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Show Howe About: Mr. Dick One's Conscience Nicholas Murray Butler By ED HOWE TilE world's noted are pretty generally gen-erally bores, but it must be admitted ad-mitted they are selected and rated with considerable discrimination. Among warriors one hears most of Napoleon Bonaparte and fairness compels com-pels the admission he was about the best of all of them. Of writing men perhaps the name of Charles Dickens is printed most frequently. Again the world has judged fairly; he was probably prob-ably the best one. English speaking people everywhere have pretty generally read "David Copperfield," and laughed at "Mr. Dick," an agreeable sort of fellow, except ex-cept that in his conversation he soon drifted around to King Charles, a celebrity in whom he was specially interested, and, In talking of his favorite fa-vorite subject was very tiresome. On all other subjects Mr. Dick was disposed dis-posed to be polite and reasonable, but he could not talk long without King Charles wandering In and spoiling everything. Charles Dickens created "Mr. Dick" as a warning against a very common human weakness. I have not known anyone who did not constantly weaken himself with some sort of special folly. I often disagree with philosophers. One of them writes: "Most persons who talk about their conscience hurting hurt-ing them are merely wailing because they've been found out. Tn my lifetime life-time I've known few men to be repentant re-pentant except when discovered doing things they shouldn't do. ... I am humiliated no more by faults in which I have been found out than by faults unknown to the public. Some of my acts of which I am ashamed are still personal per-sonal secrets I'll never tell. Some are known to one other who will never tell; at least, so far as I know, they never have told. I blame, warn myself, my-self, as much because of these secret faults as because of others which have been in print, or on the lips of neighbors. neigh-bors. . . . My greatest wonder is a proud man. I never have been proud ; indeed, I believe my neighbors rate me rather higher than T rate myself. I am not here confessing to any of the greater crimes, but to petty faults so numerous they greatly humiliate me. Nicholas Murray Butler, president of Columbia university, sends me circulars cir-culars regularly without offense. I can say this of very few professors. Gentlemen of this trade employ a grandeur In thinking and expression which prejudices me against them while considering their product and their merit. I read everything Professor Pro-fessor Butler sends me. and am indebted in-debted to him for this sentence: "The oldest lesson which mankind has had to learn, and which mankind does not even now fully comprehend, is that the social order rests upon a foundation which Is not economic at all, but moral." ... I have long believed be-lieved the greatest mistake of men is that they do not behave better; that they do not, without fuss or feathers, make behaviorism the basis of the universal religion we have long needed. need-ed. I am obliged to Doctor Butler, perhaps the most eminent of our professors, pro-fessors, for so simply restating my belief. www If a publisher should aslc me to write, in old age, what I think of life, I think I should ask him to let me attempt at-tempt it in the manner in which I can write best. All my thoughts are in paragraphs ; I can write easiest In that way, and best "express my meaning. And, providing I succeeded in convincing convinc-ing the publisher, I should make similar sim-ilar appeal to readers. I am unable to connect easily long arguments ; it is hard work, and I know I am weak at It. . . . There has been no better paragrapher than Frederich Neitzsche, but, in trying to connect them, and make a book, he made so poor a Job of "Thus Spake Zarathrustra." I can not read it, although I delight in his exhibits of wit and Intelligence after they have been collected and shortened by patient readers. I have never seen a book sufficiently brief and simple, except "The Story of Philosophy," by Will Durant, and this was a collection of the sayings of others. Had Professor Profes-sor Durant been writing his own opinions opin-ions of life, perhaps he would have been less competent In selecting, and exhibited more dullness. In writing or speaking of others one is usually an abler critic than when writing or speaking about himself. I often feel apologetic because I so frequently write of subjects I have written about before; if other writers do not, they are too big feeling, and perhaps exhibit the fault frequently In other ways. Somehow I like the men who somehow some-how discover It is better to go straight than to go to the devil. How these good men discover it does not much matter; discovering it Is enough. I'm like most people: I somewhat love and hate everybody, but the straight men I find least troublesome. A fool hcri, a pauper there; frequently fre-quently a reasonably good citizen who pays his debts and Is respected by his neighbors. . . . Say what you will about human nature, we have gotten along rather well with it. Always we have been able to Improve it a nub when we are tried. C. 1333, Dull Syndicate. WNU Servlc. |