Evening Republican, Volume 19, Number 52, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 March 1915 — “THE ADVENTURE OF LIFE" [ARTICLE]

“THE ADVENTURE OF LIFE"

Allegory Showing That Even In Ito Precariousnes* Sweetness Is Found. There is an old and strange eastern allegory of a man wandering in the desert; he draws near to a grove of trees, when he suddenly become* aware that there is a lion on his track, hurrying and bounding Along on the scent of his steps. The man flee* for safety- into the grove; he sees there a roughly built water tank of stone, excavated Jn the ground, and built up of masonry much fringed with plants. He climbs swiftly down to where he sees a ledge close on the water; a* he does this, he sees that in the water lies a great lizard, with open jaws, watching him with wicked eyes. He stops short, and he can just support himself among the stones by holding on to the branches of a plant which, grows from a ledge above him. While he thus holds on, with death behind him and before, be feds the branches quivering, and sees above, out of reach, two mice, one black and one white, which are nibbling at the stem* he holds and will soon sever them. He waits despairingly, and while he does so he sees that there are drops ot honey on the leaves which he holds; he puts his lips to them, licks them off and finds them very sweet, Arthur C. Benson writes in the Century. The mice stand, no doubt, for night and day, and the honey is the sweetness of life, which It is possible to taste and relish even when death is before and behind; and it is true that the utter precariousness of life does not, as a matter of fact, distract us from the pleasure of it, even though the strands to which we hold are slowly parting. It is all, then, an adventure and an escape; but even In the worst insecurity we may often be surprised to find that it is somewhat sweet.