Evening star., 1935-04-10
THIS AND THAT
BY CHARLES +. TRACEWELL.

They were afraid, in other words.
and so daily went back, in the vernac-
ular, on the self, that self which after
all Is the real human.
Templeton Jones was saved all these
petty fears, because he had one big
fear, which, over the years, had quiet
ly crowded the others out Of his per-
| sonal picture.
It was not easy.
He knew all the herd enjoyments,
and at times gave in to them, but hs
was always ashamed of himself when
he read q book that made no particu-
| lar appeal to him just because others
were doing 1t, or did anything that he
honestly did not believe in just be-
cause others who did believe in it in
sisted that he pretend that he did,
too.
In time he came to see better than
most how millions are led by the nose
and made to pass their whole lives
doing things that in reality are not
what they want to do.
He saw the efforts Of men and
women to free themselves from these
entanglements. how they battled
against everything and for every
thing except the right thing, which
was and is and evermore will be that
inner light for which there is no sub
stitute.
If he, or any one else, ever were to
attain true wisdom, it would come
only as the result of thousands of pre-
liminary battles on the simpler fields
of everyday living. where high sound
ing names play little part, but where
every one, no matter who he Is, or
how much money he has or has not
has endless opportunities to do In
little matters what at last must lead
on to the ability to achieve in big
matters. Or so we hope.
r
Nor must it be thought that Tenn
pleton Jones had attained complete
mastery even on the plane of the
everyday and the everywhere present
He had not; but as least he had
firmly in his possession the beginning
of the gleam, and enough success to
make him willing to go ahead. The
pot of gold at the end of his rainbow
was not gold at all, but color. which
is all any rainbow is. What the tints
| and shades shall be depends upon
what the beholder shall make OF
them. 1t is because this has been
realized so many centuries, by SC
many millions of wayfarers, that it
is platitude, something which we all
know so well that the sophisticated
persons assert that We must not men
tion ii at all. Why do they say this? D.?
Because they are afraid, afraid OF
each other, afraid of good ideas
Templeton Jones had baniShed all
such fears by his one big fear of being
untrue to himself, or, as he preferred
to put it, Of going back on himself
There was something humanity CON-
forting about that way of saying It;
every one has known some one OF
thing to go back on somebody else
and everybody knows it is a lousy
trick. as the vernacular forcibly puts
it. Modern research has shown just
how lousy a louise can be.
Templeton Jones realized the
dangers of his course, but he was not
afraid of those dangers. Those fears
too. had been ousted by his master
fear. 1t was the latter which gave
him such grip as he had on life, It's
problems and their solutions. He be-
lieved in himself, and his thoughts. ir
his aspirations and above all his dis
likes. Always something told him
when he should not do something. ol
not say something. and he refused tc
permit anybody from the outside tc
tell him to do or say what his rea
self did not approve. That was as
close as he could get to the fear oi
God, but maybe it was near enough.