--- title: Improvement Era description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930. authors: - Curtis, Theo. E. collections: - periodicals tags: - magazine - improvement-era periodical: Improvement Era volume: 11 number: 12 published: 1908-10 publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations publisher_place: Salt Lake City language: en type: magazine reference: 'Curtis, Theo. E., "One of Our Faults: A Poem," *Improvement Era* 11, no. 12 (October 1908): 936.' source: url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera11012unse transcription: Transcribed from the Internet Archive scan of each issue (the item for each issue is named in the issue's own source); unnumbered advertising leaves are omitted, printed page numbers are kept as page markers. identifier: improvementera11012unse start_page: 936 end_page: 936 rights: status: public-domain basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1908-10) source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera11012unse publication_year: 1908 note: The Internet Archive item metadata carries a blanket "© Copyright by Intellectual Reserve, Inc." notice. The library owner judged it inapplicable because this issue was published in 1908, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright. --- # One of Our Faults: A Poem 936 IMPB 0 VEMENT ERA . this time when he must plan a new future. If he can prevent the evil he fears, then he has no need to worry, for he would by sodoing be dissipating energy in his very hour of need. If a man do, day by day, ever the best he can by the light he has, he has no need to fear, no need to regret, no need to worry. No agony of worry would do aught to help him. Neither mortal nor angel can do more than his best. If we look back upon our past life we will see how, in the marvelous working of events, the cities of our greatest happiness and of our fullest success have been built along the rivers of our deepest sorrows, our most abject failures. We then realize that our present happiness or successwould have been impossible had it not been for some terrible affliction or loss in the past — some wondrous potent force in the evolution of our character or our fortune. This should be a wondrous stimulus to us in bearing the trials and sorrows of life . To cure one's self of worry is not an easy task; it is not tobe removed in two or three applications of the quack medicine of any cheap philosophy, but it requires only clear, simple, common sense applied to the business of life. Man has no right to waste •his own energies, to weaken his own powers and influence, for he has inalienable duties to himself, to his family, to society, and to the world. (to be continued in volume 12. ) ONE OF OUR FAULTS. The acts of men, we mortals are too prone To criticise, and to excuse our own. Theo. E. Curtis. Salt Lake City, Utah.