Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1913-03-07
The Sons Of Mary.
By DIR. FRANK CRANE.

The thinker has his uses as well as the
doer, :
When Martineau was asked why>he did
not join in the work Of carrying the gosT
pei to the slums, he replied that he was
too busy trying to shape the sort OF sos-
pel that would be of any good to the
slums when it was preached. to them.
We live in an age that worships the
practical man, or. to use the much-worn
phrase, 1.-The man who does things. But
this kind Of man is as liable to do harm
as to do good unless he is backed up by
1.-THE man who thinks things.
The sons of Mary who sit around and
dream have been of. quite as much help
to this weary world as the Kipiing- praiseu
sons of Martha who get out and hustle.
There is nothing, to say truth, so empty
of results as crazy haste to go to work.
An hour spent lin thinking your work
over is better than three hours OF putter-s
ing about doing things that have to be
undone, and. although resembling the
scurrying ant who makes a hundred use
less trips to get anywhere and whose Wis
dom, as Mark Twain proved, is highly
Overrated. 49,
Old Socrates incoming about the streets
of Athens. Jesus walking and taiktng in
Judea,- Emmanuel Kant pacing thesgside-
walk of Koenigsbufg.. Emerson nttising at
Concord; the world owes as much to these
electrical devices and. cotton goods Of
those whosbu railways and Office build
ings, amass millions or lead armies to
slaughter.
imam from the wilderness" who has been
looking at the stars and into his own
soul. Forty years Noses brooded in the
wild, and when he came out he wrote the
law for humanity. Buddha's years Of
deep thought made him the master Of the
east.
The sons of Martha do things. The sons
of Mary think to 1.-The bottom of things.
We need the practical politician, tire
active merchant, the hard-headed manu-
facturer, the builders and carriers and
managers; but their labor is in. vain with
out the poet to see the meaning of 1t ALL
the philosopher tn give. 1t, unity in
thought the prophet to-yleW and declare
teller to touch all the Iabors of men with
feeling and: color.
I will pit Maeterlinck against Edison.
Barrie against Upton, T0lstoy against
the whole army Of Russian grand dukes,
Charles Wagner against the R0thschilds
and Walt Whitman against Rockefeller.
Fortunes go down, millions dissipate,
the proudest buildings by and by are torn
away to make way. for new. all that the
sons of Martha do has to be done over,
in time; but they who labor at the in
finite and show men the laws that I'M
.derlie life the truths supon which govern
ment exists, and the unbending rules of
destiny in all human affairs, their work
remains-it is they who have, chosen 1.-THE
better part
He goes to the riverside =
Nor hook nor line hath he;
He stands In the meadows wide
Nor gun nor scytht To see.
knowledge this man prizes best
Seems fantastic to the rest.
/ So if there be some who refuse to
"join," who dsclin6 taiexpress themselves
in fevered activity. and who simply think,
without fear or. favor: and tell what they
think. spare them. for without them you
could reach no goal, but go ever around
and around in a weary dance: and your
gold you have piled up .WQuid but curse
you and your cbildren's children. and
your success woala asS put a. triumph OF
madness. =
The sons of Mary are not: practical, for
they live In the future and they point the
way. Says Ger3ld' Nasty:
| o the propilfts;.hsrdS and seers,
In the horoscope Qf nations
Like ascending Consultations
They control thu coming years.