Daily Arizona silver belt., 1908-11-22
THE PITrAIL OF SELF

In the universal search for happiness, a search in which all men have right to take part, there are many who stun ble b ythe way into the pitfall of self ishness. Surely, no individual happi- ness is in this life that does not take into account the condition of our neigh bors, the happiness of others. sterne wrote:
 There are soma tempers-how shall I describe themi-formed either of such impenetrable matter or wrought up by habitual selfish ness to such an utter insensibility of what becomes of the fortunes of their fellow creatures, as if they were not partakers of the same na- ture or had no lot or connection at all with the species,
 Life that is centsred in one's self can hardly be regarded as tolerable, for no man is more cheated than the selfish man. Leigh Hunt once wrote that
 The same people who can deny others everything are famous for refusing themselves nothing.
 But here the poet was judging super fcially and hastily, for the man who, in utter selfshness, denies what gifts he has to his fellow-men is denying him. self, thereby, of one of the greatest happinesses that can come to man; for, as Joanna Baillie truly said
 He who will not give
 Some portion of his Ease, his Blood,
 his Wealth,
 For others Good, is a poor frozen
 Churl.
 Nor, if We are to believe the poets and philosophers, is it possible for a man really to gain by selishness, though for the moment the selfish man may seem to have the advantage. It is not material possessions that win happiness for a man. Sharing generously, and with the true spirit of potimism, leads a man toward the heights, the slopes of which are impossible to those who burden themselves with selfsmess. Ba- con, in whose quaint phrases that sound so strange to our ears today there is to be found much helpful thought, had something to say on this matter, too:
 Wisdom for a mans self is in many branches thereof, a depraved thing; 1t is the wisdom of rats that will be sure to leave house some what before it falls; it is the wis dom of the fox that thrusts out the badger who digged and made room for him; 1t Is the wisdom of croco- diles that shed tears when they would devour. But that which is especially to be noted is that those which Gas Cicero says of Pompey) are 'sui amantes, sine rivali' low CTS of themselves without a rivaD are many times unfortunate, and whereas they have all their lives sacrificed to themselves, they have become in the end sacrifices them selves to the inconsistency of for tune, whose wings they thought by their self-wisdom to have pinioned. The gospel of optimism is a gospel of love. The pitfall of self is digged with hate and uncharitableness. self-rev- erence, self knowledge, self-control- these things are good in themselves and imply in the possessor only a proper rec ognition of the bounty of God. A man cannot know his brothers unless he first knows himself, but the beauty of un- selfshness is that he can help others when he himself needs help.
 And the great expression of pure un- selfshness is to be found manifested in love for our fehllows-the love that is long suffering and kind, that think eth no evil, that giveth with open hand and open heart, that makes us think of others before of ourselves
 For this is loves nobility
 Not to scatter bread and gold,
 Goods and raiment bought and sold; i;
 But to hold fast his simple sense,
 And speak the speech of innocence,
 For he that feeds men serveth few;
 He serves all who dares to be true.
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