The Washington herald., 1913-04-20

- ROM man or saint from woman o.
l. child. from book or sermon. from pic
ture or event. this man or that man
gets some thought, some Inspiration.
that carries him farther in ambitions
or right living than precept or law, example,
admonition.
Men and women who have time to live or
who make time to think are always gather
ing new ideas about living. 1t is not the hav-
ing time. it is knowing how to utilize it to
such an end, 20 use 1t for the summing UP of
some bulk of experience, in some flexible gen.
crafty. that makes a new rule for present
living.
say flexible generality" sort that Is
far removed from the quick shallow generali-
ties Of youth, say those of a youthful Eng
Nshman. who without ever seeing America or
ever having been In Germany defines the
one as a land of cocktails and the people as
those who stole the English language and
spoiled it (absurdity Of absurdities) and the
other as a land Of beer swillers.
This is no fiction. real engineer from the
tight little island. working for an English
firm with American capital did recently de-
fine these two countries in just this way, just
as he made the statement that he might go to
America to take the examinations connected
Win advancement IN MS Profession because
they were so much easier over there"
= 1t is such men as this who live their lives
but once unless something revolutionary en-
tiers into them to lessen their conceit and
break up their cocksureness Having decided
that all peoples save the race they belong to
are inferior. having made up their minds just
what most things are like, they see reason
for verifying their views by looking into
for Thov irolx, hui
from the new and delightful conceptions that
might come to an open mind to make almost
every day like fresh beginning Of life.
* y
Lack Positive Views.
There are yet other people who can hardly
be said to live once. They have no positive
views about anything, but take with the ut
most nonchalance or perhaps with great sat-
isfaction as law and gospel what this man
says or writes-what almost anyb body says or
writes-as their own opinions, their own deci-
sions. There are no real epochs in such lives
except those imposed from without although
they may frequently adopt somebody's new
whimsy. These are the Toms and Dicks and
Harrys who may naturally have had very
good parts and ability, who might have been
somewhat fluid in an original way instead
tons. Some one has spoken of such people
as vague, gregarious natures. liking or dis
liking merely because other people like or
dislike"
The fortunate people are those who are
finding life facing them as an entirely new
problem from what il has been. because they
have stepped to a higher level Of reasoning
or thinking about it, and will keep on step
ping up by this process OF new thinking.
Such people believe that life must begin
again and again and that everybody ought
to be prepared to begin life many times
afresh. They believe SO essentially in the
essential goodness Of life, IN its wonderful
fruitfulness, that 1t becomes their constant
testimony that life is worthy to be lived over
end over again. Such people do not die be-
cause their friends die and do not believe that
there is nothing more to be gained since
what was once gained is now lost. They do
net forget the past, but they live in the pres
emit
It Is such people as this who discover the
unnoticed gifts of life who believe that life
is worth living so that there will be future,
that life is worth living with fortitude, with
tenderness with devotion. They extract joy
out of what another totally neglects, just
as a dull traveller will sleep or read a worth
less book while he travels through a won
derful Country which the alert will find so
full OF beauties as to strain every sense in
graspng even a half