Alexander the Great lived and died discontented, but Emerson
would scarcely have attributed that gentleman's discontent to
lack of self-reliance.
Alexander was discontented, first, because he could not conquer
the whole world, and, second, because there were no others that
he could conquer. He was a vast genius, almost humorous in his
ambitious discontent sometimes--especially when he looked at the
stars and said, as alleged, that he was ashamed to look at all
those other worlds when he had barely conquered this one little
world that he lived on.
If you have in you Alexander's brand of discontent you may well
be grateful.
You are still more to be envied if you have the discontent which
has impelled thousands of great men to devote their lives
ceaselessly to the discovery of truth, working for others. ----
When Taglioni, the great ballet dancer, was a little girl, with
skinny legs and a skinnier future, being extremely homely and
with no prospects of success, she was discontented.
Other skinny-legged little ballet dancers of her class were
discontented also.
But Taglioni's discontent impelled her to spend every spare
moment whirling on her big toe, practicing her entrechat, or
laboring over the art of smiling, naturally, with aching toes,
aching back, aching thighs, and solar plexus almost exhausted
from the unnatural strain.
The other skinny-legged discontented ones exercised their
discontent on their patient mothers, instead of exercising it on
their own big toes. THEY never were heard of, whereas Taglioni
pranced on HER big toe before every court in Europe, and her
smile, which ultimately became natural, attracted the opera
glasses of all the great men.
There are thousands of young musicians, young business men, young
singers, young electricians--thousands and hundreds of thousands
of human beings engaged in all kinds of effort in all directions.
ALL OF THEM ARE DISCONTENTED. Those that have the right kind of
discontent will go at least as far as their natural capacity can
take them, and those that have the wrong kind will collapse,
achieve nothing and devote wasted lives to wasting pity on
themselves. ----
Try to acquire the discontent of Alexander, Carlyle, Pagallini,
Taglioni, or even that of the honest bootblack who "shines them
up" so hard that the perspiration comes through his check jumper
in cold weather.