Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1958-05-18
SPIRES OF THE SPIRIT
What's Your Size?

II you want 10 purchase a
hat or q pair Of shoes.
whats your size2" Is the
first question OF the sales
man. Physical dimensions
are necessary In hitting gar
ments 10 human bodies. but
these and a dozen other
measurements OF our frame
OF flesh and bone are not
really vital statistics. When
one was ill-bred enough TO
express his surprise az the
unimpressive. dwarfish APP
pearance Of a certain famous
man. that one exploded,
"Sir, the minds the measure
OF the mani" When Boswell
first saw william Wilber-
force. who was the chief
factor In stopping the Brit
ish slave trade, but who was
a pigmy In physical proper
tons. he put down In his
diary. II saw what seemed
q mere shrimp mount upon
the table. but as ! listened
he grew and grew until the
shrimp became q whale. /"
That was his real size.
What's your size?" is a
heavily freighted question.
When q person deals in Lilli-
putian motives. interests and
actions. when the hour called
for giant reactions. how
often the comment is heard.
IT thought he was bigger
than that" When some test
comes, some temptation
leaps. some opportunity
knocks, II is the debating
realization that the answer
TO that question regarding
size brings which so often
chagrins US and shames US.
Some hour which called for
greatness has proved our
smallness and has cut down
to size our strutting egotism.
There is no more humbling
experience than a mans
inner consciousness that in
some ethical test he has
failed to measure up-that
he has proved himself a
small person when the situa-
tion called for greatness, and
that his moral size puts him
in the category Of the mini
NUNS.
History is dotted with the
sad spectacle Of small people
set up in large places. Writing
Of Queen Anne Of England,
one said Of her. "She was
the smallest person ever set
In a large place." The size of
the king whom our Declare
ton Of Independence defied
because Of his stupid obsti-
macy was decidedly small
especially when contrastec
with the elements of great
ness in the mental ano
ethical stature Of the kingly
rebel from Mount Vernon.
No matter what else We
may say about a person, hi
is no bigger than his motive:
the hidden desires thai
really move him. Always the
why" is more important
than the what" Even q
selfish racket may don the
white clothes Of righteous.
ness.
A mans size is revealed by
his Sympathies and his in
terestS. Bless me and my
wife. and my son John and
his wife, us four and nc
more" is a little prayer thai
swings a circle around a small
person. Nicholas the Second
Car Of all the Russians, be-
trays his real size often in
pathetic letters that he wrote
the Czarina from the battle.
front in World War I. These
epiStles are filled with
trivialities. When the worlc
was tumbling in. his owr
throne crumbling. and forces
being unleashed which ever
now, more than four decades
later, threaten everything
decent in human life, he
wrote his wife that he greatly
missed the nightly game Of
cribbage. Against the titanic
events Of that convulsive day
the size of his interests was
as big as cribbage.
A mans real size is always
registered by what he does
with envy, or rather what
envy does to him. jealousy is