The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1888-12-13
Inherited Mental Powers.

Many people are very 10th TO acknowledge
that they owe all that they hold dear in their
own mental and spiritual condition 10 the be-
/ nign influence surrounding them from their
| earliest wears. But they somehow seem to
| think that by virtue of inherited mental pow
/ erS. they could have fitted themselves for a re-
spectacle position in this enlightened land, even
though they had been brought up among Hot
tentots and had never seen civilized person.
Children when early separated from their
parents have no means of learning the ways of
their ancestors hut almost invariably develop
/ habits Of thought similar to their associates.
No one noticing how the little child strives to
initiate grown people in the pronunciation of
words, aud fashion, all its PLAYS after models
exhibited in the surrounding world. can doubt
that the embryotc mind is shaped in its de-
Nelopment more 10y surrounding influences than
by any Inherited tendency.
Milton of whom Wordsworth speaks as
"s0ul awful, if this world has ever held an
awful soul" credits his instructor with having
infused into his pupil taste for classic litera-
ture and poetry. Milton. far from inheritiug
his mental grandeur, toiIed for it day and night.
Emerson says, Works of the intellect are
great only by comparison with each other. but
nothing i great, not mighty Homer and Mil
tOn-be>ile Infinite reason. The whole value
of history. Of biography. is to increase nv
~ef-trust, by demonstrating What man can be
and do. Seeing what Plato was and Shakes
peare and Milton. also will essay to be. The
resources OF the scholar are proportoned to
li> confidence in the attributes of the intellect.
The resources of the scholar are coeXtenSive
with nature and truth. yet can never be his un-
less claimed by him with an equal greatness of
mind. The humblest and most hopeless in
view of these facts may now theoriZe and
hope. BY virtue of the Deity thought renewS
Itself ineNhau>tibly every day. True phoso-
ply deals with the universal attribute of man
instead Of individual distinction.
hen Demo>theneS was asked tie chief part
of an orator. he replied: Action" What
neXt"" Action" "W hat neNt:" "Action." He
who had every obstacle to overcome-impedi-
mcnt in his speech and unsracefu appearance
could well answer in this way Though one of
the greatest orators who ever lived he did not
attribute his success to Inherited powers.
Bacon. the father of our present system of
philosophy. says that neither nature nor the
engagement of words so forcibe as Gus
tom; custom only doth alter and Subiue nature.
Prcuomlnancy Of custom is everywhere visible.
ina>murh a> a man would wonder to hear men
profess. protest. engage. give great words and
then do just As they have dore before. Natural
ahItle> are Ike natural plants that need priiu-
ing hy study. and studies themselves do give
forth directions too much at large except they
he bounded 10y experience.
Spencer teaches that the processes ti- i-,,layeI
49,
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