The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1875-08-05

This adage that sin union there is strength"
may be applied as we'll to individuals as to
communities or masses. The concentration of
all ones faculties upon his work is as necessary
as the united action of many for the accom-
plishment of a common purpose.
The greatest men in philosophy, hteratures
science, politics, have usually been men OF
specialties The profoundest thinkers bave not
been the widest readers. The men OF Few pooks
have been those who have contributed most 10
the worlds knowledge. The men OF one laea
are those to whom freedom and civilization owe
the largest debt No revolution in opinions or
customs is accomplished save by men who are
intensely in earnest. A grand tno9gnt IL not
wrought into nations life except by one VINO
is so possessed with it, that ne Can give oecent
hospi atty to no other.
While it is acknowledged that those by whom
governments are conducted, land politics shaped
ought to be men of experience ana practical
wisdom, of large views and extensive informal
ton, it is observed that as rule no organic
changes are effected, no domesticatiOn OF new
and vital truths is accomplished except through
the agency of the mighty magician-One Idea.
1t is the practical, prosaical fanatic who does
the work.
Forty-ive years ago Southern statesman of
keen and subtle intellect, of tireless persistence
and of a towering and Unsuitable ambition,
fastened his mind to the dogma OF state sover-
eighty and, as an indispensable aid to It's re-
ception in his section of the country, TO the
While the revolution in its earlier stages was
proceeding under the inspiration and dlrection
of this able and uncompromislng man, the
great political organizations OF Inc country
were unprepared ia make an issue upon tne
doctrines which he was so vigorously and per-
sstently intoxicating. There were great and
wise men in the Democratic and Wing parties
of those days, who held firmly to the indestruc.
tibity under the constitution of the Union and
to the exceptional an 1 dangerous character of
Knit ypp bravo
sagaclous enough to accept the issue which had
been rendered by the new Propaganda Eide.
So long as Mr.. Wright or Mr.. Seward and their
friends allowed themselves to be controlled by
their parties on these questions, and were con-
tent to struggle for the. accomplishment OF
their DESIRES with organizations which refused
to make special effort for their promotion, a
primary duty and test Of fealty. their labors, SO
far as practical results were concerned. were
unavailing. The one-idea party within the
larger parties, controlled both, and would have
succeeded in revolutionizing or destroying the
government, but for the fact that about the
time when Mr. Calhoun began to instil his doc
trines into the public mind, and especially into
that Of the South, a Northern fanatie,as he was
almost universally regarded, commenced
counter agitation by which he was in the end
not only to destroy slavery, but to strengthen
the Union by placing it on the solid basis of
universal liberty. William Lloyd Garrison was
as emphatically man of one idea as Mr. CAL
houn and he was quite as persistent and de-
voted.
Another law Of success-one which to some
extent has been illustrated in what has been
already said-requires that when one has adopt.
only stick to it. butt give to it his best powers
of study. application and performance A man
may have but one kind Of work, and seek no
other, yet fail for want of energy or complete
ness. He may do things with so little skill and
thoroughness that the performance will be inn
narfapt and nnSatiSfaotOrV He muSt he infer
ested in his work and strive always to do his
best, otherwise the result will be not only mad
equate performances. but deterioration OF ca
pacity and power If one falls into the habit
of putting forth half efforts, the exertion nee
essary to bring out his best become laborious
and so irksome that it is soon pretermitted alto.
gether. More men fail from dsloyalty to their
own capacity than from all other causes There
is no royal road to skill and learning, or to en-
inence. The condition is that you shall have
| nothing which is not your own, and which you
have not made your own by earning it, strike
while the iron is hot, is an admirable prov
| erb-but make the iron hot by striking it," is
even better Strike hard blows and direct
ones and the material upon which you work
shall relent and help you. The elements con-
| spire to assist the royal worker. Nature is his
ally.
When Daniel Webster was young man he
| made himself so thoroughly the master OF
will case in which he was engaged that years
afterwards when he was retained in case in
which vast estate was at stake, and where
the principle was the same as that which he
had studied in the will case, he was armed at
all points, and his client was amazed at the
ease with which he possessed himself OF the
case, and at his perfect knowledge OF the law
which governed it. Mr.. Sumner was indebted
for his greatest triumphs to life long thorough
ness 1t is said that DR.. Charming rewrote his
great article on Napoleon dozen times before
| he would consent to its publication DR.. South,
| the great English Divine, never printed SER
| mon which he had not rewritten several times.
When Mendelssohn was about to enter the or
| chestra on the first performance OF his Eli
jah," he said to friend, "Stick your claws into
| me! Don't tell me what you like but what you
| don't like" He desired honest criticism. Cbas.
| Dickens never did anything from driving nail
| to writing David Copperfeld that he did notify
| to do to the best of his ability.
of Perseverance. Complete what you under
| take. 1t is not enough that a man should work
| hard diligently, and with his whole heart. He
must continue to the end, or he may fail when
| on the very threshold of success Il shall fight
| it out on this line if it takes all summer, wrote
| Gen. Grant from the Wilderness. 1t did take
| all summer and more than Zone summer, but
| he did fight it out on that line. .---, may
- A .i--a-ie.tsoo Or contract, so in respect to
conduct or action it may be q condition of suc-
| success: When d1ty calls never defer the ans
Weri when obligation presses the time for its
discharge has come.
reviewing the conditions , Of sH6e feo be con-
cfnsfvefy Stated, as follows Do one thing; do
it with all your might; don't leave it until it is
done; and do it at the right time. .
But friends, as there are grander and purer
orders and criterions of success than those
which the laws we have been considering are
usually understood to govern, primarily and
practically, SO there are higher and more truly
essential laws than any of those-the laws of
principle and uprightness; laws which are per-
vading and inexorable-from which men, how
ever adrot and ingenious, can never escape.
Some reckless adventurer, some coarse volup-
tuary, some arch-swindler. may ride for time
on the top wave of what goes for popularity,
but only to be stranded at the last. 13U
1t is but a few years ago, and is within the
remembrance of observing men, that certain
names in our business and political circle, were
prominent and dazzling. Old-fashiohed people
content with honest enterprise and moderate
gains, were nobodies,-''s coaches,'' ''be-
hind the times 'splayed out" And SO it was
seen that these magnifcents were carrying
things with high hand, with their schemes
and projects often full of government subsidies
and buoyed by political influence, and SO it hap
least, no man, however able or popular, could
be elected to Office except through the aid, the
sympathy, the procurement, or the consent of
these adyenturers and gamblers, and the world
of trial came-"murder will OUT so will rob.
berry and corruption. The mills of God may
grind slowly bat they grind fine. Exposure
began to be made; one led to another; one
stone fell, then column, then the whole wall,
until this miserable but most pretentious fabric
of venaity and scoundrelsm, built upon the
sand and mire of corruption, and not upon the
everlasting granite Of integrity and principles
topling to its fall The shrines of the gods
where foolish people worshiped are broken and
scattered, while the gods them selves of Credit
Mobilier and kindred idolatries are PROSTATE in
the dust.
Whatever else, my friends. you may believe
or doubt, accept this immutable verify, that
falsehood in its varied forms of imposture,
selfshness and dishonesty, can have no asso.
citation with real success. A man may deceive
himself, but he cannot deceive God or the
world. If he earns the Fend's fee, he will
get it. But the true man and the really sue
cessful one is never coward, never f1unkey.
He dares stand by his convictions of duty and
truth, no matter whose company he keeps or
what fortune seems to be before him.
To the earnest man faithful observance of
these laws and conditions of success which we
have been considering never fails to bring its
reward. 1t assures at least the success which
be needs, and usually that which he desires.
IL