The Washington herald. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1906-1939, 1912-08-04

SraVlty circumstance sometimes forces
upon man a meteoric brilliance. He may
give out very bright light In the mere fall
ing to earth. though he may really not have
as much incandescence as a FREELY. and when
he has landed he will be seen to be very
plain. common kind Of rock indeed. But
making the most Of yourself is not a falling
performance. but a rising
Valleys are lovely but the view In them is
contracted and they are often. very often. de-
pendent upon the mountain, as well as threat
ened by It. There Is another thing about the
mountain the Most. II you do not scale its
sides it will very Hkey bury YOU. very. very
deep Many a man has been buried the deeper
because OF the very powers within him TO
rise the higher.
The Most is after all . very peculiar goal.
for in a sense It is never reached. One Of
the greatest OF modern teachers Of philoso-
ply says. When / seek my own goal am
seeking for the whole Of myself" 1t is rare
ly given to man to know himself wholly. He
must be very teachable to learn, in the slight
est. what he is. from others. and even SO. the
Judgment Of others 10 of the most diverse
value. something worth nothing at all. No
problem Is quite so interesting as that which
sets a man to find out what is In himself
what Of power. Of productiveness and of real
genius. The amount Of genius undiscovered
in the world is inestimably great
The Most, though 1t be an ideal or goal
that recedes as we approach it. nevertheless
leads US along beautiful pathways that are
almost an end In themselves. A bird in the
hand may be worth two In the bush to seine
people. but to walk through a bird haunted
wood Is by others considered by far the
greater privilege especially II they know so
much about the birds that they can always
learn and enjoy more.
The man who has the sense, the spirit, or
call 1t nerve II you will, to strive for the
goal the Most, has hitched his wagon to q
star. and a stars travels never end. Such
man is not a silly youth pushing on mid
snow and ice to plant a standard on a
glacier which will surely melt In time
though some deluded human beings count
such things as this the Most. He climbs
mountains not for the sake Of reaching the
top but because there Ii something on the
other side worth getting, enjoying the seen
cry both up and down without any serious
strain-enjoying It the more because his aims
are SO real and definite. The single days
work Is far better for being definite, and a
multitude Of definite ways Of work make .
definite end, which could not be understood
at the beginning, unless the purpose was
something as small as piiing cord wood or
making a cob house.
Must Understand Limita lions.
The Most may not always be . very big
thing. but it is always a very true thing
You and ], In other words, must understand
our limitations. Perhaps some Of the things
that seem 30 big are not for US. and we might
as well cry for the moon as to try to get them.
Is this not so? Yet every human being misses
some greatness he was perfectly capable OF
attaining Almost any man might be great
through unselfishness or because of the exer-
else of some of the other humane gifts. To
think Of limitations In any but the most COM
mon sense manner is a Limitation in itself.
but the exercise Of common sense In deter
mining what we can and cannot do has its
place nevertheless
The Most can never be attained by any
system Of grabbing, though there 10 quite q
popular notion that 1t can be: nor by any as
sertion Of rights; nor by any fantastic bat
Ting for them. Grabbing Is q very undiscip-
lined way Of getting things. and making the
Most always means disciplining yourself.
Constant endeavor speNs The Most. in time,
and this must be without the strain or the
fierce encounter of battle To win In battle
is not to get The Most, for the conquered
have often overcome the conquerors in all
the vital things.
There can be striving without strife. Even
II you have much you must strive. You may
be born with a golden spoon in your mouth,
but you may have to grip hard to hold 1t
there Without some exertion on your part
you may be taking your last medicine from a
spoon whose bowl has not even single plate
The Most is not the best Of things to eat, to
wear to POSSESS. although these may be sur
passingly good to have. 1t may be compared
to little plant growing in ourselves, care
fully tended, that will in time give US all of
these things that are worth having and still
more may be added unto them.
The Most is something that grows like a
pearl by successive accretions. and yet not
because We are Ike diseased oysters. II is
the one superlative that can be made more
so. At any stage Of our careers we may be
making the most Of ourselves, and yet our
possible goal be nowhere yet in sight.