The Daily bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Hawaii]) 1882-1895, 1885-06-13
EXCELSIOR.

Restlessness is one of the charac.
teristics of the human mind. No
one, but an idiot, can have mind
at rest. 1t is we'll enough to say,
sometimes, that person is thought
less, but this never conveys the idea
of absolute mental inactivity. What
ever the constitution of the mind is,
it cannot exist, in healthy state,
without being occupied. With no
other matter to engage it, it turns
in upon itself and becomes wreck.
The unfortunate victim Of nothing to
think about is apt to so mad; and
so is the not less unfortunate victim
of circumstances, who has too much
to think about. The happy medium
is when a person can engage his
thoughts to the full without getting
beyond his own capacity to think.
Activity of mind produces action.
If there is no action, there is no
evidence that the mind is cXcrting
Itself otherwise than in very weak
ly manner. And the more activity
there is in the realm of mind, the
more results appear in the prosecu-
ton of the various enterprises of
human life. People who are inces-
sanity thinking, planning and dis
cussing are generally the same pco-
pie who are executing. Such people
are never satisfied. The success of
one project only whets their appetite
for still further achievement. Their
only hopes Of being satisfied with
their present condition lie wholly in
their determination to get away from
it. If they are pleased, they are
certain to devise some scheme which
they they think will yield them an
increased measure of satisfaction.
If they are defeated; like the North
American Indian " they won't stay
thrashed." Defeat must be retrieved.
Success must 60 on to greater sue
cess. There is no land flowing with
milk and honey so plentifully as to
repress the suggestion that some
other region yields natures wealth
in yet greater abundance. The dis
covery of some great truth in science
becomes new lever for overturning
the elements of nature to uproot
additional revelations. Fresh tri.
umphs won by art arc but evidences
of the unlimited possibilities within
her reach. The engineer who bridges
q chasm in the mountains cannot
sleep until he has demonstrated the
practicability of stretching highway
across the continent. The nation
that secures good political consti-
tuition, after perhaps a bloody strug-
gle, is forthwith in hotbcd of agita-
ton until it is amended, improved,
re-amended and amended again.
Such is the nature of the human
mind, never at rest, never satisfied,
but ever striving after something
greater, and something better. And
it is among those races of mankind
the most clearly distinguished by
these features of neyer-ceasing rest
lessness that civilization had its
origin, and became an aggressive,
irresistible, and expansive force in
the world. In those regions, where
both sacred and profane history re.
cord the most vigorous developments
of mental activity, there the rising
star of empire appeared in the hori
Zon and thenceforth moved resist
lessly forward on its western way
The Aryan migration of prehistoric
times formed the nucleus Of th'
great empires of Greece and Rome
The mental activity of the Greel
and the Roman has come ripping
down the ages in clear limpid streams