Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1914-05-12
LIVING AND LETTING LIVE

(IO De COHtlHucu.J
LIVING AND LETTING LIVE
Impossible to Live Only For and BY
Ourselves.
At times 1t seems that life consists
OF relative importances and important
relatives; and many who are wise
about saying "yes" and mo" In the
impersonal matters cannot be so sure
when II comes to the personal compli-
cations. It is easier to decide that you
will buy a spring hat or go on jour-
neg or build a house or make speech
or write a book or cast up tangled ac-
counts than 1t Is to decide that you
will obey your uncle or placate your
second cousin or deceive your husband
or defy your grandmother. This Is the
world and we must live In 1t. We can
not climb up in tree and pull the
rope ladder after US; one cannot d"eil
in a hole in the ground with stone
over the mouth Of it. We may wish
pointing outward against the hand OF
rash intruder, apd our ears closed
against his voice, but we cannot We
can insulate wires but not nerves. AS
long as we live we are subject to i'm
Fortunate demands, commands, ad-
vice. pity, rebuke, counsel, gossip. in
vasion and interruption. Our dream
is to lead our own lives, and we are
not allowed. What they" might
think, what "they'' wish us to do,
what "they" believe is proper, what
they" have mapped and determined
these are to be the finger posts Of our
Journey. Where Is our liberty, and
where the punishment for the crimes
that are committed against 1t? Has
the immortal soul upon its earthly
pilgrimage no rights that others are
bound to respect? Are we not grown
and do we not know our minds and
accept the full responsibility Of our
own acts?
Faithful are the wounds Of
friend" We should grieve If none
minded what way we took. We are
touched by the solicitude Of those who
really care, and make our best and
lasting interest their concern. But 1t
is another matter in the case Of those
who serve some selfish end that Is all
their own, or are bent upon maintain
ing a sterile academic convention that
is only the cut-and dried husk Of dead
things and not the living soul OF an
eternal verify.
The spirit of a man must be given
room to grow, and when it has been
taught and nurtured till 1t has attained
its self-control and its divine ma
jority," 1t must be released to its own
choices, its own responsibilities and its
own doom. There Is time and 1t Is
right to encourage in any way we can,
one whose life struggles upward to the
light; but when we think Of breaking
down the barrier that hedges the
privacy of another life, we should long
and seriously ponder it beforehand
for this is holy ground wherein the
angels fear to tread.
Who are we that we should venture
even the effort to alter another's
course, not knowing all that went be-
fore, nor understanding the environ
ment. nor having facts in mind or
proofs in hand, and perhaps not even
having love in our hearts? What
have we done or been that qualities
ourselves to sit in judgment? Have
we made such glowing and complete
successes of our own lives that we
can infallibly tell others what to do?
If we behold others near the curving
brink of a moral character Of preci-
pitate danger, should we do wrong II
we did not rush to the bank and
fling a shout and a rope to avert the
peril? But in life there is much I'M
pertinent intrusion to rescue the per-
ishing where there Is no grave danger,
and the rescuer knows it, and he in
tervenes not from love or care but
from the Unsuitable curiosity" that
grows by what 1t feeds on and never
stays at home or keeps office hours to
mind its own business.
We have enough to do to live, with
out keeping others from the freest
and fullest use Of all powers that
God gave them. They ought to con-
cede to us the same right to lead un-
invaded lives that we grant them.
| 'The soul selects her own society,"" as
Emily Dickenson says. Hamlet found
those of his own household "a little
more than kin and less than kind"
Genealogy has little or nothing to do
with congeniality. We must have the
privilege Of putting out our hands in
what direction we choose to take the
riches of friendship; we cannot have
that precious possession imposed by
the will Of another. A mother rightly
dictates or controls the choice of her
children's associates, but once come
to full -fledged maturity the selection
for better or for worse must be our
own.
| What shall be said of the "assassins
of character" who. where they neither
know nor care to know, circulate false
witness and create anguish thereby?
1t may we'll be our prayer that we
shall never be numbered among them,
seeing the wicked mischief that they
do.-Philadelphia Ledger.
|
| Hard on che Preacher.--A mother
sent her little daughter down to open
the door and entertain the minister,