The record-union., 1896-07-09
PERSISTENT ENDEAVOR.
The Wonderful Results That r1ay be
Accomplished.

Max Nordau notes as the chief char
acteristic of degenerates their inability
to be attentive. Their brains apparent
ly get tired and their thoughts wander.
Men who are distinguished for their in
telligence, morality and skill of hand
are of course strongly contrasted with
degenerates and one of their charac-
teristics is attention, the ability to fol-
low a line of thought or study to its
conclusion. They are men not easily
discouraged by failures, and the sue
cess which generally crowns their ef-
forts is due to persistent endeavor.
Those who have given no thought to
the subject will be astonished by OBJ
serving what marvellous results can be
accomplished through persistent prac-
tice. The gold-Ieaf beater learns
through years of patient practice to
beat out little pieces of unseen foil into
larger leaves of exceedingly thin metal
Of almost uniform thickness. The
skilled sawmaker, scorning the pat
ented saW-setS, sets the teeth of saws
by we'll l-considered blows of a hammer
on alternate teeth, and he does this not
merely with marvellous precision of aim
and uniform exertion Of force, but with
the rapidity of action of the beater of
kettle-drum. Machine cut files are
now in general use, but a quarter of
century ago files were cut by hand.
The cuts were made with a chisel, the
workman, with no guide save his sense
of touch spacing them with perfect
| regularity and making each cut the
same depth as that of it's fellows. The
highly skilled file-cutters thus made
files by hand so fine that they would
have little more abrasive power than
a piece of emery paper. Years of prac-
tice and persistent endeavor are re-
quired to attain skill Of this character.
We are adj familiar with the remark
able performances of iugglers and aero
bats. THEM skill is due to patient prac-
tiee for years, and their ability appears
remarkable to us because we have not
ourselves acquired skill of that kind.
These instances of the effects of
practice and persistent endeavor in
producing skill of a high order are cited
because the jugglers and mechanics
who do things utterly beyond the pow
ers of the unframed, are not generally
men of extraordinary intelligence; they
are, on the contrary, often ignorant of
things which have no relation to their
with good evidence that patience and
persistent endeavor will enable any
man to become highly skilled in any
mechanical operation. 1t may be true
that for the arts some special natural
talent is required, but if so, the talent
| is needed only by those who aspire to
very high rank. The greater number
of successful artists. sculptors, authors
and musicians have, in fact, no special
gifts, but have made UP for this def
cheney by high cultivation Of the me-
chanical means of expression, and tech
nical skill. without genius, produces in
the long run as satisfactory results as
genius without technical skill.
| The application of these thoughts
and observations to the course of aInlbi-
tious young men and women ought to
| be obvious, but it will be as we'll, per-
| haps. to make it perfectly plain. If
| it be true that practice and persistent
endeavor will enable one of ordinary
intelligence to attain such a high de-
gree of skill in some specially as to
make him remarkable among men, and
| if it be also true that even to the arts
technical skill counts for as much as
| talent, then every ambitious young man
and woman should feel encouraged to,
persistent endeayorS to master the
trade or art he or she has determined
to follow. There will be many discour-
| az ements, of course. 1t will seem at
first impossible to guide and control the
hand with sufficient delicacy and pre-
cision to accomplish desired results, but
we know by observation, if not by ex-
perience that the most stubborn hand
Will yield to practice, and that persist