New Orleans daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1851-1866, 1856-03-03
80 =
TaBoR-ITS RESULT.

G,pot things naturally win to themselves much of
tie attention Of the world The very fact that they
are great that they tower above every surrounding
object and force the heavens to rest upon Them is
sufficient reason for the regard they receive. Most
men are fond Of watching the ocean of gazing at
Alps and Himmalayas; of visiting Niagara ;5eSplo.
ring the Mammoth Cave; travelling on the Mississippi
In the same manner and outof the SAME spirit, those
men who are higher and broader than their fellows
are visited and gazed at. But in the contemplation
how very few trouble themselves with any inquiry
how the greatness was achieyed-7by what means the
result was attained. How little il thought of the
drudgery, the delving the sacrifice that alone con-
ducts from the valley to the glacehat alone raises
palaces on heaps ofrock, and sends mems names TO
he syllabled by ages, whose dawn comes centuries
after .-----,'
There have been men inmortalized BY single aet
by the effort and result Of a moment. such were
Erostratus and Empedocles- the one Of whom fired
the great temple, and into the Volca'
no that their names might not Those, however
whose memories are durable and enviable
character, clothed theniseIyes ortality by far
other means and through other nstrumentalties
Den,osthenes. to become the orator he was, and win
the fame he did, practced for weary years With
mothful Of pebbles. Cicero, to reach that great
height he 50 highly adorned, foreswo1e amusement
and pleasure and gave himself altogether to study
The authors Of those ponderous tones that make the
literature of the middle ages SO wonderful, could have
hardly found time for sleep, and Sir William Jones,
the Orientast, confesses that the legal homly .
"Six hours to sleep,
To laws grave study seven, etc.,
was byno means the measure Of the work he per-
formed 1t is known of Newton that his mind was 50
wholly occupied and engrossed with the Principia
and other aids and products of his labors, that his
constitution gave way under the selfimposed tax.
Old Magliabecchi, the Italian cardinal and Parr of
his age, would have no bed butslept loose straw,
that thereby, the mind might be kept more active,
even at the expense of the body. So, too, of all
whose names have been craven in flint beyond
he teeth Of time or any decay whatsoever. They
abored unremittingly and severely to accomplish
what they did. They abjured pleasure, or SO natur
alized it thatits true home was far rougher fields
han those of voluptuous sybaris They stripped to
heir work and toiled like galley-slaves Naturally
md necessarily their reward followed them So that
now as Chlpericsand Shelley have it, their names
shine as bright stars, and ever shall shine
1t is with the acquisition Of wealth and strength,
md any other great good soeyer-precisely as with
ue Gdu OlllJ Ut dt
tanned by eyertion, endurance and seltdenial The
gy1nnast who matches his speed against that of a
horse the puglist who brings his strength to par
allel with that Of Milo; the millionaire who would
equal Cresus the man, in any department of life
who would touch the ladders toplnost round, must
count all present pleasures evils must make pleasure
and find his sole qualification and compen
sation in the work itself S$;7Fss1
If the ability to follow this very plain course is
possessed there is with fair share of intel
lect and good constitution who may not beggar the
best man he sees-who may not ovestride and sur
pass the most notable man he meets Selfabnega-
ton and hard work are the producers of what
ever any one wishes to obtain, not rendered unat-
ainabe by the laws of nature Greatness is what it
S, not by virtue Of any natural possession. OF the,
Millions who seek for it, there are but units who
eek it rightly, who are willing to plant the seed
nd then cultivate it to maturity How many
ice touches how many hard blows it required to
lould the marble of Pentelicus into those divine
orms that breathe in it. Shall it require less time
I exertion to mould into more perfect harmony
nd for a more lasting fame the mind Of man
Greatness of any sort is mathematical problem in
which all the properties given and the labor only
leedful to secure the result.