"You" are weak and ill; "you" are half educated: "you" don"t know how to work--Just put "we" for "you."
"We," thousands and millions of us, are at present suffering from various wrong conditions. Taken separately, personally, these wrong conditions overwhelm us; each sits down in his or her own little circle of pain, and suffers.
Taken _collectively_--faced, understood, met, overcome--those wrong conditions can be removed and forgotten.
The writer of this interesting letter (thanks for its kind appreciation!) sees the trouble of living clearly enough, but does not see the joy of living.
In the first place, accept your own pain and loss, whatever it may be, as merely a part of the general pain and loss. Your own, singly, you may be unable to help; but "ours" you can help. Never mind what ails "you"--you can stand it--other people do? The human soul is a stronger thing than you think--_you don"t use enough of it._ Unless the mind is affected, so that one is irresponsible, it is always open to a Human Being to change the att.i.tude of the mind, and enlarge its area of consciousness.
Human Life is a huge Immortal Thing.
It has been on earth for many thousand years.
It is bigger, stronger, better, than it ever was.
It is on the verge of a new consciousness, a new power, a new joy, which will make our poor past seem like a lovingly forgotten babyhood; and our future a progressive Heaven--growing under our hands as we make it.
And our present! _This_ is our present! Get into the game! You are human life. Human life is You.
It"s a big thing. It"s worth while to be alive--if you are human!
To get a lively sense of historic movement read "_The Martyrdom of Man_"
by Winwood Reade. To get it of life today, read what you like of the rising flood of sociologic and humanitarian books and magazines of today.
When you are socially conscious--a live Human Being--your "personal problems" will take on different proportions. There is no personal trouble so great as the trouble of the world--which we have to face and conquer.
There is no personal joy so great as the joy of the world--which is ours to feel, to make, to steadily enlarge.
Change your own condition if you can, but if you cannot, spread out your life--your Human Life, till your burden is no bigger than a biscuit--to such huge consciousness.
"When my children were little and at home it was easy to guide and direct, but now they are in the big man-made world without judgment enough to know that the _world_ standards are wrong, and the _home_ standards of helpfulness and co-operation right.
I believe we are going ahead, and I"m willing enough to help build the road for others to pa.s.s over, but must my children hunger and thirst in the wilderness?"
A. This is a wide-spread problem. The trouble lies in our confounding personal and social relations. Our children are in direct connection with us physically and psychically--but not, of necessity, socially. A musician does not necessarily have musical children; a reformer does not necessarily have reforming children. There is no reason why our children should be expected to see things as we do. They may never see the way out of the wilderness as we see it.
They are to love and serve, to shelter, guard, teach--and set free!
We must do our work--and they must do theirs.
Here is a question from Detroit.
"I entirely agree with you in believing that children should be governed by reason, and that coercion is a mistake; but how would you suggest dealing with a child before it can possibly understand reason?"
The writer then speaks of the selfishness and rudeness of undisciplined children, and goes on:
"I have always thought that the training of a child should begin from a very early age, long before they can listen to reason at all."
She is quite right. Child culture should begin as soon as the child begins. The difficulty of the average parent is that he or she a.s.sumes "reason" to mean reasoning--oral argument.
In the reaction from our old violent discipline, they use no discipline; and for repression subst.i.tute gross indulgence.
When a child learns that fire burns by a mild, safe burning, he learns _reasonably;_ the fire _reacts_--which is not a punishment, but a consequence. He should learn the rights of others as early as his own, and by similar processes. Real child culture calls for far more care and training than the old rule of thumb, but it is of a different kind.
"I am very much interested in your "Androcentric Culture." Is it your idea that the female organism was the stronger before consciousness existed only, or after that period in prehistoric times?"
For the scientific facts underlying the above work, all readers are referred to Chapter XIV. of "_Pure Sociology,_" by Lester F. Ward. It is--or should be--in every Public Library, and should be read by every woman in the world--and by the men also.
THE EDITOR"S PROBLEM
How to enlarge the subscription list!
To pay its running expenses this little magazine must have about three thousand subscribers. It now has between eleven and twelve hundred.
We want, to make good measure, two thousand more. This is a bare minimum, providing no salary to the editor.
If enough people care for the magazine to support it to that extent, the editor will do her work for nothing--and be glad of the chance! If enough people care for it to support her--she will be gladder.
Do you like the magazine, its spirit and purpose? Do you find genuine interest and amus.e.m.e.nt in the novel--the short story? Do the articles appeal to you? Do the sermons rouse thought and stir to action? Are the problems treated such as you care to study? Does the poetry have bones to it as well as feathers? Does it give you your dollar"s worth in the year? And do you want another dollar"s worth?
Most of the people who take it like it very much. We are going to print, a few at a time, some of the pleasant praises our readers send.
They are so cordial that we are moved to ask all those who do enjoy this little monthly service of sermon and story, fun and fiction, poetry and prose:
First, To renew their subscriptions.
Second, Each to get one new subscriber. (Maybe more!)
Third, To make Christmas present of subscriptions, or of bound volumes of the first year.
FROM LETTERS OF SUBSCRIBERS
"I am delighted to hear of the Forerunner. No one in the United States is so competent as you to write the whole of a magazine, little or big, from the beginning to end. You have the gift of expression, if anyone has, and, what is still more important, you have something to express."
"I enclose in this $1.00 for one year of the "Gilmanian" and I think it a bargain to get so much of you at the price."