Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1882-04-13
Him That OyercOmeth.

That the finely-veined marble of Pen
telicus was close at hand was a very
happy circumstance for the Athenian
sculptor, but it does not explain the
Parthenon. The faultless holding and
grouping of the figures that crowded
its frieze came from mind sensitive to
the highest beauty, and hand sure and
firm in its lightest touch. Given the
same quarries, and neither Spartan nor
Roman could have produced the same
result. Attic genius gets worldwide
recognition, not because it. was fortu-
nate in the material upon which it
worked, but because it used what came
to it's hand with such transcendent in
sight into the possibilities of beauty in
the unshaped stone.
The manner and form of success are
due in all the arts to the material with
which the artist works, but the essential
success depends upon the artist himself.
II his conception of the thing he is to
do is great the picture or the statue will
disclose greatness, no matter what linn
itations the age, the time or the sur
roundings may impose on the worker.
If, on the, other hand, the vision of
beauty or truth be indistinct, or the
hand that gives it. form uncertain and
faltering, the fact that the inspiration
of a great art age is in the very air of
the studio will not give to the work
that which the worker lacks. In a very
true sense life is the very highest of the
arts. There are efforts, ventures,
achievements in human experience
which transcend art; which, indeed, art
is always trying to reproduce. Ruth in
tears amid the alien corn, Caesar falling
at the feet of Pompey's statue, Column
bus facing a mutinous crew, tumul-
tuous sea, an unknown continent
where has art matched the sweetness,
the tragedy, the sublime suspense of
these moments of actual historyp
If success or failure lay anywhere else
than in the hand of the artist there
would be no conscious, creative work
among men; if success or failure in life
lay anywhere else than in the character
of the individual there would be no in
.elligent, responsible life. The artist
and the man would be tools and not
workmen. Let it be understood that a
man is what his surroundings and ante
cedents make him, and he steps down
into the world of trees and stones; let it
be believed that he is essentially what he
makes himself, and all the forces and
possibilities OF character are set free.
Responsibility puts him face to face with
God, opportunity makes a field for his
work, talent gives him tools, steadfast-
ness and labor transform him as the
chisel transforms the rough and rugged
outlines of the uncut stone into strength
and beauty. Men are perpetually APP
pealing to their parentage, their early
life, their inherited traits, their SUR
roundings, to explain their failures, and
all the time there lies untouched within
them power which would turn these
fancied hindrances into allies and
friends. 1t is just at this point that a
man shows his kinship with God, for it is
just in this experience that he puts forth
his creative energy and out of the chaos
of his circumstances builds the everlast-
ing foundations of order and character.
There isno obstacle which can withstand
this Divine force of creation. which is |
born in every human soul. The en-
gineer pierceS five miles of solid rock |
and makes highway for the wealth of
a continent; not less successfully does |
the indomitable will of strong man !
strike into the heart of his eircum- |
stances and pass the treasures of his |
life through their adamantine wallis
God is continually loaded with respon-
sibil:ties that belong to men. There is.a |
perpetual throwing of of burdens, aeon
slant resignation of trusts, daily shirk- |
ing OF, duties. '.It is the Lords WILL !;
says the unsuccessful man in the same |
that he casts away the tools or
the material which the Lord gave him /
to achieve success with. God is respon- |
sible for the manner of a mans success /
because that is largely determined by his
but for the success itself
the man alone is always and everywhere
responsible. Talents, gifts, opportunity
are very unequaHy distributed. but the
possibilities OF energy, industry, persist
enee are shared alike by all men, and |.
these are the qualities which not only