Willmar tribune. [volume] (Willmar, Minn.) 1895-1931, 1915-01-13

be seen In every crowd during the
middle ages, so that the crippled beg,
gar was, as it were, an essential fea.
ture Of the human spectacle. was be-
coming strange thing in the world
1t had curious effect upon Karenin's
colleagues; their feeling toward him
was mingled with pity and sense of
inhumanity that it needed usage rather.
than reason to overcome. He had a
strong face, with little bright brown
eyes, rather deeply sunken, and a large
resolute, thin Tipped mouth. His skin
was very yellow and wrinkled and his
hair iron gray. He was at all times
man, but this was forgiven him be-.
cause Of the hot wire Of suffering that
wa3 manifestly thrust through his be-
ing. At the end of his life his personal
prestige was very great. To him far
more than to any contemporary is it
due that self abnegation. self identi-
6cation with the world spirit, was
made the basis of universal education.
That general memorandum to the
teachers which is the keynote of the
modern educational system was prob
ably entirely his work.
"Whosoever would save his soul shall
lose it." he wrote. THAT is the device
upon the seal of this document and the
starting point of all we have to do. 1t
is mistake to regard it as anything
but plain statement of fact 1t is the
basis for your work. You have to
teach self forgetfulness, and every
thing else that you have to teach is
contributory and subordinate to that
end. Education is the release of man
from self. You have to widen the ho-
rizons Of your children, encourage and
intensity their curiosity and their crea-
tive impulses and cultivate and enlarge
their sympathies. That is what you
are for. Under your guidance and the
suggestions you will bring to bear on
them they have to shed the old Adam
Of instructive suspicious, hostilities and
passions and to find themselves again
in the great being Of the universe. The
little circles Of their egotisms have to
be opened out until they become arcs
in the sweep Of the racial purpose
And this that you teach to others you
must learn also sedulously yourselves.
Philosophy. discovery, art, every sort
of skill, every sort Of service, love-
these are the means of salvation from
that narrow loneliness of desire, that
brooding preoccupation with self and
egotistical relationships, which is hell
for the individual, treason to the race
and exile from God"
AS things round themselves off and
accomplish themselves one begins for
the first time to see them clearly.
From the perspectives Of new age
one can look back upon the great and
widening stream of literature with a
complete understanding. Things link
up that seemed disconnected, and
things that were once condemned as
harsh and aimless are seen to be fac
tors in the statement Of gigantic
problem. An enormous bulk of the sim
cerer writing of the eighteenth, nine
teenth and twentieth centuries falls
together now into an unanticipated
unanimity. One sees it as huge tis-
sue Of variations upon one theme. the
| conflict of human egotism and personal
passion and narrow Imagination on the
wider necessities and possible, more
spacious life.
That conflict is In evidence in SC
early work as Voltaire's "Candide."
for example, in which the desire for
justice as we'll as happiness beats
against human contrariety and takes
refuge at last In forced and incon.
elusive contenment with little things
"Candide" was but one Of the pioneers
of a literature of uneasy complaint
that was presently an innumerable
multitude of books. The novels. more
particularly, Of the nineteenth century
II one excludes the mere story tellers
from our consideration, witness to this
uneasy realization of changes that cal
for effort and Of the lack Of that effort
In a thousand aspects. now tragically
now cOmically. now with funny af
fectation of divine detachment, q count
less host of witnesses tell their story
Of lives fretting between dreams and
limitations. Now one laughs, now one
weeps. now one reads with q blank as
constituent at this huge and almost un
premediated record Of how the growing
human spirit. now warily, now eager
~. now furiously. and always. as Il
| k,s{1 ~
itself to the maddening misfit of it.
patched and ancient garments. Ant
always in these books, as one draw:
nearer to the heart Of the matter, Their,
comes discOncerting evasion. 1t wa!
the fantastic convent of the tim,
that writer should not touch upOl
religion. To do so was to rouse thu
jealous fury Of the great multitude O.
the professional religious teachers. l
was permitted to state the discord. bu
1t was forbidden to glance at any pos
s1ble reconciliation. Religion was tn,
privilege Of the pulpit
1t was not only from the novels tina
religion was omitted. 1t was ignored
by the newspapers. 1t was pendantical
~ d1sregarded in the discussion of bust
ness questions. 1t played trivial ant
apologize part In public affairs. An.
this was done not out of contempt, bu
respect The hold of the old religious
organizations upon mems respect wa
still enormous, so enormous that Their
seemed to be quality Of irreverenc'
in applying religion to the develop
ments Of every day. This strange sus
pension Of religion lasted over into tn
beginnings of the new age. It was tn