Cigarettes in short order make the face sallow, spoil the shape of the mouth, make the eyes heavy, fill the hair with permanently unpleasant nicotine suggestions, develop a mustache--and women are cured of cigarette smoking by a look in the gla.s.s, when they could not be cured by tearful appeals of the wisest philosophers.
Do not, therefore, O men, despise the vanity of women. Praise and cherish it rather. Be grateful that nature works in a wonderful way through the power of attraction, making woman do for good looks" sake that which is most important to her welfare.
If you want to cure your wife or some other female relative of lacing, don"t moralize. Say to her six or seven times:
"Isn"t the end of your nose a little red?"
Should she act in any way unwisely, staying up too late, living foolishly, trying the silly and unwomanly habit of cigarette smoking, don"t criticise the habit.
Criticise her complexion, or the look of her eyes, or her general lack of youthfulness. She will soon be cured, if you can follow this advice astutely.
TO EDITORIAL WRITERS--ADOPT RUSKIN"S MAIN IDEA
His pen is rust, his bones are dust (or soon will be), his soul is with the saints, we trust.
Ruskin is to be buried in Westminster Abbey. It is a fine home for a dead man, with Chatham and his great son Pitt in one tomb, and the other great skeletons of a great race mouldering side by side so neighborly.
The death of a wolf means a meal for the other wolves. The death of a great man means a meal--mental instead of physical--for those left behind. Wolves feed their STOMACHS--we feed our BRAINS--on the dead.
There is many a meal for the hungry brain in Ruskin"s remains.
We offer now a light breakfast to that galaxy of American talent called "editorial writers."
Editorial writing may be defined in general as "the art of saying in a commonplace and inoffensive way what everybody knew long ago." There are a great many competent editorial writers, and the bittern carrying on his trade by the side of some swamp is about as influential as ten ordinary editorial writers rolled into one.
Why is it that we are so worthless, O editorial writers? Why do we produce such feeble results? Why do we talk daily through our newspapers to ten millions of people and yet have not influence to elect a dog catcher?
Simply because we want to sound wise, when that is impossible.
Simply because we are foolish enough to think that commonplaces pa.s.sed through our commonplace minds acquire some new value. We start off with a wrong notion. We think that we are going to lead, that we are going to remedy, that we are going to DO THE PUBLIC THINKING FOR THE PUBLIC.
Sad nonsense. The best that the best editorial writer can achieve is to make the reader think for himself. At this point we ask our fellow editorial men--our superiors, of course--to adopt Ruskin"s idea of a useful writer.
In a letter to Mrs. Carlyle, written when he was a young man, he outlined the purpose which he carried out, and which explains his usefulness to his fellow-men:
"I have a great hope of disturbing the public peace in various directions."
This was his way of saying that he hoped to stir up dissatisfaction, to provoke irritation, impatience and a determination to do better among the unfortunate. He did good, because he awoke thought in thousands of others, in millions of others.
Editorial writers, don"t you know that stirring up dissatisfaction is the greatest work you can do?
Tell the poor man ten thousand times:
"There is no reason why you should be overworked. There is no reason why your children should be half-fed and half-educated.
There is no reason why you should sweat to fatten others."
Tell them this often enough, stir up their determination sufficiently--they will find their own remedies.
If you want to drive out the handful of organized rogues that control politics and traffic in votes, don"t talk smooth plat.i.tudes. Tell the people over and over again that the thieves ARE thieves, that they should be in jail, that honest government would mean happier citizens, that the INDIVIDUAL CITIZEN is responsible. Keep at it, and the country will be made better by those who alone can make it better--the people. ----
On the front platform a fat policeman said, after deep thought:
"Well, it"s an ill wind that blows n.o.body good."
The driver, this writer and an Italian workman looked at the policeman in deep admiration. It was so evident that he had the making in him of an expensive editorial writer. He could say so solemnly and authoritatively what every living man knew by heart.
Suppose you stop spouting plat.i.tudes, editorial gentlemen, and try your hand at stirring up plain, everyday antagonism to existing false conditions. "Disturb the public peace," as Ruskin put it. You must know that you can"t win the fights individually, so be like the Norse maidens that stirred up the real fighters to do their duty. Keep singing to the public that it is their duty to fight. They will fight and win, and thank you for the suggestion.
IMAGINATION WITHOUT DREAMING THE SECRET OF MATERIAL SUCCESS
"Marconi has imagination without being a dreamer."
Thus Mr. Serviss gave an explanation of material achievement and material success on big lines.
WITHOUT imagination a man may prosper relatively. He may live comfortably and die contented.
But at best such a man will only follow in beaten paths. He will only do what others have done before him.
He will not receive any of the great rewards which humanity offers to those whose IMAGINATION opens for the benefit of all new fields of thought, of successful material effort. ----
In material achievement there are two elements--executive force (which may be sub-divided into an indefinite number of cla.s.sifications) and the great creative power, IMAGINATION.
Imagination enabled Marconi to see the possibility of sending electric messages without wires.
Had he been a dreamer, had he allowed his imagination to wander on indefinitely into notions of talking to other planets, the power of his imagination might have been in vain.
His imagination enabled him to SEE the possibility, and the lack of the dreamer"s quality enabled him to REALIZE it.
There were many men centuries ago who, in an abstract kind of way, knew that the earth was round. Their imaginations led them to the discovery of facts--and long before Galileo"s recantation many men knew vaguely the truth of what he taught.
It took Galileo, a man of great imagination, not a dreamer, to demonstrate his truth to all the world.
It took Columbus, with imagination and courage, but none of the dreamer about him, to sail around the world to America and prove practically what is now known to every child.
Wherever you see great material success on a new line, you see imagination without dreaming. It took real power of imagination in Rockefeller to conceive and execute the construction of the Standard Oil monopoly.
It took the financial imagination of Morgan to conceive the idea of taking $500,000,000 worth of steel mills and welding them into the Steel Trust--no dreamer could have done this thing.
Many a dreamer had foreseen the steam engine, the steamboat and other great inventions, without result. At the right moment a man of imagination like Fulton came along and did the actual work that the dreamer could not do.
If you want to succeed in the world, cultivate your imagination.
And if you want your children to succeed encourage them in the development of their imaginations.
But let your imaginings and the imaginings of your children stop this side of dreamland.