Palisadian. [volume] (Cliffside Park, N.J.) 1906-current, 1919-11-22
OPINION

VOltaire once wrote that the history
of human opinion is scarcely more
than the history of human errors.
How much truth there is behind this
thought is evidenced by the record of
the whole human race.
When men form opinions, however,
they should not resist reason. 1t can
not be said, either, that because men
hold to what they think, that they are
to be judged as opposing what a ma
jority may think with unfair purpose.
Opinion is one of the most difficult
subjects to diagnose.
But there is this to say: If we form
an opinion it should be done with
caution and changed the same way.
When we think thing is so, and con-
vince another that what we believe is
right, we are strengthened. But God
pity the man or woman who won't
change an opinion.
The whole world is today racked
with uncertainty, and cropping in the
dark because of the opinions of a
handful of men in Washington who
are striving to force their opinions up
on the rest of humanity. They have
stubbornly resisted every approach of
reason, and were it not that they are
involved in the business of politics,
their stand might be judged more as
one of fairness.
James A. Garfield, a man of pro-
found conviction himself, once said
that in the minds of most men the
kingdom Of opinion is divided into
three territories territory of yes,
the territory of no, and broad, unex-
plored middle ground of doubt.
Popular opinion is equally unsafe,
because it is frequently unsound and
awakens only after it has travelled
--allons tie road of error and meets an
unsurmountable obstacle Carlyle
said that popular opinion is the great
est lie in the world
The common error is that when
sides of a controversy differ, neither
is willing to believe the other honest.
All government is founded on opin-
ion, and all governments change opin-
ions. Among thoughtful people man
is not considered progressive who
cannot change his views.
We have mistaken ideas in suppos-
ing that in our tenacity of purpose we
must force others to share our opin-
ions. Only the judgment of the judi
cious and wise can establish perma-
nency of opinion. 1t was Pascal who
said, Orthodoxy on one side of the
Pyrenees may be heresy on the other"
One of the wisest thoughts on opin-
ion is from Chatfield. He said: Were
a whole nation to start upon a career
of education with mature faculties and
minds free from prepossession or
prejudice, how much would be quickly
abandoned that is now stubbornly
cherished"
And so the world rocks along at
this moment trying to find its way,
cropping and stumbling because of the
opinions of men. Alas, in this mo-
ment of doubt we are in territory of
uncertainty, where reason alone must
be the guide and facts alone be used
as the foundation stone of the new
reformation of the world.
The one great outstanding thought
in the League of Nations is the little
talked of fact that it was not conceiv-
ed as a perfect instrument, but looked
upon as start upon the road Of uni
versal peace and the regulation of the
affairs of mankind 1t must be a sort
OF great university where the citizens
of the world may rule under the guild
ences as in school.
But on this thing of opinion, Lowell
said, "the foolish and the dead alone
never change their opinion" And a
local thinker said to the editor, "A
man who won't change his mind is
subject to losing it."