Norwich bulletin., 1920-08-14
THE MAN WHO TALKS

 thought It is the odd moments that count in the sum total of life's oppor- tunities. Take, for instance, the time that is seemingly squandered on railway trains and stations, hotels and summer resorts that might be put to good advan- tage. This is the season when the Amer ican people are on the go between their homes and vacation resorts. Put to 8 good use, it would serve as mighty dynamic in our post-vacation work The mind might be stored with a propulsive power that would project us clear into the winter. But we must have something more than what is thrust before our eyes on railway trains, sometimes the veriest trash. Why not carry z handy pocket edition of the classics which will at the same time entertain and instruct?
 What is the highest test to which the value. of reading can be put? Is it when it acts as luxury and lulls us to sleep? !? When it suffers the nobler faculties of the soul to slumber as though under the spell of an opiate? Is the true value found in the subject matter read? As to subject matter, nothing surpasses the Bible, but will anyone contend that reading in the highest sense is attained when one is forced to read the Bible as punishment? And this parents sometimes infict on
 
 ject in reading attained when we force ourselves to pursue studies for the sake of mental discipline which we positively hate? As, for instance, foreign languasH mathematics, astronomy and other ab- struse subjects in which we are not par ticularly interested? No, real reading must stimulate our whole being and be so interesting that we can stand bodily dis comfort without notice, but really suffer when forced to stop
 The man or woman whose source of en- tertainment is not within is to be pitied, because he is doomed to many long hours of loneliness and homesickness. For hap pif1ess some people depend wholly on the froth of society, and froth of all kinds has little substance and soon disappears. They constantly look to others for enter tainment, and when this fails they are made miserable because there is no inter nal contrivance to take the place of the merry go round. But happy is the man whose springs of entertainment lie deep in his own being. Such a person is not af- hicted with the jazz nature, for while he can enjoy manly games of sport he can also take in" lectures on great subjects, and music, and art of the highest order He also may be accomplished himself in
 
 poet. Fortunate the young person who learns to play we'll the piano before Ieav- ing home, because it will greatly help to banish solitude when home is far away.
 I beIieev there are times when all peo- pie have a deep sense of solitude. And it is not always when they are camping out in the woods with a few congenial con- panions, when Nature. through a thou sand channels, is speaking to them What makes solitude is the quality of the space that separates a man from the perennial source of his life. A big crowd of people cannot always drive away ones loneli- ness. Living next to a railroad station does not create a feeling of companion ship. Something more than nearness in space to people, whether the meeting place is postoffice, barroom, factory, store or even church, is necessary to arouse the true spirit of comradeship. If you are a stranger, poor, sick and friendIess, in New York, the great metropolis is a far greater solitude than the African Sahara with one true, devoted friend. It is neither nearness to nor remoteness from the haunts of men but the springs that satisfy our cravings, that kill the soli- tude.
 That educational hermit, H. D. Thoreau, in that splendid book Walden, or Life in the Woods" asks the question Why is society, commonly so called, so cheap?' The answer he gives shows that he was acute as well as eccentric We may not be ready to admit offhand that society is cheap because it has meant great deal to our lives. Have we not been more or less enriched by contact with others And yet Thoreau is sound in his philoso- phy when he tells us how that very con- tact will cheapen rather than enrich. His theory is that we meet people at such very short intervals that we do not have time to acquire any new value for each other. Take community where the op- portunity for new and enlarged horizons is extremely limited, the people, under the mstinctive social craving, visit back and forth in true neighborly fashion. From the nature of the case they have very lit- tie of value to give one another that is new, fresh or uplifting. They have not had the time, the opportunity and possi- bly not the inclination to pick up really important information. In this way cheap things-Iike gossip-become rife. We may know people and their affairs so we'll as to lose respect for them.
 There is among people generally today a growing disposition which amounts al- most to fear to shun solitude. Why should we so dislike to be alone with ourselves and our thoughts? A man once said to the writer that if he should sit down alone and allow himself to think he would go stark mad. Trouble, wrong-doing, re- morse or nervous disorder may create a horror of solitude, but why should per son in normal strength of body and mind not rejoice in solitude affording oppor- tunity for the exercising of that divinest of all functions, mental activity? What would this world be if somebody had not been alone with God and his own thoughts? All the inventions and discov- cries, all the sciences, art, and literatures, all the things that make living worth while have come from men being in soil tude Our age would be richer, deeper and more satisfying if we spent more time alone in thought and gadded about less.
 It is a matter of common remark how very dense the foliage is this year. This, of course is largely due to right climatic conditions, such as moisture in abur- dance without long periods of torrfd heat It always seems ooler when vegetation retains it's luxuriance and is not parched It seems more natural, and it certainly adds much to the beauty of nature to have the foliage struck gently by frost than to have it die by inches, as though gripped by lingering disease. The frost seems far more merciful than the drought In flaming color it is beautiful but far from it when yellowed and withered by long simmer famine.
 Doswe noE ind parallel to all this in the lives of our fellow beings? We like to see men and women like the foliage-not dense. for we must not press the analogy till it squeals-nor green, for this, too would not be complimentary. But we like to see them full of life, vigorous, healthy,