Life Is A Theatre Of Alarms And

There Is Perhaps No Sort Of Self More Subject To Dangerous Egotism Than That Which Deludes Itself With The Notion That It Is Not A Self At All, But Something Else. It Is Well To Beware Of Persons Who Believe That The Cause, The Mission, The Philanthropy, The Hero, Or Whatever It May Be That They Strive For, Is Outside Of Themselves, So That They Feel A Certain Irresponsibility, And Are Likely To Do Things Which They Would Recognize As Wrong If Done In Behalf Of An Acknowledged Self.

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.

Each Man Must Have His I; It Is More Necessary To Him Than Bread; And If He Does Not Find Scope For It Within The Existing Institutions He Will Be Likely To Make Trouble.

In Most Cases A Favorite Writer Is More With Us In His Book Than He Ever Could Have Been In The Flesh; Since, Being A Writer, He Is One Who Has Studied And Perfected This Particular Mode Of Personal Incarnation, Very Likely To The Detriment Of Any Other. I Should Like As A Matter Of Curiosity To See And Hear For A Moment The Men Whose Works I Admire; But I Should Hardly Expect To Find Further Intercourse Particularly Profitable.

A Person Of Mature Years And Ripe Development, Who Is Expecting Nothing From Literature But The Corroboration And Renewal Of Past Ideas, May Find Satisfaction In A Lucidity So Complete As To Occasion No Imaginative Excitement, But Young And Ambitious Students Are Not Content With It. They Seek The Excitement Because They Are Capable Of The Growth That It Accompanies.