The Washington herald., 1913-03-16

to save It from being abandoned to
passion or allowed to drift at
hazard to give 1t happiness by
establishing it in the practice OF virtue, and
this object they seek to attain by prescrib-
ing to human life fixed principles Of action.
fixed rules Of conduct. In Its uninspired az
well as in its inspired moments. in Its days
Of lanSuor and gloom as we'll as in its days
Of sunshine and energy. human life has thus
always a clew TO follow. and may always
by making way towards Its goal
Thus writes Matthew Arnold at the be-
ginning Of his essay on one Of the greatest
moral teachers Of all time, Marcus Aurelus
Sometimes, in spite OF the weight OF evidence
in favor OF a moral system, il takes man
half lifetime to learn its practical value
in his own life Perhaps such q system was
made hateful TO him in his childhood. Per
haps no moral principles were inculoated at
that impressiorable time. s<.s so he Is one
OF the most unfortunate OF mortals.
Again. perhape, though he has learned
system precept by precept. he yet makes a
wrong Interpretation Of what true success
in the world is. and comes TO believe that
only the nen without scruples get on. II
is hard to see that II is really anothers
great ability that has helped him TO suc-
cess even though unscrupulousness has been
one Of his weapons There are plenty OF un-
scrupuIous men that are despicabiy unsuc-
cessfu
But whether the individual has a moral
system or not. society has. and he is influenced
by II. or perhaps II would be better to say
that he is worried by it. whether he will or
no. The man who is not acting IN con-
formity TO such a system is often deeply and
.I-yru nr7e
forms his acts to its precepts may almost for
get rhat. there is such system. except as
he sees the many moral wrecks about him. 1t
does not take much courage to defy moral
law, but it takes enormous courage boldly TO
admit such defiance therefore most men
who DO what society at large counts wrong
are always trying 10 hide the fact
u
Enthusiasm Overcame Discretion.
II there is one man more than another who
is q contradiction to himself 1t is man
full OF natural ent.usiasms. and yet one
who has filed his life with the unbecominS
secrecies Of moral detormity. Such man
recently forgetting for a moment his usual
secretiveness in his enthusiastic desire TO
agree with some one whom he was trying to
please. told something about himself that al
another time he would have disCreetly sup
pressed
The discussion between the two had been on
the subject Of eating meat. and the first per
son repeated the instance OF the orphan
asylum where many years ago two doctors
and severa! nurses were kept constantly busy
before another physician got permission 10
introduce into i his system OF vegetarianism.
After that the services Of the nurses and
doctors we're G:spensed with.
Il can quite believe it," said this man
giving a quite new turn to the main con-
tention by saying, Il, myself. or rather one
of my family once did the buying for just
such an institution We gathered together
any old thing. and at the end of the week
dumped il in barrels and got handsome
price for it,
This mans words had spoken over his head
The one who had opened the discussion and
the one whom he was trying to please had
no thought of implying that the meat eating
OF public institutions was disastrous TO the
health OF the inmates because II was sup
piled by dishonest contractors, but rather
because Of certain elements that are in meat.
whether II Is good or bad.
The fundamental shaHowness OF the man
which is of itself a moral defect or the re-
suit of such. and the hollowness OF his
moral sense, were All ClSpiayeC because ne
was pretending to grasp an idea which he
had not, all in his enthusiastic desire to please
and to seem like nice person.
It is often one OF the greatest desires
Of such man to seem nice" In this case
nice means that the man not only wants
to be highly agreeable and seemingly re-
fined to the point of exquistteness. but that
he wants to seem to be able to discuss any
subject-to seem to know much more than
he does know.
In this case the man is really accomplished
in at least two ways. because his natural en-
thusiasm has brought this about, but he is
not satisfied to seem Just what he is His
lack Of moral stamina helps him to de-
sire to seem something he is not
* Il