The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1869-04-10 00:00:00

LORD STANLEY AT GLASGOW.

At Glasgow last week, Lord Stanley, after a grace-
ful reference to Ms distinguished predecessors in the
Rectorial chair, and an allusion to the prosperous con-
dition of Glasgow University, proceeded to give rnat7
wise counsels, which are well worth being remembered
by every young man who cares to leave behind him
"footprints on the sands of time."
The applause which greeted the noble lord having
subsided, he proceeded as follows :

There is one circumstance connected with the studies of
this place that seems to me worthy of notice, because it may
very well serve as a model to other and even greater coin-
Pies than Glasgow; I mean the facilities supplie I here
to comptratively poor men to obtain the knowledge thty
seek for, and to compete on equal terms with the rich.
Comparisons are notoriously invidious, but I believe it is not
to be denied that in that respect you net us, the English, a
good example, and one which we should do well to follow.
to doubt, it is difficult to check wild expenditure in the case
of young men whose means allow it, hut if I were to say that
both In our English schottls and colleges more migh., be done
In that respect than is now done, I believe I should express
an opinion which is very generally entertained among those
whom It most directly concerns. The combination of high
attainments, persevering study. and limited means Is perhaps
rarer in those islands, taking them as a whole, than iii some
other European count, ies A middle station, equally re-
moved front poverty and luxury, is that temperate zone of
life (if I may so speak) in which mental development ap-
pears most to flourish. And the reason is simple. Work,
as work, Is not pleasant to any one at first. The taste for
It is an acquired taste. It becomes, I believe, with some
men one oi the strongest tendencies of their nature ; the
active brain requires its accustomed exercise as much as the
active limbs i:eel theirs. But the apprenticeship in ninety-
nine cotes out Of 100 is not pleasant, and perhaps there it no
one respect in which the importance of early training is
more deeply felt. lien may supply, well sir ill, in later life,
the want of &coned knowledge. They limy accommodate
their h tints and thoughts to the necessities of a changed
pultion they may develope their natures in ways wholly
unexpected : but one dote,* I believe, can hardly ever be
made sued when the time of youth and early manhood Is
plot, or, if made good, it can be so only a-s a result of pain.
tut and singular effort ; the want I mean, of habits of steady
applicatitm and industry. Tney are mostly hard at any age
to acquire, halt there to this countervailing advantage about
them, that once acquired the) are not ea- ily lost. To the
Ivan who I as made intellectual work the halt t if Ms
life, it is actual pain to be long unemployed and, be
sure of this, th it apart front all merely material anti
practical results though I do not undervalue those,
apart frets those chalices of rising in the world, of pro•
Notional, tr literary, or artistic distinction, of which We
are, perhaps, ail apt to think too much, because, after all,
they are Irons winch can fall to the lot of very few and
which those who have gat t getierally had worth has than
iliev impposed— apart, I s.ty, front accidental and adventi-
tious rvsults, there is ii,, sureater ble,sing for a in in titan to
have acquired that healthy and happy instinct which leads
him to take delight in his work for the work's sake; not star-
ling it over, net thinking how silos it will be done and ip,t rill
0,, not tr.eihliuug hiniSelf gre:Ltly about what Melt will say of
It when it is slot.e (I suspect the best kind stf win kern think as
little ef that as Newton did when lie hesitated whether to
publish his discoveries or mit., but putting his whole heart
and mind into it, feelit g that he is master of it, feeling that
the thing which he hat tinned tout, be it a legal argument, or
a book, or a picture, or anything else, is conscientiously and
honestly perfected to the best of his power. his. at the
matter mily Iron] the point of view of a man's personal hap-
piness and welfare. What is the secret of the low amuse-
ments, the pleasure that is not pleasure, with which so many
unhappy meta contrive at once to waste and shorten their
lives? Why, these Gangs are, in 99 cases out of lOU,
merely the resources which they adopt to fill up vacant
hours—tll get rid of the intolerable weariness of unem-
ployed existence—to kill the seuse of apathy and ennui
which is killing them.

I am not trying or desiring to lay down f.•r all men a single
and uoiforni rule. There are some of us who seem born for
action rather than for study, to whom abstract thought is
repugnant, and who want alwa}s to he Icing something, and
to see the result of their labour before them. There are
others whose natural turn is rather for thinking—for the ex-
ercise of the Intellectoal powers purely and simply—than for
what are called, by a somewhat unmeaning distinction, the
practical pursuits of life. &oh temperatinent is probably
better for having some admixture of the other, and the most
cionplete and perfect organisatmn is that which contains
tenth in the most equal proportions. But there is room in the
world for IwO h ; and no greater folly can he committed by
men than that on seeking to assimilate all inlividual character
to one awl the s true type. What I din say is, that whether
the bent of a man's mind be study or business, whatever it is,
let him throw himsell heartily unto it. Ido not believe that
au unemployed man, however amiable and otherwise irre-
proachable, ever was, or ever can be, really happy. Our work
Is our life ; show we what you can do, and I will show you
what you are.

- -
!have spoken of love of one's work as being the best pre-
ventive of merely low and vicious tastes. twill go further, and
say I believe it is the best preservative against petty ansieties
and tne annoyabces which arise out of indulged self-love. Men
have thought before now thet they could take refuge from
trouble and vexation by sheltering themselves as it were in
a world of their own. The experiment has often been tried
and always with one result. You cannot escape from anxiety
and labour—it is the destiny of humanity. You may avoid,
indeed—some at least may to a treat extent—taking part ii,
the struggle of life, in the shop mid eager competition of an
open pro,esslon, or in the not less intense pursuit of some
worthy obj.ct of study. But, by what seems to me a just
and wholesome retribution, those who shrink from facing
trouble find that trouble comes to them. The indolent may
contrive that he shall have less than his share of the world's
work ti do, but Nature, proportioning the instrument to the
work, contrives that that little shall lie much and hard to
him. The man who has only himself to please, finds, soon
or late, and probably sooner rather than later, that he bas
got a very hard master, and the more excusable weakness
which shrinks from responsibility hiss Its own punishment.
too ; for where great interests are excluded little slattern
become great, and the same wear RIIII tear of mind that
might have been at least usefully and healthfully expended
on the real business of life is often wasted on petty and
and imaginary vexations such as breed and multiply In the
unoccupied brain.

There Is yet another point of view in which I press upon
you, the duty of industry. We sometimes hear it said, "So
and So is a MIMI of fortune, who can afford to do nothing."
There are, of course, in a country like this, many thousands
who do not need to earn their bread, or to increase their
income, and who, peihaps, would be doing more harm than
good if they embarked in any one of our already over-
crowded pv.fessions. But there is a moral as well as a
material aspect of these questions. No one can pasts through
his allotted term of years—no matter how plainly and simply
—much less call he do no hung as the weahltier classes live.
without profiting by and consuming the fruits of other men's
toil. AU capital is accumulated labour. Of course, as far as
honour, law, and the regulations of society go, he may legiti-
mately do that, rendering Idinself no labour in return, so
long as he pays honestly for ~hat he noes. But if the matter
is to be dealt with in for° conscienllte, I think a scrupulous
and high-minded man will always feel that to pass out of the
world in the world's debt, to have consumed much and pro-
duced nothing, to have sat down, as it were, at the feast, awl
gone away without paying his reckoning—is not, to put it
the mildest way, a satisfactory transaction, however unim-
peachable, and rightly so, it may be in the eye of economical
and social law.

You cannot very well lay down a formula for these things
—it In .(ten easier to ask for suitable oecupa ion than to And
it ; but I think it is only a ratural feeling for any one living
at his ease to wish mid strive that at least his country shall
be no loses by him, that in some form, by some means,
*hether by speech or writing, or useful action, no molter
how oile.cure, he shall replace to the public the expenditure
of human labour that has been nmde upon him. I know
very well that, with the best will in the world, that feeling
is not always easy to act ITO. it ii one thing to wish for a
suitable sphere if duty and another to be able to obtain one.
rhere are wavy nerving who, if not wholly idle, ere yet un-
able to emir!, y th Ii f Tallies as they last night from the
mere want if opportunity. I own that f•r such persons,
as-und g the tiult not to rest with them. I have more corn-
hauls than fr tine e who.may.he inelked to complain of

...
the chance and struggles of pr• d_esional life:
Overwork—or what we may he Inclined to consider an such
—is bail enough; but it is probably A cause of lesu suffering
in the aggregate than the consciousness of Merrilles unused
and of energies which NM flail no vent.... We live in days
of, perhaps, over trained competition, and even those who,
so far as their personal feelorgs are concerned, would pro-
bably he satisfied with nimlerate success and a tranquil
carter, bare. in most professions, hardly the choice. A
rising lau per ...rot refuse briefs, a young surgeon or
physician cannot decline practie.. It In rarely. I fancy, in
the power of any professional man to any, " L'p to such a
Ludt I will wnrk, and no further.” It insy he, for my liwn
part I think it is, a misfortune that such should be the case—
that, from the tendency of mankind to run after well kilos n
names, (Me competitor in a profession should have more
labour cast upon him than It is physically possible
that he should attend to properly, while others, hardly,
if at till, les., capable, are stunting by unempl ,3 ed.
But that is a r wed t—l soma., nu I evitable result—id open
coo fiend°, 1114 Hit tiriii, ••Ilia or' C..li 1110)..,e,•el-t h., I
~! the t, ?,,t" ,tt II lin, ,r 1

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