Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1926-11-08
ELKS REMEMBER
ALSO FORGIVE
Always Remember Brave and
Kindly Deed and Forget
Small Faults
THAT'S THEIR CREED

1.-THE faults Of our brothers we
write upon the sands" 1t must have
been self-evident to any one who
has given even a moments thought
to that motto, worn as an amulet
on the heart Of every Elk that 1t
had a corallary. In fact. it was an
incompleted sentence. 1t implied
that forgetfulness of human weak
ness was not the only business of
Elks, but that the Elks remember as
vigorously as they forget. This is
how the completed sentence runs:
1.-THE Faults Of our Brothers we
write upon the Sands, their Virtues
upon the Tablets of Love and
Memory
There is nothing more important
to humanity than that the memory
of good men should not perish from
the earth. Plutarch's Lives" has
proved itself one of the most valu-
able books ever written for this
reason. Virtue" says Plutarch in
his life of Pericles. by the bare
statement of its actions. can so af-
feet mems minds as to create at
once admiration of the things done
and the desire to initiate the doors
of them" And So" he adds, I'VE
have thought fit to spend our time
and pains in writing of the lives Of
famous persons"
Shakespeare's statement that the
good" men do lis oft inferred
with their bones" Is all too true;
but the Elks, as far as possible,
make 1t their business and pleasure
to correct this injustice to the dead
Qnd fhio inpQ len n hlo nj 20 hn
living.
1t Is a religion with them to keep
ever green, ever present and active
in their minds, the dynamic good
ness and strength of those brothers
whose faces they can see no more,
whose hands they cannot grasp
again, but whose brave souls and
good hearts and unforgotten smiles
are still with them as wildly,
through the power of love and
memory, as though their physical
presence had never passed away.
The memory of a true friend, of a
true man, what an energizing thing
it is! We all have kept letters writ
ten to us by such, and as once in a
while we read them over. what
virtue" Immediately rises out to
them!
To forget such friends, to allow
oblivion blindly to scatter her
poppy" over their memories, is one
of those unpublished crimes against
the Holy Spirit of Man of which
the world takes all too little note.
The ancients knew better. The
Romans, In their ancestor worship,
in the domestic religious ceremon-
les which kept the virtues of dead
kinsmen ever before the youth that
had taken their places, did a wise
and beautiful thing. We should all
keep such private sanctuaries in
our hearts for the noble dead.
And the old Roman custom of
placing statues of the great dead
about their cities, in elevated posi-
tions, intoxicating the lesson that
youth In looking upward might be
lifted is one, alas. which we only
travesty! In our modern world we
seem to have lost the art of such
memorial monuments. We pass
them by without notice, and too
many of them are laughing stocks.
But here and there is a monument
such as that of Alexander HamiI-
ton In old Trinity churchyard in
New York-which no eye can es>
cape, and which none should pass
without a solemn thought however
swift and brief, of the mysterious
greatness that dwells in the soul of
man, and of the noble service one
man can do for his fellows. Horace
boosted that in his verse he had
built himself "a monument more
enduring than brass" Such monu-
ments. indestructible and deathless-
" inspiring, the Elks would raise
to the memories of their brothers.
whose virtues. as the old poet said.
smell sweet and blossom in the
dust"
1t is an inconceivable disloyalty
to forget the brave and kindly
dead. but for those who so forget
them 1T is also as much a disaster
az a disgrace. For the dead brother
loses nothing by It, but the living
how much!-Elks' Magazine.