the roughness of the world. He guards the sleep of his pauper master as if he were a prince. When all other friends desert he remains. When riches take wings and reputation falls to pieces he is as constant in his love as 5 the sun in its journeys through the heavens. "If fortune drives the master forth an outcast in the world, friendless and homeless, the faithful dog asks no higher privilege than that of accompanying him, to guard against danger, to fight against his enemies. And when 10 the last scene of all comes, and death takes the master in its embrace, and his body is laid away in the cold ground, no matter if all other friends pursue their way, there by the grave will the noble dog be found, his head between his paws, his eyes sad but open in alert watchfulness, 15 faithful and true even in death." PORTIA'S SPEECH WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE NOTE. This is the famous speech in which Portia, disguised as a young lawyer, pleads Antonio's cause against the cruel merchant Shylock. It is taken from the play "The Merchant of Venice." The quality of mercy is not strained; It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven It blesseth him that gives and him that takes: It is enthroned in the hearts of kings, And earthly power doth then show likest God's Should see salvation: we do pray for mercy; strained restrained. twice blest carries a double blessing. 5 10 15 20 GENIUS AND INDUSTRY HENRY WARD BEECHER Industry is a substitute for genius. Where one or more faculties exist in the highest state of development and activity, -as the faculty of music in Mozart, invention in Fulton, ideality in Milton, -we call the possessor a 5 genius. But a genius is usually understood to be a creature of such rare facility of mind that he can do anything without labor. According to the popular notion, he learns without study and knows without learning. He is eloquent without prep10 aration, exact without calculation, and profound without reflection. While ordinary men toil for knowledge by reading, by comparison, and by minute research, a genius is supposed to receive it as the mind receives dreams. His mind is 15 like a vast cathedral, through whose colored windows the sunlight streams, painting the aisles with the varied colors of brilliant pictures. Such minds may exist. So far as I have observed the species, they abound in academies, colleges, and Thespian societies; in village 20 debating clubs, in coteries of young artists, and among young professional aspirants. They are to be known by a reserved air, excessive sensitiveness, and utter indolence; by very long hair and very open shirt collars; by the reading of much wretched poetry and the writing of much yet more wretched; by being very conceited, very affected, very disagreeable, and very useless: beings whom no man wants for friends, pupils, or companions. Where the ordinary wants of life once require recondite principles, they will need the application of familiar truths a thousand times. Those who enlarge the bounds of knowledge must push out with bold adventure beyond the common walks of men. But only few pioneers are 10 needed for the largest armies, and a few profound men in each occupation may herald the advance of all the business of society. The vast bulk of men are required to discharge the homely duties of life; and they have less need of genius 15 than of industry and enterprise. Young men should observe that those who take the honors and emoluments of mechanical crafts, of commerce, and of professional life, are rather distinguished for a sound judgment and a close application than for a brilliant genius. 20 In the ordinary business of life, industry can do anything that genius can do, and very many things that it cannot. Genius is usually impatient of application, irritable, scornful of men's dullness, squeamish at petty disgusts; it loves a conspicuous place, a short work, 25 and a large reward; it loathes the sweat of toil, the vexations of life, and the dull burden of care. Industry has a firmer muscle, is less annoyed by delays and repulses, and, like water, bends itself to the shape of the soil over which it flows; and if checked, will not rest, but accumulates, and mines a passage beneath, or seeks a 5 side race, or rises above and overflows the obstruction. The masterpieces of antiquity, as well in literature as in art, are known to have received their extreme finish from an almost incredible continuance of labor upon them. Genius needs industry, as much as industry needs gen10 ius. If only Milton's imagination could have conceived his visions, his consummate industry only could have carved the immortal lines which enshrine them. If only Newton's mind could reach out to the secrets of Nature, even his could only do it by the homeliest toil. 15 The works of Bacon are not midsummer-night dreams, but, like coral islands, they have risen from the depths of truth, and formed their broad surfaces above the ocean by the minutest accretions of persevering labor. The conceptions of Michael Angelo's genius would have perished 20 like a night's fantasy, had not his industry given them permanence. Abridged. Fulton: the inventor Mozart (mōt'sart): a great German composer. of the modern steamboat. Milton: See page 310. from Thespis, a Greek dramatist who has been called the inventor of tragedy. rec ́ondite (literally, concealed): deep or profound. - emolument (literally, worked out): profit. The present meanings of these words show the development of language. - race: channel or stream. - Newton: an English mathematician who formulated the law of gravitation. — Bacon : an English philosopher. - Michael An ́gelo: a great Italian painter and sculptor of the sixteenth century. |