Evening star., 1932-12-24
THIS AND THAT
BY CHARLES E. TRACEWELL.

It Is an excellent thing to have or
ones desk q large folder, into which
one may stick, from time to time. such
clippings and other papers Is ma,
The fns thing about such . prae.
tice Is that the owner 10 readily for.
gets what he puts there; later. wher
he puts in his thumb. all In the man
ner' Of the legendary Jack Horner. hi
is likely to pull out many q preciou,
plum.
Reaching at random into such Q re.
ceptacle Qf one may call 1t such, ir
this case the covers Of q portfolio o1
copies Of Botticeln's great master.
pieceS), we drew forth q series o1
most excellent thoughts for Christina
time.
They were incorporated Into "A Pies
for Rebels" being an abstract Of q SER
mon preached at Washington Cathedral
here by DR.. Bernard Iddings Bell
warden Of st. Stephens College. Co.
lumbia University.
Although delivered some time ago
timeleSs, that we offer no apologies
DR.. Bell said, In part:
life Is that we are building our civ.
ilization on the assumption that mer
and women stay young all their lives
I'VE seem to assume that the only
pleasures worth cultivating are thoss
which appeal to adolescence, or, at ths
most, to people under 80 years old.
Thanks to modern medicine, mos
Of us live to be 10 or so.
"The latter half Of q human life
ought to be far the happier half. but
1t cannot be II the only pleasures te
which one has been introduced In hi,
youth are those which turn into in.
tolerable sources Of boredom at about
the age Of IS.
THAT Is exactly what most Ameri-
cans are doing, which explains why
most mature persons in this country
are restless, distrait, unhappy, bore to
themselves and nuisance to other
people.
Man has been experimenting with
the art Of living for many millenia
The ways to peace Of soul and Joy OF
life when once ones childhood IS past
are not hidden mysteries.
Reverence for truth and pursuit OF
it for Its own sake rather than fol-
what income knowledge may bring;
contemplation of beauty and the at
tempt ourselves to create 1t for the
sheer Joy Of creation: pursuit Of that
reality which men call God and an
entrance into contemplative communion
with Him and the seeing Of human be-
ings as bits of the same STUFF as Him.
self, to be respected and loved and al
lowed for; the attempt to live, master
Of ones life and not a slave either OF
convention or Of circumstance-these
always have been and still are the ways
to mature happiness.
In respect to these things, We mod
ern Americans are inept as compared
with citizens OF other times. In things
material, mechanical and amusemental
we Americans are highly skilled, but In
the things Of the spirit we are anna
teurs.
Our arts become daily more and
more either utilitarian or initiative
Our literature tends more and more to
become Photographic or neurotic. Our
education increasingly neglects every
thing that trains the mind In pure
thinking and decent discrimination.
There seems to be an idea abroad
that all Of this Is due to the fact that
America Is young; that she will grow
up and find her soul after a while
This Is a dangerous notion. Life,
whether individual or national. is not
a thing Of miracles, but rather some
thing fed from constant sources.
"A man becomes that which he is
content to be: q nation becomes that
which it IS willing to become. Sheer
passage Of time. mere inertia. will not
save the soul Of America. Day by day
our spiritual and intellectual powers
grow less. For the salvation of our
country we need rebels, people who re-