THE HARDWOOD RECORD. 



13 



Wo see uien wearing themselves out in 

 iin excess of love, hate, envy or ambition, 

 and all the time foolishly wrong. I don't 

 know how many times I have been angry 

 in my life, but in 90 per cent at least of 

 the times I was angry without sufficient 

 justification or from a misconception of 

 the facts in the case. In the other 10 per 

 cent of the times, when, as the world 

 would view it, I had just cause for anger, I 

 would have Ijeen better off to have kept 

 my temper. 



And, although it may sound cold-blooded, 

 the man who controls his love and keeps 

 it within reasonable and moderate bounds, 

 will get and give more pleasure in the 

 •norld then he who lets his love control 

 him. He will be a juster man and will 

 have a happier wife and raise better 

 children. 



Ambition and envy are near akin, and 

 if a man would get tJie maximum of en- 

 jc.vment out of life he will do well to 

 restrain both within reasonable and mod- 

 •derate liounds. I would have a man know 

 his own powers and make good and full 

 use of them, but the man who allows his 

 ambition to control him instead of controll- 

 ing his ambition, is in a bad way, and in 

 the same class with those who allow other 

 passions or appetites to control them. I 

 have known men. and so have you. who. 

 with ambition in the saddle, have ridden 

 rough shod over right and justice, over 

 friends and foes alike, to attain that which. 

 under the circumstances, could bring them 

 no pleasure. 



Ambition makes a good horse but a poor 

 driver. 



:J: * * 



(iranting that a man's tirst duty is to 

 get the maximum of enjo.vment out of life, 

 there are certain things he cannot afford 

 to do. no matter what the end he seeks 

 to attain. He cannot afford to do that 

 iWhii-h is unjust or dishonest, and the 

 earlier a man makes up his mind to this 

 and refuses even to consider such action, 

 the better it will be for him in his pursuit 

 of enjoyment. 



Any success in life which is based on 

 injustice or fraud brings little pleasure 

 and is only temporary at best. Aside from 

 that, the greatest successes are won by 

 men who are scrupulously fair. 



I read a story of Richelieu, the great 

 I'lenchman who, through the greater por- 

 tion of his life, ruled the world as nearly 

 as any man ever ruled it. When he was 

 on his deathbed someone asked him what 

 had been the secret of his power. He 

 replied: 



"Some think It was courage, that I was 

 brave like a lion; others think it was 

 craft, that I was cunning like a fox; but 

 the secret of my power I can tell in one 

 word — justice." 



I don't know that the story is true, but 



it might well be. 



* * * 

 There are men, of course, who attain 

 their ends through unworthy means, but 



sueh success does not. I believe, bring 

 thtm pleasure. 



1 know men in public position, with 

 groat wealth and power, whose names are 

 bywords of contempt and reproach. One, 

 who had ruled the greatest city of America 

 for years, sent his sons to college, and in 

 spite of their lavish expenditure of their 

 father's money they were so ostracized by 

 other students, most of whom were poor 

 and many of whom were working their 

 way, that they were forced to leave col- 

 lege. Do you suppose that man, with all 

 his wealth and power, gets much enjoy- 

 ment out of life? 



Woe to the man who lots his ambition 

 drive him to win success, and lose his self- 

 respect and the respect and esteem of his 

 fellows. Wealth or power will not com- 

 pensate him, and the man who stands on 

 the street corner and gives dollars for 

 dimes is no bigger fool. 

 * * * 



When a man learns to hold himself in 

 check in all things — to be moderate in all 

 things — not because of fear of human or 

 divine law, but because it is to his interest 

 to do so — because he can get more enjoy- 

 ment of life by doing so — he needs no 

 other law for his guidance than his own 

 pleasure. 



That seems to me a much more practical 

 philosophy to teach to practical men, of 

 sufficient mental grasp to understand its 

 moaning, than the philosophy that they 

 must put their interests in the background 

 and live for others. 



Let each man live for hiniself and for 

 his own i>leasure, and let him understand 

 that in doing so he is not doing that 

 of which he should be ashamed, but that 

 he is doing that which is right and natural. 



But as before stated, it is not a safe 

 philosophy to teach to immature minds. 

 It is only the highest type of the race, the 

 type mature enough to understand that 

 the maximum of enjoyment of life can 

 only be obtained through justice and mod- 

 eration, that is fit to govern itself. This 

 t.-»pe of men govern the world to-day, but 

 the.v must govern the peoples of the world 

 as they find them. We would not endure 

 the despotism of Russia in this country, 

 but it is without dotibt a better govern- 

 1111 'ut for peoiile of their sta.ge of develop- 

 ment than a democracy such as ours would 

 be. 



Until men have learned to control them- 

 selves they nuist be controlled by what- 

 ever means may best serve. Sometimes 

 they are held in check through fear, some- 

 times through fanaticism, but the basis of 

 all methods of control is an appeal to a 

 man's selfishness. 



If he is very dense and ignorant he is 

 told that unless he does thus and so he 

 will have his head broken. And rather 

 than have his head broken he does it. If 

 he has progressed sufficiently that his 

 imagination has begun to work, he is told 

 that if he will do thus and so he will go to 



Heaven, and through all eternity he will 

 twang a harp or be attended by houris; 

 and if he fails to do thus and so he will 

 go to hell and be tortured forever and ever. 



All the forms of governments and most 

 of the s.vstems of religion are but the de- 

 vices of the more intelligent to control the 

 masses until they reach a stage of develop- 

 ment that they may be safely trusted to 

 control themselves. 



But even in his highest development man 

 is selfish, just as selfish as ever, as it is 

 right and proper he should be. 



And in the highest type, as in the lowest, 

 he must be appealed to through his selfish- 

 ness. You can never make a success of 

 appealing to men to keep their own inter- 

 ests in the background and live for others. 



The thing to do is to tell a man to live 

 for his own enjoyment, and teach him the 

 "Pleasures of Moderation. " 



SOME FUNNY NOTIONS. 



The funny old world is getting a lot of 

 nonsense knocked out of it of late years. 



It seems to us now very funny the 

 ideas people used to have about things. 

 You know it used to be believed that be- 

 cause a baby accidentally happened to be 

 born in a certain family it was away 

 yonder better than a baby which acci- 

 dentally happened to be born into another 

 family. The baby born into one family 

 was conceded the right as it grew to man- 

 hood to lordship over the other baby as it 

 grew to manhood, not by any right of 

 natural or acquired gifts, but because of 

 the accident of birth. Did you ever hear 

 of such a foolish notion? 



You have heard the story of the boy who 

 in striving to outdo his companions in tell- 

 ing how far back he could remember, said 

 that he could remember the time before 

 he was born, and that for several days he 

 cried for fear he would be a .girl. 



M'e haven't much faith in the boy's ve- 

 racity, but nowadays in the land where 

 God keeps the babies that are not yet 

 born the wise and discriminating baby will 

 choose, if it have a choice, which we very 

 much doubt, to be born into a family where 

 it may have poor but honest parents. For 

 if you will look about you you will 

 see that it is the sons of such parents that 

 have about all that is worth having. The 

 highest places nowadays are filled by men 

 ^\-ho, had they been born under the old 

 order, could never have been anything bet- 

 ter than serfs. 



Another curious notion the world used 

 to have in its head was that the man who 

 didn't work was better than the man who 

 did; that the creature who dawdled about, 

 staring vacantl.v at the world through a 

 monocle, was better than the man who had 

 his sleeves rolled up and was making the 

 work fly. Such a funn.v notion! 



Hut that's all done away with now. 

 Nowadays the man who works and does 

 things is "it." The idler, whether he be a 



