Tolerance

Manawatu Times, Volume LV, Issue 6865, 23 May 1932, Page 2

Tolerance

Ia the first place, if people are to live happily together, they must not fancy, because they are thrown together now,> that all their lives have been exactly similar up to the present time, that they started exactly alike, and that they are to be for the future of the same mind. ' Thorough conviction of the difference of men is the great thing to be assured &f in social knowledge: it is to life what Newton's law is to astronomy. Sometimes men have knowledge of it with regard to the world in general: they do not expect the . outer world to agree with them in all points, but are vexed at not being able to drive their own tastes and opinions into those they live with. Diversities distress them. Yet we might as well say, “Why all these stars, why this difference; why not all one star?” Many, rules for people living together in peace follow from the above. For instance, not to interfere unreasonably with others, not to ridicule their tastes, not to question and re-question their resolves, not to indulge in perpetual comment on their proceedings, and to delight in their having othpr pursuits than ours, are all based upon a thorough perception of the' simple fact that they are not we.—From “Friends in Council,” by Sir Arthur Helps.