The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1866-04-13
WFIEEIING WEST YA. FRIDAY MORNING APRII rs.

! tertalneQ very SAuBuluel nOpeSS nave
their imagination excited, their facul-
| ties braced. all their powers stimulated
| by the novelty and hustle and Brob-
| dingnagian dimensions of the new
scene to which they are introduced. 1.
! The nature of this impressiOny and the
way it strikes people of different origt-
nal quality, are points nearly over
looked in talk about early promise.
Intellectual iRtrepfdfty, as it is one OF
| the most vital conditions of f'that emf
neut success which people urgently
desire for their sons or their friends, is
Just that at which men of promise or
didarily stop short offulhlment. With
manful assurance they march up to the
| fight, but discretion suddenly steps IN
and freezes their intent. Everybody
understands what this means in ply
sical conflict, but not everybody dis
Germs how the same thing may occur to
men who think of entering the arena
where the contest in not waRed with the
arm ofCflesh.F We all Iadmire the icour-
age Which enables q man to lead his
men against battery or to join for
lorp1 hope, and we admit that Sueh a
virtue is the first essential of a success
fuI warrior. But we do not usually IN
derstand how much the same duality,
only Intellectual instead of physical, IS
needed for man who sits down TO
write the history of the Decline and
ern Civilization, or who aspires to be
conspicuous power in the political
world, or to attain distingu shed SUCCESS
In science or philosophy. Yet these
are the results too commonly anticlpat-
ed in the expression that so and SO, un-
promise which, being interpreted,
means that he is industrious and -ot
good morality, and decently Intelligent.
That he should be all this is, as we haVe
already said, promising, but only as
farAs IT goes 1t promises comforts and
good repnte, Oand nothing else and
even athen the promise is not worth
much, as a thing TO rely on,awhen we,
reflect how often the first Whit of the
world blows away the surface habits Of
youth into space, making all clean and
garnished for the reception of seven or
some other nufhber of devils and lln-;
clean spirits.
ly thing from which promise is.HE Eongly
inferred. 1t is equally cUmmon to find
people mista king amt mbition- for capacity.
The strength of the passion for flame IS
supposed to be some measure OF the IN.
-tellaGtdal strength required for gratify-,
ing it, and foolish persons fancy that, II
q young mum only starts In mo with
get to- thea top of the tree he cam
not fail. Putin point4 blank way, no.
body could be taken in by. the 7fallacy;
only peop.e do not put things to them
selves in this way. We are always more
or less ready to; take appearances for
realitYIin matters which do not concern
ourselves personally in any very ur-
gent degree, and TO allow people topass
themselves off at their own estimate
So if yohng FELLOW gives one to un-
derstand, quietly Of course, and with
out braggadocio or bluster, that he has
vehement desire-and in the days of
youth desfre is synonymous with in
tention-to rise to eminence In some
given line, one is disposed to give him
credit for possessing the ability which
the attain nment Of his desire would iln-
ply. Hence he is given out to be man
of extraordinary promise-promtse in
this case only meuning what his COLI
ceit and rash confidence promise to
themselves, and not what his abilities
After all, the misunderstanding of
what constitutes promise is only a
branch of the wider ignorance of the
conditions of snccessi generally. DIR.
johnson we think 1t was who said that
youth always miscalculptes two things
of reaching eminence. Young men
disregard and waste the one, and they
think they canhaVe the other by mere
ly wishing and asking. But is youth
the only age at which one calculates
the pains of winning distinction far be
low their true magnitude? Does not
every body, except thosey who have al
ready tried to advance some way up
the steep path, think the ascent a great
deal yeasier than it isl True, there are
crowds of imposters in the Temple of
Fame, who have got up where they are
by bubbles or balloons. But they are
only there for time. Perhaps it may
comfort men who discover that what
they or their friends ,nistook for prom
Use is nothing of the sort, to reflect that
even those who most deserve eminence
only enjoy it for a While; and, beside,
that the atmosphere of these lofty
peaks would most likely prove not at
all congenial to those others whom ma
ture and circumstances have united to
rthe plain.4s q siiIsisao9 .spog{