The Thing That Moves Us To Pride

The Chief Misery Of The Decline Of The Faculties, And A Main Cause Of The Irritability That Often Goes With It, Is Evidently The Isolation, The Lack Of Customary Appreciation And Influence, Which Only The Rarest Tact And Thoughtfulness On The Part Of Others Can Alleviate.

To Retire To The Monastery, Or The Woods, Or The Sea, Is To Escape From The Sharp Suggestions That Spur On Ambition.

Simplicity Is A Pleasant Thing In Children, Or At Any Age, But It Is Not Necessarily Admirable, Nor Is Affectation Altogether A Thing Of Evil. To Be Normal, To Be At Home In The World, With A Prospect Of Power, Usefulness, Or Success, The Person Must Have That Imaginative Insight Into Other Minds That Underlies Tact And Savoir-faire, Morality And Beneficence. This Insight Involves Sophistication, Some Understanding And Sharing Of The Clandestine Impulses Of Human Nature. A Simplicity That Is Merely The Lack Of This Insight Indicates A Sort Of Defect.

The Idealist's Program Of Political Or Economic Reform May Be Impracticable, Absurd, Demonstrably Ridiculous; But It Can Never Be Successfully Opposed Merely By Pointing Out That This Is The Case. A Negative Opposition Cannot Be Wholly Effectual: There Must Be A Competing Idealism; Something Must Be Offered That Is Not Only Less Objectionable But More Desirable.

It Happens From Time To Time In Every Complex And Active Society, That Certain Persons Feel The Complexity And Insistence As A Tangle, And Seek Freedom In Retirement, As Thoreau Sought At Walden Pond. They Do Not, However, In This Manner Escape From The Social Institutions Of Their Time, Nor Do They Really Mean To Do So; What They Gain, If They Are Successful, Is A Saner Relation To Them.