Holmes County Republican. [volume] (Millersburg, Holmes Co., O. [Ohio]) 1870-1895, 1874-02-19
An Essay on Thought.
BY FLORENCE L. RUDY.

BY FLORENCE L. RUDY.
Thoughts are mightier than armies.
They are not uttered aloud. There is
the inner realm of thought, emotion
and Imagination, and there is the out
ward realm of practice, where thought,
emotion and Imagination take their in
vestitures of flesh and matter pass into
nature and history. In one we have
them In their warmth and effusiOn,in the
other We have them crystalized into
fact. All radical changes in character
begin with changes in the inner realm.
Then we are movedeby the powers above
US, by the eternal spirit that lies OH our
soul like chantry presence, giving us
junction sighs for better state, and
images that float down out of heaven
through our fancies. But more of them
are yet ours. They sometimes come
without any agency of ours. Thus far
they have wrought no change of char
acter, for they have not yet passed un-
der the action of human will. Left to
themselves, they are confused and in
determinated. They are appropriated
by a distinct agency on our part, which
consists in giving them place by our
right arm among fixed and solid reali-
ties. The thoughts and emotions are
wrought in us by the spirit of God,-
they are heavenly treasures let down
within our grasp. We appropriated
them by fixing them in the voluntary
life, and they are ours forever. Thoughts
refuse to be stationary. Ideas make
there way i'm silence like the water that
filtering behind the rocks of the Alps,
loosens them from their deep founda-
tions. Let an Independent thinker show
a fearless fidelity to his conviction and
the shafts of bigotory and envy fall
harmless at his feet. This restless mind
of ours cannot but press principle to
the real limit of its application, even
though centuries, should intervene be-
tween the premises and the conclusion.
The activity and sOundness of our ac-
tions will be determined by the activi-
ty and soundness of our thoughts. God
delights in true earnesrpess in us. tbs
not the amount of thought which is
formed that makes us wise, but the
amount of living creative mind and
hard working. Thoughts and feelings
are the comets of the mind. There is
such thing as crystaliZe thought. The
mind is an ocean cave, in which stalac-
tites slowly form sublime thoughts, set
in the perennial jewels of poetic beau
ty. How sweet are the thoughts, when
all around is still except the rustling of
the leaves among the branches. Who
does not love to steal away to some
quiet spot, and there think of by-gone
days, and dear friends all far away.
Absent yet present. Every one of us
has peculiar train of thought which we
fall back upon when alone. This to q
great degree moulds the person. There
can be no higher earthly elevation for
a man than by his thoughts to enter into
the enlightened minds of our race as a
part and parcel of their beings. 1t does |
not take long for one that is well dis
ciplined to thought, to withdraw him.
self from all worldly sensual influence.
To the thoughtful, the deepest solitude
is often the condition of the hearties., |
fullest, and most fertile inspiration. 1t
is question whether John Bunyan |
would ever have conceived the idea of |
writing Pilgroms Progress, had he not |
been immersed in jail. He seemed to
be a greater man, while in that long
with the light of the sun |
to his eyes through grated
windows. LOcke's great work on the
"Human Understanding" was written
while in Punishment in Holland. Great
minded men will be almost constantly
alone with themselves. If you notice
you will find that all our chosen authors
have been more or less solitary men.
Gray, Thomson, Bayard Taylor were
persons of great thought, and had re-
markable habits of solitary ranging.
Bryant and Irving breathed the same
love of nature, repose, and rural sereni-
ty. 10 the thinker everything in the
domain of nature seems communicative
of interesting experience. He holds
converse with shrubs and flowers, with
brooks and cataracts, birds and fishes.
All impress though. The planet goes
by its shadows. The rolling
rock leaves its scratches on the moun-
tain's side, the river its channel in The
soil, the leaf its modest epitaph in the
cold bed. The falling drop makes its
sculptor in the sand, a fOOtstep in the
SHOW leaves more or less enduring
map of its course. Every act of man
inscribes itself OH his memory, on his
face. The air is full Of sounds, the sky
of tokens.
Every object is covered over with dust
which speaks to the intelligent thinker.
The dew-drop; the rainbow, the pebble
and the pearl awake thoughts of the
infinite purity of Deity. And the har-
mOny of his attributes, as made known
in the objective eXistences around, that
led Socrates. In that prayer which will
be as immortal as his name to plead for
the intercession OF the soul, i'll the light
of the Philosophy of the beautiful. The
man who thinks, possesses more of the
earth than any other person. No in
lividual can be truly dignified and
manly till he has acquired the habit OF
close and penetrating thinking. The
only true mode of learning to think is
to apply the mind. To waken the DOR
mant powers of the soul. The true aim
habit of close thinking.
1t is the discipline we want to keep,
not the detail. The greatest men are
not those who have accumulated the
most knowledge, but those who by long
and laboricus mental schooling, have
acquired the readiest control over the
power OF mind. To acquire habit OF
close, deep, and original thinking, is
the sum and substance of what the
scholar should aim at and struggle af-
ter school. A mere stuffing Of the mind
is no more an education than miser is
a man. We are aware that all are not
permitted to enjoy the advantages Of a
collegiate education. Many there are
who if they would be educated men Or |
women must become such. Almost en-
tirely from there circumstances in life.
Be content to be self-madc men or wO-
men. And to such Of course the only |
hope of becoming habituated to sound
and successful thinking must be by way
of unremitting exertion of mind, pa
tient, persevering study of profound
works, and the books read should be
few and chosen. Those myriad pro-
ductions that are flying through the