Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, Va. [W. Va.]) 1852-1859, 1853-07-15
From the N %. Bee, June es.
An Apology for the Profession I

kAl 4apO1OSY IOI lu6 E1C16SS1On.
Editors are presumed TO know everything. They
are not only considered 10 be complete rcposi-
L fieS OF an anceut aud modern history professors
OF all tile known arts and sciences, and qualified
10 utter oracular opinions in the quadradure of the
circle, and the most certain method of ascertain
ing longitude, but are commonly believe to lie
gifted with faculties of provision far more accurate
than SeerS OF Scotland, or The spirit Rappers OF
America. We are sometimes rresistibly amused,
AID occasionally half provoked at the pertinaci-
ty with which q confirmed quidnunc will pro.
pound, in perfect good faith 10 an editor, a senes
Of heterogeneous that it would perplex Edipus
himself 10 answer Questions disconnected and
difficult of solution daily asked Of The unhappy
mortal who happenSto be tie editor of daily
paper, aud who is therefore incontnently set down
IN III oahium gaiherum of astruSe lore and univer-
sal information. -.se5vt .u., ..-
This unlimited trust in editorial erudtion is UNI
doubleday fatteting to the profession 1t pleas
ant 10 be locked up to MS iDdiSpuabe authority;
but we submit that some definite limits should be
assigned 10 the Loundiess anticipatons OF the pub
lie in this respect Edltois perforce tolerabIy
we'll ndoctrmated in many things wEicbthe public
can know butlittIe. Their vocation coinpes theu
to obtain familiarity with the current annals of
| the times: 10. know something Of history; and 10
be enabled quickly and deciSivey to foIm an
opinion, trace theory, expound a doctrine, and
master narrative. All this editors must do, or
they n!iSbecome their position. Rutit is scarcely
fsir TO consider each distinct individual of the
species as Magliabecch or an admirable Crch-
ton The only wonder is that, in view of tile cX-
hausting and incessant toll to which he Must dali
lyand nightly buckle himself,-he should possibly
| contt'veto keep together i'll his trains a constant
seethlng agglomeration of miscellaneous knowl-
edge, adding daily to the hinge reservoir, and at o
moments warning prepared to separate from this
undigested heap precisely that portion wanted for
immediate use; TO take ii in hand, prune it, shape
it, make the most of it send it fourth to live like
| the Ephemerae, its brief span of single day, and
then TO float down thu stream of time, an inert,
lifeless, and forgotten waif. For be it ever re-
membered that no matterhow arduously the editor
may labor-how prodigaiy endowed with genus,
taste and discrimination, or how splenddly enrich
ed with the fruits of unrelaxing study-his pro-
ductions are in the nature Of things, emphatically
perishable. Costly wsres though they be, pur-
chased the price of health, privation, and pain
full research, they have no vitality bevond their al.
lotted hour. If the actor 'strnts and frets along
the stage and then is heard no nore,' the editors
fame is even more transient. Rarely indeed does
survive the setting of the day that witnesses
the circulation ofhis happiest efforts. Immoriaii
ty is wholly and utterly beyond his aspirations.