Norwich bulletin., 1912-07-29
IDEAS OF A PLAIN MAN
By Dr. Frank Crane.

You speak of strict justice. There is no such thing. And if there were we could none of US endure it.
 It is not enough to be perfectly fair. Human beings cannot possibly live to- gether except they be more than hon. est; they must be generous.
 It takes a deal of retreating, yield ing, pardon and overlooking to get along in the world.
 And if we are to be perfectly just, who is to begin? Not l, and not you.
 Our hands are not clean enough. ID be just and to ask but justice one must be as antiseptic as a surgeon performing an operation. The least evil on the part Of the judge wlll spread microbes more than enough to over balance the good results of his surgery
 So long as our common humanity is so frail it will bbe necessary for men to keep forgiving, cancelling debts, swallowing offended pride.
 Do you say you only want your jus- dues? You are mistaken. What you want is your share of the worlds for- giveness.
 The justice of either God or man would be more than you could bear.
 We are all imperfect, and the two things that make it possible for i'm perfect people to live together in any peace and joy, are forgiving and for getting
 Some provision in the church ritual ought to be made for rendering thanks unto God for our four little brothers, oxygen, hydrogen, carbon and nitrogen.
 Doubtless good Saint Francis would have made mention of them in his Canticle to the Sun. if he had known about them.
 And all the while the dear saint was 1 praying. the four little brothers were ! giving him breath to pray with fur nishing the heart-cup for his holy passion, and nerves to record his visions.
 It is well to praise water, but where would it be if friends oxygen and hy- drogen had not agreed together? And where would be the fire on your altar or your backlog had not oxygen and carbon gone into partnership? And I? I am but a dance, minuet for a moment, of the four brothers. When the dance breaks up they shall lay me in my grave. The very thoughts that spring up in me. the passions of my heart, and the worship of my soul I will not say they too are mere motions and conJunctions of the four brothers; but they certainly would be impossible without them.
 Satire lies about literary men during their lives and euiogy lies about them after their death." said VoItaire. But why complain? Why all this ev- eryday indignation we hear expressed such as: q am not understood" T ar | not appreciated" If people would only tell the truth about me" and the like. As a matter of fact, who wants the truth. the whole truth, and nothing bu the truth known about himself? No | I, for one.
 l Dear friend, if we should suddenl! 1 learn the whole truth about each oth
 CT we should probably never speal again. we would be inexpressibl, shocked, though probably each of u | would himself be worse than the oth
 No. no: if, should expose my las I and most intimate thought, it would D | fully as indecent as to remove m
 clothing.
 | Let us not be hypocrites, but let u
 at least go clothed, mentally and nor ally as well as bodily. Confess to mt
 if you choose, but I like to feel tha there is something underneath whic you have reserved for the private ca
 of God.
 Each life has it's little private truthi
 altars too sacred for other eyes an reserves of cowardice or folly perhap
 for the shame of none but itself, Spar r them.
 Let love not probe too deeply in it desire to know the inmost thought an feeling; for when there is no more
 veil over the central shrine 1t is har to keep the shekinah burning.