The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1892-06-09

remained but to write and now the hands
fail and carry with them the head. ~
We have been considering the physical
basis of intellectual life, and now we will
view its moral aspect. Men are attract
ed to literature, science and the fine
arts by the stimulus they give, but a
tradesman finds a fully equivalent intoXi-
cation in an addition of figures showing
poet is intoxicated with the love of poet
~ and a young mechanical genius by
the sight of locomotive. Everything
that is capable of exciting OF moving man,
everything that fires his enthusiasm, every
thing that sustains his energies above the
dead level of merely animal existence, may
be compared to the action of wine. The
two most powerful mental stimulants are
religion and patriotism. This ardent state
of feeling enables men to bear much, to
perform much which would be beyond
their natural force, ii it We're not sustain
ed by powerful mental stim1llants.
The Bishop of Exeter says that: ''Of all
work that produces results nine tenths
must be drudgery. There is no work,
from the highest to the lowest. which can
be done we'll by any man who is unwillin g
to make that sacrifice
shadowy imagining of a new poem was
fool S delicious paradise, the labor of act
ual composition was something altogether
different. He took the greatest pains in
long and laboriously preparing himself by
reading, to form storehouse of illustra-
tions purely Oriental, and to so familiar
ize himself with its various treasures, that
quick as fancy required the aid of fact in
her spiritings, the memory was ready to
furnish materials for the spell work.
No one ever eminently succeeds i'll music
or painting without patient submission to
a discipline far from attractive CT enter
tanning. All great artists, without excep-
ton, have been distinguished for their
firm faith in steady well directed labor.
The clever artist disclosing some of the
secrets Of his craft says troublesome spots
must be removed as patiently as possible.
If one or two remain in spite OF us we turn
them into birds. In the labor OF the line
engraver patience and humility are devel-
oped to the pitch OF perfect heroism. He
sits down to a great surface OF steel OF
{ aud tla,- oft ,t.,X- Nynnl. fro,
week, month after month ploughs slowly
his marvellous lines.
OF all the tolls in which men engage.
none are noble1 in their aim than those by
which they endeavor to become more wise.
Whenever the desire for greater wisdom
is earnest enough to sustain men in these
high endeavors there must be both hu-
mility and faith; the humility which ac-
knowledges present insutficiency, the faith
that relies upon the mysterious laws which
govern our intellectual being There has
been great moral strength in all who have
come to intellectual greatness. During
some brief moments OF insight the mist
has rolled away, and they have beheld,
like a celestial city. the home of theil
sstence of the intellectual in other ages
that the world owes the treasures which
they won. 1t is by a like persistence that
we may hope to hand them down, aug
mentetl. to the future.
Sir Arthur Helps says much Of the best
and greatest work III the world has been
done by those who We're anything but
docile in their youth. Another popular
modern writer has encouraged us by civ
ing a long list of ounces Who have become
illustriou>. But we cannot quite forget
the very numerous Instances Of ,iistin-
guished persons who gained their first
laurels i'll school and college life. Whether
a boy happens to be a Ounce at school OF a
youth OF brilliant promise, his future in
tellectual career Will depend very much on
his moral force. Many eminent men have
undergone the discipline of business,
many, like Franklin. have been self dis
ciplined; but all who have risen to intel
lectual eminence have voluntarily submit
ted to an intellectual discipline of some
kind
You cannot, by an effort of the WILL
hope to rival the brilliance of a genius, but
you may quite reasonably expect to obtain
as complete control over your own facul-
ties and your own work as any other high
ly cultivated person. The object of intel
lectual discipline is the establishment of a
strong central authority in the mind, by
which all its powers are regulated and di-
rected, as the military forces of a nation
are directed by the strategist who arranges
the operations of war. To establish this
central authority it is only necessary, in
any vigorous and sound mind, to exercise
it. Writers of imaginative literature have
found in practice that even the creative
| faculty might be commanded. We bring
ourselves by the help of discipline to face
petty details that are wearisome, ard heavy
tasks that are almost appalling. Nothing
| shows the power of discipline more than
the application Of the mind in the com
mon trades and professions to subjects
which have hardly any interest in them