56 



THE FARMER'S MONTHLY VISITOR 



April, 1842. 



from him a ready solution of tlie difficulty. Tliis 

 idea of intuitive kiiowledfje in the ordinary pur- 

 suits of life is a i'a\^e one, mid lie who would suc- 

 ceed in his especial vocation must wholly aban- 

 don it. 



The earlier years of childhood are devoted to 

 the acquisition of such knowledge as is neces.sary 

 in any situation in life. All, during this period, 

 travel upon the same highway together : after 

 advancing in age to that point when it I.ecomes 

 requisite to determine what shall be the business 

 of the man, divergent paths open from the main 

 road, each of which is the legitimate route of 

 some particular calling. The flintier, the me- 

 chanic, the merchant, the divine, the lawyer and 

 the physician, each diverge into their appropriate 

 paths, and apply themselves to the acquisition of 

 the special knowledge belonging to their selected 

 vocations. 



Their future success depends vpon the degree of 

 qualification, and the use made of such qualification. 



To secure it in each, certain prerequisites are 

 necessary. Among these industry and persever- 

 ance are the most prominent. First in order 

 comes industry, w ithout which nothing great can 

 ever he accomplished ; it is a "sine qua non" in 

 all human undertakings, and there is little dan- 

 ger of placing too high an e.stimate upon its val- 

 ue. Poets, historians, warriors and statesmen 

 who have become renowned, have established 

 their characters by habits of industry. To con- 

 firm this position, recapitulate some of their 

 works and actions. Shall I direct your attention 

 to the labors of a Virgil, a Homer, a Millon, a 

 Southey, a Schiller, a Goethe, in poetry: in histo- 

 ry, to those of a Sallust and josephiisiii ancient, 

 and of a Rollin, a Robertson and a Gibbon in 

 tnodern times; the last of whom it is .said was 

 engaged forty years in writing his great work on 

 "The decline and fiill of the Roman Empire .' 



If we pause a moment and contemplate the 

 collossal work of this historian, what a multitude 

 of reflections rush in upon us, and what an in- 

 valuable lesson does it teach us ! 



In it are brought together a mass of historical 

 facts gleaned from the ponderous tomes of an- 

 tiquity and interspersed with tlie deductions and 

 reflections of the writer, to rend which is the la- 

 bor of months, to remember which hut imper- 

 fectly is the labor of years. What a Herculean 

 task, then, it must have been to collect, coniiiare, 

 arrange and illustrate these fiicts and to write out 

 those profound thoughts which resulted from 

 them ! Genius, learning, all other mental facul- 

 ties and acquirements, never could have rai- 

 sed such a monument of human excellence and 

 greatness without the aid of industry. 



Genius has been a stumbling stone to those 

 wlio supposed they enjoyed it, and a rock of of- 

 fence to others who believed they were without 

 it : it has cramped the energies and dissuaded 

 from great efforts the one, and impressed the 

 other with the belief that its possession did not 

 require protracted and at times -severe and pain- 

 ful application. 



What is genius ? It is simply great intellectual 

 power. Among individuals we find different de- 

 grees of muscular strength and varied capacities 

 for endurance; so in the same iudividual.o, differ- 

 ent degrees of mental force and powers of endu- 

 rance obtain. He who possesses a larger share of 

 mental power than the mass of mankind, is 

 styled a genius. Now a mati of feeble muscular 

 strength and with delicate health, by persevering 

 ipdustry.can in time accomplish a vast amount of 

 labor, while he with a vigorous constitution, with 

 habits of idleness, in the same period will accom- 

 plish merely nothing: so in the intellectual, one 

 widi moderate mental powers may attain excel- 

 lence and secure literary or professional fame 

 and success; while lie with the noblest gift of 

 God to man, may pass his life in obscurity and die 

 unknown, by "hiding his talents in a napkin." 



Men pass in the estimation of the world for 

 geniuses who have attained their prominent sit- 

 uation in the public eye by diligence and ine- 

 f)ressible perseverance; having moderate abili- 

 ties, they compensate for these by increased ap- 

 plication. The world, after all, contains but few 

 geniuses, and young men should know it; by 

 knowing it many will be stimulated to renewed 

 exertion, who, discouraged by their apparently 

 slow progress are about abandoning further ef- 

 fort; it will teach them the great truth that 

 " Chir doubts are traitors, 



It will teach even genius itself, that to rise it must 

 labor. 



Betbie entering into any pursuit it is well that 

 we comit the cost — essential that we (in in a just 

 estimate of oiir own powers and determine their 

 capacity lor accomplishing the end in vicnv. Al- 

 though much may be accomplished by the pres- 

 ence of the habits, to which we have alluded, 

 it must be conlijssed that in some instances the 

 intellectual powers are wholly incompetent and 

 unequal to the task. Uvery man, then, should 

 endeavor to form a just estimate of his powers; 

 this in the nature of things cannot be expected 

 to be correct, but may be sufficiently so fur all 

 useful purposes. 



One important effect of mental application i.s, 

 that it strengthens the several faculties brought 

 into use. 



To the tyro in intellectual labor, long continu- 

 ed thought is jiainful. At first, he launches his 

 bark upon its sea willi a trembling hand and 

 dares not venture ought of sifiht of liinil. He is 

 yet to learn the managciiiciit dl' his liiile craft 

 and acquaint himself wiili the use t.\{' the com- 

 pass, the quadrant and the chionoineler before 

 he boldly pushes fbrlh upon the boundless waters 

 to some distant port. 



His first cruises are short and require liltle ef- 

 fort: success crowning these, his confidence in 

 himself justly increases; he makes longer voya- 

 ges until at last no place is too distant for him to 

 altempt to reach if it offers inducements sufficient 

 to compensate for the trial. 



Education has more effect in forming the man 

 than is usually conceded. 



The intellect of a Newton, that discovered the 

 laws of gravitation — those laws which hold the 

 material universe together, born in China, might, 

 with her greatest philosophers, have supposed 

 ihat the earth was a square body, — that it was 

 motionless — and that the sun, nioon and stars 

 performed diurnal revolutions around it. Lu- 

 ther, born in Hindoo, would have offered his ob- 

 lations at ilie sfnine of a Juggernaut and endow- 

 ed a senseless block of wood with the attributes 

 of a god. Sir Humphrey Davy, an eastern phi- 

 losopher, would have looked upon a chemical ac- 

 tion as sure evidence of the presence of vitality. 



Among the most ignorant nations it cannot lie 

 doubted that there exists genius of the first or- 

 der; this lies dormant, until education and cir- 

 cumstances call it into action. 



A striking illustration of the force of calcula- 

 tion may be seen in the different members of the 

 same family pursuing diflTerent occupations. — 

 One is sent to college, one into the workshop, 

 and the other remains upon the homestead — all 

 in youth apparently possessing equal bodily and 

 mental capacities. 



Years pass away ; they arain assemble under 

 your eye, but what a change has come over "the 

 spirit of your dream ?" That bold and massive 

 forehead,— that keen quick eye, — that pale face 

 furrowed with the lines of inlen.se thought, to- 

 gether with the delicate developement of the 

 physical organs, the soft and flabby aven around 

 the bone of which the muscles are so easily mo- 

 ved and which feels under the pressure of the 

 hand as soft and yielding as wool, points to the 

 first — that more strongly developed ,ind manly 

 form, with features blanched by exclusion from 

 the light reveals the second ; and he, with the 

 stalwart and brawny arms, — with muscles of the 

 consistence of whip cord, — with a bodily organ- 

 ization capable of the greatest powers of physi- 

 cal labor and endurance, with an honest, intelli- 

 gent and sunburnt couiiteuance, discovers to you 

 the third, the farmer. In each you see the strik- 

 ing changes wrought by education and occupa- 

 tion. 



Ihit we must leave this digression upon edu- 

 cation. 



Napoleon was a genius — a genius of the first 

 order; but what would his mighty intellectual 

 l)ovvers have availed him without habits of in- 

 dustry ? He would have lived and died in insig- 

 nificancy — he would have passed away with his 

 own generation and his memory would have 

 been lost in the children and grand-children of 

 his own family. He xvas industry personified. — 

 Read his history ; sixteen, at times twenty, of the 

 twenty-four hours were devoted to business, and 

 in cases of gieat emergency two and three con- 



secuiive days and nights passed over his head 

 without his giving sleep to his eyes or slumber to 

 his eyelids, being engaged in the toils of the 

 camp, in tlie deliberations of the council cham- 

 ber, or in maturing and carrying into effect some 

 great scheme of ii»tioii;i! pulicv. 



His powerliil intehect f;iive liiilh to those lofty 

 schemes of conquest and of government w hicli 

 characterized his career: it was his habits of 

 personal industry that finally consummated them. 

 Without these, they would have had as liltle ef- 

 fect upon the world as the day dreams of the 

 cloistered student; with them, they "disturbed 

 the repose of nations," toppled princes from their 

 thrones, effaced the boundaries of ancient king- 

 doms, compelled millions of his race to do hom- 

 age to his person and kings acknow ledge their 

 fealty. 



William Pitt, England's great statesman, her 

 prime minister at the age of twenty-five, and 

 passing almost his whole life in that exalted sta- 

 tion, from his first entrance into parliament was a 

 model of industry ; so completely absorbed and 

 busied was he in the affairs of state (to his shame 

 be it spoken) that he never could find time to get 

 married, but died a bachelor at the age of forty- 

 seven. 



But industry cannot effect any one great de- 

 sign without the concomitant attendance of per- 

 severance: this makes every effort of that sub- 

 servient to the main purpose — it keeps industry 

 in its pro()er channel, and prevents it from frit- 

 tering its action upon objects foreign to its inter- 

 est. 



Perseverance has been a characteristic of all 

 great men, and is as essential to real greatness as 

 industry. A man may be industrious in every 

 sense of the word, and yet never attain success 

 or excellence. At one time you will find him a 

 pettifogger, again a tinker ; liow a Tiionipsonian 

 ])hysician, again a scissors-grinder ; at one time 

 a teacher of penmanship or music, at another a 

 pedlar; so multitiirions are his several occupa- 

 tions that he succeeds in none, and fails in ull. 



Success, then, depends also on stability of char- 

 acter. 



Continued prosperity attends no pursuit ; each 

 has it.s "lips and downs." Instead of abandoning 

 our own, when the prospect iqipeiirs di.scourag- 

 ing, it is the dictate of wisdom that we adiipt 

 ourselves to the change in circumstances, re- 

 double our energies in discharging the duties of 

 our vocations and "rather bear those ills we have 

 than fly to others we know not of" 



Very many of the wise and knowing ones of 

 earth have risen from the very de|)tlis of indi- 

 gence and obscurity: why is this? Because 

 stern necessity compelled them into habits of in- 

 dustry and perseverance : adversity gave firm- 

 ness and consistence to their characters ; the 

 rude jostlings of the world quickened their per- 

 ceptive and inventive powers, while their com- 

 peers, nursed in the lap of luxury, became ener- 

 vated from satiety and their intellects enfeebled 

 from disease. 



What in youth was a matter of necessity, in 

 riper years becomes one of choice. Hahils of 

 industry and perseverance, formed early are not 

 easily afterwards abandoned ; to be active and 

 busy, requires no effort of the will, inclination 

 requiring constant employment. 



The young man who started in business, toiling 

 for months and years to acquire a competency lor 

 the decline of life with the hope when that time 

 did arrive he should cense from his labors and 

 enjoy in rest and quietness their fryits^ finds 

 when that time arrives these very habits are es- 

 sential to his happiness. Rest and quietness 

 bring ennui and uneasiness; the stern duties of 

 youth become the pleasures of age ; he pursues 

 the business of his early years not so much for 

 the accumulation of wealth or the love of fame 

 as to satisfy the restless demands of his active 

 spirit. 



We see instances, where men by their diligence 

 and attention to business have accumulated 

 wealth, after having retired from it for the above 

 mentioned purpose, return to it again as Noah's 

 dove did to the ark having found no rest in their 

 retirement. 



Here, again, we have an important lesson. — 

 IVhut is dxdy, if submitted to, in time becomes a 

 prominent source of happiness : it is one which 1 

 , forces itself upon the attention of the young as 

 I on incentive to the iiractice of wholesome self- 



