The herald and mail. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1873-188?, 1874-11-20
John III. Woodbridge. Lecture.

John II. Woodbridge, of Pulaski, the blind
| lecturer, Iectured here last Friday night
| and as il was the first time he ever deliver
/ eel his new lecture, ESucceSS in Life" we
| will make a few extracts. The lecturer was
| infrOdncpd nv Cant IOe II FusSeII i'm a few
appropriate words. Before We proceed to
speak of the lecture, however, we will men
| a few incidents of MIR. WOldridge'S history.
He was first lieutenant OF the Martin Guards
| of Pulaski, and was gallantly leading his
company at Perryville, when minnie ball,
shot by the enemy from the flank, knocked
out both of his eyes. "SucCeSS in Life" is
his third lecture, having already delivered
| "The Air we Breathe" and Light in the
Eye" Last Friday night he commenced
with the following profound yet pathetic
half truth: at needs no lecture to teach
that life is a scene of general failure. 1t has
been truly said that the life of every man is
a disappOintment-nOt many attain theiI
aims. The rare prizes are graSped by few
sturdy sons of intellect, good fortune or in
duStry. While even those whom the world
regards as triumphant, find that the en-
chantment which distance lent to the
prizes they have won, disappears on near
approach. SO that, when our day is over,
we feel, as Carlyle says, that we have left
our poor SOrely fOiled little piece of work
half done" This is poetic and pathetic, but
Ii is also quite a discOuraging picture OF
life, by one who published i'll his handbill>
that he would lecture on success in Life"
Ne did not think he would preach to us,
but would set something bright and DcauJi-
full on a distant hill, and tell us how to get
there. However, we Will follow him and
s e what he hath TO say further. He goes
back two Thousand years and quotes from
that OLD pagan cyuic and VOluptuary, HOr-
ace, to sustain his proposition that every
mans life is a failure After proceeding hi
this wOful strain for while, the lecturer
strikes up a more lively tune, as If he was
merely testing at first, and toying with the
feelings of his audience, and says: LAS en-
phatically as can express it, assert that
thing every man owes to himself, and owes
to his fellOw-man. And he is selfish
II he does not try: No man has a
can reach higher one. Success is So
cial duty. When il is won by a physician,
IL means, disease cured, suffering relieved,
misery leSsened or GVerted, families Kept
whole-that but for his skill would have
been scattered and ruined. HAS he the
right to say, that he will indulge his worth
leSSness and make it impossible to dis
charge with full efficiency the immense re-
SpOnSibilitieS dependent on him? The law
yer is entrusted with matters on Whlcn
hangs society itself. Security of life and
property depends on hiSSkill. Ruin, other
wise inevitable, can be averted by ms
knowledge. 1t is his duty to protect the
widow and orphan, to defend the strong
man, who without him laborS in vain, TO
fence up rights as with iron bars, to keep
up the principles which hold the world
together. A little ignorance in draw
ing up deed or making will may entail
years of sickening anxiety, loss OF properly,
difficulties entailed through generations.
Has he the right TO say he will take his ease,
and through Ignorance ana laZlneSSr run
the risk of such mischief? Has the farmer
the right to keep his family poor, his chill
dren without education, his STOCK starving,
ed, peuniIeSs, ragged, hungry, to indulge his
own propensity for wOrthleSSn eSS?" The
lecturer makes his listeners run off after
curious and plausible conceit. He makes
them say: "lf you succeed, you crush those
you SurpaSs, into hopeless lnfcriorlty. Your
little good is the great INJURY OF otneTS'
Does not every successful man crowd down
his rivals? One boy only gets at school
the chief honor. One general only can get
the victory. One lawyer only can win the
suit, One candidate only gets the horrid
county office and the other have their
riding and talking and treating for moth
ing" The lecturer answers these objections
in this wise: "ln the vast majority of cases,
the success of one man hurts no one, but
really helps every bOdy-eVen his cOmpeu-
tors. True, there are a few rare prizes which
can be gTasped only by one. But the head
runner does not put those behind him back.
He really helps them on. The best
scholar in school, who carried off the
prize, did not make the other pupils learn
less, but stimulated to more eXertiOn, so that
all got prize, in what they acquired, worth
more than any honor. 1t one man in
community makes large crop, he has not
distracted my sunshine. He has not robbed
my air. He has not exhausted my fields.
! would have made no better crop If he had
raised nothing. Here is a principle that is
well nigh universal: one mans success
helps every one else to success"
The lecturer, after his preface, which we
have attempted TO briefly sketch, divided
his subject into three parts, The first ele-
ment Of success was bodily health; ID, a
"gOOd START sd, one object in view. He
elaborated the first proposition, and made
few sentences: "An old preacher, giving
advice to some young ones, told them to
a Pre-Darwiaist, ana intended them to
watch over their bodies ut is true there
are beautiful passages, especially in Thomp-
son s Seasons; about the early dew, and the
freShn IS of the morning air and the glory
of the sunrise. But Thompson himself
always lay in bed till twelve o'clock" Eat
and sleep That you may do more work"
"Sleep as much as you can, that you may
be stronger and may do more work"
People who Shun the morning air, are
healthiest, and statistics show they live
longest" The next element in the attain
ment of success is TO have one end in view,
anu work Tor II day ana night. Several
| striking and Interesting incidents are given
| to illustrate this fact, The next essential
thing is energy. "FaVOrable surroundings
| are Important: concentration on one object
| is essential; there remains the one thing
of energy in the pursuit of your aim. VIII
lingneSs to work is the infieXible condition
of success. Let me here correct a common
| error which COnfuSeS laZineSS with the de-
sire to do nothing. In this sense, there is
hardly lazy man alive. - Every body
wants to be doing something. A young
| gentleman used to sit all day, twisting his
thumbs, Some one asked him if it was
possible he never did anything else. He re-
| piled, YES, he SOmtimeS twisted them back
| wards. Even he would not bear to do moth
| ing. LaZineSs don I mean, not wanting to
| do anything, II means just not wanting to
do this particular thing II is my business to
do. III you want o get any OF the glitS OF
earth, as the old Greeks used to say, the
| gods will give them in return for labor
| They will Toe given for nothing else. One of
| the wisest things ever said by mortal man
was the childiShly simple profound saying
| CfGOethe: Take what you want and pay
| your price for it. 1t just means that every
| success, every glory has its price in so much
| painful toll. Pay the price and the thing is
| yours" Is there no easier road to fortune
| no short cut, beside this creeping, crawling
| pilgrimage on foot? "Yes, modern inYesti-
| cation has opened up SUCH a Ioute-the
| Great Central Young America Humbug
| Line.p The lecturer of course has the usual
| ding at the tight laclng, vinegar-eating fair
| sex, which no masculine lecturer can fore
| go, The lecturer, under the thin gauze of
| attempting to show up humbuggery among
| church people, said upcalled TOR and RI
| diculous things about the Episcopal, Meth
| odist and Presbyterian churches. He
| makes Grant, who is Methodist head of a
| movement TO make an established church
/ and a Pope at the head of it; and represent
| ed the MethOdiStS preparing 10 worship
| John Wesley as God. This part Is so ridicu-
| lous and unheard of that we publish II. He
! represents Rev. Mr.. McHumGug as saying;
| AYES. my brethren, the few faithful IN gen
| eral rebellion, these MethOdiSts, are all GO
| ing to their own place. There is uniyer-
| sal effort in that church TO prove the dlVlnl-
| " of John Wesley and to worship him as a
| God. They are wanting to bind up his