Common Sense, How to Exercise It Part 23

"There are dependent souls who, for want of the necessary strength to escape from va.s.salage to the external impressions will always drag on, feeble and opprest by the exactions of a mental servitude from which they can not free themselves.

"Others rise proudly, ready to command circ.u.mstances, which they dominate with all the power of their volition governed by reason.

"It is common sense which will guide them in this ascent by keeping them within the limits a.s.signed to those things pertaining to reason and rect.i.tude of mind.

"Before everything, it is well not to forget that this faculty invites those who cultivate it to seek always for exact facts.

"Knowledge, in all its aspects is, then, a perfect educator for those who do not wish to build on the flimsy foundation of approximate truth.

"In p.r.o.nouncing the word knowledge, we do not wish to speak of abstract studies which are only accessible to a small number; we wish to express the thought of instruction embracing all things, even the most humble and ordinary.

"A man from the city was walking in the country one day, not far from a vast swamp.

"All around it were a few miserable huts, the shelter of some peasants whose business it was to gather the reeds from the borders, weaving them into large baskets to be sold afterward in the neighboring country.

"Little by little twilight descended, slowly enveloping all things in a mist of ashy gray, and vapors arose from afar over the stagnant water.

"The man from the city trembled, believing that he recognized fantoms in this moving vapor; he sought to flee, but, unfamiliar with the locality, he ran along the side of the swamp without finding the end of it.

"Exhausted from fatigue and trembling with fear, he resolved to knock at one of the cabins.

"He was welcomed by a basket-maker, to whom he related his fright, adding that he was unable to understand how this man found the courage to live in a place haunted in such a terrible way.

"The peasant smiled and explained to the man, whose intellectual culture was, however, infinitely superior to his own, by what phenomenon of evaporation these mirages were produced.

"He demonstrated to him that these fantoms were only harmless vapors, and the city man admired the knowledge which common sense had taught the ignorant one."

And Yoritomo concluded:

"This peasant gave there a proof of what self-control allied to common sense can do.

"Instead of allowing himself to be influenced by appearances, he confined himself to reflection, and observation aided by attention led him to a deduction resting on truth.

"The essential factor of control is cool-headedness, which permits of seeing things in their true light, and forbids us to gild them or to darken them, according to our state of mind at the time."

The Shogun adds:

"Fear, hideous fear, is a sentiment unknown to those whose soul communes with self-control and common sense.

"The first of these qualities will produce a fixt resolution tending to calmness, at the same time that it makes a powerful appeal to cool-headedness, which permits of reflection.

"Fear is always the confession of a weakness which disavows struggle and wishes to ignore the name of adversary.

"Cool-headedness is the evanescent examination of forces, either physical or intellectual, with reference to supposed danger.

"Without self-control cool-headedness can not exist; but it only develops completely under the influence of common sense which dictates to it the reasons for its existence.

"Cool-headedness, by leaving us our liberty of thought, enlightens us undoubtedly on the nature of danger, at the same time that it suggests to us the way to avoid it, if it really exists.

"There can not be a question of fear for those who possess the faculties of which we have just spoken, for it is well known that, from the moment when the cause of fear is defined it ceases to exist; it becomes stupid illusion or a real enemy.

"In the one case, as in the other, it ought not to excite anxiety any longer, but contempt or the desire to fight it.

"For those whose mind is not yet strong enough to resolve on one or other of these decisions it will be well to take up again the argument indicated in the preceding pages, and to say:

"Either the object of my fear really exists, and, in this case, I must determine its nature exactly, in order to use the proper means first to combat it and then to conquer it.

"Or it is only an illusion, and I am going to seek actively for that which produces it, in order never again to fall into the error of which my senses have just been the dupes."

Looking over these ma.n.u.scripts, so rich in valuable advice, we find once more the following lines:

"Self-control and cool-headedness are above all necessary to aid in dissimulating impressions.

"It is very bad to allow one of the speakers in a dialog to read the mind of him who speaks to him like an open book.

"He whose thoughts are imprest vividly on the surface is always placed at a glaring disadvantage.

"The thought of glorifying hypocrisy is far from our minds, for it has nothing to do with the att.i.tude which we recommend.

"The hypocrite strives to a.s.sume emotions which he does not feel.

"The man gifted with cool-headedness is intent on never allowing them to be seen.

"It keeps his adversary in ignorance of the effect produced by his reasoning and allows him to take his chance, until the moment when, in spite of this feigned indifference, he reveals himself and permits his mind to be seen.

"Now, to know the designs of a rival, when he is ignorant of those that we have conceived, is one of the essential factors of success.

"In every way, he who is informed about the projects of his adversary walks preceded by a torch of light, while the adversary, if he can not divine his opponent's plans, continues to fight in darkness."

The most elementary common sense counsels then cool-headedness when exchanging ideas, even when the discussion is of quite an amicable nature.

From this habit there will result a very praiseworthy propensity to exercise self-control, which is only a sort of superior cool-headedness.

It is also the cause of a n.o.ble pride, because it is more difficult to win a victory over one's pa.s.sions than to conquer ordinary enemies, and he who, with the support of common sense, succeeds in ruling himself, can calculate, without arrogance, the hour when he will reign over the minds of others.

LESSON XII

COMMON SENSE DOES NOT EXCLUDE GREAT ASPIRATIONS

"A very common error," says Yoritomo, "is that which consists in cla.s.sifying common sense among the amorphous virtues, only applicable to things and to people whose fundamental principle is materiality.

"This is a calumny which is spread broadcast by fools who scatter their lives to the four winds of caprice and extravagance.

"Not only does common sense not exclude beauty, but it really aids in its inception and protects its growth by maintaining the reasons which produced its appearance.