Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-08-29
THIS AND THAT
BY CHARLES E. TRACEWELL.

/ advocate is not sneering at all, but sim
| ply a humorous twist which sees the
absurdity even in solemn matters.
This will not do. Sneering is sheer.
ing, and no one need be ashamed OF
INDUCING in it in proper manner
| Like most matters under broad heaven
! 1t may be done properly or improperly
| If one is kindly by nature. he may
sheer with impunity. safe in the as
surance that his inner qualities of grace
as they used to say, will carry him
| through safely.
The person who knows that his Cor
| herr tongue is rather sharp had bet
! ter hesitate before resorting to the
/ precious weapon of the effective sheer
| Sheer, not snarl.
| Grin, but let 1t be of the freckle-
| faced youngster type, not of the barred
fang variety.
A sheer shows a healthy, lingering
| doubt in the users mind as to some
aspect of the subject under discussion
which ought to be, according to our
! thesis. some condition or circumstance
arising out of life.
The doubling mind alone can sheer
| Now doubt is the great temptation OF
| temptation. Many oldtime theologians
! thought doubt to be the devil himself
/ WIleH tIlSy uOuDtSo' tuey ldHCleu CLleIl-
selves in the very clutches of the
Wicked One.
No great personality ever lived with
out. doubts. The confessions of mankind
are filled with this wrestling of the
spirit. He who never doubts, or at
least never had doubted, is spiritual
sluggard, one with swine that know
no beauty.
| A pig never dreams and a fool never
| doubts.
The doubter finds a sneer safety
then, might, in the end, cause a much
worse explosion in some other part OF
the machinery.
The sheer. In countenance, or In
words, is the irony of those who belong
| to, or think they ought to belong TO-
an inner circle.
It is typihed, in one direction, by the
automobile horn which blasts one out
of the road with an almost human
sound of contempt. But such a horn
is not aimed to inf1ict pain, but is q
| sort of self justification, and the doer
Is more interested in himself than any
/ one else. His victim, il there is such
is only accidental.
! Any one who sneerS, either in the
good way or the bad way, sspires to a
seclusiveness of some sort. His snarl
may be no more unpleasant than a
| bright grin. attended with a few words
probing some fallaey to the bottom,
exposing hypocrisy. and the like But
in his heart he feels that he is just
a little bit clever to be able to see
through the humbug.
Now surely this foible Of his will
hurt no one, and it may do him a great
deal of good 1t is amazing the amount
Of food some people can get out of little
Things. The poet Wordsworth wrote a
famous poem from seeing a primrose
on rivers brink, where it was adj
n1itted most human beings either
would have overlooked it altogether, or
at most would have seen only a prim-
rose.
The poet INDUCED himself in the
luxury OF the sheer gentle, when, in
his few celebrated lines, he intimated
as much to the world at large, and that
1t took him, true poet, with q poets
mind and sensitiveness TO beauty, to be
able to extract real thought from the
situation.
Surely. 1t was the perfect sheer.
Most OF US, not being poets, or
geniuses. will not be able to achieve
this perfection
Most of us must be content with the
sneer imperfect, which will permit
others, envious, distraught, to nut upon
our attempts interpretations which we
by no means intended.
1t Is the penalty we must pay for
attempting. He who overcometh is
stlil mighty man, and this must be
our overcoming, although some NAV
say 1t is Shortcoming.