Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1883-09-27

WHAT is THE UsE?-A group of girls
We're talking one day of a girl acquaint-
ance, whose requirements were uncom-
mon for her age and sex. As some one
named over the list of languages, an
cient and modern, in which the young
woman was verSed, one of the listeners
exclaimed: swell, what's the use of it
alp" Various replies came: 1.-The
same use that your flower painting is, ;"
because she likes it, and so on. The
questioner was silenced, yet scarcely sat
islied. Many another girl, the writer
inclines to think, might put the same
query, which needs and deserves fuller
answer than it deserves on this occa-
sion; for the particular question imme-
diately suggests larger one: What is
the use of any intellectual pursuit? To
the questioner the girl linguist's occu-
patton seemed strangely uninviting and
protitless. By her own crewel work
and china painting she not only pleased
herself, but, rs she believed, gave pleas
ure to others, who could appreciate
these reproductions of the lovely forms
and colors of natural things. What
pleasure could any one either take or
give by delving among the roots of Ian
guage? To answer her in word, one
might say: My dear girl, the pleasure
and the profit of all mental effort is in
the effort ITSELF in the fact that by it
the mind grows as it was meant to
grow, expands to the full measure of its
own capacity. You may take 1t for GER
tain that, just as the muscles of your
h0dv uvop1l haacp,a Efalo-c anI ,,colace,
If you should cease to work them, in the
same way any of your mental or spirit
ual faculties will become paralyzed if
they are not actively used. The mind
seldom Uears out from overwork; it of
ten rusts out from want of work. Moth
ing that is worth having can be had
without labor. There is no royal road
to learning; neither is there to any other
thing one cares to possess. If one
wants to be loved, he must himself love,
and give, if he wishes it to be given to
him, of material or immaterial goods.
Think for a moment what you are, or,
rather, what your Creator intended you
to be. You are mind, soul, heart;
your body is not you, but yours. A
thinking, feeling, willing person-that
is what you are; and, unless you are
ready to remain a nonentity in Gods
universe, you would like to think, feel.
and will TO some purpose, not feebly
and aimlessly, but strongly, fully, nobly,
gladly.
To be less than what we were meant
to be, to consent to stay smaller,
more Insignificant creature than we
might be, who wants that? God meant
us to be good deal, and so many of
us are content 10 be so little. 1t is as
though some one came and said to us:
Look! Here is spacious palace.
You are free to wander through its
countless rooms and enjoy its treasures
of art; from its broad windows you
may gaze over the vast surrounding do
main and delight your soul with its
never-failing, never-wearying abund-
ance of beauty And some of us re-
ply: Thank you; but | am content to
stay where | am, in my one dark little
room. 1t is rather plainly and scantily
furnished, it is true; but then, You
know, | am used to it and its baroness
doesn distress me- Open wide every
window of the soul, if you want to know
what living means and the highest en-
joyment of your life. Every added in
terest that can be brought into our
lives, interests for the heart and for
the mind, adds new reason for living.
What is the use of living as the ami
mails do, to eat, to sleep, TO work when
they are driven to it, to stumble through
the days in stupid. senseless fashion?
We are not all born alike. We have
our differing gifts and tastes. We need
not all labor for the same things; only
labor for something, enjoy something.
Ii you prefer not to study languages.
but to do something else, you are free
to choose; but do not ask what is the
use of such study. 1t is the opening
of another window for the mind. No