The Opelousas journal. [volume] (Opelousas, La.) 1868-1878, 1875-01-08
cleverness and Energy.

The following sound maxims are given
in a recent addresSby Lord Derby to the
students of Liverpool College:
"Do not any of you be disheartened
becauseyouthinky ourselfs slow orstupid,
even though you may really at present
appearto have good ground for the be-
lief; and do not, on the other hand, any
of you be confident of the future merely
because you know or believe yourselves
to have what is called cleverness. Ii |
were to tell you that in my belief that
particular quality of intellectual quick
ness and sharpness is by no means the
first qualification fora successful career,
many people would consider, In these
days of competitive examinations, that
/ was wilifully indulging in a paradox.
But believe il is the truth. Talent is
the edge of fhe knife which makes it
penetrate easily; but whether it pene-
trates deeply or not depends quite as
much on the force appliedt to it as on the
sharpness of the blade. What a man
really takes a keen interest in, he is sell
dom too dull to understand and to do
well; and, conversely, when q mar does
not care to put the best OF his brains into
a thing, no amount of mere cleverness
will enable him to do it well if it is a
thing of any real difficulty, or unless it
is n which he has trained himself TODD
easily by much previous practice, in
which latter case he is really reaping, in
present ease, the fruit of past exerti0n-
living, so to speak, upon the capital
which he has accumulated by early in
dustry. The most conspicuous instance
of complete efficiency and success in &C
tive life recently witnessed is that which
was obtained by the military %organiza-
ton OF Germany and am told, by those
who ought to be the best judges, both
among Germans themselves and among
other foreign critics, that efficiency and
success are ascribed not so much to any
extraordinary display of genius or orig
inality OF design IN the part OF some
few individuals as to the generally diff
fused habit of minute and almost micro
scOpic attention to every detail of duty,
however apparently small, which has
become a tradition in that service.
81 believe that everywhere the same
But to acquire and keep up in everyday
work hat habit of concentrated atten-
ton on details, two things are necessary
training and energy. The training you
can all give yourselves the energy which
is necessary to maintain it is in part, no
doubt a gift of nature. Men possess it,
to begin with, in very different degrees
but it may be lost where it naturally ex-
lists, and it may be enormously increased
where originally it was but feeble. And
in that connection it is important to no.
tice how much depends on what students
and young men are apt to despise as be-
low their notice. mean a perfectly
sound physical condition. Take two
men, if they could be found, exactly
alike in mental and bodily aptitudes, and
let the u go on carelessly and idly, in
dulging his appetites, and generally
leading a. life of what is called pleasure,
and let the other train himself by early
ing to muscles and brain each their fair
share of employment, and at the end of
two or three years they will be as wide
apart in their capacity for exertion as if
they had been born with wholly differ
ent constitutions.
Without a normal healthy condition
there can, as a rule, be no good work
and though disqualification cannot alb
solutely be secured or preserved by any
rules, a little common sense and care
will go a long way both in securing and
preserving it. On that point [ would
give you these hints: First, that it is
not mental labor that hurts anybody,
unless the excess be very great, but
rather fretting and fdgeting over the
prospect of labor to be gone through so
that the man who can accustom himself
to take things coolly, which is quite as
much a matter of discipline as of nature,
and who by keeping well beforehand
with what he has to do avoids undue
hurry and excitement, has a
great advantage over one who follows a
different practice.
Next, would warn you that those
students who think they have not time
for bodily exercise will sooner or later
have to find time for illness. Thirdly,
an opportunity of choice is given,
morning work is generally better than
night work; and lastly-a matter which
| should not stop to allude to but that /
know the dangers of an overdriyen ex-
in a crowded town-if a man can
not get through his days labor, of what
ever kind it may be, without artificial
support, it should be a serious consider
alton for him whether that kind Of labor
Is fit for him at all.n
j.
A pDArvp GrD NTIHr Ill., 49, +