Weekly Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1853-1861, 1855-05-24
The Greatness of Little Things

In Lieut.. Maury's recent work on the Ply
steal Geography of the Sea, he gives the re-
suit of microscopic examinations of some
shells drawn up from the bottom of the At
lantic ocean, where it is more than two miles
in depth These shells are so minute, that
to the naked eye they appear like common
dust or clay, although not grain of sand is
among them; and yet they are so preserved
that their most delicate edges are all perfect.
1t would require a larger grave to hold all the
coral irsects in the world than all the ele
phants. The smallest tenants of the ocean,
not the largest, are its most important occu-
pants, and the microscopic shell fish create
more important changes than the whales.
1t has been the great error OF historians,
statesmen and politicians to lose sight of this
truth. They look only at the whales, the big
fish, and seem to consider these as the mon
archs of the deep sea of politics, and they
alone have right to swim there. If the
French Emperor founders, on the Russian
Autocrat turns over on his side and dies each
contortion is duly chronicled. But in the
meantime, what do we hear of the progress
of the people and industrious classes, the small
fshs They are the true monarchs of this
great and wide sea Of politics after all. They
form the strata by which the geologists of his
tory will hereafter mark the progress of this
age, and classify all its products; and upon
the basis of which all future society will de-
ye!op itself. Take care of the poor, and the
rich will take care of themselves. Educate
the masses, and there will arise from the num-
Der a sufficiently large class to generalize
their ideas, and carry out their principles
Reform the people, make them temperate
truthful and virtuous, for they give tone and
temper to the aga and to the country, deter.
mining the character of its leaders far more
than the leaders that of the masses.
And so in individual life and Character
1t is little things that make and unmake Us
all. There are thousands of young men o.
genius and enterprise at this moment who
dream of fame and distinction, and who, if il
only required some one great act of daring
or sacrifice within the scope of human posi-
bility to become distinguished, would be he
roes; but because true eminence is only to b.
attained by a persevering application in {
number of daily virtues, are constantly at wal
with the whole scheme of things, and esteem
it a very badly governed world, in which they
fined no higher place.
1t is mans little habits of dress, demean.
or and conversation that make or unmake The
friends on which his success AMI happiness
in life depend. 1t is on a mans little habit:
of eating and drinking, of lettering over tri-
! fles, or knowing how to brush them aside
that his character for idleness of industry
and the occupation Of the largest part of hi
time depend. 1t is the way in which maj
takes care of the pennies in his pecuniary
transactions that determine whether he vii
ever take care of pounds.
! Little habits drive nails into our coffins.-
They more than make up by their number
what they seem to lack in individual impor
lance. They are the true seeds of character
/ We might as well plant acorns, and not ex
pect them to grow, as cherish small vices anc
i not expect them to increase; or Us reasonably
hope to see the firm and noble oak where ne
acorns were ever planted, rs true greatness
and success in life, where the seedlings of :
I thousand little habits of industry and virtu,
had not been first carefully cherished.
/ In a word, character is the sum of little
things rather than great ones. The true est
mate of an individual is not ascertained by
his accidental or occasional achievements, bu
his every habits. A nations character is no
determined by its famous men, but by tn,
habits of its masses, and the character of the
age by the vices or virtues that were so in
herent as to be unnoticed.