The Republican., 1890-07-25
THE ASPIRING MAN.
He Is Bound to Grow in Strength, KnovI.
edge and Usefulness.

He Is Bound to Grow in Strength, Knowl-
edge and Usefulness.
The one thing which the world is
always asking for is to be let alone. II
opposes change because it hates to. be
disturbed. Even when it feels that
things are in bad way and ought to be
remedied, it is unwilling that ANYBODY
should take hold and make transforma.
tion, because the very process involves
disturbance of habit Inertia is the bane
of the great mass of excellent men and
women, who in their hearts want to see
the best results secured, but who dislike
above every thing to have their peace or
comfort disturbed. If mere comfort were
the end of living, aspiration would be a
quality which all wise men and women
would shrink from possessing; but since
growth and develo pment and character
form the end of living, aspiration is one
of the things that ought to be cher.
ished most carefully. The aspiring man
or woman is rarely entirely comforta.
BILE. 1t is to the future that such people
look, and they are quite ready to sacrifice
the present for it. Aspiration is an in
veterate traveller; home-staying in the
sense of forming comfortable habits and
resolutely holding to them is no part of
its life. The aspiring man is never sat
isfied with any thing that he has secured
or done. He is not discontented; he is
often the most cheerful and buoyant of
men; but he is dissatisfied. There is a
divine impulse in him which forever
impels him forward, and makes it inr,
possible for him to rest in any present
attainment. While other people are
settling down on the good they have
achieved and the work they have done,
he is already putting these things be-
hind him and pressing forward to new
endeavors. He is never looking for the
time when he shall rest, because rest in
the sense of the cessation from work
and retirement from activity is the one
thing that is intolerable to him; he is
always looking forward to the time
when he shall work with greater IA
cility, with less friction, and with
larger fruifulnes. A man like Mr..
Gladstone, who refuses to retire,
and whose indefatigable energy still
seeks new channels of activity, is
really offensive to good many men who
can not understand why man should
be always stirring up instead of letting
them rest, and making the world un-
comfortable by the diffusion of new
ideas. Men of genius, as long as they
are true to themselves, are always men
of aspiration, and it is the men of aspir-
alton who save the world from becoming
fen of stagnant waters. They are al
ways shocking it into some sort of
activity, goading it's conscience into re-
volt against some wrong, puncturing it's
PhiliStinism with wit or satire until it
sees that its standards are low and its
aims vulgar, and is ready to receive
something better. The aspiring man is
not always the most comfortable man in
the community, bnJ he is always the
noblest, and, in the truest sense, the
happiest. He is often misunderstood
and criticised, but in the end the good
which he does silences even his critics.
The only real satisfaction in life comes
from that progress which registers a
growth in strength, knowledge and use
fulness.
When men cease to move they begin
to die, and there are many who fail vic
tins to that fatal lethargy which steals
over them as the cold benumbs those
who yield to its power. Philip Sidney
said long ago that ''the intellectual
faculty is opposed by comprehensive
truth only when it feels that it is there
by advancing nearer to incomprehensi-
BILE truth" Tho joy of conquest is
never in possession, but is always in
achievement, and that which we gain
serves its highest purpose when we use
it as standing room from which to make
another ad ncement.-Christian Union.