Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1909-12-06

back to such life as memory can give.
| the personalities of our friends, that
lifts the mind above the sordid details
of that daily struggle which we call
| life and raises it to a higher plane.
Thoughts of enternity make time
seem insignificant. We need to meet
once in a while, as we meet today, to
readjust our standards, to gauge
more nearly the relative size ana
weight of things, to strike proper bal
ances between essentials and non-es-
sentials, to get proper perspective,
to take a saner view of our surround
ings, to renew an allegiance to the few
simple, cardinal principles which
must guide our lives if our lives are to
be worth living and to be so lived
that those who meet to honor our
memories may have a right to honor
them.
Small, pitifully small. contemplate,
seem the dreams of ambition, which to
attain it's end would wreck the nap
pine3s of q generation, when one
thinks that the end, which comes so
quickly. turns Emperor and Car into
the same worthless dust that the
humhlest peasant finds in his ances-
tors graves.
The mania of avarice which fills
mems minds SO that they strive to
climb to wealth over the wrecked lives
and hopes of others appears like the
vain imasinings of q diseased Dralh
when one remembers that one common,
all-embracing fate awaits, alike, the
pauper and the millionaire.
Despisable, useless, worse than use
less. are the petty enmities, the Jeai-
OuSies, the quarrels with Whlch we
fret our souls, viewed in the dim ana
holy light which half hides and half
reveals the tomb.
The order to which we belong asks
of us certain things. If we grant It's
asking we need have no fear but that
we shall live Alright and, living so,
need have no fear OF death. And what
our order asks is not Impossible or,
seemingly, even difficult. 1t asks no
more than every man can grant.
| There are things which few men can
| do which to the many are impossible
There are also things which every man
can do, and do as well as any other man.
And the strange thing about it is that
the things which only a few can do are
nnessential things and the things which
everyone can do are the important things.
Only few men can become great
painters, musicians, orators or poets.
Nature creates but one great soldier in a
generation, gives to but few that rare
combination of Imagination and avarice
which makes man financier and has in
spired but one great dramatist in all the
years that our language has been spoken
But to all men is given the power to
love, the ability to be generous, the
strength to be Independent, intelligence
sufficient to be truthful and sincere, to
become good neighbors and staunch
friends. To all men are given con-
science, honor, courage and kindhearted-
ness.
The world could live without are or
war or vast accommodations, in a few
hands, of wealth. 1t could not live with
out love and friendship and loyalty and
truth. 1t could not live without courage
and self denial and self sacrifice.
No mandate of our order says that we
shall, in order to be honored by it, be-
come statesmen, soldiers, poets, artists,
financiers. 1t does not say to us that
we shall live in great houses and enter
tain our acquaintance with pomp and
ceremony and display. It. does not say
lathat we shall sit III the seats of the
naishty Or dwell in high places.