Evening star., 1925-07-09

and equal, at least under the law, but
all are children of the most high God
| and, theoretically at least, should co
operate. Some one has to begin the
good work or it would never be
started, so why shall it not be us?
If we steadfastly refuse to allow
their enviousness, their jealousy, their
| busybody ways, their arrogance
| their ungratefulness to hurt our feel
ings, we will be helped considerably
| for we will not be taken by surprise
1t is in this. thing as with the gen.
tleman who fired off .38-caliber re-
volver on Independence day at un.
stated intervals. He knew when he
was going to pull the trigger, there
| fore mentally braced himself to ward
off the shock. But his cannon took
the rest of us by surprise each time
making us jump considerably.
Forewarned is forearmed, indeed
so, If we go downtown each morning
| more or less primed for the nasty
actors, we will not mind them sc
much.
Marcus Aurelius is surprisingly
| modern!
X X X X
"Clear away the clouds from thy
| mind" he tells us next, after a dis.
sertation on his favorite theme that
anything which is conformable to ma
ture is OK.
Remember how long thou hast
been putting off those things" he
| says, ominously Cbut he was chidine
himself, remember, not us), ''and how
often thou hast received an oppor
tunity from the gods and yet dost not
use 1t.
Thou must now at last perceive
of what universe thou art a part and
of what administrator of the universe
thy existence is an effiux, and that a
limit of time is set fp- thee, which
if thou dost not use for Clearing away
the clouds from thy mini. it will &C
and thou wilt go, and 1t will not re
turn
Paraphrasing that in language OF
this so-called Jazz age" we get
| something along this order:
Remember how long you have been
| fighting shy of doing what you know
you ought to do, you shrimp: get hep
TO yourself; go to the ant, you slug
gard, you human representative OF
the sloth family, and think Of the
opportunities you have had to edo
your stuff"
But have you taken a one of them:
| Most certainly you have not! You &C
| dawdling along in your light six as
| If rolling around town were the enc
and aim of creation as summed VI
| in your beautiful carcass.
Surely some day you are going tc
! get wise to the fact that this a pretty
| big world you are in and that you
are a part of a real super-govern-
ment-not the kind you read about
but the real thing-and that you are
| not going to last forever, as much as
you would like to think you are.
There is time limit put to your
grand existence, buddy and if you
don't hump yourself while the hump
ing is good there is no telling what
| is going to happen to you.
| Clear those cobwebs out of youl
brain or you will wake up some fine
morning and find yourself gone.
Give thyself time to learn some
| thing new and good" Marcus Aurelius
! admonishes such a one, "and cease
| TO be whirled around" I wonder il
| he had the automobile in mind.
| He ends his second book in melan-
! choly mood, reminiscent of the
| famous close of the Book of Eccle-
| siastes. "Of human life the time is
| a point" he tells us, ''and the sub
! stance is a flux and the
soul a whirl. and fortune hard tc
| divine, and fame thing devoid OF
| judgment.
And. to say all in a word, every
! thing which belongs to the body is a
stream, and what belongs to the soul
| is dream and vapor. and life is a
| warfare and a strangers sojourn, and
| after fame is oblivion"
Philosophy is the only thing that
| is able to conduct a man, and phi
| losophy consists. he says, of being
| in tune with God.