Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1888-11-29
coNcERNlNo AMBITION.
Why Man Should strive to the Utmost "a
Attain Excellence.

Why Man Should strive to the Utmost to
Attain Excellence.
No condition of mind has been more
soundly rated than ambition; all the
bad adjectives in the dictionary have
been flung at it. But the man who is
without ambition will soon be elbowed
and jostled aside in the race for life.
1t may be that he will be content to be
outstripped, and if his contentment
proceed from philosophy and not from
Incidence he is scarcely to be pitied.
''Discontent." says Walter Besant.
''hurts no young man, unless it is ac-
companied by laziness, when it is the
devil"
Ambition. of course. stimulates to
more strenuous and persistent effort;
but it by no means follows that the
result of the effort is in itself bene-
fetal to mankind. Take the ambitious
politician. whose thin mask of patriot
ism covers but does not conceal his
longing for the power and patronage
which Office carries with it; of what
possible advantage can his patient
watching and waiting. his obsequious
fetching and carrying. his alternate
trucking and clustering, be to the
commonwealth? Nay. what incalcu-
liable injury does it not work. as we'll
to the State rs to the Individual? On
the other hand, a worthy ambition.
legitimately pursued. may indirectly
confer the greatest benefits both on
himself.
should define healthy ambition as
being an eager desire for such pro-
fessional or social advancement as is
reasonably and fairly to be hoped for
in the scope of a mans ordinary avo-
cation, having due regard to the range
of his capacities. Alfieri, the greatest
of modern Italian poets, had the
strange ambition of being the best
runner in Italy. One of the >drollest
of our English comedians is known to
cherish an ardent desire to play
Hamlet. Othello and Macbeth. These
[ should call diseased ambitions.
My notion is that a man should strive
to the utmost to attain excellence and
good repute in his occupation, what
ever it be, and that not until that is
achieved should he allow himself to
turn aside to other pursuits. For in
stance, say that you are a shoemaker.
you feel that you have a soul above
leather; but you do not give up your
shoemaking until you have earned the
4ame of being a 6rst-rate shoemaker.
9y that time you will probably have
found that even shoemaking has its
charms; but if you are then still dis
contented shoemaker, you will have
won the right to seek for fame and
reputation in some other pursuit. /
do not say. let not the shoemaker go
beyond his last, but let him at any rate
stick to his last until he is the king of
cobblers.
To sum up, I advocate a healthy,
generous ambition-that is to say. the
desire and the will to reach. by fair
and honest means, the highest posi-
ton that is attainable in ones occupa-
ton. Nor, if you find your sphere too
cramped, would / dissuade you from
beginning the world anew in some
more promising and congenial pur-
suit. But unhealthy ambition, a pas
sion for success in one line simply be-
cause from lack of energy you have
failed in another, L distinctly depre-
cate; and immoral ambition, which
either justifes the means by the end,
or PROCESSES a cynical Indifference as
to whether the means are just or I'M
just, is of course to be unreservedly
oondomnod - Mites for Rome