Evening star., 1934-08-13
THIS AND THAT
BY CHARLES E. TRACEWELL.

all the many bad traits of human
character are man made. The lesser
creatures know them only in degree,
and such semblance as they have is
mostly seeming. The creatures act
as automotons, in a sense. directed
by a higher will imposed upon them
in their beginning as race. Forever
afterward they have been unable to
introduce their own wills into them
selves Their own wills mostly func-
tion to eat, to live, to continue as a
race. They are forever free from the
conscious i'll will which besets man
kind.
In watching these pure children
of Nature, whether they go on four
legs or none at all, the observer finds
something which enthrallS him, makes
him ashamed of human nature as it
has been distorted over the centuries.
Can it be that the foolish pride Of
mankind, the deception, the grasping
for anything seizable. Is part of
mans struggle, in the unconscious
sense? That he is no more liable,
from the highly intellectual view
ne does it, than this insect struggling
so nightly to get over these grass
blades with his burden of fresh meat?
May it not be that, from spiritual
standpoint, man is not to be blamed
at all for anything he does, that a
Dillinger Is as blameless as q saint?
1t is but little way any individual
human being may go along the path
to such tranquility. Try as he may
he cannot attain that realm by the
stoical route, by whatever name it is
called.
The natural route is open to him.
This way as much of tranquility as
one needs may be attained. with no
loss of self respect, but with q vast
betterment of human nature.
If we cast our thoughts back over
the great observers of Nature through
the ages, we see that these men were
blessed with as much tranquility as
Nature permits the conscious mind.
To consider no more than a few
in our own days, such as Ralph Waldo
Emerson, Luther Burbank and John
Burroughs, we instantly realize the
rewards of happiness which these men
drew from their work, whatever its
material rewards may have been.
Something about their faces, In
photographs, all-revealing photo
graphs, shows a sense of unity with
all creation so often lacking in the
pictured faces of great men and little
men.
There is a peace Of soul pictured in
the faces of these men, to take but
three when many might be mentioned,
which shames the claims of philoso-
phies and methods. and makes any
one realize that what they did, in
the large, any human being may do,
in the small, If he has mind to it.
For they did it with the mind, the
same mind which, in wayward mo-
ments, is so responsible for all the
i'll traits of humanity.
This is that wonder worker, con-
scious intelligence, before which one
must stand in awe, even in such a
small manifestation as ones self. 1t
is not necessary for us to be as true
souled as these mighty ones to de-
rive some of their great benefits. All
we must do is to study Nature faith
fully, as they did, to the best of our
small abilities, to come at last to
the tranquility which they knew and
which helped make them both great
and famous. Some measure Of this
grand quality may make us neither
great nor famous, but that it will do
something to us, help us on the way,
there can be no doubt at all.