Evening star., 1936-12-15

Refusal to accept such an attack, II
meant, Is the best way to meet 1t. II
1t is not meant Of course such refusal
Is precisely the proper thing.
In either event, then, 1t is the best
course Of action, but the plainest thing in
the world Is that younger people often
must grow considerably older before they
use this wisdom.
What upsets them, 1t is easy to see, is
anger.
Anger Is q part of life. Let moralists
nay 1t as they will land no man ever did
it any better than Plutarch, more famous
for his 'lives') 1t still remains protective
instinct with many uses. Bound up as 1t
Is with the functioning of various glands
Of internal secretion, anger is by no
means as simple and single as the elder
moralists thought. Just as they imagined
the heart the seat Of the emotional ma
ture, so they thought of anger as q Grass
brutality without which man would be
better or, and which he must steel him.
self to resist at all times. AS II he could.
No, anger Is necessary, often vital, to the
human species. Those persons who have
succumbed to the humanitarian aspects
of the race with too great a success in the
main often lament their inability to join
in the common angers of mankind, such
as just resentment against physical hurt.
There is many person alive today who
is not able to fight back simply because
anger has been held in check perhaps a
little too we'll. They are the opposite of
exemplifications of biting the hand that
feeds you"; they cannot bite the hand
that bites them! One may think In
mr. mt hot oiT 10 4 inn
achieves its purpose too completely in
these cases.
The highest reach of earthly wisdom,
In some circumstances, is to refuse to de-
fend ones self at all. Only few per-
sons, at any given time, are capable of
this abnegation. Mostly these persons
are the worlds spiritual heroes.
Yet from their example the commonest
person, although he realizes his inability
to equal them, can take heart. He will
discover that in the everyday life, too,
exist many opportunities for refusing to
flee when no man pursueth. For timid
person, no matter how righteous he may
be. to refrain from giving in to these
temptations is to be hero in little and
one deserving of much praise. Often this
Id lduudIlUIl Is Scl4 -BlFCll, SlIICC ilO OilC cAoC
knows about it. Many person has come
through trial and tribulations merely
while sitting at a luncheon table. No
shot has been fired, no warfare declared,
but loud and long has been the inner
conflict and sweet the victory.
Most such victors are older people. who
have learned how to take the world as
they face it. not as they would like it,
perhaps. and certainly not as the copy
books said it would be, but just as it is.
Then the whole list of ones acquaint-
ances Is catalogued. and the good and
bad qualities of each set down in fair
hand, where the light of the inner eye
may shine upon it. The wise oldster
land occasionally q youngster) knows
that more trouble is likely to arise from
saying too much than from saying too
little. That this sort of trouble is most
often entirely unnecessary in every sense
adds to the halo which some would place
around the brow of the silent man. Ger
tainly it is true that silence, at the prop
er time, is both expediency of the highest
order and the greatest means of defense
in the entire gallery of intellectual weap-
ons. 1t Is possible for any man near. at
or beyond middle age, to test his own
capacity for higher things by the success
with which he refuses to wear shoes
which might seem at first glance to fit
him