The daily morning journal and courier., 1899-12-04
The Great Value of Solitude.

We desire this day to inflict piece
 of advice upon our readers. It is in-
 tended especially for the young, for
 those who have still to get their growth,
 whose characters and possibilities are
 forming.
 Get away from the crowd when you
 can. Keep yourself to yourself, if only for few hours daily.
 Full growth, individual growth, spec
 ia development, rounded mental oper- ations-all these demand room, separa-
 tion from others, solitude, self-examin-
 ation and the self-reliance which eoll- 1 tude gives.
 The finest tree is the huge one that stands off by itself in the open plain. Its branches spread wide. It is a com
 plete tree, better for looks and better l for timber than the cramped tree in
 the crowded forest.
 The animal to be admired is not that
 which runs in herds, the gentle brows-
 ing deer or foolish sheep, thinking only as fraction of the flock, incapable
 of personal independent direction. It's | the lonely prowling lion or the big black leopard with the whole world for his pIINdlc llcIu tUdI IS WOILH loOhlnk al. It Is not the man who grows up in herd, deer-like, thinking with the herd, acting with the herd, that ever amounts to anything. Do you want to succeed? Grow in solitude, work, develop in solitude, with books and thought and nature for friends. Then, if you want the crowd to see how fine you are, come back to it and boss it if it will let you.
 About one thing do not be fooled for minute:
 Constant craving for indiscriminate company is sure sign of mental weak ness.
 Schopenhauer--a sour genius, but a genius-speaks contemptuously of the negroes herded in small rooms unable to get enough of each others snub nosed company"
 If you enter village or small town and want to find the man or youth of ability, do you look for him leaning over the village pool table, sitting on the grocery store boxes, lounging in the smelly tavern with other vacant minds?
 Certainly not, You find him at work, if only thinking, and you find him by himself.
 Think how public institutions dwarf the brains and souls of unhappy chi- dren condemned to live in them. No | chance there for individual, separate development, Millions of children have grown up in such places millions of | sad nonentities.
 Here is what Goethe says, true, as usual:
 "Es bildet ein Talent sich in der | Stille, Doch ein Charakter in dem l Strom der Welt" (Talent is developed in solitude, character in the rush of the world.)
 You wonder why so much ability | comes from the country--why a Lin coin comes from the backwoods while you, fiourishing in a great city, can barely keep your place as a typewriter.
 The countryman has got to be by himself much of the time whether he wishes to or not. It he has anything in him 1t comes out.
 Astronomy, man's grandest study, grew up among the shepherds You of the cities never even see the stars, much less study them.
 Don't be sheep or deer Don't devote your hours to the company and of those who know as lt- -le as you do. Don't think hard only when you are trying to remember a popular song or to decide on the color { If your winter overcoat or neektie :
 Remember that you are an indi- 5idual, not grain of dust 0, a blade of grass Don't be a sheep, be man. It las taken nature a hundred million years to produce you. Don't make her 1 ,orry sha took the time. Get out in the park and walk and : hink Get up in your hall bedroom, cad, study, write what you think. Talk more to yourself and less to oth- ITS. Avoid magazines, avoid excessive newspaper reading.
 There is not man of average ability ut could make a striking career if he ould but will to do the best that is n him.
 Proofs of growth due to solitude are ndless. Miltons greatest work was { lone when blindness, old age and the { cath of the Puritan government forc- d him into completest secluson.
 Bacon would never have been the reat leader of scientific thought had :