Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1888-07-06
LIGHTS UNDER BUSHELS.
The Great Herd of Copyists-Faith In
Ones seif-Persistence.

The Great Herd OF Copyists-Faith In
Ones seif-Persistence.
IF your faith In your power, your con-
fidence 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 tele-
phone. So it will be with hundreds of
new ideas, new inventions and new pow
ers to be developed 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
III IL. ~ uO 81 O1tlll IlOultSlCh,
Besides, 1t hurts their business They
want to jog on in the "good old way
in the stage coach instead of the railroad,
in the sailing packet" instead of the
steamer. They oppose the new as
naturally as rats and earwigs oppose the
entrance Of light to their underground
habitations, and for similar reason.
The light annoys them. 1t drives them
off. 1t ruins their business. They Glove
darkness better than light" Hence,
they want your light ''under busbel."
If you allow them to keep your light
under that bushel they will keep you
under it also. They will keep you al
ways In the background. If the first
Napoleon had not by force of will ridden
over the objections Of the veteran marti-
nets 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
conferred on the project Of the ocean cable
despite sheer, obstruction and failure
after failure, it might not have been laid
today. The glow of every new light
upon this world Is always the work Of
OIlS ulctu VI a NCly lew Llcll dtdilloI tilc
many. Three or four men in California,
years ago, built the Pacific railroad
They first kindled their light in dingy
Sacramento grocery. They kept 1t
lighted and also kept pushing it to the
front, while others were indifferent, or
dared not take hold of such an undertake
ing.
You had no need to bluster or bully
your light to the front. 1t Is not the
force of physical effort or speech that
will carry it there and keep it there. 1t
is the silent force of a persistent determi-
nation, bent on one single aim. When
you are temporarily overcome and tired
out through the opposition Of the dead
weights and carvings who love darkness,
fall back on yourself and the power be-
hind you. Leave the crowd, leave all
not in sympathy with you. Go to your
room, seclude yourself. Sleep, and be-
fore you sleep, demand, pray, desire more
power to cope with opposition. 1t will
surely be given to you. How. we know
not, but you will enter on the contest to-
morrow with renewed strength, and the
silent 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 In
a rut and die in a rut sentiment and
crushing out force, been hidden under
bushels and died out under bushels.
Actors of genuine humor and talent are
today playing in third rate theatres OF
accepting inferior parts in first class ones
because they have allowed sheer or op-
position or a more or less failure to drag
their minds into that permanent dis
couraged. disheartened attitude which l.;
always saying: whats the use Of try
ing? Luck's against me-I'm bound to
fail, anyway On the heels of this
comes drink. to 'drown care"
So it is with thousands of other actors
in all the parts of life. Their own per-
manent state of mind is the real and only
force which keeps their eight under the
bushel." They use their own force
against themselves. They expend it in
talking and complaining to others. They
have no knowledge or faith in the fact
that a mind decided and determined on a
purpose at all times and in all places
mind that fights off the mood of despond
ency and encouragement as it would
fight off mad dog-carries and uses the
greatest Of all powers to keep its Ggh,
shining and keep it ever in the 'front.'
Prentice Milford in New York Star