Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-12-27
SUNDAY MAGAZINE FOR DECEMBER II. 1908

Does the idle college boy who cheats at his exami-
nations Thereby most grievouslv cheating himselh
contemplate this sort of work. reviewing 1t
in the after years. with of humiliation?
Rarely, if ever. He had to- pass, did he not?
He couldn't take the chance of being plucked could
he? He would have been in disgrace at home and
everywhere else if he had fallen down his exams
would he not? Certainly, Therefore, he had to :
cheat to get by. and, far from regarding this
something contemplate and unworthy, he rather
plumes himself on having successfully Accomplishment
Even the drunkard has raft of sodden. specious
sentimental excuses for his continuous insobriety
his occasional periods of hefuddement Its
good mans fault most grisv Of bromide adages
is of them, and the cheapest and most un-
truthful of the lot. Then, this world IS pretty
gray old affair at best, vast breeding ground of
multiplying troubles and he suffers uncannly from
depression things at home aren't as they might
be- or his father a drunkard before him and
handed the vice down him. anyone of hum
dred other self palliations, all equally perverse
equvocal quirkish, fashioned of the mirage debris
But he believes in his extenuatons, all OF which lead
infalliby to his conclusion that he has to drink
All Travelling the Same Way
THE simple truth is that most of ncon-
ceivably keen defenders of ourselves and of our
doings, when self arrag ned so that we can find
all the jungle paths make the widest detours,
struggle through the most dubious mOrasses in
order finally arrive the land of Self Forgiveness
Almost, one might say, it is much mans in
stinct to defend his from himself to seek to
conceal his exterior self from his retrospective ego
behind of casuistry as 1t is for him to de-
fend his body in moments of physical peril
If this not the case, would not the millennium
be fairly shoudering us? A world in which every
human being himself as others see him is quite
uni1nagnable at this stage of the worlds journey.
The period may be fructifying in the abyss of
Time when all mortals will be acutely metculous IN
the most minor matters of honor and square deal
ing when they will shudder and do Notifying pen
when self examination reveals to their eye of
ntrospection the slightest stain; but such state
of universal consciousness, of outright beattude,
which would imply sort of self canonzat1on on the
part of all hands, be nothing now but perhaps
a seedlet in the womb of futur1ty; certainly
none of look for anything of the sort
Introspection itself, in a hustl1ng, competitive
world is no very widespread habit Few of u.s. in
deed have time for introspecton, even for the en-
ioyrnent of the luxury thus extracted OF CLOSING
over our infir1nites and derelictions The ma orty
of us put ourselves under the focus only when We
are fairly driven to it by the throbblngs OF con-
science that will not be stilled in spite of all that
do to stun it into quiescence; and even then
we are very decidedly out of the common if we are
unable by picking up little palatives everywhere at
hand, to the O X. stamp over all our do1ngS
and to return to the state of tranquility of self
Perhaps, too, in manknd's present state of I'M
perfection if we fell into the habit of mourning too
poignanty and penitently merely minor
transactions we should be able find time to do little
else world of work might be seriously affected in
dustrially if all to contract the anchorites
desire to lash ourselves the work disqualfy-
ing hair shirt the littlest of our defects.
Who knows but that 1t may be what is loosely
called special dispensaton that we are able to
look with partial and condoneful an eye on our
defects of character and of conduct? To be brut-
ishly mpentent for sins would be- of course,
an indication of obtuseness and of mental opacity;
but world of men and women plunged forever in
a state of cankerng remorse over admitted and per-
haps magnified flaws, would be gloomy and I'M
practicable, not to say impossible, world.
Perhaps, then, it is Providentially meant that
we should keep the balance of self ComplaisanCe
always side; that should extend to our
selves the same spirit of liberation that are ex-
horted to extend to Others that IN brief we should