The Washington herald., 1915-05-28


| sion of those qualities COM
mon to humanity?
So began to think about the subject and
found it widening and growing richer, after the
amiable habit of all human subjects. To every lv-
ing being it was important. Moreover its impor-
tancc might continue elsewhere, after the end OF
what called life.
Many OF us carelcssy assumed that real
activity ceased after death. But how did know
There were those who, with confidence, declared
it was only after death highest activity began,
when we escaped from this muddy vesturc OF dc
cay Activity and sloth, being essentially Of the
spirit might make fit to meet the exactions and
privileges of that other life make us unfit.
Whether we agree or disagree about the future.
sloth in itself, unattractive a quality that we
should all hate to know ii was fastened on us; but
the truth is suspect that we are all IN some ways
slothful. Not OF us makes the most OF our
possibilities.
Some OF us for large part of the time, are
only partly awake. And as for being alive TO what
is going on, it is, OF course, PLAIN that no one Is
fully alive.
Though we have the good luck to live at the
most interesting period in the history OF the world,
we indifferent to our advantages We don
even take the cream off We likely to be con-
tent either with skinned milk, with milk heavily
watered with our preudices and lazy indifference.
To be alive, to take advantage OF the day, with
its multitude OF interests and opportunities, to
keep the mind open and the sympathics alert, here
surely is a task worth being born Tor. But we go
at it in haphazard way, we show so much
contempt for the wealth about us, the real wealth,
that ought not to wonder why so often we
have the sense OF failure.
Take the newspaper, for example, the record
OF the times. Not many generations ago. 1t
would have been regarded as a marvel an aohleye
ment perhaps unthnkablc. The news OF the world
,nasscd together and attraCtively presented within
a few hours after it occurred, impossible
Can't YOU hear some wisacrc OF an earlier
period presenting his cmnently practical and sen
>iblc arguments in refutatlon OF any prophet that
,houid lie so mad to predict this. service:
Faulty as newspapers are. like all things that
reach expression by way OF the human conscious
ness with its weaknesses, they are nevertheless
n,ichtv agent, OF human service. convencnccS al
most unparalleled 1t is only the very superior
and disdainful who nowadays. would venture TO
boas: that they did not read the news.
Realization OF the importance OF keeping
abreast OF the times finds a dramatic illustration
each morning and each evening in our street cars
and ferries and railway trains.
But among the millions OF newspaper readers:
how many really know how to read newspapers:
How many know how to make newspapers ono
OF their means OF actually keeping abreast OF the
times?
There are rnulti,udcs who read papers for the
purpose OF gratifying some OF their lgnobie guam.
ties. love OF gossip and scandal, gratrhcation or
not bc with prcconccived opinions. They wish TO
have life itself, much more important and 50
much bigger than they could ever be, cut to their
small measure.
Arc they, in truth. trying to keep abreast OF the
times. Surely not. They trying to draw the
times back to themselves, to the period where
they really live usually the dark ages. Those who
read newspapers with their prcjudiccs would do
better not to read newspapers AT all Their al.
parent activity is one OF the most ptiful forms OF
sloth of the kind OF self-indulgence that tries 10
pass itself OFF as merit.
On the other hand, there those who, in
newspaper reading. seemingly too open-mind-
cd They arc ready to believe virtually anything
they in print.
TO be able to read newspaper judiciously re-
uurcs on the part OF the reader, generous conces-
sion and shrewd Judgment
So often in trying to keep abreast OF the times.
we keep abreast OF gross misrepresentation, OF
progress that has no reality.
In other words, to keep wspaperS wholesome
in their effect on u.s. we have TO know both what
70 read and how to react from what we read PEI
haps most important OF all is be able TO read
without forming any Judgment whatever. to keep
from being influenced by those reports that may
be associated with unfairness.
The practise of newspaper reading interesting
as it is varies according to the interest in our
own minds. The more closely identified
with life the more VIC can get out OF newspapers
the more adroit we shall be in choosing and in
rejecting and accepting.
Similarly in our attitude toward life ITSELF OF
which the newspaper ought to be the mirror we
shall receive in proportion give. 1t is all
a matter OF relation.
The people that don't keep up with the times
merely subject themselves to self-deniaL By |
starving themselves they become mentally and
morally and spiritually anemic. Whatever their
business in life may be, whether they are success
ul from the worldly point of view or unsuccess-
iu. they essentially failures. The exclusive
people exclude themselves The inclusive people |
are always to be found at that table in the ban J
luet of life where there is the finest service and
The best food. !