UNIVERSITY COURIER.
7
LITERARY.
(SOME OLD PHILOSOPHY
By J. F. TUCKER, CLASSICAL DEPARTMENT.
Absorbed in our own times it is well to look now and then at the past, and at its great men whose lines have been called the history of the past.
Twenty-three and a half centuries ago Socrates was standing in a prison with a cup of hemlock in his hand. He drank the hemlock and lay down and died. He died for what he had lived for. Let us see if it was worth the while.
He had chisled marble till he was thirty, then he changed his vocation to that of searching for truth;trying as best he could to correct the false opinions of men. The Athenians disliked this, and called their inspired man 'fault-finder,' and what is worse—is it not?—'theorist.' He cared little what they called him, and went on theorizing and finding fault as his guiding spirit directed. Then the men of Athens became exasperated. They tried the man who troubled them and sentenced him. This is why he drank the hemlock and died.
Fatal error is it even to this day to theorize and thereby find faults. But let us see of what use this error has been in the story of the world's progress. The theorist seeking for answers to the questions of men and nations finds many faults. Still he reads off the true answer though it imply things unpleasant to hear, for he knows this is the only way to correct the failings of men. For this they call him fault-finder—for which he ought to thank them as it is a worthy name and means a finder of truth. But they distort the word and make it to signify grumbler. They laugh at him, sneer I mean, for a true laugh is never at the expense of right. Do you know that the sneer of the world determines more actions than do honest convictions?
The theorist is he who leads the way for the world to become a better world. Drawn up in line right across this way are the men who continually tell us from press and forum "all right, go ahead," when they know we are half wrong and ought to stop and think.
Men have failings even yet. Socrates, were he here now, would ask is it wise to care more for becoming broader and better men, as for becoming richer and more renowned men? Higher culture, that is more education, more thinking by all men, this is what we need. Some must see it first, see it plain enough to make them live it, as some have seen it. From these may we all learn what is worth thinking and doing. We are inclined to take up with the better things we see; but we see too few. In books we may find higher independent ideas but we read few books. We trust too much to the newspaper and, I was going to say, to the pulpit. The newspaper gossip is not always unbiased and the pulpit is bound about by thongs. Forgetting that we have prescribed what the preacher shall say we marvel that his theology so coincides with our own.
Another fault is what we boast as our practicality, a longing for something tangible. A tangible thing is not the most real thing in the world. There was a war in this country in which men dressed all alike would march out in long blue ranks and shoot at opposing ranks of gray ; when they knew that dressed in gray were some they loved. After the battle they would hurrah themselves hoarse, then sit down and cry to see how succes-
ful they had been. A half million men were killed that four millions might be free. What did the freeing mean? The blacks were not so sure of a living after the war as before; few make more than that now. Why it just means, what is worth remembering, that there are intangible things and that liberty is one of them, which are dearer to men than anything we call real.
The theorist, the seer, because he looks ahead of other men can never be appreciated. Socrates' death was according to the rule. We have killed all our best men. But the ideas for which they die become the belief of the following or one of the following centuries, as the radical knows to-day what the conservative thinks tomorrow. This will be true as it has been for we have not reached our ultimate yet. We have just begun to be free, and we are going to find out what freedom means. All it means only the future can tell, but it does not mean the right to be narrow and selfish. Such a life is not worth the trouble of living it. When a man's horizon ceases to broaden he ceases to rise. If he is to attain no loftier heights why toil longer on the mountain side? We can become greater men. To do it we must esteem the truth above everything; we must forget our creeds, dare to be called failures, to lose positions if necessary, but we must not dare to say 'I will make a success at all hazards.'
Thus shall come the better day for which men are always looking. But it will not come through the men who say you must take things as you find them. That is a craven spirit.
Tis not worth while to grind the years away. Of course a living is the first thing but we need no prompting on that score. Leisure, we want leisure, too. If the gospel of work be all we hear it ceases to be good news. we must labor but they keep urging us to toil harder when they ought know that we are living so fast now that the matters of life, things, for us to look at and think about, go spinning by in a haze. If there is any one thing above all others that men need to realize it is that he who lets his work drive him through the world does not live at all. From the very eradle we hear maxims about work. Make hay while the sun shines. It is better to wear out than to rust out. They are good enough but only for one side of life. There is something planted in every man of energy which, if he but obey, will work him to death. The fixed faces we see on men hurrying on tell of self-imposed tasks absorbing the whole life. Of all men the work-fanatic is doing most to hinder culture. Especially the men of the laboring classes are scourged by this deformed conscience of an eternal task. And is not this the reason they remain the laboring, the hard pressed classes? The way to rise is not to drudge harder, more hours, but to take time to think. As a man's independence of will arises he will make more demands which must be met.
What is the great profit to be derived from all the inventions to which we have fallen heirs? What, if not that horses and steam and electricity shall do the work for man and allow him more time for thoughts. When we learn to utilize this time, then may we successfully object if the benefits of invention are not equally distributed.
Laying aside the expediency of a man's being a voluntary slave, has he a right to be cruel to himself? Of all obligations that most overlooked is self-obligation. This includes time spent in finding truth for one's self.