The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1910-04-23


many of you have had leisure; most
of you have had a chance for the en-
joyment of life far greater than comes
to the majority of your fellows. To
you and your kind much has been
given, and from you much should be
expected. Yet there are certain fail
ings against which it is especially in
cumbent that both men of trained and
tied wealth and position, should espe-
cialIy guard themselves, because to
these failings they are especially liable +;
and if yielded to, their-your-chanc
of useful service are at an end
Beware of Temptation.
Let the man of learning, the man
of lettered leisure, beware of that
queer and cheap temptation to pose
to himself anC to others as the cynic,
as the man who has outgrown emo
tions and beliefs, the man to whom good
and evil are as one. The poorest way
to face life is to face it with a sneer.
There are many men who feel a kind
of twisted pride in cynicism; there are
many who confine themselves to crit
icism of the way others do what they
themselves dare not even attempt.
There is no more unhealthy being,
no man less worthy of respect, than
he who either really holds, or feigns
to hold, an attitude Of Sneering dis
belief towards all that is great and
lofty, whether in achievement or in
that noble effort which, even if 1t fail,
comes second to achievement. A Gym
zeal habit of thought and speech a
readiness to criticise work which the
critic himself never tries to perform,
an intellectual aloofness which will not
accept contact with life's realities
an these are marks. not. as the pos
SCISSOR would fain think. of superior
1ty, but of weakness They mark the
men unfit to hear their part manfully
in the stern strife of living, who seek,
in the affectation of contempt for the
~ NrcT1 rNr,E-
others and from themselves their
own weakness. The role is easy; there
is none easier, save only the role of
the man who sneers alike at both
er1tlclsm and performance.
Not the Critic Who Counts.
1t is not the critic who counts; not
the man who points out how the
strong man Stumbles. or where the
doer of deeds could have done them
better. The credit belongs to the man
who is actually in the arena whose
face is marred by dust and sweat
and blood; who strives valiantIy; who
errs, and comes short again and again,
because there is no. effort without err
ror and shortcoming; but who does
actually strive to do the deeds; who
knows the great enthusiasms the
great devotions; who spends himself
in a worthy cause: who at the best
knows in the end the triumph of high
achievement, and who at the worst if
greatly, so that his place shall never
be with those cold and timid souls
who know neither victory nor defeat.
Shame on the man of cultiva ted taste
who permits refinement to develop in
to fastidiousness that units him for
doing the rough work of workaday
world. Among the free peoples who
govern themselves there is but a
small field of usefulness open for the
men of clustered life who shrink from
contact with their fellows. Still less
room is there for those who deride or
slight what is done by those who act
ually bear the brunt of the day; nor
yet for those others who always pro-
fess that they would like to take action
if only the conditions of life were not
what they actually are. The man who
does nothing cuts the same sordid
figure in the pages of history, wheth-
er he be cynic, or fop, or voluptuary.
There is little use for the being
whose tepid soul knows nothing Of
the great and generous emotion, of
the high pride. the stern belief, the
lofty enthusiasm, of the men who
quell the storm and ride the thunder.
Well for these men If they succeed;
we'll also though not so we'll, If they
fail, given only that they have nobly
ventured. and have put forth all their
heart and strength. 1t is war-worn
Hotspur, spent with hard fighting. he
of the many errors and the valiant
end, over whose memory we love to
linger, not over the memory Of the
young lord who "but for the vile guns
would have been a soldier"
France as a Teacher.
France has taught many lessons to
other nations: surely one of the most
important is the lesson her whole his
tory teaches, that high artistic and
literary DEVELOPMENT is compatible
with notable leadership in arms and
statecraft. The brilliant gallantry of the
French soldier has for many centur-
les been proyerbial; and during these
same centuries at every court in
Europe the "freemaSCnS of fashion
have treated the French tongue as
their common speech: while every ar
fist and man of letters, and every man
of science able to appreciate that mar
velous instrument of precision, French
prose, has tul ned toward France for
aid and inspiration. How long the
leadership in arms and letters has
lasted is curiously illustrated by the
a modern tongue is the splendid
French epic which tells of Roland's
doom and the vengeance of Charlie
magne when the lords of the Frankish
host were stricken at Roncesvafles.
Let those who have keep, let those
who have not, strive to attain, a
high standard of cultivation and schol-
arship. Yet let US remember that
these stand second to certain other
things. There is need of a sound
body, and even more need of a sound
mind. But above mind and above body
stands chara cter-the sum of those
qualities which we mean when we
speak of a mans force and courage,
of his good faith and sense of honor.
believe in exercise for the body,
always provided that we keep in
mind that physical development is a
means and not an end. I believe, of
course, in giving to all the people a
good education. Bus the education
must contain much besides book learn
ing in order to be really good. We
must ever remember that no keenness
and subtleness of intellect, no polish
no cleVerness in any way make UP
for the lack Of the great solid quail
ties. Se1f-restraint, self-mastery, com