Orleans independent standard. [volume] (Irasburgh, Vt.) 1856-1871, 1870-03-01
"A Man or a Monkey"---Which?

CIdrK, OF IlLtSUuTg. UellVereu FcCeHt-
ly before a very large audience in a
Western city. occurred the following
passages. The entire lecture was
original, humorous. practical, and
characteristie,an received with hearty
applause by the auditory. Mr.. Clark
is one of our rising and popular lect-
urers Ed. Ph. Journal.
(Which one of you would desire to
be the exact copy of somebody else
in physical feature or in intellectual
conformation ? How would you feel.
10 know that brain and heart pre-
cisely like your Own-duplicated in
and out--were lodged in somebody
else's body and that all your thoughts
and feelings, and purposes were en-
tertained 10y another? that your form,
stature, features, manners were the
exact copy Of those belonging to some
other conscious self of the human
race? Wouldn't that put you beside
yourself? How should you enjoy such
a doubling of Identities .I
"Nen &c ranging and rumaging
out of their appointed sphere, imita-
ting something out of .heir reach
There is great deal of the monkey
in mankind. People move in mental
right-angles across the plane of their
Maker relating to themselves. 1t is
very common to see persons blunder-
ing at business which they have no
commission to do, no ability to do,
and wha: neither the Almighty nor
their fellow-men expect or desire
them to do. They get out Of line and
march out of step, and have wrong
insignia on their uniform, and some
body else's uniform under their insig-
MIA, and they limp as cripples, without
never having really fought in the bat
tie Of life. They wound themselves
by awkward use Of arms, and their
otdI > al Z
"The world gets in a tangle, and
such blunderers increase the disturb
ance by their sprawls and scrambles
all the while. They want easy times,
and they find hard times. They want
to sweep graudly round in a high So
cial circle, and they are too heavy for
the hinge. Would not the moon make
sad work of it, running in the orbit
of the sun ? No two stars can exchange
circuitrounds for trip like two Meth
odiSt itinerants. | never heard of an
ant going into Mysteries because it
couldn't lie a horse. never heard of
a violet refusing to blow because it
couldn't come out lily. never
knew Ofa cherry turning sour the mo-
ment it made the acquaintance of
peach. The ravine brooklet mur-
murs something as it hurrIes by; it
murmurs, murmurs. Listen! That
murmur is not petulant nor impatient;
there is gurgIe of glowing gladness
in its every syllable of sound. 1t is
not worrying to he a river. The rip
piles do not say, II wish, wish | were
river; > it just sings itself on and on,
through sun and shade the same, IN.
til it siugs itself into a river SO ev-
ervthing in Nature teaches that it is
standing or moving in ones appoint
ed place, aud doing duty right there,
which makes a man distinct, dignifed,
useful, noble and happy.
/ I'VE cannot exchange work any
more than we can exchange faces
We can not play at match faiths, as
school boys play head. and points
with pins There is special life-work
tor every individual in the race
When one man undertakes to initiate
another's thoughts. another words,
-another's ways, to make himself,
monkeywise, the duplicate of his broth
er or neighbor Especially the dupe)
he might as well be killed: This
busy world has no inch of room for
human apes. 1t Graves men, new men,
living men, peculiar men, advancing,
subduing controlling, victorious men
to be out and alert for the glorious
kingdom coming! And in the grand
work,days. blessed is the man who
finds his place, and blessed is the
place that finds its man. | can not
do your work, nor you mine but we
can so work as to complement one
another's efforts all the while and in
eternity for aught | know, always re-
membering, however much we love
and labor, the homely old proverb:
Let everybody mind his own busi-
ness y ~au