Page:About people (IA aboutpeople00well).pdf/107

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LOYALTY AND LIBERALITY.
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or indifference, which latter is the tempter's own device for cheating one into laziness. Clear, definite convictions result from the union of liberality and loyalty. When loyalty stands upon some narrow point of opinion, liberality surrounds it with proofs that truth also lies elsewhere, and intellectual somersaults are the result, leaving the mental acrobat on one and another rock instead of on the table-land of thought.

Every one should know what he believes, and why, in religion, politics, social affairs, moral obligations, and philosophical considerations. Ignorance is no excuse for accepting results from another without the trouble of examining them. Such questions cannot be answered by books alone, as they need one's own life-experience and that of others. If the reply corresponds to one's needs then search ceases, for salvation cometh when belief is fraught with strength and honesty. Negation often is as definite and noble as assertion; the

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