Plainfield High School - Hermiad Yearbook (Central Village, CT)

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THE HERMIAD 13 Nature is still another beautiful case in point. Nature is a liberal, now majestically silent, now roaring superbly. The universe is under a long-time contract. It will not do to be too reckless with mufliers. The great terror may be silence. - iris THE WAY OF AMBITION 1 Charlotte V. Kitchin-1 92 91 I HAT great compendium of knowledge, Webster's Unabridged, says ambition is a seeking for prefermentf' This is, necessarily, a general definition. It is impossible to give anything else in a dictionary be- cause there are so many types of ambition. If we know that ambition is a seeking for preferment, and if we have any common sense at all, we can easily decide for ourselves how it should be classified. What young lad does not wish to grow up in the exact image of his hero, probably, at present, Colonel Lindbergh, Babe Ruth or any number of others? What petty politician is not striving to reach the heights, either by fair means or foul? What professional man does not wish to reach one of the top rungs of the ladder? Even in smaller things, what player on a basketball squad does not wish to make the varsity team? What Senior has not a longing, deep down in his heart, to be in the Senior play or to take some part in the graduation exercises? Ambition is sometimes so great that it leads men and women from the straight and narrow, if I may be allowed to use this trite expression. They force the weaker ones out and steal a march on them so to speak. It proves Darwin's theory of the survival of the fittest, or a least the strongest. That is ambition of a sort but we must be willing to sacrifice sometimes, to do our Boy Scout Act. Don't you think that in the long run the man who can sacrifice once in a while has an easier conscience? I think so, and I also think he gains more in the end. In a recent moving picture one of the subtitles read, Ambition is but a shadow, love is a reality. Needless to say the speaker was very much in love and he did not stop to think that he was ambitious in that respect. A seeking for prefermentf' He was pleading his cause because that was exactly what he was doing, seeking for preferment in his lady's favor. Is there any love without ambition? Recall Sydney Carton in The Tale of Two Cities and how he Went to the guillotine to save Charles Darnay. Well, you say, I can see no great ambition there. No, but it is the greatest sacrifice a man can make and we can truly say of Sidney Carton, Greater love hath no man than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. ' Instead of giving their lives for their friends some men are so ambitious