The comet. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1877-1882, 1879-10-11

, enterprise, that these and other CO. operative
, projects require some skill in their man
agement It will be necessary therefore, fol
them to commence at the A B Cs of co-ope
ratve effort, and proceed with caution, lest
they stumble. We are too apt to mark out
a scheme on paper which is ideally perfect
giving to it forces and results which at
tach only, if at all, to business skilfully
planned, thoroughly understood, and care
fully and intelligently worked out, and then
to undertake its practical development. Ne
are induced to try to put our foot with one
step ON the last, and not on the first round
of the ladder. We are impatient of the
order and discipline of slowly and carefully
climbing from the bottom, building l.on
only sure and solid foundations. With the
wings of the imagination we would fly over
or around all obstacles, rather than meet
them and with patient labor and care re-
move or overcome them. These methods
will not do for the practical business Of
life-they must be left to those who do nc
more solid work than pass their lives in
aerial architecture.
criticism made in my presence by a
thoughtful Southern man on the address of
Hon W. p, Harris, at Oxford asserted that
the capacity for successful associated enter
prise was rather the symptom and result of
high capabilities of a people for great ma
terial advancement, than the cause of it.
Concede the criticism to be just; but still
it is left to peoples who have been OUT
stripped III the race of improvement, to
appropriate the agencies of higher civili~
zation and more advanced progress, to
enable them to get abreast of the times in
which they live. These agencies must,
however, be used with caution, and remod>
eled 80 as TO adapt them to the differing
circumstances of the people who shall ap-
propriatc and use them.
1t may be said that in this and some
other of these papers, | have descended to
the discussion, in detail, of things of small
moment. This may be So but human life
however long, is but the aggregation of the
momentary pulsations of the heart. All
great results are produced by a countless
multitude Of causes, each Of inappreciable
influence. The Pyramids of Egypt are made
of stones which were cut out and shaped
by an infinite number of single strokes of
the chisel, each of which, when considered
alone, would have caused only al invisible
progress towards the great end, 1t is the
despising of small things, per sc, because they
are small, and the failure to appreciate the
valae of each in the great aggregate sought
for, which is the bane of Southern business
life. once heard it remarked by South
ern man, who had given these things some
thought, that there would never be revival
of Southern prosperity until copper cents
circulated here as money. He meant by |
that to teach the lesson that there can be |
no success if the small things essential to
it are neglected.
If 1 shall have called the thoughtful at
tention of those who shall read these papers |
to the necessity of stopping small leaks,
and undertaking small enterprises, as essen
italy preliminary to the larger and more
will not have written in vain.
Neither my own time nor the patience of
The readers of The COMET will allow of a
further discussion of the subjects mention
ID in these papers. 1 feel there is much
more to be said and much of that which
las been said which might have been pre-
sented in q more attractive form but my
hope is that what have written may direct
to the condition of the State, and
provoke ADLER pens to discussion of the
causes and the remedies for the public
distress.