The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1913-02-25
says UNCLE CIV

He who initiates is lost. No two
men are cut by the same pattern,
| and no two fitted to produce exactly
the same work. The stamp Of merit
Is individuality-not that there Is any
particular merit in being different
from another, but because he that Is
honest with himself and gives to the
world the best that is in him does by
that very act produce that which is
different from the work of all other
men.
The vice in imitation lies in the
fact that in following a pattern we
are prone to waste our time upon
external nonessentia1s to the cost of
the less patent essentials. We begin
at the wrong end of the task. We
build down, not up, inward not out
ward.
The work of genius was ever SUBJ
jective. 1t is the expression of the
man. 1t grows like the coral coat
by coat, layer by layer, and there is
no artificial process by which the same
result can be accomplished. The imi-
tator works effectively. He is at
tempting to produce artifcially that
which another has made naturally. He
fails in that he wiIlfully perverts his
proper functions to a foreign purpose.
1t is but natural, therefore, that
he shall miss the soul of his enter
prize. 1t is impossible that he should
comprehend the finer purpose and
spirit in it. He may produce the
shell, but the life within the shell.
which was born of the masters life,
he cannot produce, since 1t is not in
him.
Moreover, the discernment of the
imitator is ever faulty. He lacks con-
fdence in himself, or he would not
be an ape. Lacking confidence, ne
dares not brand as vicious that which
is defective in the masterpiece. He has
neither the knowledge nor the moral
courage to separate the wheat from
the chaff. So he accepts the whole of
the masters work, and, being by ma
ture a worshiper of the false and
dashy, he is more likely than not to
exaggerate the defects of the original
while he sights his copy of its points
of excellence.
The moral is that the time wasted
in imitation had much better be APP
Piled to the mastery of ones craft
that if one thus pursues the part OF
wisdom one in time will gain skill
that will bring with it the moral cour-
age of independence, which is neces-
sary to individualistic work
There was a man once who had
learned the blacksmith's trade in the
old way and who knew little of the
new machines which make the labors
of his craft easy. When the modern
inventions came in he, still in his
prime, found himself without EMPLOY
ment. Then came man with brains
who knew something of art.
Can you make andirons as Won
make horseshoes?" he asked
II can, but the machine product ia
so cheap that ] cannot sell them for
enough to pay for MY labor rnIon
less the iron-"
You can sell them to people who
know artistic andirons-or, better. Won
make them and I will sell them r.
the people who know about these
things for ten times the price of the
machine product"
The venture was a success The
man who made andirons in his own
way retired with a competence, while
the machine assisted imitators CON
-inued to work for the union scale.
His work was subjective il was real
t was original, it was the reflector
IF himself. He who initiates NAV Ixeen
body and soul together, but in the
ace for pre-eminence heis lost.-(Copy-
light, 1913. by the Mcclure NEWSPAPER
5yndicate-)