The citizen. (Honesdale, Pa.) 1908-1914, 1911-03-24

the personal opinions which appear
in this column
THE PRICE OF SUCCESS.
Editor of The Citizen:
There is but one method of at
tanning excellence and that is hard
labor. The notices of great men
often give us glimpses of the secret
of their characters and success.
Work! Work! Work." was the mot
to of Sir Joshua Reynolds, Daniel
Wilkie, and scores of other men who
have left their marks upon the
world. Voltaires motto was "Tou-
jouis au travail (always at work..
Scott's maxim was Never be doing
nothing" Michael Angelo was
wonderful worker. He even slept in
his clothes, ready to spring to his
work as soon as he awoke. He kept
block of marble in his bedroom
that he might get up in the night
and work when he could not sleep.
His favorite device was an old man
in go-cart with an hour-glass upon
it bearing this inscription: "Ancora
imparo" (still I'm learning). Even
after he was blind he would ask to
be wheeled into the Belvedere, to
examine the statues with his hands.
Daniel Webster said: Il have work
ed for more than II hours a day for
fifty years." Charles James Fox
became a great orator, yet few peo-
pie outside of his personal friends
had any idea of how he struggled to
perfect himself in the art of all
arts" He never let an opportunity
for speaking or self-culture pass un-
inv
been found almost daily for years in
some old Virginia barn, declaiming
to the cattle for an audience. He
said: Never let day go by with
out exercising your power of speech"
Caesar controlled men by exciting
their fear; Cicero by captivating
their affections and swaying their
passions. The influence of one per-
ished with its author; that of the
other continues to this day. Beech
er used to practice speaking for
years in the woods and pastures.
Work or starve," is natures mot
! to,-and it is written on the stars
and the sod alike,-starve mental
Ily, starVe morally, starve physically.
1t is an inexorable law of nature
that whatever is not used, dies.
Nothing for nothing" is her max
i'm. If we are idle and shiftless by
chance, we shall be nerveless and
powerless by necessity. We are the
sum of our endeavors. Our reward
is in the race we run, not in the
prize. A Southern student at An
dover bought some wood, and went
to Professor Stuart to learn whom
he could get to saw it. Il am out
of job of that kind" said Mr.. Stu
art; Il will saw it myself" Do not
choose your life-work solely for the
money that you can make by it;
rather choose your life-work for the
good that you can put into it with
| the realization that you are endow-
! ing yourself with the higher intelli-
gence which fits all men for the
everlasting existence beyond the
grave. The Creator might have CIV
en- us our bread ready-made. He
might have kept us in luxurious
Eden forever; but he had a grander
and nobler end in view when he
created man, than the mere satisfac-
tion of his animal appetite and pas
sions. There was a Divinity within
man which the luxuries of Eden
could never develop. There was an
inestimable blessing in that curse
which drove him from the garden,
and compelled him forever to earn
his bread by the sweat of his brow.
! 1t was not without significance that
| the Creator concealed our highest
happiness and greatest good beneath
the sternest difficulties, and made
their attainment conditional upon a
struggle for existence. Our motive
| power is always found in what we
! lack. Never feel above your busi-
ness. All legitimate occupations are
respectable. The ploughman may be
Cincinnatus, or a Washington, or
he may be brother to the clod he
! turns.
"Laboremus" 1--WE must work. was
the last word of the dying Emperor
Severus, as his soldiers gathered
around him.
Labor" achievement" was the
| great Roman motto, and the secret
of her conquest of the world. The
greatest generals returned from
their triumphs to the plough Agri-
culture was held in great esteem, and
it was considered the highest COM
! pliment to call a Roman a great ag-
riculturist. Many of their family
names were derived from agricultur-
al terms, as Cicero from "Cicer," a
chick pea, and Fabeus from "Jaba," +"
a bean, etc. The rural tribes held
the foremost ranks in the early days
of the Empire. City people were
regarded as the indolent, nerveless
race. Rome was a mighty nation
while industry led her people, but
when her great conquest of wealth
and slaves placed her citizens above
the necessity of labor, that moment
her glory began to fade; vice and
corruption, induced by idleness,
doomed the proud city to an igno-