Democratic Sentinel, Volume 6, Number 20, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 June 1882 — Measure of Things. [ARTICLE]

Measure of Things.

We measure from ourselves, as things are for our use and purpose, so we approve them. Bring a pear to the table that is rotten, we cry it down; it is naught. But bring a medlar that is rotten and ’tis a fine thing; and yet, I’ll warrant you, the pear thinks as well of itself as the medlar does. We measure the excellency of other men by some excellency we conceive to be in ourselves. Nash, a poet, poor enough, as poets used to be, seeing an aiderman with his gold chain, upon his great horse, by way of scorn said to one of his companions: “Do you see yon fellow ? How goodly, how big he looks! Why, that fellow can not make a blank verse.” Nay, we measure the goodness of God from ourselves ; we measure His goodness, His justice, His wisdom by something we call just, good, or wise in ourself. And in so doing we judge proportionabty to the country fellow in the play, who said if he were a King he would live like a Lord and have peas and bacon every day, and a whip that cried “slash!”— John Belden.