* * *
The fact that Abraham Lincoln, George Washington, and other great
departed whose names are taken in vain every day by small-bore
politicians, do not return and whack these persons over the heads with a
tambourine, is almost--as Anatole France remarked in an essay on
Flaubert--is almost an argument against the immortality of the soul.
* * *
Harper's Weekly refrains from comment on the shipping bill because, says
its editor, "we have not been able to accumulate enough knowledge."
Well! If every one refrained from expressing an opinion on a subject
until he was well informed the pulp mills would go out of business and a
great silence would fall upon the world.
* * *
It is pleasant to believe the sun is restoring its expended energy by
condensation, and that the so-called human race is in the morning of its
existence; and it is necessary that the majority should believe so, for
otherwise the business of the world would not get done. The happiest
cynic would be depressed by the sight of humanity sitting with folded
hands, waiting apathetically for the end.
* * *
Perhaps the best way to get acquainted with the self-styled human race
is to collect money from it.
* * *