Show OUR THINKING ova BY GASKELL It is a good thing when we can have others do our thinking for ua It facilitates matters greatly and gives us an easy time and we can lay back and have a pleasant experience experi-ence without the irksome drudgery of mental labor and study and the I sifting and comparison of knotty points or conflicting arguments of law or politics morality or religion And we can always have it done for us toospeedily if not perfectly or in a pleasant mannerfor there are seldom wanting wise restless well meaning never ending talkative individuals whose sole business in life seems to be setting others right and putting them on the way to rank or wealth or salvation How deliciously pleasant it is to have one of these good souls buttonhole button-hole us on the street corner as we are rushing in haste to dinner in our office or other place of business as we are pressed for time and have him gently instil into our willing ear the beauties of natural religion duty to political party spiritual affinity or the grand fundamental funda-mental principles of existence as though we knew all about them How conscientiously we rejoice that it falls not to our lotto lot-to have such difficult problems to solve that our lines have been cast in pleasanter places and that our minds need not become confused by I the multiplicity of figures tropes and metaphors but that we can accept cept our friends solution and thus I escape some of the wastes and bur dens of society And how exhaustive and conclusive con-clusive all such arguments areif we have health and we dont die young we are sure to live till ware w-are olderif the world is coming tan t-an end and it does not come tb an end this year it is sure to come to an end some time or otherIf the principles of the democratic party are the principles of the democratic party it is very evident to all unprejudiced un-prejudiced minds that they are the principles of the democratic party and other equally interesting enlightened en-lightened and highsounding sentences sen-tences are in commonplace or melodious me-lodious rhetoric pourel in our entranced ear until we seem to ball b-all ear with nerve centres in every part of our suffering anatomy and to avoid a too violent and hasty departure de-parture from our mundane life we rush off to the sylvan shades not of Vallombrosa but somebodys back stoop And we must not be unjust We must give such persons many times full credit for good intent They are not all hungry politicians nor form wrangling churchmen Many really have our interests at heart and in their sphere think they have a mission to reform re-form us society and the world But hen they are often so eager to commence their great labor of reforming others that they neglect neg-lect to start reform at home and leave their own habitations foul while officiously seeking to cleanse those of others But then we all do itwe are wondrous wise in our selfconceit and if we judge ourselves our-selves we are apt to think our decisions de-cisions are infallible Who wants to think unless there is pleasure in thinking Who will corrugate his brows firmly close his lips and put on a sleepy assanine owl like look of wisdom unless buoyed up by expectations of good to himself coming from it And if another will generously and self sacrificingly throw himself in the breach and do this why hinder him from so doing so we reap the benefits bene-fits and blessings wrung from such laborious lucubrations even though this reward should be increased selfesteem and widening fame |