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34 Abbott's Monthly [[boxed]] Do You Have a Creed? By Calvin T. Ryan [[boxed]] A Discussion of Some of the Subtle Things of Life A CREED is nothing less than a man's philosophy of life. Every man has a philosophy of life; he may not know it' he may even deny it when asked about it--but it is there in every one of us. Some men write it out. Others live it out. Not that there is any inconsistency in doing both. In truth, there should not be. The mere effort of trying to put into words what one believes and lives by may help him in clarifying his creed. It may help him find the vulnerable places. A business concern need not have on its letterhead even a reference to its creed, but those who have dealings with that concern soon learn what its creed is; for the acts of a business concern speak louder than words just as truly as acts for a person speak louder than his words. Emerson said something to the effect that what a person was spoke so much louder than what he said that he couldn't understand his speaking. Some years ago, a man asked me if I had a life motto. When I informed him that I did not, he immediately advised me to get one. I didn't see the necessity of it at that time; in fact, I didn't see how a motto could in the least influence my life for the better or the worse. As years passed, however, I changed my mind. There is something in having a slogan, provided it is a worthy one, for it sets a goal toward which a man may travel. We have it on good authority that "Men can no more live without a philosophy of life than they can life without the atmosphere which surrounds them." This philosophy is not born with us. We are born with certain propensities, and then we acquire the philosophy. We don't even have it handed to us, like a present. It is not advisable take one ready made. We better make it for ourselves. This method of acquiring it does not, nevertheless, prevent our putting ourselves in the way of good ones, in going where wholesome philosophies might be said to grow. Where is this? Despite the present attitude toward the past, I believe it is among the dead we shall find our best philosophies to live by. At least we find some workable advice among those whom we have been taught, until the more recent years, to revere. Furthermore, we find that many of those men wrote their creeds and philosophies, and we can study them, form our own upon them, if we so choose. Benjamin Franklin's thirteen "Virtues" formed a kind of outer check on his acts and an inner check on his thinking. Here we have his philosophy of life. George Washington wrote fifty-seven "Rules of Conduct," as was the custom in the eighteenth century, concluding with that copy book maxim, "Labor to keep alive in your breast that little spark of celestial fire, called conscience." William Penn's "Fruits of Solitude" is simply a series of several hundred maxims from which any reader can get Penn's philosophy of life, and from which most of us can borrow with benefit. "The Golden Sayings of Epictetus" and "The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius" embody a philosophy of life as seen by each of these ancient men and expressed in maxims as was the custom of their times. It is not necessary to write out what we believe. It is far better to act it out, for actions do speak louder than words; and actions are more apt to be what a man actually believes, for thoughts have a way of going over into actions. A man need not try to kid himself into believing that he can do evil with his left hand and not let his right hand know it. No man can be evil at heart and continue for long to do good. Morals come under Gresham's law, and bad morals will drive out the good. Modern psychologists tell us that there must be harmony of the conscious and the subconscious ideals before there can be successful living; that inhibitions, conflicts, and complexes come from lack of harmony between these two ideals. Jesus knew all about these conflicts when he said that man "cannot serve God and Mammon." What a man believes in his heart, that he really is, no matter what he says he is; and what he believes, that he will do. William Morris, howbeit a humanitarian and a socialist--at least he called himself such--expressed his business creed in "Not how cheap, but how good," for he held the cheap products make cheap men. He gave us the Morris chair, and made the world better by his philosophy of beauty and brotherly love. George Peabody, the world's first philanthropist, expressed himself in: "You can't afford to sell anybody anything he does not need, nor can you afford to sell it at a price beyond what it is worth." To Peabody is credited the expression, "Credit is the sympathetic nerve of commerce." Peter Cooper's "Teach the nobility of labor, and the beauty of human service," is expressed in Cooper Union in New York. His philosophy of life was genuine--and he lived it. Not Pollyannas, on the other hand, nor debunkers or smashers, on the other, these men faced life as they found it, built constructively, and we are better today for their having lived. John Wanamaker, George M. Pullman, Cyrus McCormick, William Deering, James J. Hill, --just to call the roll of some of our greatest business men--all had business creeds, philosophies of life, and each gave something to his country that made it a better place in which to live. Each man had a definite purpose in life; each had a definite characteristic, and each had a philosophy from which we can well borrow. When at the close of the Civil War a representative of a life insurance company called on Robert E. Lee and asked him to become its president at what was then a big salary, Lee remonstrated that he was not worth what had been offered him. The representative then informed him that what the company wanted was not Lee's work, but his name; whereupon that great man replied, "Sir, my name is not for sale." Later, as we all know, Lee accepted a position which paid him a much smaller salary. Lee's philosophy of life was a much nobler one, we shall have to conclude, than those of our own day who sell their name to manufacturers of toothpastes, cigarettes, and patent medicines. His philosophy of life was more like another American's, a man of our time, Charles Lindbergh. Tell me your creed and I'll tell you what you are. In 1865, John Wanamaker began his "One-price-to-all" practice, and as soon as it was established the older maxim, "Let-the-buyer-beware," was relegated to those merchants who have long since been forgotten. The man who tells me that he believe in "doing" the other fellow before the other fellow has a chance to do him, has given me the clue to his life. I know enough about him to shun him. I'll choose to trade with those who have not reversed the Golden Rule. He might as well take as his slogan, "Don't go elsewhere to be cheated: stop here." Sinclair Lewis tells a story of meeting with a group of bishops whose business was to discuss the plans of organizing a university. Mr. Lewis says that their talk turned first of all to an appropriate varsity yell! Whatever the truth involved, it makes a good story. To Mr. Lewis it was ridiculous. But was it? If those bishops were sincere in the selection of an appropriate yell, I can see some sense in their first choice of business procedure. Even a college yell can well illustrate the traits , the creed, the policy of a college. Given a bunch of racketeers, and you will not hear a sincere yell. A man goes to hear the kind of music he likes. And if he can play, he will attempt to play the kind he likes. I believe my good friend was right when he advised me to select a life motto. I believe a good slogan is a business asset, and a business man is within his rights when he protects his slogan by patent. A man should have a goal in life. It gives him something to strive for. A man should have a set of ideals--he may write them down if he wishes--for ideals are like patterns by which one may shape his life. While it is advisable tow work out one's own philosophy of life, it is equally advisable to profit from those men and women whom we know and whom we revere for their contributions. No man is wise enough to cut himself off entirely from the past. Man is said to differ from the pig by being able to profit from his own and others' experiences, whereas every pig must learn for himself whether the swill will burn him. The MUMMY'S JEST Story of a beautiful Egyptian Princess who, buried for 25 centuries, comes back to life in the dead of night Illustrated by Jay Jackson [[image]] [[caption]] "Sometimes during the day there were intervals when spells of melancholia came upon me. Invariably after these had passed I would see her face peering from out a darkened corner of the room. Fluerette was ever smiling and happy." [[caption]] Soft beams of mellow light played about the shaded lamp on the long mahogany table. Like exquisitely fashioned swords of gold they pierced the grey twilight that crept in from the silent street. In a corner of the big room delicate wreaths of amethyst smoke rose into the air, and two men, comfortably seated their Morris chairs, gazed with a leisurely contentment into the subdued admixture of twilight and lamplight. "You promised to tell me of your strange adventure, tonight, Richard." The man addressed moved uneasily from his comfortable position and looked with a startled air at the interrupter. "Why, yes," he answered. The twilight had begun to deepen, and the beams from the shaded lamp appeared more mellow in the deepening grey. Weird and grotesquely lengthened shadows flitted across the sombre walls. Wreaths of amethyst smoke still rose in fantastic coils to the ceiling. Richard Lane who had promised to tell of the strange thing that had happened to him within the last few months was leaning forward. His thin face was stamped with an eager excitement. With a jerky movement that betrayed a nervous disposition he clipped off his cigar. For a moment or two he seemed undecided as how to begin and he fidgeted about nervously in his chair. But soon he composed himself, and in his peculiarly soft voice he began: "When my sweetheart, Fleurette, died last year after a brief illness I was so overcome with grief that my health was disastrously affected. I am a man of a very sensitive temperament and of a nature easily susceptible to adverse conditions, and this irreparable misfortune pained me keenly. Within two weeks, besides being reduced to a very pitiful physical condition, my mental faculties were so affected by this tragedy that a prominent psychiatrist, who had been called in, informed my friends that my reason would surely be gone unless something were done to divert me from my grief. "It is needless to say that I was compelled to retire temporarily for my business and to be confined within my home. there I spent the greater part of the day in my room where I sat resignedly, the silence deep about me, and my soul weighed down with my sorrow. Sometimes during the day there were intervals when spells of melancholia came upon me. Invariably after those had passed I would see her face peering from out of a darkened corner of my room. Fleurette was ever smiling and happy. This was somewhat of a comfort to me. Then there were times when I became too wearied by the great monotony of it all and fell into a peaceful slumber. "In this way three weeks passed, each day filled with By Edward Podolsky 35
