The Poorest Way To Face Life Is

Even In Ordinary Times There Are Very Few Of Us Who Do Not See The Problems Of Life As Through A Glass, Darkly; And When The Glass Is Clouded By The Murk Of Furious Popular Passion, The Vision Of The Best And The Bravest Is Dimmed.

There Are Always In Life Countless Tendencies For Good And For Evil, And Each Succeeding Generation Sees Some Of These Tendencies Strengthened And Some Weakened; Nor Is It By Any Means Always, Alas! That The Tendencies For Evil Are Weakened And Those For Good Strengthened. But During The Last Few Decades There Certainly Have Been Some Notable Changes For Good In Boy Life. The Great Growth In The Love Of Athletic Sports, For Instance, While Fraught With Danger If It Becomes One-sided And Unhealthy, Has Beyond All Question Had An Excellent Effect In Increased Manliness.

The Plea Of Good Intentions Is Not One That Can Be Allowed To Have Much Weight In Passing Historical Judgment Upon A Man Whose Wrong-headedness And Distorted Way Of Looking At Things Produced, Or Helped To Produce, Such Incalculable Evil; There Is A Wide Political Applicability In The Remark Attributed To A Famous Texan, To The Effect That He Might, In The End, Pardon A Man Who Shot Him On Purpose, But That He Would Surely Never Forgive One Who Did So Accidentally.

There Is Apt To Be A Lunatic Fringe Among The Votaries Of Any Forward Movement.

A Nation That Still Needs To Distinguish Between Stealing An Election, And Stealing A New Pair Of Shoes, Is Not Completely Civilized Yet.