496 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



THE VALUE OF ACCOMPLISHMENTS. 



By WILLIAM A. EDDY. 



SEVERAL years ago, Dr. Bellows delivered an able address at an 

 annual meeting of the Mercantile Library Association of New- 

 York, in which he claimed that literary culture had increased the busi- 

 ness capacity of the clerks who used the library. This will be readily 

 admitted. But the question of improvement has moral significance 

 aside from the advantage of a certain quickness or readiness of thought 

 due to mental discipline. It is a law of the mind as well as of the 

 physical structure that repetition of original or skillful action results 

 in increased strength and efficiency, or in a stronger tendency to fol- 

 low higher forms of thought and amusement. It is true that the pro- 

 portion of moral action that which is sane and proper to the mind 

 can not be represented arithmetically. Nevertheless, the higher kinds 

 of thought may occujjy in a general way an increasingly large propor- 

 tion of the available time. But, as we can not set a definite limit, it is 

 evident that at the present stage of development we are not justified 

 in concluding that any system for displacing immorality can result in 

 anything like perfection ; all we can claim is that taking a vast gen- 

 eral average ^higher tastes lessen the action of lower. The question 

 of proportion is not so important, however, as the suj^remacy of a 

 tendency, which in nature sometimes results in immense accumulations 

 of power. 



Men are at present in a state of imperfect self-control, and it is 

 necessary that recreation should involve improvement, not only by 

 keeping them out of mischief, but by establishing higher tastes. It is 

 a gratifying fact that there is pleasure in any exercise of skill in art, 

 in its subdivisions of sculpture, music, literature, or in the wonderful 

 manifestations of natural phenomena inadequately grasped by the sci- 

 ences. The enthusiasm with which art and science are usually fol- 

 lowed is like that seen in children who carry out an original idea dur- 

 ing play. The higher forms of action are thus spontaneous, and 

 involve originality and force. This applies to small accomplishments 

 as well as great from the construction of ingenious devices for exhi- 

 bition at a country fair to the work of Shakesjieare, Beethoven, and 

 Michael Angelo. 



The great names of the world must not induce us to lose sight of 

 the seemingly trifling manifestations of this force seen in original 

 work followed according to liking, and known as accomplishments. 

 It is to be regretted that this spontaneous action so rarely finds that 

 full expression observed in men of genius in whom it overflows all 

 bounds or obstacles. Some conditions can not be modified, so that 



