Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-02-18
THIS AND THAT
BY CHARLES E. TRACEWELL.

are supposed to hold for each other,
but which few, alas. actually feel!
The desire to become young again, to
live life over has been a popular one
since mankind began to think Ponce
de Leon and the legendary figure OF
Faust are two of the heroes of this de-
sire
The thought is always complicated
by the realization that if one could
begin over again he must take one of
two courses. Either he must begin all
over again as he was, and thus, no
doubt, become again exactly what he is,
or he must begin again with the added
knowledge which he has anassed
through the years.
Perhaps few men would want to let
go of the little knowledge of life and
living which they have squeezed out
of the passage Of Time. It IS precious
to them. 1t represents all that shows
they have not lived in vain.
If we could begin all over again, but
without our precious, though small,
store Of knowledge. backed by an able
experience, we would merely be trust
ing to chance that life would be bet
ter than it has been.
The chances, in that peculiar event,
would merely be that ones life might
not be as little successful as it has
turned out to be. Perhaps that time
We rolled down a long fight of stone
stairs on orr velocipede might have
ended with a broken skull, instead of
much wailing, merely.
No, If we were privileged to begin all
over again, no matter what age we
chose to start the experiment. we would
want to be able to profit by what had
gone before.
One of the major troubles with life
SEEMS to be that we have such a short
time TO gather knowledge ard that the
little we do gather is secured only as
the result OF painful and personal re-
search. The legendary torch Of knowl-
edge is placed in our hands by others.
but first We must burn our own fingers
before we believe it is true.
Perhaps euinentlv successful men are
those who are able to grasp the knowI-
edge which comes their way without
testing it personally. They swallow it
whole, and so make more than a figu-
rative use Of the light of the ages.
Perhaps they do no such thing, but
ere merely fortunate, aided by a Su-
preme physical ability which enables
them to achieve in the three dimensions
which are all the huge bulk of human
No doubt If a man could begin life
over again with his accumulated lore
az his fingertips, the first thing ne
would put INTO. effect would be to keep
his mouth shut more closely. The next
thing he would do would be to FURNISH
up his sense of humor, and never take
himself or others too seriously
Next he might decide to refrain en-
/ tirely from revenge and its equivalents
and become a brother Of that supreme
figure OF the ages, He who turned the
other check.
He might decide-or then again he
might MOTTO spend less time on trivi-
alities. but here he would be met by
the eternal problem of what actually
constitutes triVialities. and whether in
his New Life he would not regard them
as the real things, after all
He might do a great many things he
IS not now doing, or he might, in
amazsment, find himself pursuing the
old paths, satisfied with the glory Of
sun and stars, eagerly pursuing the
phantom of Beauty, soaring in ecstasy
one moment at the glory Of life, and
plunged into the depths the next
because Of the amazing cruelty and
uglineSs which lie at the bottom like
a perpetual Joke on mankind