Cincinnati daily press. [volume] (Cincinnati [Ohio]) 1860-1862, 1861-01-25
DIR. hollands Lecture.

A smaller audience than tho lecturer or
the subject deserved, assembled last evening
at Smith & Nixons Hall, to listen TO an ad-
dress from DR.. j. G Holland (Timothy Tit
subject of "Self-help."
Those who have read the '"Titcomb Let
tiers" OF "Bitter-Sweetn will need little more
than the title Of the lecture to give them an
idea of its general purpose, drift aud style, if
they were not so fortunate as 10 hear it.
1t was in substance, like his published
works, the application of clear, earnest
thought, and simple common sense, to sub
ject which comes home TO all of US, popular
education as applied to Observation-Disclosures
is, self development in its higher sense.
Nan has been defined by curious phioso-
piers as laughing animal, talking ami
nal, a reasoning ANIMAL but none of these
definitions are distinctive. Nearly all ami
mails lspgb, talk, reason, after their own
msnDer; but man alone is a selfelevsting
animal. OF all animate creation, he only
possesses the capacity to conceive and achieve
higher position aud development than that
in which he finds himself and this capacity,
end the almost universal desire of mankind
for something better than it possesses, has
begotten a host of cheap, popular maxims
aud patent schemes for the education of the
masses, most Of which, though originating in
some general truth, are so loosely stated and
so generally Inexperienced as to be pro-
ductive of more harm than good.
Our children are taught that whatever
they earnestly desire aud strive to become,
they may attain. "Where there's will,
there's way" Nothing is impossible to
him who will" These maXims are taught
in our schools; they are urged at home.
Cheap, popular biographies Of so. called self.
made men are written to inculcate the
same idea, and, of course, having this end
only in view, the real lesson afforded by the
lives of such men is lost sight of.
The ambitious boy at once concludes that
to attain similar pre.emineDce he has only
tolsdOpt the same means. He does so, and
the result is-the means not being adapted to
the individual i'll this case-he becomes an
unsuccessful, disappointed man.
BE fails, not from lack of will, not from
went of perseverance, or faithful, unremit-
ting labor, but solely because he has mis-
taken his vocation. He has aimed at a
position for which his natural capacities
were unsuited, and which he could never
reasonably expect to reach. He tried to
make himself a lawyer, when God intended
him for a carpenter.
And herein lies another very popular and
very injurious fallacy: that fame and in
fluence and power, the objects Of most mems
am bition, are only to be acquired in some
one of the so, called learned professions. Far
better be fIstrate carpenter, a first-rate
shoemaker, a frst- rate boot-black even, than
ffth-rate clergyman, or lawyer, or doctor.
At an exhibition of horses, we find the diff
ferent competing animals, arranged in such
various classes as enables each one to display
to the best advantage the peculiar qualities
in which he excels. AS among all these the
fast trotter seems to be the most generally
popular, suppose that each exhibitor should
enter his animal for the grand trial of speed
what ridiculous figure most of them would
cut as they came numbering to the stand far
behind the few feet creatures whom nature
intended for speed. But in his own appro-
pirate place, the ponderous truck. horse as he
moves slowly along, the emblem of majestic
strength, no longer excites Tidicule, but ad-
miTation. The gentle family steed, carefully
guiding his load of women and children, be-
comes the object of regard and affection; and
the sturdy farm animal, in appropriate har-
ness, seems worthy Of respect.
all can see the propriety Of placing q
horse in position suited to his capacities,
but how few people are willing to adopt for
themselves that vocation for which their
Maker intended them. Our boys are told
that if they aim their arrows at the sun they
will 60 farther than if leveled at a lower
mark. Perhaps so, but is it not really better
to hit a respectable gray squirrel on Vir-
| ginia pine than to spend ones life in shoot.
| ing useless shafts at mark which We can
never by any possibility hope to reach2
Let each of us, then, endeavor to ascertain
for what position in lite our tastes and ca
pacities fit us, and having determined this,
| strive patiently and untiringly, each in his
own appropriate sphere, for excellence and
perfection. Thus, and only thus, may we
achieve success, and by thus becoming Q
selfmade man, may each one become awell-
made man. ~ =