You cannot run away from a weakness; you
must some time fight it out or perish; and if that be so, why not
now, and where you stand? COELUM NON ANIMAM. Change Glenlivet for
Bourbon, and it is still whisky, only not so good. A sea-voyage will
not give a man the nerve to put aside cheap pleasure; emigration has
to be done before we climb the vessel; an aim in life is the only
fortune worth the finding; and it is not to be found in foreign
lands, but in the heart itself.
Speaking generally, there is no vice of this kind more contemptible
than another; for each is but a result and outward sign of a soul
tragically ship-wrecked. In the majority of cases, cheap pleasure is
resorted to by way of anodyne. The pleasure-seeker sets forth upon
life with high and difficult ambitions; he meant to be nobly good and
nobly happy, though at as little pains as possible to himself; and it
is because all has failed in his celestial enterprise that you now
behold him rolling in the garbage. Hence the comparative success of
the teetotal pledge; because to a man who had nothing it sets at
least a negative aim in life.
Pages:
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65