The Washington herald., 1922-09-07
The Beautiful
And Damned
co.,s.sss from Yesterday.
By F. Scott Fitzgerald.

ptub pieaeduhly TO = passiNc you
It's q wall that an active you runs
up against. So I wrapped myself
In, what I thought was my invul-
nerable scepticism and decided that
my education was complete. Mt IL
Was too late. Protect myself as I
might by making no new ties with
tragic and predestined humanity. I
was-iost with the rest. I had traded
the light against love for the fight
akainst loneliness. the fight against
life for the fight against death"
ssHe broke on to give emphasis to
his last observation-after a mo-
ment he yawned and resumed.
sssT suppose that the beginning OF
the second phase of my education
was a chastity dissatisfaction at be-
ing used in spite Of myself for some
inscrutable purpose of whose ulti-
mate goa; I was unaware-f. In
deed, there was an ultimate goal. 1t
was a difficult choice. The school,
mistress seemed to be saying. We're
going to play football and nothing
hut football. IF you don't want to
ptsy football you can't play at all
~.e"what was I to do-the playtime
was so short!
You see. felt that We were even
denied what consolation there might
have been in being a figment of
corporate man rising from his
knees Do YOU think that Il leaped
at this pessimism, grasped 1t as n
sweetly Snug superior thing. no
more depressing really than, say,
gray autumn day before a hre?-l
don't think did that was q
great deal too warm for that. and
too alive.
For il seemed to me that there
was no ultimate goal for man. Man
was beginning a grotesque and be-
wildered tight with nature-nature
that BY the divine and magni' cent
accident had brought us to where
we could fly in her face. She had
invented ways to rid the race of the
inferior and thus give the re-
mainder strength to fill her higher
-or. let us say, her more amusing
though still unconscious and ac-
cfdental Intentions. And. actuated
BY the highest gifts of the enlight-
eminent. we were seeking to circum-
vent her. In this republic I saw
the black beginning to mingle with
the white-in Europe there was
taking place an economic catastro-
phe to save three or four diseased
and wretchedIy governed races from
the one mastery that might organ
ize them for material prosperity"
I'VE produce a Christ who can
raise up the leper-and presently
the breed of the leper is the salt of
the earth. II any one can fnd any
lesson in that. let him stand forth"
There's only one lesson to be
learned from life. anyway" inter
rupted Gloria, not in contradiction
but in a sort of melancholy agree
ment.
What's that" demanded Maury
sharply.
That there's no lesson to be
learned from life"
After a short silence Maury said:
Young Gloria. the beautiful and
merciIess lady. first looked at the
world with the fundamental sophis-
tication I have struggled to attain.
that Anthony never will attain. that
Dick will never fully understand"
There was a disgusted groan from
the apple barrel Anthony. grown
accustomed to the dark. could see
plainly the fash of Richard Cara
mel's yellow eye and the look Of re-
sentiment on his face as he cried:
You're crazy, BY your own
statement should have attained
some experience by trying"
Trying what" cried injury
fercely Trying to pierce the dark
ness of political idealIsm with some
wild. despairing urge toward truth?
Sitting day after day supine in a
rigid chair and infinitely removed
from life staring at the tip of a
steeple through the trees. trying to
separate. definitely and for all time.
the movable from the unknow-
able? Trying to take a piece of
actuality and give it glamour from
your own soul to make for that in
expressible quality it possessed in
life and lost in transit to paper or
canvas? Struggling in a laboratory
through weary years for one iota
Of relative truth in a mass OF
wheels or a test tube"
Have you?"
Maury paused. and in his answer.
when it came. there was a measure
of WEAKNESS. a bitter overnote that
fingered for a moment in those
three minds before il fioated up
and of like a bubble bound for the
moon.
Not !" he said softly. "I was
horn tired-but with the quality of
mother wit. the gift of women like
Gforia-to that. for all my talking
and listening. my waiting in vain
for the eternal generality that
seems to lie just beyond every argu-
ment and every speculation, to that
! have added not one jot."
In the distance a deep sound that
had been audible for some moments
identified itself by a plaintive moo
ing like that OF gigantic COW and
by the pearly spot of a headlight
apparent half a mile away. 1t was
steam-driven train this time.
rumbling and groaning. and as il
plant IL sent a shower OF sparks
and cinders over the platform.
Not one jot" Again Maury's
great height. What a feeble
steps. its waverings. its pacings
back and forth. its disastrous re-
treats! Intelligence is a mere in
strument of circumstances. There
are people who say that intelligence
must have built the universe-why,
Intelligence never built a steam en-
gfnei Circumstances built steam
engine. Intelligence is little more
than a short foot rule by which we
measure the infinite achievements
of circumstances
Il could quote you the philosophy
Of the hour-but. for all We know,
fifty years may see a complete re-
Versal of this abnegation that's alb
sorbing the intellectuals today the