Eureka daily sentinel. [volume] (Eureka, Nev.) 1871-1887, 1875-12-18
INTELLECTUAL EXHAUSTION.

exhausted. So also with his intellec-
tual powers. Both are exceedingly
limited. The clergyman in a few doc
trinal sermons is preached out. The
statesman in a few set speeches is
played out. The lawyers in a few great
pleas exhausts his stock of general
principles and is petered out. The
stump orator has but a single ha-
rangue, which he makes do duty for
an entire campaign. The Lyceum ora
tor repeats, parrot-like, a solitary lee
lure to different audiences throughout
an entire season. The humorist re-
peats his few scattered jokesa hundred
times to the same auditors. Novelists,
in their prolific works of fiction, dress
up the same set of characters in new
ga-bs, and make them figure in multi
tudinous volumes. The success OF each
and all consists in the adroitness with
which they can ring the changes on the
same tune. The trick consists In pre-
senting old ideas in new combinations.
1t consists in that specie of deception in
theatricals by which a few persons by
marching round in a circle upon the
stage, may be made to represent all i'm
mense army. Such is the general rule.
There may possibly be exceptions to it;
for exceptions are said to prove the
rule. But who those excepted persons
are who are not subject to the limita
ton here limited at, whom "giving
does not impoverish or Withholding
enrich" whose pond never runs out,
whose puddles never becomes dry,
whose wind accumulates faster than
escapes, would puzzle any "A to dss-
ignate or point out.
So that it may be affirmed generally
as q fixed fact, that men OF all grades
and descriptions do think themselve.
out, work themselves out, talk them
selves out, write themselves out, pre-
cisely as a garment is worn out by con-
slant service, precisely as q gun-barrel
is worn out by long usage, precisely
as a truck horse is used up by continu
u hard labor, until they are as va
cant as an exhausted receiver, with not
an idea in their noodles, and no power
of giving expression to it, il they had.
The Illustrations are numerous. The
world is filled with examples. Mil
toms pond run out with Paradise Los.
as shown by the wishy-washy charac
ter of Paradise Regained. The paucity
of James intellectual furniture is
evinced by his introduction of the SOL
itary Horseman" into all his novels.
The limited range of Cooper's inventive
genius is disclosed by his using zone IT.
tie Indian" and Leather Stockings
ovsr and over again. The sterility OF
Dickens is betrayed by his running a
single set of characters, and low q
that, throughout all his productions;
which characters are d~istinguishable
from each other only by the difference
IN the amount of charcoal he uses
in drawing their several portraits
Shakespeare had as large a SCI
Of ideas on promiscuous subjects
~ ordinarily falls TO the lot o.
an historical dramatist, and he pos
sessed a wonderful faculty for present
ing them in new and surprising com
binations. Yet we are persuaded that
his admirers discover y depth of beau
~ and q profundity Of wisdom in bis
writings never perceived or dreamed
OF by Shakespeare him self; and they
generally find them in those passages
where he is obscure and incoherent
from insanity.
Henry Ward Beecher Is possessed o.
great dizziness in marshaling his In
tellectual stock in trade. He IL sc
sdroit In shifting about and resrranginl
his wares for each successive exhibi
ton of them. that he gives the impress
sion that he Is showing new goods now
for the first time exposed to public
gaze. He gives to plstitudes the air O
originality, throws around thread bare
u~tterances q drapery SO rich and arts
tically arranged, brilliant with all the
hues of the rainbow and flashing with
Ill tho shifting lights and shades Of the
kaleidoscope, that they are received as
new revelations Of truth and wisdom
Yet Henry is q mere phrase .nonger,
who delights in prancing all round a
subject and covering it all over with
glowing verbsge, without holding him
self responsible to-day for his sayings
and doings Of yesterday. Such de-
chalmers are pleasing to listen to, but
difficult and Improbable to follow in
their shiftings and turnings. There
are, however, some advantages In this
mode Of procedure. Instead OF being
compelled 70 run back and forward TO