The sun., 1916-09-10
MARK TWAM'S PHILOSOPHY.
How ircamstanee aud Environ.
meat Order Mans Career.

In the chapters OF the posthumous
Mark Twain romance appearing In Hdr-
per's MdOn -tac for September the great
humorists philosophy OF life Is revealed
through one OF his characters THE
Mysterious Stranger" talking with one
OF tho boys whom he has suddenly
transported with him to China. saya:
Among you boys you have game
You stand a row of bricks on end few
inches apart you push brick, It knocks
its ne!ghbor over. the nclghhor knocks
over the next br,ck-and so on til all
the row is PROSTATE. That il human
Hfe. A chld's first act knocks over the
initial hrlck. and the rest will follow
inexorably. II you could sec into the
future. rs ! can. YOU would see every
thing that war going 20 happen to that
creature: for nothing can change the
order OF its life after the first event has
determined il. That is. noting viii
change IL, because each act uniail!ngly
hngets an act, that act begets another.
and so on to the emo. md the seer can
look forward down the lire and see just
when each act Is TO have birth. from
cradle to grave
Docs doA order the career"
"Foreordain IL? No. The mans cir
cumstance and environment order II.
His first act determines tho second and
all that follow after Rus suppose. for
arguments sake. that the man should
skip one o. these acts; an apparently
trlf,rg one. for instance suppose that II
had been appoint ed that on a certain day.
AT u certain hour and minute and second
and fraction Of n second he should 60
TO the we'll. and he didn't go. That
mans career would change utterly, from
that moment thence 20 the grave II
would he wholly different from the ca
rccr which his Hrs' act "a a child had
arranged FOR him. Indeed. (. might be
that X he.had gone 20 the we'll he would
have ended his career on a throne. and
that emitting to do 1t would set him
upon career that would lead to beg
gary and a paupers grave.
For instance: II n any ''na--sny
in Observation-Disclosures hal skirped the
trlnngvs. little link in the chain ot acts
proje ted and made inevitable Ivy his
drst childish act. 4 would have changed
h.s whole rubseouen: life. "and lo would
have become a priest and died obscure
IN an italian village. and America would
not have bcN discovered for two con-
, turics aftcrward. ] know this. To skip
any ono ~ the billion acts IN colrm-
hls's chain would have wholly change Il
his life. I have examined his billion ~
possible careers. anl IN only ono or
q. ,her occurs tho discovery OF America.
.
| YOUR acts are Of one size and Importance.
hut it is true to snatch at an appointed
Nv Is "A. big with fat" for you as In any
other appointed act
AS tho conqucrlng Of continent.
for instance"
I "Ycs. Now. then. no man ever docs
drop a l!nk---the thing has never hap.
pened. Even when he Is trying iN
make up his mind as to whether he Will
do thing or not. that itself Is link,
an act, and has Its proper place In his
chain: and when ne finally decides an
act. that also was the thing which lie
was absolutely certain TO do. You see
now. that a man will never drop l'nl'
in his chain. He cannot. II he made W
his mind to try. that project would Itself
be an unavoidable l'nk---a Thought
bound to occur TO him nj that precise
moment. and made certain by the FIRST
act Of his babyhood,'