Evening star., 1932-11-22

an average mortal, burdened with all
the frailties and ignorance Of teeming
humanity, to assume that he. OF all
Gods creatures, Is in the right, and
any one who dares to disagree with
him, therefore, in the wrong.
Abraham Lincoln knew better. He
had charity for all and malice toward
none; he saw the light as he was given
to see 1t.
In humble ways lesser men attempt
to emulate this great man, rather than
these countless little men who find
nothing quite so impossible to them in
this world, as to admit the possibility
that they may be wrong and some one
else right about anything.
The habit Of calling other people
names, especially those who disagree
! with you, is very old. Often in the
hurry of lifetime the fair minded man
finds it difficult to remember this simple
fact.
Leaving utterly aside the merits OF
the age-old controversy between the
deists and the atheists, one nevertheless
may quote the ancient sentence, The
fool thinketh in his heart that there is
no God"
He who takes the other side is Jumped
of as fool" without more ado.
There was no appeal He was a fool
and that settled it. Did he not dare to
disagree?
This thing of calling those who do
not agree with you harsh names is q
temptation, at times, even to the honest
human beings who value the integrity
of their own minds and try their level
best to do unto others as they would be
done by.
Sometimes the blatant arrogance OF
these Know-It-AllS strikes them squarely
in the face, as no doubt 1t was intended
to.
They forget that what they really
resent is arrogance, in any Torm; bla-
fancy, child of ignorance ignorance
itself, mother Of evil.
They do not remember at the time,
that human nature is essentially much
the same today as it was millions of
years ago, and that the majority of
human beings are emotional, rather
than intellectual, and that the emotions,
unless guided by a sense Of reason, and,
above all, desire to be fair. simply
want to win, whether or no, Justly or
unjustly, right or wrong.
What one faces. then. In all such
persons displaying such states Of mind.
If the word mind" is not too good for
EN- Is simply the age-old emotional
forces. transmitted into words, mas
querading as thinking
And those who sound the clarion to
the effect that their "side" contains all
the wisdom. and that your side only
the "unthinking portion" of mankind.
draw their own mental picture beyond
compare.
They place themselves on record as
unable to win by honest methods when
they resort to the essentially dishonest,
the small-boy method Of calling
names"
Against such procedure there are but
two good answers, a swift poke in the
jaw, properly administered, and as calm
an ignoring a. one may be capable of.
The right to the jaw. it may be added,
is worse than useless If not delivered
at exactly the proper time. As the
average human being most often is held
back by training. habits and decency
from administering this deserved re-
buke, this method may be eliminated.
This leaves overlooking, or ignoring,
in SO far as one may. Answering back
in kind is beneath cne's dignity The
retort humorous is more than such
persons merit. Notice that we do not
call them rascals, but that is what they
deserve, more often than not)
Retribution, in various ways, will
overtake them at last Not the snowy,
dramatic nemesis of the stage, but the
private little elf of every human mind
and heart called Conscience