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EXPERIENCE 
 
 THE TALE 
 
 OF 
 
 THEWIMPUS 
 
 ERNEST C. WILSON 
 
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Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 
 in 2007 with funding from 
 
 Microsoft Corporation 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/experiencetaleofOOwilsrich 
 
EXPERIENCE 
 
 There was once a little bird call- 
 ed me Wimpus and all day long he 
 flew about among me tree tops, or 
 paused on the willow* branches, to re- 
 gale me Lad$ Wimpuses w*ith stories 
 of his great untried valor, as they en- 
 joyed their afternoon worms; and (lie 
 Lad]? Wimpuses were much impressed 
 with me great valor of me little Wim- 
 pus, and w*ere nev*er more happ;9 than 
 w*hen mey listened to him tell of me 
 great things he w*ould do when me 
 opportunity presented itself. It seems 
 mat he w*as possessed of a most 
 
 /IOt cr d\r\ 
 
wonderful v*oice, of such extraordinary 
 Volume and intensity. mat if Ke w*ere 
 once to use its full strengm, the den- 
 izens of the forest w*ould he paralyzed 
 with fright and die of heart failure, 
 or possibly neuritis. But the little 
 Wimpus had a big heart in his little 
 body, and so day b$ day, as the 
 temptation to try his voice presented 
 itself, he refrained lest he should de- 
 populate the sylvan gropes. He 
 staged his fierce impatience and con- 
 tented himself by enjoying the sw*eet 
 nectar in me mroat of me honey- 
 suckle, which he could reach with his 
 long bill, and sang subdued love-songs 
 to the Lady Wimpuses, and hadn't 
 the heart to destroy? them \Cith his 
 terrible voice. 
 
And men one da;9, mere came 
 into me forest .of me Wimpuses, a 
 great soaring eagle, who had scarcely 
 an$ \)oice at all, and me Lad}) Wim- 
 puses grev? afraid as mey saw Kim 
 from afar, and observed me^great size 
 of his talons and the spread of his 
 w^ngs. OTnat is, mey w*ere afraid un- 
 til me$ remembered me little Wim- 
 pus vJifh me big voice and so me^j) all 
 garnered around him and told him of 
 me devastator w'ho w*as approaching. 
 One little Wimpus laughed heartily 
 w'hen he heard meir fears, and warn- 
 ed them to stop up meir ears lest he 
 deafen mem, and assured mem he 
 •would annihilate me invader when me 
 time came. And men me time and 
 me eagle bom came togemer and wim 
 
mem came me opportunity and me 
 little Wimpus thrust out his little 
 chest and opened his mouth and pre- 
 pared to scream; but somehow some- 
 thing Went wrong and me great voice 
 of me little Wimpus didn't come forth 
 and he tried again, and still there was 
 only a little gasping noise such as any- 
 one vfould expect from an ordinan? 
 Wimpus, and by me time he prepar- 
 ed for a tliird attempt mere wasn't 
 any little Wimpus left. And per- 
 haps mat is wrr? me plaintive cry of 
 me Wimpuses in me tree-tops of me 
 sylvan groves is heard no more, and 
 w*rr? people smile when meir name is 
 mentioned. 
 
 For me poor little Wimpus had 
 
never had a single experience in his 
 short little life, and had no vte}) of 
 gauging his strength of lungs except- 
 ing by his strength of spirit, wim 
 which it ev^identh? didn't compare. 
 So if I were like Aesop, me Writer of 
 fables, I would point me moral in me 
 sad, sad ston? of me Wimpus w*ho 
 had never had an experience, and it 
 might be something like mis: 
 
 DON'T SHIRK THE EXPERIENCES 
 WHICH TEST YOUR STRENGTH, 
 FOR THEY MAY HELP YOU TO 
 KNOW YOURSELF, THAN WHICH 
 THERE IS NO GREATER BLESSING, 
 AND PERHAPS THEY ARE TO PRE- 
 PARE YOU FOR SOME GREATER EX- 
 PERIENCE IN YOUR LIFE. 
 
Evidently {here is no greater 
 lesson in me experiences which life 
 presents than mat of learning to know 
 your * own untried capacity;" for to 
 know Yourself is to know God, and 
 thus all things. Man is not bound 
 by me limits of his strength, but rath- 
 er h$ his ignorance of what those 
 limits are, and when he has added to 
 his faith knowledge, he will discover 
 that \tfhat he presumed to be his lim- 
 itations were only fhe clouds of his 
 own ignorance, which will disappear 
 and fade away before his searching 
 gaze of knowledge and Truth, as the 
 piercing rays of me morning sun put 
 to rout me minions of me night. 
 Then ma^ all me people of earth re- 
 vere and honor and pa$ homage to 
 
Kim, an J look up to Kim, saying, "Be- 
 Kold tKe Man!** for at last will be 
 evolved a man wKo Kas discovered 
 Kimself; wKo Kas explored me myster- 
 ious, Kidden realm of Kis oxtfn God- 
 Kood, and l;as emerged triumpKant to 
 proclaim His own Divinity. 
 
 Fear and sKun me experiences 
 w*KicK present fKemselves to 3?ou, and 
 me$ will Kaunt $ou and drag you 
 dow*n into me ver? depflis of despair. 
 Flee from mem and me$ will pursue 
 $ou. You ma$ mink $ou Kave evad- 
 ed mem, and rest in me sw'eet se- 
 curity of ignorance, but mey ^ill over- 
 take you and me longer mey Kave 
 been delated me more terrific will be 
 meir crasK as fKe$ engulf $ou. Tney 
 
5»p- \J 
 
 will become attached to you by chains 
 of > >our o^n forging, as Dickens' 
 "MARLEY" was weighted doWn by 
 his books and ledgers; his wealth and 
 his greed; his penury and fhe suffer- 
 ing it had caused others. 0"he Law 
 is certain; its operation unerring and 
 conceal it as you Will your fear Will 
 find you out. For as long as you 
 dread any experience in life, just so 
 long do 3?ou need mat experience, and 
 it will come to 2? ou over and over 
 again until $ou have discovered fhe 
 good it held for you, and become 
 grateful for it. Your fear Will hold 
 me ming feared to $ou. 
 
 Lif. 
 
 e is an eternal progression: 
 
 merefo 
 
 ore claim an 
 
 d know* that what- 
 
ever comes to >>ou is $ours by v?hich 
 to grow and progress and achieve. 
 Welcome each experience as a lov*ed 
 friend— disguised perhaps beyond re- 
 cognition—but a friend, notwithstand- 
 ing, and it will prov*e to be so. There 
 are no accidents in Nature. What- 
 ever befalls you comes to you because 
 it belongs to you, because somewhere 
 in me subtle soul-qualit^ which we 
 call character, mere is • something re- 
 lated to the experience you have at- 
 tracted. If there is nothing of com- 
 bativeness in $our nature, you cannot 
 attract strife. If your soul is filled 
 with a lasting Peace, discord and dis- 
 sention can no more come near you, 
 fhan can oil and water mix. If you 
 purge from your soul all the elements 
 
which Vibrate wim disease and in- 
 
 harmony, mese cannot affect you. It 
 
 is only {he lodestone mat attracts me 
 steel. 
 
 Experience 
 
 is one o 
 
 f <h, 
 
 e means 
 
 b$ which mis purgation is effected. 
 Experiences are me sacred, purifying 
 fires tkat remove me dross from me 
 soul; but if we shun and dread meir 
 fire, mey will* still burn, mough me 
 dross will remain. It is not mat me 
 experience creates quality within us: 
 ramer does it assist in bringing mese 
 attributes into manifestation. 
 
 Our greatest dread, al mough nev- 
 er or seldom expressed, seems to be 
 mat in bringing out me gold in our 
 
I 
 
 natures, the dross will also be discov- 
 ered, and we seem sometimes to dread 
 development for mis reason. . We 
 haVe much vet to learn of the laws 
 of Dame Nature; and possibly in Ker 
 code of values, trie dross may be as 
 important and Valuable as trie gold. 
 If mis is not so, wky, men, has Na- 
 ture produced so much more _of trie 
 coarser minerals man she has of gold? 
 TTiere is an infinitely greater number 
 of weeds spring up each spring man 
 mere are Violets and roses. We are 
 just beginning to entertain trie idea 
 mat all tnings haVe a use, aud some- 
 one has said that "w^eeds are onh? 
 God's plants for which man has not 
 2?et discovered the purpose." 
 
We bemoan me fact mat w*e are 
 mrust, by birm, into a life not of our 
 own choosing, and subjected to ex- 
 periences over "rimicn we Kave no con- 
 trol. We cry out in me voice of me 
 Wimpus mat Nature is unfair; mat 
 ske is partial. And yet w*ho can say 
 mat we, being eternal, imperishable 
 souls, existing throughout and beyond 
 all time, have not done me "mrust- 
 ing" ourselves! And to whom shall 
 we sa>) Mature is partial? The one, 
 w"ho, like me Wimpus has nev*er tried 
 his strengm against experience, or the 
 one who has been thrust into the very 
 vortex of trying events to try his 
 strength, and discover himself! Hlxere 
 is a something within us that con- 
 stantly asserts that we are somewhat 
 
better tkan tkat w"kick we profess. 
 We state Weakly tkat we are creatures 
 of Destiny, Ckance or Fate, mere will 
 o* tke w*isps, blown about aimlessly 
 on tke breezes of eternity, and our 
 even? otker tkougkt and word and 
 action gi\>e our statement tke lie. We 
 look about us and see tkat ever? event 
 of life, is tke result of an Absolute 
 Cause, and we can so often trace its 
 source to our own beings, as to make 
 reasonable tke kazard tkat tkere may 
 be a superior, interior self witkin us, 
 far w*iser tkan tke kumble, outer self w*e 
 know\ wkick guides our lives into me 
 ckannels of expression best suited for 
 Growtk, and linfoldment and Progress. 
 
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