The Washington herald., 1915-01-26

!: J. J. 7: :: !. !: !:
| ONE of the happiest women
| ~ that know is a do
| mestic servant. She is very in
| n telligent. Years of quiet OBJ
! servation, of reading, and of
| thinking have enriched her
mind. She dslikes hurry,
| noise, confusion and excite
| ment. She has created a little
! N world for herself and there
| N she goes her way, doing her
| work easily and efficiently.
| And yet she does not love her
! = work. She knows that it gets
little credit in spite of its being necessary and
important She realizes that the world looks down
| on servants Perhaps for this reason she retires
within herself the more deeply. She possesses
! however, the supreme wisdom of knowing how to
keep her spirit undisturbed. 1t enables her to be
at peace with herself. One result is that she is
never lonely. She passes days, sometimes weeks
at time, alone. Keeping the house in order gives
her plenty OF work to do and she enjoys doing it
without interference of any kind. Indeed, such
periods she considers specially agreeable. When
her friends ask her if she is not lonely she laughs
like child. The truth is that, through being alone
so much she has learned never to be alone. She
has the diversion of wholesome activity, of cheer
full thoughts, of a happy relation with multitude
from within
Loneliness is one Of the bugbears of mankind.
With people, it is a constant source of I'M
| happiness. They make plans sometimes exceed
ngly complex, to keep it at bay. They think that
it lies outside. 1t really lies within their own con-
seriousness.
Many Of the loneliest people in the world have
plenty of company Their lives are full of social
activity They always doing. Sometimes they
arc like hunted creatures. The hunted look one
can often see in their eyes. They would be as
tonshed, perhaps rcsentful, if they told that
they were themselves the hunters. Sometimes they
blame the people about them. Sometimes they
blame the conditions of life Themselves they
never blame. With longing. they look out on the
world as if seeking for some ono to give help They
even become rcproachful and say there is
with sympathy for them understanding And
yet help is always with them, waiting for a chance,
in the inner consciousness.
well-to-do woman of my acquaintance breads
being alone. When she cannot find any else
to talk with, of evening she calls up her old
Irish cook from the kitchen. Then the two meet
on terms Of something like equality. They share
their human sympathy usually in the form Of
personal gossip. OF the two the mistress enjoys
the talk by far the 1t is she who is lonely.
1t is the cook that is kind.
The people who like to be alone are usually Of
superior character, but not always. The mountain
folk in spite of years of association with the nobler
and the more rugged aspects of nature may be
exceedingly selfish and disagreeable and morose.
They have learned to love their privacy so much
that they may be irritated completely upset by
the least intrusion. They may show that they have
developed a great many eccentricities and capaci-
ties for resentment, that they have become morally
angular To be superior to loneliness may not,
under some conditions, in itself, be virtue. On
the contrary it may betray profound weaknesses
Of character. 1t may suggest the presence OF
qualities if in themselves vicious at any rate
lacking in adaptability to be anti-social.
The ideal attitude is to be able to live in a way
that no matter what the conditions may be- loneli
ness is impossible. The mountain-dwellers, sud
denly thrown into a great city, would become
wretched victims OF loneliness. They would long
for solitude just other kinds of lonely people
long for company. Without their mountains, with
out the association that helped to establish their
habits they would feel themselves indeed helpless
and alone. The people in the streets alien, irri-
tatng. The huddlcd buildings arc an ache. The
noise in a torment. The loss of the familiar they
may find so intoIcrablc as to drive them precipi-
tously back.
All lonely people suffer from unfamiiarity.
Though they may love crowds, unfamiliar crowds
may cause them distress. Travellers who are not
born travellers and who develop real liking for
travel through aatng to be alone, often find their
acuest suffering when walking through the streets
of foreign city, listening TO alien language,
seeing alien faces and observing alien ways.
Is it really possible to avoid loneliness, or to
keep it in control? Surely The matter is wholly
personal. The way to begin is, oddly enough, by
learning how to be impersona, to stop the eternal
concern for oneself in caring more and more for
the things of interest outside. For loneliness,
though it may seem unsefsh, is really kind OF
sc6shness. 1t is emphasis of self even while being
depreciation of self. If the lonely people would
only stop thinking about themselves they would
cease to be lonely.
One trouble with most of is that we don't
use the resources within ourselves. We are all
neglectful of powers that share our human
birthright capacities for distraction from
selves, for wholesome enjoyment for receiving and
giving. Through lack of mental and moral and
spiritual exercises souls shrink and shrivel and
break out into maladies that almost inevitably in
clude the feeling of misery and isolation usually