DOI Artikel:
Le Gallienne, Richard: Four prose fancies
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.27805#0312
Four Prose Fancies
3°8
Indeed, for a man, or a cause, that wants to get on there is
nothing like a few hearty, zealous enemies. Most of us would
never be heard of if it were not for our enemies. The unsuccess-
ful man counts up his friends, but the successful man numbers his
enemies. A friend of mine was lamenting, the other day, that he
could not find twelve people to disbelieve in him. He had been seek-
ing them for years, he sighed, and could not get beyond eleven. But,
even so, with only eleven he was a very successful man. In these
kind-hearted days enemies are becoming so rare that one has to go
out of one’s way to make them. The true interpretation, there-
fore, of the easiest of the commandments is—make your enemies>
and your enemies will make you.
So soon as the armed men begin to spring up in our fields, we
may be sure we have not sown in vain.
Properly understood, an enemy is but a negative embodiment
of our personalities or ideas. He is the involuntary witness to
our vitality. Much as he despises us, greatly as he may injure
us, he is none the less a creature of our making. It was we who
put into him the breath of his malignity, and inspired the activity
of his malice. Therefore, with his very existence so tremendous
a tribute, we can afford to smile at his self-conscious disclaimers of
our significance. Though he slay us, we made him—to “make an
enemy,” is not that the phrase ?
Indeed, the fact that he is our enemy is his one raison d'etre.
That alone should make us charitable to him. Live and let live.
Without us our enemy has no occupation, for to hate us is his
profession. Think of his wives and families !
The friendship of the little for the great is an old-established pro-
fession ; there is but one older—namely, the hatred of the little for
the great; and, though it is perhaps less officially recognised, it is
without doubt the more lucrative. It is one of the shortest roads
to
3°8
Indeed, for a man, or a cause, that wants to get on there is
nothing like a few hearty, zealous enemies. Most of us would
never be heard of if it were not for our enemies. The unsuccess-
ful man counts up his friends, but the successful man numbers his
enemies. A friend of mine was lamenting, the other day, that he
could not find twelve people to disbelieve in him. He had been seek-
ing them for years, he sighed, and could not get beyond eleven. But,
even so, with only eleven he was a very successful man. In these
kind-hearted days enemies are becoming so rare that one has to go
out of one’s way to make them. The true interpretation, there-
fore, of the easiest of the commandments is—make your enemies>
and your enemies will make you.
So soon as the armed men begin to spring up in our fields, we
may be sure we have not sown in vain.
Properly understood, an enemy is but a negative embodiment
of our personalities or ideas. He is the involuntary witness to
our vitality. Much as he despises us, greatly as he may injure
us, he is none the less a creature of our making. It was we who
put into him the breath of his malignity, and inspired the activity
of his malice. Therefore, with his very existence so tremendous
a tribute, we can afford to smile at his self-conscious disclaimers of
our significance. Though he slay us, we made him—to “make an
enemy,” is not that the phrase ?
Indeed, the fact that he is our enemy is his one raison d'etre.
That alone should make us charitable to him. Live and let live.
Without us our enemy has no occupation, for to hate us is his
profession. Think of his wives and families !
The friendship of the little for the great is an old-established pro-
fession ; there is but one older—namely, the hatred of the little for
the great; and, though it is perhaps less officially recognised, it is
without doubt the more lucrative. It is one of the shortest roads
to