St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1908-06-10

tons. But woe to that person who, ii
he really desires to become proficient and
to attain an high place, only follows
such Instructions all his life long, but
| does nothing more. Put two men side
bv side to work-in shop, or store, in
office or field If in time one seems TO be
outstripping the other, the reason may
not be hard to discover. He who applies
his intelligence to his work, who adds to
the common routine the regular way OF
doing it, little thot and care, who inter
ests himself in the work-that one will
inevitably command attention and adj
miration. He will in the end gain the
greater reward, for he is the more valua-
bic. Many a man has wondered why he
could not rise above his present level,
why he could not earn more. There
may be number of good reasons. But
am sure that oftentimes one good rea'
son is because the man has never learned
or never believed that brain IS worth
more than Drawn, that intelligence adds
value to skill and to muscle, that real
thotful interest in ones work IS the
surest way to advancement. Yet that
this is true everyone who has ever
watched men do any kind OF work knows.
Why, you can note it in the way men do
even the minor things-handle a shovel,
or drive a horse, or tie up a bundle, or
any of the innumerable things that we
all try at times to do. You can tell, only
by seeing a number of men together.
which of them is working intellieently.
And some of those men need not be sur
prised if some day few Of their number
are taken out and placed at a more ex-
acting or an higher grade task. For,
the world over that is the honor that is
paid to men for taking thot.
But, further STILL a mans utility is in
creased by the employment OF intell'-
gence in that he becomes thereby a more
economical, less wasteful workman.
One of the first suggestions, when we
see men working in unwise ways, is that
they are using up time and strength
faster than need be. The application of
a little sense would wonderfully Tighten
and facilitate the work. AS the writer
of the text put it, it is like working with
a blunt or dull iron. That work done
with blunt sense without sharpened
intelligence is destructive of vital force,
and is unfit work when done. But
wisdom is profitable to direct. The
mind is a great conservator otpower and
time.
This fact is to be noted also in the
way men come to failure and defeat in
life because, for the lack OF little care
full thot at the beginning of their
careers, they have taken up with the
wrong kind of work. Everyone can do
some work. And it is the duty everyone
owes to himself and to society to spend
some earnest thot, to use some intelli-
gence in choosing his work. For want
of this, as certain noted man has sug-
gested, there are square men trying to
TT into round holes, and three-cornered
men into square holes. A little wise
thinking at the outset will help one to
solve life's problem, that great problem
that confronts us all, the problem,-to
give it its commonest name-of getting a
living. For of all the bitter things a
man is left to discover in the later years
of life one of the bitterest is some sug-
gestion-faint or stronghold he has
been giving himself to a work tor which
he actually was not fitted and so has
; been Withholding the development OF his
strongest faculty-that which, had he
used it, would have given him real de-
light and satisfaction, and therefore
success. How much better would 1t
have been for shch a person to have
made a reasonable devotion OF his
talents. to have taken some thot tor the
proper employment of his powers
What regret and heartaches might have
been saved. For wisdom is profitable
to direct"
But taking thot determines not only a
mans economic usefulness to the world
but also largely his character and des
tiuv. Wisdom directs the formation o.
a mans powers. 1t also directs tc
considerable degree the formation o
his life, his manhood. 'As a mar
thinketh in his heart so is he" Now that
is very literally true, not with reference
to his conduct and habits only, but first
with reference to his physical being
Look upon the face OF person when h'
has reached middle life, look into his
eve, and you can tell the genera
character of the thots that he has
harbored in his mind. Not always
indeed very seldom-do classic feature:
lmake beautiful face. But the suffusinG
of the countenance with. soft and pur'
radiance can make the most irregular
face truly beautiful. And this comes
from the intelligent spirit, from thinking
good thots. No poet of England at hi
ACE produced such rich and splendid
verse as Keats. He died when a young