The daily morning Astorian. [volume] (Astoria, Oregon) 1883-1899, 1888-09-23
LIGHTS UNDER BUSHELS.
The Great Herd OF Copyists-Faith in Ones
Self-Persistence.

If your faith in your power, your conf
dence in yourself, or your idea or plan
are destroyed or weakened by the first
sneer or voice of opposition it meets, you
are hiding yourself and your light under
the bushel. You will remember that
large proportion of the world are mere
copyists. They do only what others have
done before them and only what they
have learned from others. They oppose
and sneer at every new idea, and after
ward applaud it and use it, when the
man or woman who will not allow their
light to be hid under the bushel force it
into notice and success. In days past
the great herd of copyists sneered and
ridiculed the idea of steam as motive
power on land and sea. So they did with
the electric telegraph and the telephone.
So it will be with hundreds of new ideas,
new inventions and new powers to be de-
veloped in the near future.
These ultra conservative deadweights
in every business, art or profession, do
not like changes. They are welded to
their rut. They don't want to get out of
| it. To do so makes them homesick. Be-
sides, it hurts their business. They want
to jog on in the good old way''-ln the
stage coach instead of the railroad, in
II
steamer. They oppose the new as natur-
ally as rats and earwigs oppose the en-
trance of light to their underground habi-
| tations, and for a similar season. The
light annoys them. 1t drives them off.
It ruins their business. They ''love dark
ness better than light" Hence they want
your light "under bushel.o
If you allow them to keep your light
under that bushel they will keep you
under it also. Theywi keep you always
in the background. If the first Napoleon
had not by force of will ridden over the
objections of the veteran martinets who
opposed his new methods of warfare, he
would never have triumphed at Marengo
and Austerlitz. If Cyrus w. Field had
not persistently kept his mind centered
on the project of the ocean cable despite
sneer, obstruction and failure after fail
ure, it might not have been laid to-day
The glow of every new light upon the
world is always the work of one man OF
a very few men against the many. Three
or four men in California, years ago
built the Pacific railroad. They first
kindled their light in dingy Sacramento
grocery. They kept it lighted and also
were Indifferent, or dared not take hole
of such an undertaking.
You had no need to bluster or bully
your light to the front. 1t is not the
force of physical effort or speech thai
will carry it there and keep it there. L
is the silent force of a persistent determin
alton, bent on one single aim. WheI
you are temporarily overcome and tiret
out through the opposition of the dead
weights and earwigs who love darkness
fall back on yourself and the power be
hind you. Leave the crowd, leave all no
in sympathy with you. Go to your room
seclude yourself. Sleep, and before yol
sleep, demand, pray, desire more power
to cope with opposition. 1t will surel,
be given to you. How, we know not
but you will enter on the contest to-mor
row with renewed strength, and the silen
power you gain in this way Will, of itself
work results for you.
In the past thousands of "lights" have
by this dead weight, run in a rut, live il
a rut and die in a rut sentiment an(
crushing out force, been hidden unde
bushels and died out under bushels
Actors of genuine humor and talent ar
to-day playing in third rate theaters o
accepting inferior parts in first-clas
once because they have allowed sneer o
opposition or q more or less failure Il
drag their minds into that permanen
discouraged, disheartened attitude whicl
is always saying: whats the use O
trying? Luck's against me-Fm bount
to fail, anyway On the heels of thii
comes drink, to ''drown care"
So it is with thousands of other actor
in all the parts of life. Their own per
manent state of mind is the real and onl,
force which keeps their eight under thu
bushel." They use their own forct
against themselves. They expend it il
talking and complaining to others. The,
have no knowledge or faith in tie fac
that a mind decided and determined OF
purpose at all times and in all places
a mind that fights off the mood of des
pondency and discouragement as it woult
fight off a mad dog-carries and uses tn,
greatest of all powers to keep its ligh
shining and keep it ever in the front.