The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1915-04-29
cruel knocks of the world but sooner or later each
must conquer or meet defeat at the hands OF
failure.
A TALK


came and said: Lord thou deverest unto me two
talents, behold, have gained two other talents
besides them.' And so it is today: our talents.
our geniuses, our abilities are not our own to be
misery dwarfed by misuse or perverted to base,
ignoble ends, but delegated potentialities for
the good and ennoblement of our fellow man, and
for which we are in large degree responsible.
Our every act is indestructable entity of LATENT
potentiaty for good or ill, the sum total of which
constitutes our success or failure in life.
It has been said the evil that men do live after
them and the good is often inferred with their
bones but this is but half the truth. The evil of
commission commission that man does lives
after him but the good becomes the heritage of
posterity and lives on.
Contemplate the matchless beauties of Athens
whose inimitable arts shall for hundred years to
come continue to be the admiration of the world,
as for the past thousand she has been it's teacher
Here human nature at it's best crystalized the
nobest expression of the soul in marble, in ivory
and in gold for the admiration and emulation of
generations yet unborn. Their work did not die
with them, but lives on. They were the faithful
steward in whom the talents were beautifully in
creased.
Those prncey men whose noble work they
a hundred years, have been called dead are as
much alive today as ever The prncey souls of
Calico, of Newton and of Pasteur are as much
alive to every student of science today ever Their
silent shades stalk through every hall of science
in every land, not the menancng shadow of
Macbeth, but bengnantly reckoning the devotee'
on and on to ever higher and nobler attainment.
Their work has been done but their works go on;
they have chiseled their names in tablets of stone
among the immortas.
Not alone in science are monuments of immor-
taty erected but in all the activities of life. Who
can look on the Madonnas without sensing the
soul of the artist, walk unattended through the
cathedral Of Louvain or Milan? The soul of the
architect is there and lives for posterity. The
LATENT talents in their soul crystaized into mater
al beauty and the world is better because of them
Through the efficient exercise of all normal human
faculties alone, may the world be made better
Our heart goes out in sympathy to the dwarfed
and crippled body who by reason of disease or &C.
cident over which he had no control but through
the unkindness of fate has been made to be the
barometer of public conscience, the pulse of hui
sympathy. But a feeling of admiration is
uppermost in mind when we see such an one
who has conquered the impeachment of his destiny,
and overcome the adversely of his environment
and achieved success through the right use of his
talents But far different feeling is excited in
minds when see in the strong and vigorous
body of man the infants brain, the dwarfed de-
crepit soul-the buried talent; man or woman
only in years. Pope has fttingly said: ''Were l
tall to reach the stars and grasp creation in my
span, must be measured by my soul.' The mind
is the measure of the MAN.
The sordidness of one who through Incidence
or neglect would waste his LATENT talent, or of
another who having power to lessen the burdens of
man, would withhold from his fellows geanings
that might uplift and bring blessings is only ex-
ceeded by what he would bargain in life for profit
The world is beginning to see that what ever of
talent of wealth, of ability of authority another
may hold it is not for sefish end but is held in
trust for the administration of the good of society
as a whole The miser of Silas Manner has no
progeny today.
The mightiest engineering works of all times
the nobest creations of literature, of SCIENCE or
of art have been but the material manifestations of
mental activity. The pyramids of Egypt, the
Brooklyn bridge, the Panama canal, the giant
skyscraper, the mightiest battleship, the monu-
ments of recorded thoughts, the analysis of light
the discovery and utilization of the Hertzian
waves, the growth of protoplasm in culture
medium and the transplanting organs are all ma
terialization of mental actvity-the development
of delegated talents for the use of man.
Each of you men have been endowed with
minds susceptible to impressions. How are you
using it? Be honorable with yourself Keep an