St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1894-04-08

come the Websters and Brookses Of
their generation that those men became
what they were. hot by trying to Initiate
others. bnt by simply being what they
were. and his advice to them was, .'be
yourselves"
we find instances where this illusion
OF youth is not dlspsiled by any Of the
experiences of life, no matter how stern
s they may be. Men and women there
are who write wrytchad rliymsall their
lives. railing at an unappreciattve world,
and settling finally to the complacent
belief that more int !ligent posterity
will Go their genius justice. Time and
money are wasted OH canvas and paints
and frames, while some unconscious
daubSter imagines that he or She is
rivaling the masters, and the wallis of
their homes are hung with these candi-
dates for an ultimate rest in the dusty
garnet.
But such instances are but a sort of
mental measles; the period of illusion
usually lasts but little while, and dis
appears amid the activities OF maturer
life. The much more frequent instance
or the mischief wrought by this mis-
taken conception of human capabilities
is found in those cases where bowls
the Tictim of parental desire that he
follow some occupation which the parent
holds i'll esteem. and without any regard
for the aptitude of the child for it. The
professions particularly are filled with
men thus pareEtally directed to their
calling who bring to il no special apt
ness; who feel the impulse of their act
iyity toward some other pursuit, and
who never rise to eminence i'll their
calling. Without the courage to break
away from their mistaken work; with
out perhaps recognizing the meaning of
their liking for some other vocation,
they plod intellectually along, seeing
other men pass them and reach an emf
nence their own failure to reach which
they are apt to ascribe to any other than
the right cause.
NO fact OF human existence stands
out so clear and unmistakabie as the
inequality of human endowments. 10
every child that is born is given the ca
pacity to do some one thing better than
1t can do anything else. With it may
be capability to do other work credita-
bly,, but like some peak in mountain
range some one faculty towers above
and oyershadOws the others. Work
when directed by this predominant fac
ulty becomes not labor, but pleasure.
The person doing that which he can
best do does it with a zest which is not
equaied by any of the pleasures of life.
Edison works in his laboratory at Menlo
Park the whole night through, trying to
snatch from Nature one more of her Sc
crets, and experiences no sense of bod.
lily WEAKNESS, because his work is
simply the activity Of his aptitude, the
exercise of which brings only pleasure.
When we shall have reached that de-
iightfully impossible age whose picture
Bellamy has SO charmingly drawn. one
great difficulty of this problem will have
been solved by the institution of schools
with competent teachers trained to ex-
anime and discover the peculiar and
different attributes of the children, with
view to their assignment in the in
dustrial army to the work they are best
adapted to. But today, while every one
who gives the matter thought recog-
nizeS the desirability of knowing the
leading power of the child, it has not.
that we know, been made the subject
of special investigation, and it is not
certain that Investigation would be
fruitful of any reliable results. The
sensible parent will watch zealOusly for
the indlcia OF prediction, and. if wise,
will encourage its development. What
ever he does. he will not attempt to
force the activities of the child into
vocation distasteful to it. and will prefer
to let the child choose its life work
under the operation of the law OF nat
ural selection.
The teacher referred to. and all teach
ers, might better tell their pupils that
they can be nothing more than what
they are; that they are endowed with
faculties unequally, some active, some
dormant; that their true work in life is
to develop the best that is in them; that
they can do this only by finding out as
early as may be their leading aptitude,
and thereafter give 1t full play.