Norwich bulletin., 1911-08-19

(Written Specially for The Bulletln.)
1t is said to be the part OF The
peSSimiSt to point out deplOraole
tendencies. Homer tells how Cassan-
dra, prophecies of evil, went up ana
down the streets of ancient Troy, fore
telling the city's DOOM 1t was Jesus
of Nazareth who predicted woes I'M
speakable to the eminently SNUG and
respectable leaders of society in or
about 33 A. D. Jesus was cruclhed; ,
Cassandra was first laughed at and
then hooted; the present day pessI1n1st
is regarded and frankly spoken OF as
a nuisance. Yet it would have, been
better for both Jerusalem and Troy II
the warnings had been needed. 1t
would be better for the coming gem
GRAFTON if the one now on the stage
would simply look ahead to see whittier
its steps are tending.
Unquestionably the world is getting
better. 1t is growing kinder. 1t is
gaining wisdom. 1t is attaining TO
higher levels. But don't forget that
this general trend forward and upward
been interrupted. Mankind and the
world are not steadily climbing on an
unvarying grade towards the summit.
There have been many down-hil bits
in the long road behind us. From
hight after hight of attainment we
flung down many a steep decline, los
ing much of what we had painfully
gained, and compelled to begin the
weary struggle over again On the
whole, looking at world-life by cen
turtles and ages, we are manifestly
gotten progenitors But we are no
where near as high-nowhere near as
close to the ultimate slImmit-nowhere
near as neighboring to the peaks of
perfection, as we should have been lad
we met with no setbacks along the
ix-thousand-year road we have been
travelling. It has many times taken
many long years to recover the ground
we have lost by our tumbledowns.
The pity of it has been and is that
every one of these setbacks we have
met every one of these falls we have
had has been directly and wholly due
to our own shortsightedness and folly.
The prophets of evil the pessimists,
the seers of disaster are never popular.
They annoy us, or they enrage us, or
if We are small-souled enough and
weak Drained enough-they arouse our
Tidicule. We either Danish them or
cruelty them or laugh them down.
And then, later on. We or our child
dren weep bitter tears and wouldn't.
wouldn't, wouldn't see things as they
are, face facts fearlessly, and avoid the
pitfalls which we might have seen and
kept out of but for our blindness and
folly.
Now !, for one, find it pIeasanter as
a rule to look at the worlds advance
and to glory in it and imagine its con-
tinuance, than l do to keep looking be-
hind me all the time, half scared 10
death by forebodingS of Disaster, and
afraid to put my foot down real hard
lost r IL ix,
all of us do find that state of mind
pleasanter. But. unfortunately, it isn't
always nor often the merely pleasant
thing which is the right thing. Per
maps the universe wasn't started prop
erly, and perhaps it isn't being run as
1t should be. That is a matter which
! shall really have to leave you to set
tie for yourselves with the said uni
verse. I've lived with it long enough
TO find out that it doesn't make IA
plcayune's difference what j think
about tits going ON just the same,
regardless OF my opinions. When !
can't possibly change the conditions it
seems to me wiser to accept them as
they are and try to fit myself to the
coat since l am to have no say about
the cutting of it. And one of the ir-
repealable laws of this particular part
of the universe seems to be that we
must generally do the hard thing, the
thing we don't like, the thing we don't
want to do.
It's taken me a long time to get
round to what / have in mind this
morning; but now l think I've got
there. This age has a number of sad
~ disheartening things about it;
whole lot of tendencies which can't
help but cause foreboding; which we
may want to shut our eyes to, but
ought rather to face and fight. One
OF them has been suggested to me by