The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1900-05-04
vARIEGATED MONOT0NY.
II . Splendid Exhibition of
Our Power.

nearing JnG Wlnu OOOmluB dDIOau IN
a pine wood, or the surf pouMding 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 unyarying level OF
expression as strangely meaningless as
any natural feature of things can be.
Our daily labor has it's sing-song hum,
like the buzz of bee or the purr of a
drowsy cat, when there is no interrupt
tion, and we easily admit the impress
sion that because work is the same all
the year round it must of course be un-
interesting, the business OF droning
intelligence and mechanical exist
ence.
Looking steadfastly into Efe's coun-
tenance, however, is apt to disclose to
us a deeper significance flowing under
the placid surface of our experience
What passes before casual gaze as a
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.
Naturalists 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
i 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 it's 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 a fresh setting togeth-
er 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 a
machine Of all mans mighty wonder
work of mechanism has in it single
departure from the law of force and
motion.
Habit enforces 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 a
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 deeps of human life
and changed the current of civilization
here and yonder, appear, as we look
back at them, surprisingly to CORE
spond with certain splendid plangen-
cy in the current of time which throbs
as regularly as the pulse of a strong,
calm man.
And what 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
winking 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 monotony. Maurice Thomp-
son, in Philadelphia Saturday Evening
Post.