Common Sense, How To Exercise It | Page 7

always enters into these illusions, which are accompanied by
persuasion and never combatted by common sense.
"Vanity is never foreign to these false ideas, which are always of a
nature to flatter one's amour propre.
"We love to rejoice beforehand in the triumph which we believe will
win and, aided by mental frivolity, we do not wish to admit that success
can be doubted.
"The dislike of making an effort, however, would quickly conceal, with
its languishing voice, the wise words of common sense, if we would
listen momentarily to them.
"And, lastly, it is necessary to consider credulity, to which, in our
opinion, is accorded a place infinitely more honorable than it deserves."
And now the sage, Yoritomo, establishes the argument which, by the
aid of common sense, characterized these opinions.
According to him, "It does not belong to new and vibrating souls, as
many would have us believe.
"When credulity does not proceed from inveterate stupidity, it is always
the result of apathy and weakness.
"Unhappiness and misfortune attend those who are voluntarily feeble.
"Their defect deprived them of the joy derived from happy efforts.
They will be the prey of duplicity and untruth.
"They are the vanquished in life, and scarcely deserve the pity of the

conqueror; for their defeat lacks grandeur, since it has never been
aurioled by the majestic strength of conflict."
Following this, the Shogun speaks to us of those whom he calls the
ardent seekers after illusion.
One evening he related the following story: "Some men started off for
an island, which they perceived in the distance.
"It looked like a large, detached red spot, amid the flaming rays of the
setting sun, and the men told of a thousand wonders about this
unknown land, as yet untrodden by the foot of man.
"The first days of the journey were delightful. The oars lay in the
bottom of the boat untouched, and they just allowed themselves to drift
with the tide. They disembarked, singing to the murmur of the waters,
and gathered the fruits growing on the shores, to appease their hunger.
"But the stream, which was bearing them onward, did not retain long its
limpidity and repose; the eddies soon entrapped the tiny bark and
dragged the men overboard.
"Some, looking backward, were frightened at the thought of ascending
the river, which had become so tempestuous.
"Escaping the wreckage of the boat as best they could, they entrusted
themselves again to the fury of the waters.
"They had to suffer from cold and hunger, for they were far from shore,
and as, in their imagination, the island was very near, they had
neglected to furnish themselves with the necessities of life.
"At last, after the fatigues which forethought would have prevented,
they found themselves one evening, at sundown, at the base of a great
rock, bathed in the rosy light of the departing sun.
"This, then, was the island of their dreams.
"Tired out and exhausted from lack of food, they had only the strength
to lie down upon the inhospitable rock, there to die!
"The disappearance of the illusion, having destroyed their courage and
having struck them with the sword of despair, the rock of reality had
proved destructive of their bodies and souls.
"The moral of this story easily unfolds itself.
"If the seekers after illusions had admitted common sense to their
deliberations, they would certainly have learned to know the nature of
the enchanted isle, and they would have taken good care not to start out
on their journey which must terminate by such a deception.

"Would they not have taken the necessary precaution to prevent all the
delays attendant upon travels of adventure, and would they have
entrusted their lives to so frail a skiff, if they had acquired common
sense?"
We must conclude, with Yoritomo, that illusion could often be
transformed into happy reality if it were better understood, and if,
instead of looking upon it through the dreams of our imagination, we
applied ourselves to the task of eliminating the fluid vapors which
envelop it, that we might clothe it anew with the garment of common
sense.
Many enterprises have been considered as illusions because we have
neglected to awaken the possibilities which lay dormant within them.
The initial thought, extravagant as it may appear, brings with it, at
times, facilities of realization that a judgment dictated by common
sense can alone make us appreciate.
He who knows how to keep a strict watch over himself will be able to
escape the causes of disillusion, which lead us through fatal paths of
error, to the brink of despair.
"That which is above all to be shunned," said the philosopher, "is the
encroachment of discouragement, the result of repeated failures.
"Rare are those who wish to admit their mistakes.