Smyrna times., 1873-07-02
Poverty and Mental Work.

The want of money is, in the higher intellect
ual pursuits, the most common hinderance to
thoroughness and excellent work. How many
of the most distinguished authors have been
dependent upon private means not simply tor
physical sustenance, but for the opportunities
which they afforded of gaining that experience
OF life which was absolutely essential to the
full growth of their mental faculties Shelley's
writings brought him no profit whatever, and
without private income be could not have
produced them, for he had not a hundred
buyers. Yet his 1CItOle time was employed in
study or in travel, which for him was study
OF another kind, or else in the actual labor of
composition. Wordsworth tried to become a
London journalist and failed. A young man
called RaiSley Calvert died and left him 1900 :;
this saved the poet in Wordsworth, as it kept
him till the publication Of the Lyrical Ballads,
| and atteTward other pieces of good luck hap.
pened to him, so that he could think and COM
pose at leisure. Scott would not venture to de-
| vote himself to literature until he had first Sc
cured comfortable income outside of it. Poor
| kepler struggled with constant anxieties and
told fortunes by astrology for livelihood, say
ing that astrology, as the daughter of astron-
omy, ought to keep her mother; but fancy a
man OF science wasting precious time over
horoscopes l supplcste you, he writes to
M9stlin, 'if there is a situation vacant at
| Tubingen, do what you can to obtain it for me,
and let me know the prices of bread and wine
and other necessaries of life, for my wife is not
accustomed to live on beans" He had to
accept all sorts Of jobs; he made aImanacs, and
served any one who would pay him. His only
tranquil time for study was when he lived in
Styria on his wife's incOme-a tranquility that
did not last for long, and never returned.
How different is this from the princely ease Of
Tyeho Brahe, who labored for science alone,
with all the help that the ingenuity of his age
could furnish There is the same contrast, in
latter generation, between Schiller and
Goethe. Poor Schiller wasting so much oi
his precious life in literary hackwork trans
lating French books for q miserable pittance; u
Goethe, fortunate in his pecuniary independ
ence as in all the other great circumstances o
his life, and this at time when the pay o.
authors was SO miserable that they could
hardly exist by the pen. Schiller got shil
ling page for his transletions. Merck, tn,
publisher, offered three pounds sterling for ;
drama of Goethe. "If Europe praised me,
Goethe said, what has Europe done for me
Nothing. ECen my l0orIs haze been Gn cr
pense to 0ae.-Hdper's Weekly.
A JEWISH LEGEND. According to Jewisl
and Mohammedan tradition King Solomon
who was wise beyond all other men, knew tn
|
beast Of the field and the birds of the air. 4
Rabbinical story is tod of him, which is il
this wise:
One day the King rode out Of Jerusalem wit
a great retnue An ant-hill lay directly il
r his path, aud Solomon heard its little peopl
talking:
Here comes the great Kihgl" he hear
one Of them say. His hatterers call him wis
and just and merciful; but he is about to rid
over US aud crush US without needing ou
sutferings."
And Solomon told the Queen of Sheba, VIII
: rode with him, what the ant said And tn
Queen made answer:
: He is an insolent creature, oh, Kingl ]
is a better fate than he deserves, to be trodde
under our feet.
But SOLEMN said: at is the part of wisdom
to learn of the lowest and weakest" And b
: commanded his train to turn aside and spar
the ant-hill.
Then all the courtiers marveled greatly, an
the Queen of Sheba bowed her head and mad
obeisance to Solomon:
Nov know | the secret of thy wisdom
!, Thou listenest as patiently to the reproache
of the humble as to the flatteries of the great