By the Christmas Fire

g a Doc

of literary taste, "If you were cast upon a desert island

ms, for the time being, to have been overlooked by Mr. Andrew Carnegie, I must ask the loan of a volume from your private lib

e gets from looking at the huge wheat elevators in Minneapolis. Here are the harvests of innumerable fields stored up in little space. There are not o

are infallibly registered in tell-tale words. There are not only words denoting the obvious differences between the good and the bad, the false and the true, the beautiful and the ugly, but there are words which indicate the delicate shades of goodness and truth and beauty as they are curiously blended with

y, there are pseudo-virtues that tag on like the small boys who follow the circus. After Goodness come Goodiness and Goody-goodiness; we see Sanctity and Sanctimoniousness, Piety and Pietism, Grandeur and Grandiosity

n to leak out, with the intent that the stranger should say, "What a modest, learned man he is, and what a pleasure it is to meet him." Only the stranger does not express

stony glare of non-recognition gives you pause. The fact that he does not know you gives you time to perceive that you do not know him and have ne

sues and dwells upon the ideal, a seeker after the highest beauty and good." A doctrinaire may do this also, but he is differentiated as "one who

we need. He is not satisfied w

l sees th

eyes see

civilization have as their chief aim the production of just such personalities. But why are they not more successful? What becomes of the thousands of young idealist

e highest beauty and truth with their own theories. After that they make no further excursions into the un

use it. It sticks together, but it won't stick to anything else. George Eliot describes such a predicament in her sketch of the Reveren

y me." His thoughts form an exclusive club, and when a new idea applies for admission it is placed on the waiting list. A single black-ball from an old member is sufficient permanently to exclude it. When an idea is once in, it has a very pleasant time of it. All the opinions it meets with are clubable, and on good terms with one another. Whether any of them are related to any reality outside their ow

or existence, proving their right to the kingdom by actually conquering it, inch by inch. He cannot endure such tedious delays. He must have the satisfaction of seeing his id

ows of divine surprise," no dark unfathomable abysses. He would not allow such things. In his world the unexpected never happens. The endless chain of causation runs smoothly. Every event has a cause, and the cause is never tangled

ld which, in the attempt to get itself made, is becoming more amazingly heterogeneous all the time, he

is scientific name painted on the glass case. He is suddenly dropped into a tropical jungle where the animals ac

it it. Having formed a very clear conception of the best possible world, he looks down patronizingly upon the commonplace people who are trying to make the best out of this imperfect world. Having large possessions in Utopia, he lives the care-free life of an absentee landlord. His p

ah felt that there was nothing left for him but to await with pious resignation the fulfillment of his prophecy. But in this case the unexpected happened, the city repented and was saved. This was gall and wormwood to Jonah. His orderly mind was offended by the disarrangement of his schedule. What was the use of being a prophet if things did not turn out as he sa

mend our ways? We have been deeply impressed, and in a great many respects we have mended our ways, and things have begun to go better. But Jonah takes no heed of our repen

some of them are not half bad. When he sees a dangerous tendency he thinks that it will necessarily go on to its logical conclusion. He forgets that there is such a thing as the logic of events

mpany of these caterpillars I should urge them to look upon their own future with modest self-distrust. However well their programme looks upon paper, it cannot be ca

no abstract notions,-or, at least, no way of expressing them to us. We argue that if they really had these ideas they would have invented language long ago, and by this time would have had Unabridged Dictionaries of their own. But we humans do not have to be content with this hand-to-mouth way of thinking and feeling. When we see a hundred things that st

re must be, at the lowest computation, seventy-nine million, nine hundred and ninety-nine thousand, three hundred and seventy-five people of whose characters I do not know enough to make my opinion of any value. Of th

ctive term "American." Then all difficulties are minimized. Almost all our theorizing about human affairs is carried on by means of these symb

them is right," as far as it goes. You may classify people according to race, color, previous condition of servitude, height, weight, shape of their skulls, amount of their incomes, or their ability to write Latin verse. You may inquire whether they belong to the class that goes to church on Sunday, whether they are vaccinationists or anti-vaccinationists, whether they like problem plays, whether they are able to read a

question will turn up among the sheep when you change the subject. Your neighbor is a wild radical in theology,

on that followed, the class of the Unchurched was not clearly differentiated from the other unfortunate class of the Unwashed. In the evening I attended a lecture by a learned professor

account. In a free country there is a career for all sorts of talent, and if one fails in one direction he may reach great dignity in another. I may be a mere nobody, so far as having had ancestors in the Colonial Wars is concerned, and yet I may be high up in the Knights of Pythias. A good lady

as one directed against this evil. Dire academic punishments were threatened to students who made "odious comparisons of country to country, nobili

ior in what? Inferior in what? Anybody can be a superior person if he can only choose his ground and stick to it. That is the trick that royal persona

r into the astonished ear of your guest your views upon the subject. Such ripe erudition in one whose chief interests lie elsewhere seems to him almost superhuman. Your views on page 142 are so sound that he longs to continue the conversation into what had before seemed the more important matter c

t I confess that Prince Edward Island had been a mere geographical expression. All my ideas about it were wrong, I having mixed it up with Cape Breton, which as I now know is quite different. But instantly Prince Edward Island became a matter of intense interest. Our daily bread was dependent on it. I entered my study and with atlas and encyclop?dia soug

hat must be exciting and rather cold. She thought so too. Did she come from Charlottetown? No. Out Tignish way? Yes; halfway from Charlottetown to Tignish. Queen's County? Good apple country? Yes, she ne

Finance. I had established my position as a superior person with an intuitive knowledge of Prince Edward Island. If the Encyclop?dia itself had walked into the kitchen arm in

ing a conversation with the admirati

ay were the wide

however, for one who undertakes such feats to make sure

ad the pleasure of our acquaintance till we came to set him right. There is a certain modesty of conscience which would perhaps be more becoming. It comes only with the realization of practical difficulties. I like the remark of Sir Fulke Greville in his account of his friend, Sir Philip Sydney. Speak

re. If his mind did not naturally work that way he would not be a Doctrinaire. He is always inclined to put duty before the pleasure of finding out what it is all about. In this

to take no more of the advice than he thinks is good for him. There is one thing that a man knows about his own business better than any outsider, and that is how hard it is for him to do it. The adviser is always telling him how to do it in the finest possible w

been acquainted with other wild animals, or with the same wild animals under other circumstances. How muc

ian, the man of business, each has his method of professional classification. Each is tempted to forget that he is not in a position from which he can survey human nature in its entirety. He only sees one phase endless

duty was to exhort your fellow men to "step lively," you would doubtless soon come to divide mankind into three classes, namely: those who step lively, those who do not step

affic it stands as a perpetual denial of the utilitarian theory that all men are governed by enlightened self-intere

o far as his clients are concerned, it is notable for its absence. To be confronted day after day by the absent-minded, and to listen to their monoto

ual attention. I left without any sense of humiliation. But the third time I appeared I was conscious of a change in the atmosphere. A single glance at the Restorer of Lost Articles showed me that I was no longer in his eyes a citizen who was in tempor

and that I had other interests in life. He would only wearily note the fact as another indication of my condition. "That's the way they all talk. These defect

t he sings its praises till we turn against it as we used to do in the Fourth Reader Class, when we all with one accord turned against "Teacher's Pet." T

n "Hamlet"

ithin the very

or snuff, that

s at a like g

, growing to

his own

ns; we must, if we are to keep on good terms with him, be doing the whole duty of man all the time. He will take our own most cherished principles and turn them against us in such

tors that this is good for us. But the other day I started on a railway journey with premonitory signs of catching cold. An icy blast blew upon me. I closed the car window

ble only of seeing the large public side of the question. What would it

ut waiting for the consent of other nations? Did you not appear as one who stood four-square 'gainst every wind that blows, and asked for more? And now,

troubles me is only a trifling matter of two linear inches on the back of my neck. Your general principle, Madam,

toward it. There is a pleasant passage in Hooker's "Ecclesiastical Polity" in which I find great comfort: "That which the Gospel of Christ requireth is the perpetuity of virtuous duties, not the perpetuity of exercise or action, but disposition perpetual, and practise as often as times and opportuni

to be assured that in this world, where there are such incessant calls upon the moral nature, it i

behavior, which means behaving all the time in an obviously heroic manner. It is not enou

battle between St. George and the dragon, the attitude of St. George is all that could be desired. There is an easy grace in the way in which he deals with

here he wanted him. But it is to be feared that if some one had followed him with a kodak, som

aly horror of

. Would you criticise him harshly for such an action? Would it not be better to take into cons

uation, we ought not to blame him because he does not act as he would if there were no difficulties at all. "Life," said Marcus Aurelius, "is more like wre

o be a

o stan

ave a pur

to make i

other people take their turn. If I found the lions inclined to be amiable, I should encourage them in it. I should say, "I beg your pardon. I do not mean to intrude. If it's the time for your after

"That was a great thing you did up there, Daniel. People are wondering whether you can keep it up. Your friends are getting a m

to be said in favor of the Doctrinaire? Is he not, after all, a very useful c

n very useful. So is a snow-plough, in midwinter, though I prefer a

better part." But fortunately there is a still more excellent way. It is possible to be a practical idealist pursuing the ideal with full regard for practical considerations. There is something better than the conscience that moves with undeviating rectitude through a moral vacuum. It is the conscience that is related to realitie