A really fertile creative mind has got to produce--wheat and
tares, flowers and weeds--all springing from a rich soil.
Contrary to the general belief, there is nothing so deadly to
the writer of creative power as a too early development of
the critical faculty. That is why the young man who is always
conscious of Lowell and Emerson looking over his shoulder never
is original.--ROBERT BRIDGES, _Collier’s Weekly_.
(2274)
* * * * *
As Plutarch tells us, “it is well to go for a light to another
man’s fire, but not to tarry by it, instead of kindling a torch
of one’s own.” A torch of one’s own!--that is a possession
worth having, whether it be a flaming beacon on the hilltop or
a tiny taper in the window. We can not tell how far a little
candle throws its beams, nor who is laying his course by its
flickering light. The most that we can do--and it is also the
least we should do--is to tend the flame carefully and to keep
it steady.--BRANDER MATTHEWS.
(2275)
See NEWNESS OF EACH SOUL.