Editorials from the Hearst NewspapersBrisbane, Arthur
Philosophy
Editorials from the Hearst Newspapers
Brisbane, Arthur
Editorials; Essays
No need to tell you that the young man was Newton; that the fall
of the apple started in his READY brain the thought that led
to his great discovery, giving him fame to last until this earth
shall crumble.
How splendid the achievement born that moment! How fortunate for
the world and for the youth Newton, that at twenty-three his
brain had cultivated the HABIT OF THOUGHT! ----
Our muscles we share with everything that lives--with the oyster
clinging to his rock, the whale ploughing through cold seas, and
our monkey kinsman swinging from his tropical branch.
These muscles, useful only to cart us around, help us to do
slave work or pound our fellows, we cultivate with care.
We run, fence, ride, walk hard, weary our poor lungs and gather
pains in our backs building the muscles that we do not need.
Alone among animals, we possess a potentiality of mind
development unlimited.
And for that, with few exceptions, we care nothing. ----
Most of us, sitting in Newton's place and seeing the apple fall,
would merely have debated the advisability of getting the apple
to eat it--just the process that any monkey mind would pass
through.
A Newton, a BRAIN TRAINED TO THINK, sees the apple drop, asks
himself why the moon does not drop also. And he discovers the
law of gravitation which governs the existence of every material
atom in the universe. ----
Young men who read this, start in NOW to use your brains.
Take nothing for granted, not even the fact that the moon stays
in her appointed place or that the poor starve and freeze amid
plenty.
Think of the things which are wrong and of the possibilities of
righting them. Study your own weaknesses and imperfections.
There is power in your brain to correct them, if you will
develop that power.
As surely as you can train your arm to hold fifty pounds out
straight, just so surely can you train your brain to deal with
problems that now would find you a gaping incompetent.
You may not be a Newton. But if you can condescend to aim at
being an inferior Sandow, can't you afford to try even harder to
be an inferior Newton?
Don't be a muscular monkey. Be a low-grade philosopher, if you
can't be high-grade, and find how much true pleasure there is
even in inferior brain gymnastics. ----
Take up some problem and study it:
There goes a woman, poor and old. She carries a heavy burden
because she is too sad and weak to fight against fate, too honest
to leave a world that treats her harshly.
There struts a youngster, rich and idle.
How many centuries of hell on earth will it take to put that
woman's load on that other broad, fat, idle back?
Answer that one question, better still, TRANSFER THE LOAD, and
your life will not have been wasted. ----
It is THOUGHT that moves the world. In Napoleon's BRAIN
are born the schemes that murder millions and yet push
civilization on. The mere soldier, with gold lace and sharp
sword, is nothing--a mere tool.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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