Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1923-11-08
WITH THE
HIGH SCHOOL.
CLASSICS
By MARGARET BOYD

;sssSSSScSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS ssSSSSSSSSSSSSsSSs
90 by Margaret Boyd.)
a.. repentance doesn't altar what's
been going on for sixteen rs."-silas
Mariner.
Godfrey had let his daughter go I'M
claimed for sixteen years. Then he
went to ask for her, said he was sorry
he had not claimed her earlier, and
seemed to think his repentance all
that was needed to undo the past.
Eppie meanwhile had grown up as the
Weaver's foster child; had been edu-
Gated in the weaver's beliefs, and had
fallen in love with one of the Weayer's
own rank. Silas here points out that
no amount of repentance can change
what has already been done, what be
longs to the past.
Godfrey overestimated the value OF
repentance-so do many of the rest
of u.s. The value of repentance is 10
the one who repents, not to those ne
has wronged. The repentance of the
thief on the cross did not in the least
alter the harm he had done during his
/ lifetime. The widow whom he had
1 robbed, and who had starved because
of his robbery, was not fed by his re-
pentance. The orphan whou he robbed
of the money,for his schooling was not
| educated by his repentance, nor were
the years and opportunity that were
lost for lack Of that education restored
to the victim by the thief's repentance.
The man who lost faith in humanity
because his friend stole from him did
not have his faith restored because the
thief repented The value of the re-
pentance was to the thief; not to those
who had suffered because of his thefts.
Repentance has two merits: 1t offers
promise of better conduct in the future
on the part of the one who repents, and
it establishes the standards of men AS
correct.
If men did wrong continually and
never repented of their Wrongdoing,
we should lose faith in our standards
of conducive should begin to think
that what we believed wrong must
really be right The fundamental law
of our moral belief is that while we do
right we do not wish we had acted diff
/ ferently, but that as soon as we do
wrong we begin to wish that we had
acted otherwise Asman never wishes
/ to undo good deed; but always
wishes he could undo a wicked deed.
! That is, we never repent Of doing good,
but always repent Of doing evil. This
/ belief is to mortality what gravitation
! is to the physical world. If man does
wrong and never repents of that wrong
doing, we are left with the same feel
ing that we should have if we threw
stone up in the air and it never re-
turned to the earth. Repentance, there
/ fore, serves to establish our standards
of right and wrong, just as the return
ing stone serves to establish the law Of
gravitation.
"For man is man and master of his
fate."-IdyIIs of the King.
This is the spirit that we find set
forth in Henley's s'Invictus"
Out of the night that covers me-
Black as the Pit from pole to pole,
For my unconquerable SOUL
1t matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the
scroll,
I am master of my fate;
I am the captain of my soul.
Few men, however, are satisfied to be
masters Of their own fate; they wish
to be masters of the universe and it's
fate as well-as Epictetus puts it:
''When 1t is in our power to take care
of one thing, and to apply to one, we
choose rather to take care of many,
and to incumber ourselves with many:
body, property, brother, friend child
and slave; and by this multiplicity of
membranes we are burdened and
| weighed down. Thus, when the
weather doth not happen to be fair
for sailing, we sit screwing ourselves,
and perpetually looking out. Which
way is the wind? North. What have
we to do with that? When will the
west wind blow? When itself, friend,
or Aeolus pleases; for Jupiter has not
made you dispenser of the winds, but
Aeolus"
Just as Descartes arrived at his
philosophy of belief through first doubt
ing everything, even mathematics, SO
man becomes master of his fate
through being able to say sincerely:
Conduct me, Jove, and thou, o Destiny,
/ Wherever your DEGREES have fixed my
lot.
Or through meaning what many mill
lions say by rote, meaninglessly: "Thy
will be done in earth, as it is In
heaven,
Epictetus points out Diogenes as an
example Of a man who was master Of
his fate and captain of his soul: Not
because he was of free parents, for he
was not; but because he was so him
self, because he had cast away all the
handles of slavery, nor was there any
way Of getting at him, nor anywhere
to lay hold on him to enslave him.
Everything sat loose upon him, every
thing only just hung on. II you took
hold on his possessions, he would
rather let them go than follow YOU for
them; If on his leg, he let go his leg;
IL his body, he let go his body; ac-
Quaintance, friends, country, just the
| same Rut he would never have for