Away In Scythia, Away In India, It
Makes Butter And Cheese.
Suppose that all farms _are_ run out,
and we youths must buy old land and bring it to, still
Everywhere
the relentless opponents of reform bear a strange resemblance to
ourselves; or, perchance, they are a few old maids and bachelors,
who sit round the kitchen hearth and listen to the singing of the
kettle. "The oracles often give victory to our choice, and not
to the order alone of the mundane periods. As, for instance,
when they say that our voluntary sorrows germinate in us as the
growth of the particular life we lead." The reform which you talk
about can be undertaken any morning before unbarring our doors.
We need not call any convention. When two neighbors begin to eat
corn bread, who before ate wheat, then the gods smile from ear to
ear, for it is very pleasant to them. Why do you not try it?
Don't let me hinder you.
There are theoretical reformers at all times, and all the world
over, living on anticipation. Wolff, travelling in the deserts
of Bokhara, says, "Another party of derveeshes came to me and
observed, `The time will come when there shall be no difference
between rich and poor, between high and low, when property will
be in common, even wives and children.'" But forever I ask of
such, What then? The derveeshes in the deserts of Bokhara and
the reformers in Marlboro' Chapel sing the same song. "There's a
good time coming, boys," but, asked one of the audience, in good
faith, "Can you fix the date?" Said I, "Will you help it along?"
The nonchalance and _dolce-far-niente_ air of nature and society
hint at infinite periods in the progress of mankind. The States
have leisure to laugh from Maine to Texas at some newspaper joke,
and New England shakes at the double-entendres of Australian
circles, while the poor reformer cannot get a hearing.
Men do not fail commonly for want of knowledge, but for want of
prudence to give wisdom the preference. What we need to know in
any case is very simple. It is but too easy to establish another
durable and harmonious routine. Immediately all parts of nature
consent to it. Only make something to take the place of something,
and men will behave as if it was the very thing they wanted.
They _must_ behave, at any rate, and will work up any material.
There is always a present and extant life, be it better or worse,
which all combine to uphold. We should be slow to mend, my
friends, as slow to require mending, "Not hurling, according to
the oracle, a transcendent foot towards piety." The language of
excitement is at best picturesque merely. You must be calm
before you can utter oracles. What was the excitement of the
Delphic priestess compared with the calm wisdom of Socrates? - or
whoever it was that was wise. - Enthusiasm is a supernatural
serenity.
"Men find that action is another thing
Than what they in discoursing papers read;
The world's affairs require in managing
More arts than those wherein you clerks proceed."
As in geology, so in social institutions, we may discover the
causes of all past change in the present invariable order of
society. The greatest appreciable physical revolutions are the
work of the light-footed air, the stealthy-paced water, and the
subterranean fire. Aristotle said, "As time never fails, and the
universe is eternal, neither the Tanais nor the Nile can have
flowed forever." We are independent of the change we detect.
The longer the lever the less perceptible its motion. It is the
slowest pulsation which is the most vital. The hero then will
know how to wait, as well as to make haste. All good abides with
him who waiteth _wisely_; we shall sooner overtake the dawn by
remaining here than by hurrying over the hills of the west. Be
assured that every man's success is in proportion to his
_average_ ability. The meadow flowers spring and bloom where the
waters annually deposit their slime, not where they reach in some
freshet only. A man is not his hope, nor his despair, nor yet
his past deed. We know not yet what we have done, still less
what we are doing. Wait till evening, and other parts of our
day's work will shine than we had thought at noon, and we shall
discover the real purport of our toil. As when the farmer has
reached the end of the furrow and looks back, he can tell best
where the pressed earth shines most.
To one who habitually endeavors to contemplate the true state
of things, the political state can hardly be said to have any
existence whatever. It is unreal, incredible, and insignificant
to him, and for him to endeavor to extract the truth from such
lean material is like making sugar from linen rags, when
sugar-cane may be had. Generally speaking, the political news,
whether domestic or foreign, might be written to-day for the next
ten years, with sufficient accuracy. Most revolutions in society
have not power to interest, still less alarm us; but tell me that
our rivers are drying up, or the genus pine dying out in the
country, and I might attend. Most events recorded in history are
more remarkable than important, like eclipses of the sun and
moon, by which all are attracted, but whose effects no one takes
the trouble to calculate.
But will the government never be so well administered, inquired
one, that we private men shall hear nothing about it? "The king
answered: At all events, I require a prudent and able man, who
is capable of managing the state affairs of my kingdom. The
ex-minister said: The criterion, O Sire! of a wise and competent
man is, that he will not meddle with such like matters." Alas
that the ex-minister should have been so nearly right!
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 36 of 113
Words from 35983 to 36984
of 116321
