Idaho County free press. [volume] (Grangeville, Idaho Territory) 1886-current, 1888-05-25
MOLDING CHARACTER,

1t Can ID" Developed in SOLITUDE as Well
as in the Crush OF Life.
No ona who reads Clrlyle's story
can doubt that his character nodded
itself most in the coru arative solitude
Of his early life in E limb re and at
Craigenputock. and that some of his
most brilliant literary gifts. especially
lis graphic and humorous vivacity,
grew rapidly after his life in London,
with lis comparative bus lie and hurry.
began. All depends on what Inc de-
1cienci's are which need correcting.
If they be deficiencies in the power TO
Zeal with others, no do ibt they will be
est supplied. if the can be supplied at
all, in the great current of the worll.
But if they be deficiencies in self
conquest and self knowledge, then
to SUI ply such deficiencies it may need
period of solitary conflict such
as that oLt of which Wordsworth
emerged after his confusion at the
issue OF the French revolution had
subsidized, or that which secur. d for
Cardinal Newman opportunity for the
fermentation of his deepest religious
principles during his voyage in the
NJ 'diterranean ard his Hines in Sicily
N 1882 80. We believe that almo t as
many characters of the higher ord r
lave been nodded in stiffness as in the
crush Of life. al that almost us many
talents of the higher order-dcbating
talents. administrative talents, strjt-
sgic talents, for instance-have been
nodded in the crush of life as have
been developed in stiffness Il all de-
ponds on what the character TO
be nodded is and what the
.alcnt. There are characters which
never gain their rue significance
i'll they have passed through the fire
Of solitary conflic'. And there are
;alents which never come TO light at
all except in the collisions of active
life. Take, again Vauvcnargues' say
ing. which Mr.. Morley So much adj
mres: Great thoughts come from
the heart" Well. that is true and of
The greatest significance if it be taken
20 mcan only that men of noble intel.
lects who are deficient in large -hear-
edness win never say things to stir
man to the greatest depth; but then,
it is equally true that men of the
.argest hearts. who have not got lucid
and searching intellects. are utterly
incapable of saying them nay, that if
you compare the great thoughts of
men like Bacon. who was certainly
deficient in what is usually called
''heart" with the thoughts of men as
good even as Fenelon (who was
not at all us deficient in intel
lectual vision, though his heart
was clearly better than his head)
few would doubt that Bacon's aphor-
isms are likely to be rem embered far
longer and more widely than
Fenclo IS. To speak accurately
great thoughts are really born in the
head and not in the heart. though il
is perfectly true that the heads of
men deficient in heart miss some
thing that would have made their
greatest thoughts greater S i'll. You
might almost as we'll say that tho
pow Ell of steam is due 10 tbs fire
aloe, and ignore The water whose
expansion into vapor is the immediate
'ns 'rument through v hich the energy
works, as say that graf thought,
come from the hpar' ant not IA her
from the action OF ;he heart on the
intellect by whose agency it really eff
{ects its purpose. London Spec',,to