Henry Baird Favill, AB, MD, LL.D., 1860-1916, a ... - University Library

552 HENRY BAIRDFAVILL
the expression of the aggregate weight of individual aim and
effort. Even while realizing the something maladjusted in
life, the mass of people fail to recognize what is awry, and
of the few who have the insight to discern the difficulty,
still
but a fragmentary few have the confidence and poise
to grapple with it. Yet, it seems to me not obscure nor
hopelessly difficult, though one must admit that just how
to do is not always clear.
One can not withdraw from the rest of the
world and,
standing in contemplation of the scene, rejoice in the fact
that he is fortunately independent. One must go on in the
stream, fulfiUing his obHgations as they appear. The question
then becomes, Can one be closely surrounded without
being entangled in the network of affairs ?
Is one an integral
part of the plan, a thread in the weave, or is the contact
voluntary and intelligent, more or less to be determined by
choice? If we are bees, clearly we are the former. If we
are evolving another type of living,
we may be the latter.
But, if the latter, if we are to have an independence of being,
how is it to be accomplished ? Clearly there are limitations
upon this possibility. But, is an approach to it desirable?
Is the effort feasible? Assuming, as I do assume, that a
personal freedom of some sort is the ideal, the various considerations
involved in this struggle become of paramount
importance. I say struggle advisedly, for no matter how
gentle and quietly the end may be achieved, the process is
incessantly more or less strenuous.
As we regard life to-day, we owe an obligation to our
fellows. We have duties and responsibilities to society.
To live in the world and shirk these is not, under our best
conceptions, moral. So far as these exist we are not, can not
be independent. They constitute, it is true, much of the
burden of life and the more imperative as we grow in ethical
perceptions. As citizens or 'fathers or mothers or nurses,
we find before us always duties unavoidable and more or
less acceptable according to our strength.
It is preposterous