The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1900-03-08
FABRICATED MONOTONY.
The Drcnry Snmeness of Our LiveA
Is n Splendid Exhibition of
Our Power.

Hearing the wind booming abroad in
a pine wood or the surf pounding a
spit Of lonely and shifting sand, may
| be taken as typical of monotony; but
at times one feels that large part of
! life is keyed to an unvarying level of
| expression as strangely meaningless as
any natural feature of things can be.
! Our daily labor has its sing-song hum,
! like the buzz of bee or the purr of 4
! drowsy cat, when there is no Interrupt
ton, and we easily admit the impress
! sion that because work is the same all
the year round it must of course be I'M
! interesting, the business of a droning
| intelligence and a mechanical exist
! ence.
Looking steadfastly into LIES coun-
| tenance, however, is apt to disclose to
us a deeper significance flowing under
the placid surface of our experience.
! What passes before n casual gaze as
dreary monotony, depressing same
ness of sound and motion, appears to
the earnest eye splendid eXhibition of
our power-a fine mode of human ener-
| gy making for the perfect destiny Of
! the race.
Naturalsts tell us that the wind in
the treetops, making the lonesomest
| of means, has for function the gentle
swaying of the tall boles, which com
municate their motion TO the deepest
roots in the ground, thus assisting in
aerating the soil and adding racy vigor
| throughout the complicated subter-
rane tangle which feeds the whole
mighty plant 1t is not different with
us; the continual monotony of the
business of life, with its droning same
ness from day to day, somehow stirs
the spiritual part of us to the profound
est depth.
Indeed, we may distinguish genius
from the lesser endowments by its abil-
ity to make the most of what common
minds deem the merest surface drift of
opportunity, too ordinary and plenti-
full to be of any value. What we call
invention is but fresh setting togsth-
| or of verities as old as the stars and
as monotonously beautiful. Discovery
is nothing more than surprising hid
den link in a uniform chain. Not Il
machine of all mans mighty wonder
| work of mechanism has in it n single
| departure from the law of force and
motion.
Habit cnforces regularity, which is
but another name for monotony, and
we may safely assume that what we
call good breeding is the outward
manifestation of an inward habit, the
result of undertaking example, pre-
cept, practice; in a word, the monotony
of culture. Even the gorgeous sur
prises Of epoch-making genius have
flashed upon the world with
rhythmical, recurring beat, so that in
reading history we mark time by them
and keep pace with the centuries by
even and regular steps. The great
poets, painters, musicians, the states
| men, soldiers and philosophers, who
have stirred up the decps of human life
and changed the current Of civilization
here and yonder, appear, as we look
back at them, surprisingly to CORE
spond with a certain splendid plangcn
cy in the current of time which throbs
as regularly as the pulse of a strong,
calm man.
And what a fine stimulating sight it
Is to see the brave column OF to-day
pressing right on up the same monot-
onously laborious incline toward the
winlling and still infinitely distant star
of destiny! What Pythagoras heard
as the music Of the spheres was but the
rhythm of human activities. the
steady, onward, undertaking and reg
ular throbbing of life's changeless cur
rent. Law is method in operation, and
method is ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Thomp-
son, in Philadelphia Saturday Evening
| Post.
Extent of Ocean Cables.