The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1888-02-04 00:00:00

COMMENTS ON CURRENT NEWS


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Tin Chancellor of the Exchequer's rectorial
address at Aberdeen on Tuesday was an
eminently practical one. Its words of wis-
dom may well be laid to -heart by every
intelligent youth in the three kingdoms.
The burden of Mr Goschen's message to his
heareis was that without a keen intellectual
interest in any study or occupation the per-
son engaged thersia has little chance of
success; in other words, that work to be
done well must be done with all physical
and mental energy. The heart must ba in
the task, the phases of it progress accom-
plished with joy. This was starting the
definition of the economy of all labour with
its initial principle, and all the Lord Rector
said subsequently was a natural following of
the shrewd application of a common-sense
view ofthat principle and its legitimate off-
spring to the broad field of our national
intellectuality. Alen must not, in this hey-
day age, whatever their place-in the world,
be content to go through their duties
mechanically, as a were matter of necessity,
doing just as little as will enable them to
hold their own in the po3ition to which they
have been called. They must bring the
inquiring and ever-open mind fictively to
bear in all they do, "use their heads," and
toil understandingly. The argument holds
good with the humble and the high. lour
mechanic, if he be guided by mere "rule of
thumb" and workshop tradition may be an
adept in a limited range; along the old groove
he can do what he has seen done more or
leas efficiently, but he is slow or useless
when FHA tur npply himself oat. of tho acone- -
towed rat. Herein lies the superiority of
the German workman—who has had a State
technical schooling in mechanical operations
-,-over his British brother, whose education
is of the general order, with no special ap-
plicability to the employment in which he is
in all probability destined to be engaged
through life. In the loftier walks of society.,
too, the contrast is as keen, the comparisoa
as instructive. The engineer, the chemist,
the military man, the skilled mechanician,
the architect, and professional men of every
description are sadly too content to attain
to a certain mediocre proficiency instead of
striving for advancement by devising new
methos which shall improve upon or super-
sede the old. There is a sore need for much
more of that absorption of life's employ-
ments, that bringing of intellectnality tc
bear on anything and evarythin4 which
engages us, that living interest, in our occu
rations, without which we aeo but little
better than small and soilless portions
human life's ever-whirling perform-
ing with dull monotony the few revolutions'
allotted to us, being driven day by day
helplessly along. How mach lovelier than
the dullard is the man, beaming with bright
intelligence, who has resolved to know "the
why and the wherefore" of everethine
which crosses his daily track, so that he
might use the mighty lever of knowledge to
propel himself ahead of the itteging crowd.
"Whatsoever thy hand finflethe'to do, do it
with all thy might," counselled a wis,
teacher of old; and how peculiarly applicable
the axiOm is to the condition of our own time
is at once seen when we find a foremost
statesman delivering a homily from the
antique text. The most prosaic avocation
has in it all the elements for inspiration is
approached with the determination to ercel
through acquaintance with every matter
invelved. "Blessed is the man who hath
found work; he hath a life purpose," wrote
a sage of this century; and if we would bat
partake of the blessedness which casts a
heroic halo round the man who is devoted
heart and soul to his mission, this would be
another world, cumbered less with aimless
waifs and stranded wrecks of humanity.
The spirit which makes one resolve that if
to be but a shoeblack he will be the best
shoeblack in the parish is what is wanted to
pervade the rising generation. If you
struegle incessantly to -number everything
which will help you in your calling you may
be considered a" sap" or a " mug:4er," as
undergraduates delight to dab the inordin-
ately studious ; but continue your application,
and you will assnredly in the future " helm
the laugh "of those who now deride you, and
leave then far behind in the race of life. As
Mr. Goschen said, so severe has become th 3
competition of existence that mother wit and
boldness in embracing great opportunities
are no longer sufficient to alone assure suc-
cess. There is no jastificaaion left for John
Ball's brag that "one jolly Englishman"
can " lick " three foreigners in physical con-
flict by his smartness; much less is there
truth in our arrogant assumption that with-
out taking pains to secure mental equipment
we can beat all foreign rivals in the intel-
lectual battle. And what is true of nations
appliee with as much force to individuals.
All history, all literature, all biography, are
full of the lesson of evereaecessar applica-
tion. What is genius P said
one who was himself a genius, "genius is
the infinite art of taking pains." And, what
said a areal poet—who sang much and
sweetly of life's homelia virtues: "The
heights by great men reached and kept, Were
not attained by sudden flight, But they, while
their companions slept, Were toiling upwards
through the night.' This is the doctrine
which the Rt. 'Hon. the Lord Rector of
Aberdeen has been seeking to drive home to
the minds of his hearers in the northern
city, and through the
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