We all have our moments of imagining ourselves INDEPENDENT characters. We take pride in our independence and are never as foolish as when trying to prove how independent we are.
       Every man, to begin with, is born absolutely at the mercy of his ancestry. You have not a thing in you, and you never will have a thing in you, that you did not inherit from some one of the thousands and thousands of ancestors, all of whom are dimly stored away in your complex make-up.
       You may develop marvellously the faculties which they gave you.
       But you ARE DEPENDENT on those who brought you into the world, and upon those back of them.
       The Kaffir, sober, industrious, honest, with all the virtues rolled up within him, has not a fragment of one chance in ten thousand billions of equalling the achievements of a tenth-rate white man whose ancestral start was better. ----
       After birth you start with dependence on your ancestors, and after youth you are dependent on your education.
       Facts are your tools, and you can't work without them.
       If your mind has the right formation, if your brain is provided with the deep convolutions, and good luck has supplied you with a good education in youth, the whole thing is dependent on your health--on your liver, your stomach, or some other part of your internal machinery.
       Very often your success is dependent on your temper and tact. These depend on your digestion. Digestion, of course, depends on your cook, and the cook's attention to business may depend on the politeness of the policeman in front of the house.
       You may FEEL absolutely independent and THINK you are independent, when as a matter of fact you are miserably dependent on the mood of the policeman who has snubbed the lady who cooks your food.
       [The end]
       Arthur Brisbane's essay: Who Is Independent? Nobody

The "Criminal" Class
"Limiting The Amount Of A Day's Work"
150 Against 150,000--We Favor The 150,000
600 Teachers Now, 600,000 Good Americans In The Future
Again The Limited Day's Work
Astronomy Woman's Future Work
The Automobile Will Make Us More Human
The Azores--A Small Lost World In A Universe Of Water
A Baby Can Educate A Man
Catching A Red-Hot Bolt
The Cow That Kicks Her Weaned Calf Is All Heart
Crime Is Dying Out
Cruel Frightening Of Children
Cultivate Thought--Teach Your Brain To Work Early
Did We Once Live On The Moon?
Discontent The Motive Power Of Progress
Do You Feel Discouraged?
Don't Be In A Hurry, Young Gentlemen
Drink A Slow Poison
The Drunkard's Side Of It
The Earth Is Only A Front Yard
Education--The First Duty Of Government
The Elephant That Will Not Move Has Better Excuses Than We Have For Folly Displayed
The Existence Of God--Parable Of The Blind Kittens
The Eye That Weighs A Ton
The Fascinating Problem Of Immortality
France Has Learned Her Lesson
From Mammoths To Mosquitoes --From Murder To Hypocrisy
A Girl's Face In The Gaslight And An Important Part Of The World's Work
The Good That Is Done By The Trusts
The Harm That Is Done By Our Friends
Have The Animals Souls?
How Marriage Began
How The Other Planets Will Talk To Us
The Human Brain Beats The Coal Mines
The Human Weeds In Prison
Imagination Without Dreaming The Secret Of Material Success
The Importance Of Education Proved In Lincoln's Case
It Is Natural For Children To Be Cruel
Jesus' Attitude Toward Children
Knowledge Is Growth
Last Week's Baby Will Surely Talk Some Day
Law Cannot Stop Drunkenness--Education Can
Let Us Be Thankful (Thanksgiving Day, Nov 27, 1902)
Let Us Be Thankful (Thanksgiving)
Man's Willingness To Work
The Marvellous Balance Of The Universe--A Lesson In The Texas Flood
The Monkey And The Snake Fight
A Mother's Work And Her Hopes
No Happiness Save In Mental And Physical Activity
No Man Understands Iron
No Napoleonic Chess Player On An Air Cushion
One Of The Many Corpses In The Johnstown Mine
The One Who Needs No Statue
The Owner Of A Golden Mountain
Poverty Is The Father Of Vice, Crime And Failure
The Promising Toad's Head
Respectable Women Who Listen To "Faust"
Shall We Do Without Sleep Some Day?
Shall We Tame And Chain The Invisible Microbe As We Now Chain Niagara?
The Steeple, Moving Like The Hand Of A Clock
The Story Of The Complaining Diamond
Study Of The Character Of God
There Should Be A Monument To Time
Those Who Laugh At A Drunken Man
The Three Best Things In The World
Three Water Drops Converse
To Editorial Writers--Adopt Ruskin's Main Idea
To The Merchants
To Those Who Drink Hard--You Have Slipped The Belt
To-Day's World-Struggle
Too Little And Too Much
Trusts And The Senate
The Trusts And The Union-- How Do They Differ?
The Trusts Are National School Teachers
Trusts Will Drive Labor Unions Into Politics
Try Whiskey On Your Friend's Eyeball
Two Kinds Of Discontent
Two Thin Little Babies Are Left
Union Men As Slave Owners
The Value Of Poverty To The World
The Value Of Solitude
The Vast Importance Of Sleep
We Long For Immortal Imperfection--We Can't Have It
What About The Chinese, Kind Sir?
What Animal Controls Your Spirit?
What Are The Ten Best Books?
What Should Be A Man's Object In Life?
What The Bartender Sees
What Will 999 Years Mean To The Human Race
When The Baby Changed Into A Fourteen-Year-Old
When We Begin Using Land Under The Oceans
When Will Woman's Mental Life Begin?
Where Your Body Came From
A Whiskey Bottle
White-Rabbit Millionaires And Other Things
Who Is Independent? Nobody
Why Are All Men Gamblers?
Why Women Should Vote
William Henry Channing's Symphony
The Wind Does Not Rule Your Destiny
Woman Sustains, Guides And Controls The World
A Woman To Be Pitied
Woman's Vanity Is Useful
The Wonderful Magnet
Your Work Is Your Brain's Gymnasium