lord that made me
p made a daisy" you bet he did"
spoke up some one in the background
r and it was not until the audience was
r on the verge of Commissions that the
professor saw the point and yielded tn,
platform to the next man on the pro,
gramme.
5 A freak of the botanical world, spe
cimens of which are on exhibition ir
the government gardens in Washington
} is known as the ''mother-in-law plant,
and visitors have declared that it is
closely related to the venerable moth
er-in-law joke. This growth was dis.
covered in South America by Hum
, boldt, the great Prussian traveller. II
is said he discovered the peculiar prop
critics of the bush by biting into its
large stalk, the result being that he
/, was deprived of his power of speech
for about one week.
The san of the nIant caused the ten-