Evening star., 1925-03-02

you ought to-" or "The gobelins will
get you If you don't" No; he was a
psychologist, that old fellow. To
listen to some of the modern teach
ers one might think psychology was
new thing under the sun.
The prophet, however, was consid-
erable of a psychologist when he
declared, do good. not evil--that ye
may live" He appealed to the selfish
in man, as well as to the reasonable
side of him. You cannot eat your
cake and have It, too.
You can take your life in grand
flash, or you can enjoy 1t longer, II
not so excitedly, by being good, but
the two ways do not mix very well.
Almost every one can make his own
choice.
Happiness, says Pope, is nowhere
to be found, or everywhere.
Ask of the learned the way? The learned are
blind;
This bids to serve, and that to shun mankind
Some place the bliss in action. some in ease
Those call it pleasure. and contentment these
Some sunk to beasts. nnd pleasure end in
pain;
Some swelled TO gods, confess cen virtue
pain.
Or indolent, TO each extreme they fall,
10 trust In everything, or doubt OF all
Who thus define It, say they more or less
Than this, that happiness is happiness?
There needs but thinking right
and meaning we'll" Pope declares.
Happiness Is mutual, he continues.
Abstract what others feel, what 9TH
ers think, all pleasures sicken, and
all glories sink.
There, by the way, the reader can
see how natural Pope's expression is.
Those last words above are rhymed,
but can be written as prose just as
well, without any change whatever.
the sense being perfect, and the SEN
tence a well constructed, easily read
one.
X X X 4
Health, peace and competence, the
poet tells US, are sought for happi-
ness sake. Health comes through
temperance, and peace is all virtues S
own. The world, he says, was made
for Caesar-for whom Pope had no
admiration-but for Titus, too.
Titus. according to legend, ex-
claimed on recalling one evening that
he had done no good that day TO any
especial person, MY friends, I have
lost a day." Titus thus was the orig
NAL Boy Scout. It is one of the car
dinal tenets Of the Scouts that each
member must do one good deed each
day.
What nothing earthly gives can destroy,
The souls calm sunshine and the heartfelt
joy,
Is virtues prize.
Pope brings out the difference be-
tween man and boy, through the same
person, in the lines:
The boy and man individual makes,
Yet slightest thou now for apples and Tor cakesf
The following lines, from this last
epistle, are we'll known:
Honor and shame from no condition rise:
Act well your part, there all the honor lies.
Worth makes the man and want Of IT, the
fellow;
The rest is all but leather or prunella.
'Prunella" sounds as If IL might be
a new soft drink, or some sort OF
patent medicine. 1t means q soft
wooden stuff. used as the uppers of
shoes.
What's fame?" asks peppy Pope.
"A fancied life in others breath
An honest man, he says, is the noblest
work of God.
Truths would you teach, or save sinking
landf
Painful enineDcel Yourself to view 90.
Above Hfe's weakness, and is comforts. too,
Ask Brig Gen. William Mitchell,
assistant chief of the Army Air Serv-
Ice, IL those first two lines are not
true. lie knows!
Pope ends his great poetic work
with some pride when he says, 81
turned the tuneful art from sounds
to things, from fancy to the heart"
He concludes:
For wits false mirror held up natures iisht
Showing erring pride, whatever is, Is right;
That reason, passion, answer one great aim;
That true self-iove and social are the same;
That virtue only makes our bliss below;
And all our knowledge Is ourselves to know.