Securing Right Conditions
To secure the finest growth of a plant there must be a careful study of
the conditions of soil, exposure, and moisture, or sun which it needs;
when these conditions are supplied and the necessary oversight furnished,
nature may be trusted to do her work with ideal completeness. Now, the
perfect unfolding of a rich personality involves the utmost intelligence
in the discernment of the conditions which are essential, and the utmost
persistence in the maintenance of those conditions after they have been
secured. Perfectly developed men and women are rare, not only because
circumstances are so often unfavourable, but also because so little
thought is given, as a rule, to this aspect of life. The majority of men
make use of such conditions and material as they find at hand; they do not
make a thorough study of the things they need, and then resolutely set
about the work of securing these essential things. Many men use faithfully
the opportunities which come to hand, but they do not, by taking thought,
convert the whole of life into one great opportunity.
When a man discovers that he has a special gift or talent, his first duty
is to turn that gift into personal power by securing its fullest
development. The recognition of such a gift generally brings with it the
knowledge of the conditions which it needs for its complete unfolding; and
when that discovery is made a man holds the clew to the solution of the
problem of his life. The world is full of unintelligent sacrifice,--
sacrifice which is sound in motive, and therefore does not fail to secure
certain results in character, but which is lacking in clear discernment,
and fails, therefore, to accomplish the purpose for which it was made.
Such unavailing sacrifice is always pathetic, for it involves a waste of
spiritual power. One of the chief sources of this kind of waste is the
habit which so many American communities have formed of calling a man into
all kinds of activity before he has had time to thoroughly train and
develop himself. Let a young teacher, preacher, speaker, or artist give
promise of an unusual kind, and straightway all manner of enterprises
solicit his support, local organisations and movements urge their claims
upon him, reforms and philanthropies command his active co-operation; and
if he wisely resists the pressure he is in the way of being set down as
selfish, unenterprising, and lacking in public spirit.
As a matter of fact, in most cases, it is the community, not the
individual, which is selfish; for communities are often ruthless
destroyers of promising youth.
The gifted young preacher must clearly discern the needs of his own nature
or he will miss the one thing which he was probably sent into the world to
accomplish, the one thing which all men are sent into the world to
secure,--free and noble self-development. He must be wiser than his parish
or the community; he must recognise the peril which comes from the too
close pressure of near duties at the start. The community will
thoughtlessly rob him of the time, the quiet, and the repose necessary for
the unfolding of his spirit; it will drain him in a few years of the
energy which ought to be spread over a long period of time; and at the end
of a decade it will begin to say, under its breath, that its victim has
not fulfilled the promise of his youth. It will fail to discern that it
has blighted that promise by its own urgent demands. The young preacher
who is eager to give the community the very greatest service in his power
will protect it and himself by locking his study door and resolutely
keeping it locked.
The young artist and writer must pass through the same ordeal, and must
learn before it is too late that he who is to render the highest service
to his fellows must be most independent in his relations to them. He
cannot commit the management of his life to others without maiming or
blighting it. The community insists upon immediate activity at the expense
of ultimate service, upon present productivity at the cost of ultimate
power. The artist must learn, therefore, to bar his door against the
public until he has so matured his own strength and determined his own
methods that neither crowds nor applause nor demands can confuse or
disturb him. The great spirits who have nourished the best life of the
race have not turned to their fellows for their aims and habits of work;
they have taken counsel of that ancient oracle which speaks in every man's
soul, and to that counsel they have remained steadfastly true. There is no
clearer disclosure of divine guidance in the confusion of human aims and
counsels than the presence of a distinct faculty or gift in a man; and
when such a gift reveals itself a man must follow it, though it cost him
everything which is most dear; and he must give it the largest opportunity
of growth, though he face the criticism of the world in the endeavour.
Life is always a struggle, and no man comes to any kind of mastery without
a conflict. The really great man is often compelled to light for his right
to live in the freedom of spirit. Prophets, poets, teachers, and artists
have known the scorn, hatred, and rejection of society; they have known
also its flatteries, rewards, and imperious demands; and they have learned
that in both moods society is the foe of the highest development and of
the noblest talent. He who breaks under the scorn or yields to the
adulation becomes the creature of those whom he would serve, and so misses
his own highest fortune and theirs as well; he who forgets the
indifference in steadfast work, and holds to his aims and habits when
success knocks at his door, gains the most and the best for himself and
for others.
For the highest service which a man can render to his kind is possible
only when he secures for himself the largest and noblest development; to
stop short of that development is to rob himself and society. Selfishness
does not lie in turning a deaf ear to present calls for work and help; it
lies in indifference to the ultimate call. Goethe was by no means a man of
symmetrical character, and there were reaches of spiritual life which he
never traversed; but the charge of selfishness urged against him because
he gave himself up completely to the work which he set out to do cannot be
sustained. The very noblest service which he could render to the world was
to hold himself apart from its multiform activities in order that he might
enrich every department of its thought. For life consists not only in the
doing of present duties, but in the unfolding of the relations of men to
the entire spiritual order of which they are part, and in the enrichment
of human experience by insight, interpretation, and the play of the
creative faculties. The artist finds his use in the enrichment of life,
and his place in the order of service is certainly not less assured and
noble than that of the man of action. Such a nature as Dante's does more
for men than a host of those who are doing near duties and performing the
daily work of the world. Let no man decry the spiritual greatness of these
obvious claims and tasks; but on the other hand, let not the man of
practical affairs and of what may be called the executive side of ethical
activity decry the artists, the thinkers, and the poets.
It is the duty of some men to leave reforms alone, and to give themselves
up to study, meditation, and the creative spirit and mood. Of men of
practical ability the world stands in little need; of men of spiritual
insight, imaginative force, and creative energy it stands in sore need.
When such a gift appears it ought to be sacredly guarded. It may be that
it has a work to do which demands absolute detachment from the ordinary
affairs of society. To assault it with the claims of the hour is to defeat
its purpose and rob the future. It must have quiet, leisure, repose. Let
it dream for a while in the silence of sweet gardens, within the walls of
universities, in the fruitful peace of undisturbed days; for out of such
dreams have come "As You Like It," "The Tempest," "In Memoriam," and "The
Vision of Sir Launfal." Out of such conditions have come also the work of
Darwin, Spencer, Martineau, Maurice, Jowett, and Childs. He who is bent on
making a wise use of his abilities may safely be left to choose his own
methods and to create his own conditions.