We are like the child
who, when first confronted with suffering, cannot bear to believe
in its existence, and who, if it is prolonged, cannot believe in
the existence of anything else. What we have rather to do is to
face the problem strongly and courageously, to take into account
the worst and feeblest possibilities of our nature, and yet not to
overlook the fact that the worst and lowest specimen of humanity
has a dim inkling of something higher and happier, to which he
would attain if he knew how.
I had a little object-lesson a few days ago in the subject. It was
a Bank Holiday, and I walked pensively about the outskirts of a big
town. The streets were crowded with people of all sorts and sizes.
I confess that a profound melancholy was induced in me by the
spectacle of the young of both sexes. They were enjoying
themselves, it is true, with all their might; and I could not help
wondering why, as a rule, they should enjoy themselves so
offensively. The girls walked about, tittering and ogling, the
young men were noisy, selfish, ill-mannered, enjoying nothing so
much as the discomfiture of any passer-by.
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