Democratic enquirer. [volume] (M'arthur, Vinton County, Ohio) 1867-1873, 1868-04-02

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Idleness makes man the master Of
that knowledge which otherwise would
master him. IL brings under human
influences the wild, rough, stern facts
Of nature, and makes them useful SER
wants. Mathematical discoveries are
not always made at the desk; chemical
secrets have been surmised outside the
laboratory. The greatest creations Of
human genius-sin literature as in sci.
ence--haye not been produced in the
throes Of experimental action, but in
the calm OF indolent conception.
Think you mid all this mighty sum
OF things forever speaking,
That nothing OF itself will come,
But we must still be seeking?
King Lear, and the discovery of the
law Of gravity, were the result ofquiet
reflection; and, doubtless, sprang into
being when their creators wonld have
been accused, by common consent, of
wasting time, Was it nota sad thing
that this eminent man of science
should SO far forget his duty to himself
and the world, asto sit and dream
in garden I've suppose the
story to be true), and was it not an
inexplicable thing that this player, who
had not much OF a fortune to come and
90 upon, and who ought to have been
spending his entire energies upon his
theater, should waste his time in sit
ting and dreaming, as we feel sure he
must have done. The vice OF the
present age is its tendency to overrate
visible production. We do not seem
to understand how the shaping of a
mans character may be o more bene-
fetal thing to him han the arrival OF a
ship full Of gold nuggets. We cannot
see that in intellectual matters,
reflection, if rightly directed, is the
highest form Of action; and that a
man whom circumstances compel to
be always at his desk, turning ont leo
ture after lecture, or book after book,
is, perhaps not doing halt the work
that his neighbor does as he lies under
the shade Of a great ash, and sppar-
emily lapses into state of day dream
ing. Results are not always visible,
The man who can show nothing in the
way OF manuscript, or microscopic
slides, or model machinery, as his
daily work need not necessarily have
been wasting his time. Aud all this
we say on the assumption very com.
mon, but surely @ gratuitous one that
it is always a mans business to be re.
eeiying or producing in some form or
another. rrt
But thorough idleness is recupera
tive, audi therefore, Invaluable, even
when it affords no opportunity for re-
Fiction. We do not expect Sny piece
Of machinery, except, perhaps, that of
watch, to 60 on without intermission;
and above all, we shonld take care that
our mental machinery is not overwork.
ed. Certainly, say our mentors, you
ought to take outdoor exercise, and so
relieve the mental strain. But, supl
pose / am man who can get no relief
but from blank Incidence and lying
fallowP Am I wasting my time because
/ take no book with me, and no pocket
magniiyiDg glass, when / go to sprawl
in an undignifed position upon the
warm turf by the seaside? The effort
to drop fly over trout's nose, or
the intense anxiety OF Watching the |
points of brace of settlers in |
a field of turnips, may demand |
from me nervous concentration more |
than the working out of any |
scientific or political problem. The only |
rest, which is really rest to me, may be
that helpless and Observation-Disclosures
which is so hateful to many highly re.
spectacle people. l may not be able,
like celebrated Scotch minister, to
prepare my sermon by riding stout
cob over a series of plowed fields; I
may not be able, like Lord Brougham,
TO refresh myself amid graver labors by
writing a Quarterly Review article. A
brief season Of mental aud physical
torpor may be my best medicine, wheth
or l am Lord Chancellor or q professor
OF Greek: What / insist upon is that
my Incidence is not waste OF time
that it is, in fact, the very best
use to which / could put that
space OF time. And so else
where. and with other people. The
school boy who is jeered by his fellows
because of his habits Of incoming, may
be eultiyating either that interpretive
mental activity or that form OF outward
physical rest which is most natural to
him. His Incidence may teach him
more than--his books; = though the
chances areit viii not simply because
he has not yet amassed sufficient mate
rial fer passive contemplation. A
school boy may waste his time; we
would almost add that grown man
cannot. The very laziness OF a grown
man is phase of experience through
which be has to pass, with little idea of
the practical results 1T may leave behind
dk. Sheridan used to say that TO
him the most fertile period OF the day
was the hour which he spent in bed
between waking and rising. And it is
difficult in this connection not to re
member piece OF advice which the
laird of Dumbiedykes, on his death
bed, gave to his son. "Jock," said he,
"whenye hae naething else to do, ye
may be aye sticking in tree; it will
be growing, Jock, when ye're sleeping.
Ny father tauld me SO forty years sin /;
but / ne'er fund time to mind him. -
And mental products are in this respect
like trees; they grow even when We
little think OF them.
He is seldom the swisest man who
most strenuously endeavors to be wise.
The wisdom OF life is the sum total of
small reflections on small matters. The
trivial actions and experien es of
every day existence are insensiblx
adding to this sum, and man grows
wise even as he grows old, without
knowing it. We are pre-. .supposing
equal mental conditions-thst is to
say, OF two men gifted with the same
powers Of intellect, that man is not
likely / arrive at any distinguishing
culture of character or breadth Of
vision who never WASTES his time. !"
He will, of the two, have the
hafkar ohanaa ~ Haooro,.~