The commercial. (Union City, Tenn.) 190?-193?, 1914-01-30

cynical Diogenes picked a rooster, and
bringing the featherless gentleman be-
fore the school said, This is PIato's
man. !" Whereupon Plato modified his
definition.
Complete knowledge OF anything is
impossible; total ignorance OF many
things unavoidable, and refusal to ac-
knowledge ones ignorance inexcusable.
Ignorance is Goliath with whom
often tussle and by whom / am often
defeated or bafiled / rather like TO feel
that am only barefoot schoolboy in
the university Of this marvelously COM
plex God-made creation. / am content
to sit at the feet Of the faultiess Master
and the great Gamaliels OF the world
and learn rather than announce OF
all peoples, all times and countries, Of
all histories, sciences, poetry, philos
ophy, literatures and all nature-of all
these, so far as may be, am forever
only a student, learner never a mas
ter or knower. / am indeed an in
FAINT crying in the night, happy il now
and then / may catch glimpses Of the
day star dancing from the east. If
ever ] have seemed to want OF know
ing by being self-assertive or dogmatic,
am ashamed Of it, for such a style is
one that iudicious writer's are careful to
avoid. Modesty and humility becom-
eth even the wisest OF men better than
their rhetoric. II am ashamed, = cried
the great Baxter, OF every sermon
that preach. Goethe said in his old
age that he had written but one poem
that pleased him. Some great sculptor,
as have heard, wept when he became
satisfied with his own production be-
cause his ideal, he felt, was gone. My
fancy and judgment do but grope in the
dark, tripping and stumbling in their
way" said the informed and philo-
sophie Montaigne Spinoza, being se-
verely criticised once, replied with
modesty and wise moderation that made
most wholesome reading. The gods are
not afraid Of thunder. Their own ig-
norance often rises before the great like
Rhodian Colossus. All knowledge il
relative, and the biggest half Of it eva
siye. Let me never boast or be self
assertive. Let me learn firm moral
restraint OF egotism. The greatest thing
about christianity is living it, the best
way to prove there is God in heaven
is to be His similitude on earth.
would commend the generous and
expository tone Of Mr.. Naylor's reply
to me. And on the whole, from his
several viewpoints, consider the reply
exceptionally good. Generosity and con-
descension should always flavor the ex-
pressions Of different opinions between
men. Crystals OF different minerals, it
is said, sometimes form and associate
together very pleasantly sometimes
they do not. Sometimes they yield
the required place with perfect grace
and courtesy, forming fantastic but ex-
quisitely finished groups, and some
times they will not yield at all but fight
furiously for their places, Ioosing all
shape and honor How often Is that
true Of men in the battle Of opinion"
they loose all shape and honor.
Some crystals. under pressure, have
formed around gas, enclosing it; and
such crystals, when heated little, ex-
plode with great violence. So some men
seem to be charged with combustibles,
and little jar or friction on the ego
ism knot precipitates an explosion. OF
such disposition Mr.. Naylor seems to
be the antithesis. He promises, / should
think, a useful aud honorable career.
All honor TO every young man that Is
really aspiring to be something and de
something / would give them hearty
grip and wish them luck upon their
trip through life.
EUGENE F. McSPEppEN.