Clii 
list be its own reward absolutely 
Doubtless there are highminded men and women 
an increasing happiness in the practice of virtue and v\ no 
stoical or ecstatic souls rejoice in the absence of fleshly com- 
forts or worldly return for self-abnegation. But they aie icA', 
and especially rare in the Philippines where the body is such a 
hot member and the soul but a hypothesis to most of us. 
Perhaps it is the prickly heat, the bites of mosquitos, the 
eternallynejtted bed, the cautious avoidance of unboiled things, 
or even the diaphanous garb which makes the flesh so neai to 
the hands] so apparent to t-he eyes; perhaps it is the glaring 
sun. itlie trickling rills of sweat, the more usual bath and conse- 
quent contemplation of nakedness, (even though our own); 01 
it may be the indolence of the tropics, the puffing up of the 
white among the dark, the lack of self-service and the bi caking 
d, wn of , the American individual independence of menials; or 
the theory of some scientists that the actinic rays of the over- 
head sun* sodden the soul through the cuticle may be more than 
the surmises of savants; however it be, yet those of us who 
have lived some years here know that the soil is poor for spi- 
ritual sprouts, and that the appetitie's feed fat at the expense 
of the soul. 
It may be easy to be good in ones Missouri or Tennessee 
home; it is devilishly hard to walk a chalk line in Manila or the 
bosque. Vice appears in strange, romantic guises , seemingly 
without aftermath or price. The parched throat makes the iced 
intoxicant but buttermilk for the nonce, and when the nonce is 
past then sobriety is but nonsense. I he cult of the body gets / 
more and more of our worship as the years roll by ; the 
psychic shrinks into a husk while the physical clasps us tighter. 
Dwelling where espionage is careless, where gossip is a 
jade that drives oftenest on the Luneta and lingers longest at 
whist parties, yet servants have no eyes nor ears, and the per- 
manent mass no standards nor precepts. We find on many door 
invitations to hell looking like bids to paradise, and tho 5 
within to whom the tearing down of a youthful structure 
principles is pleasure and profit. 
We think less, drink more, doze more, rest less, talk mu 
say less, owe more, pay less, and love more those we should- 
and less those we should; we harden, degrade and growyyi: 
We who came as the unknowing, having but nibbled at the f- 
of the tree of knowledge, are soon cynical raconteurs, 
deviltry, laughing at the funny side of rottenness, and wi 
constant eye for a likely piece of wickedness. 
That’s a strong indictment. Is it true with you? Ex 
your heart and your possible soul! If you feel clean, i 
conscience lets you get mad and say: “That’s not I, the 
go up to the front pew. 
But if otherwise. 
IT iS TIM K TO QUIT t 
