Democratic Sentinel, Volume 17, Number 41, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 October 1893 — Aim in Life. [ARTICLE]

Aim in Life.

There are some people, keen, inter llgent, energetic, having a distinct alm in life and following it closely, but wrapped up in themselves and regardless of others, except as they can use them for their own benefit Their experience seems to afford them no opening into the lives of others, their struggles do not teach them how to help others, their joys and sorrows do not enable them to sympathize with others. They are, in the words of a recent writer, as “bright and sharp as needles, and they are as hard and narrow.” This exclusive devotion to self, however intense and eager, misses its aim. For as we cannot truly help others while neglecting our own proper business, so we cannot do our own work in the best way while neglecting our duties to other people. The experience that we gain through sympathy reacts to make our own lives richer and our own labors more effective.