Seward daily gateway., 1924-12-16
A PHASE OF ADOLESCENSE.

The first person man has to convince is him. self There are so few things of which we can be absolutely sure; and with these, neighbor s doubt or a swift mood of depression, a angle of vision, the sudden accession of knowledge, will topple most carefully reared palaces of con- viction into irretrevable ruin. Some men are able to themselves in their convictions as in coat of mail for some, today y's opinions be shed as lightly af old coat, if they inconvenient to- morrow. Every must have some basis of as sured conviction or he could not endure the mere fact of living for a single day. And most people didactic, have an enthusiasm for imparting the things they have that they think they know.
 This necessity of impartmg probably makes us crystalline many of opinions long before they have reached anything like their final form. We have to know where stand before we can explain where we stand to others. So conclusions are all too often immature, made hard and definite in their early stages of development, through the de- sire to make them known to others. It Is pity but there the fact stands. That is of the evils of democratic community. The value put on mere ability to express is the prime cause of most of crude social and political and religious thinking. And then we chiefly occupied in jlstifying pos ltlons we have been hurried into, in defending for conslsencys sake things that in heart of hearts we know to be open to the gravest doubts.
 It really pays in the end for man or a nation to be nartculae. If there is no easy vent when experience and knowledge are limited power and wisdom accumulate, bank up, to overflow at very much higher level But that Is just what the rush of modern life and the passion for talk will not let do.
 So tiah1 find open to ideas that we are compelled to justify ourselves to ourselves. Most intolerance Is due to that. A man who has his feet on the rock is not perturbed with the surge of contrary opinion around him. He is sure of himself, and can look out on the welter of ideas at his feet with calm certainty He has won to the peace of conviction It is only the not sure of himself that is driven to buster and below. He tries to persuade himself by the loudness of his talk. He will howl down all oppo- stion because he dare not face the possibility to shout his opinions, he is hoping first of all to con- vince himself.
 You will see that in the person who has risen from humble estate to riches and authority and who IS prone to insist upon the fact that he gentle man. When man has to talk about it, it is plain that he is full of doubts the matter himself The gentleman born takes it all for granted and would never dream or calng the attention Of others to breeding and his lofty ideals or honor.
 You will see exactly the same process in young and vigorous nation that is forever procaiming it's supreme worth from the housetops. We in Austra- lia and New Zealand in the sage of big talk. It is phase of our adolescence we shall grow out of it in time. Great Britain has too great history to have any doubts of her quality and she has no need to advertise it. The average Englishman can- not understand the American or the Colonial point of view, and usually has little sympathy with our passion for sef-expresson and self-advertsement as we have for his condescending aloofness Probably his opinion of himself is far higher than our opin- ion of ourselves. But the centuries have given him the assurance that comes from the final judgment of history on his claims, while we of the younger nations have still to talk to convince ourselves
 America is still in the big boy stage, further along the road than are and with infinitely more to boast about but with all the achievements of full manhood America must still let the adolescence have his way. That is what Dickens noticed in the