The weekly Shasta courier., 1873-09-20
Business and Letters.

Caleb Garth, perhaps the only char
acter in ''Middlemarch" whom the au-
thor of that book heartily admired and
respected, was wont to speak of busi-
ness, as many speak of religion, with
reverence and profound sense of its
reality and comprehensive power. The
character is finely conceived, and has
been built from this idea, and for the
expression of it. He is, so to speak,
the bottom fact of "Middlemarch."
All the characters represent the authors S
struggle to reach an unyielding founda-
ton. She does not find it in the others;
she lets fly noble conception in Doro-
thea, but is compelled at length to wit
ness her eagle vainly futtering in the
strong net which she has been fatally
weaving for her; but Caleb, by reason
of the simple limits within which he is
confined, remains to the end not only
consistent with himself, but satisfacto-
ry to the author. She is genuinely
pleased with him-he is the incarnation
of that consciousness of reality in ones
self and firm fulfllment of the end of
his being, which is the cry of Middle
march,"
The sacred idea of business is capa-
BILE of most extensive and varied illus
tration. AS mordant in character it
has extraordinary power. Take per-
son of varied interests and tastes, fuc-
tuating, not from lack of principle, but
from the absence of leading spirit in
his life, and introduce the element of
business; confne him by apparently
petty details of occupation, force him
by humiliating experience into habits
of order, and the punctilious perform
ance of minute obligations; make him
feel the full force of Pouches, 1T was
worse than crime, it was a blunder :"
and if he be made of good stuff, there
will come forth in time well knit mind
and body, using all that taste and good
feeling which once merely kept him in a
half-huid condition.
The unpracticalness of men of let
ters has made wit easy to very unwitty
men of business; there is a deal of
foolish surveying Of life and character
done by ''practicar' men, and a con-
temptuous way of speaking of authors
as if the one virtue which they are
popularity supposed to lack-the virtue
of practicality-were the only one that
brought honor, and commanded respect.
The foot-rule is often applied to ideas.
Yet, as matter Of training, we doubt if
there is any course so effective for a
certain class of minds among men of
letters, as course of downright, unre-
mitting toll at business. Theories about
business look windy enough, but bust
ness as training school for men ambi-
tious of saying something well and worth
while, can hardly be overestimated.
The reality of 1.-THE faculty it has
of resolving itself into sums, and reduc-
ing year toll, and thought, and am
bition, and eagerness, into balance
sheet-the profound respect it pays to
the homely virtues of prudence, and
patience, and exactness-its hallowing
of drudgery-make it power in deter
mining character and giving sturdiness
to mental growth. Nor is the training
to be dcspised in purely literary as
pect. The style which attaches to
good business letter is acquired with
difficulty by one bred to literature. In
securing it, he learns to value the power
of saying exactly what he means, when
the little more or little less may involve
him in error; the failure to guard his
statements well will return upon him
in liabilities which he never intended to
incur, but seem plain enough when he
sees how his statements looked from
the other side, and by severe expert
ence he learns the art of saying what
he has to say so clearly thai it admits
of but one Interpretation, so courteously
that he has almost gained his point by
presenting it.
We suspect that the man of letters
envies the man of business out of all
proportion to any return of envy. His
consciousness of certain unreality in
his occupation sometimes Expresses him,
and like George Eliot, he admires some
Caleb Garth whom he sees or creates.
There he seems to see hard pan, as if
all else could be washed away. In such
characters he sees his own deficiency;
if he is weak he merely bewails it; if
he is strong he will often turn to his
own continent of ideas and seek frmer
footing.-Riuerside Bulletin.
Weddings in Tangier are very fire.
quent, and make night hideous with
their noise. All except the very poor