The Investment of Influence: A Study of Social Sympathy and ServiceHillis, Newell Dwight
Philosophy
The Investment of Influence: A Study of Social Sympathy and Service
Hillis, Newell Dwight
Conduct of life
Fascinating, indeed, the question how feeling and sentiment control
conduct and character. Modern machinery has thrown light upon the
problems of the soul. The engineer finds that his locomotive will not
run itself, but waits for the steam to pound upon the piston. The
great ships also are becalmed until the trade winds come to beat upon
the sails. Informed by these physical facts, we now see a noble
thought or ambition or social ideal is a mechanism that will not work
itself, but asks the enthusiastic heart to lend power divine. Some of
earth's greatest orators, like Patrick Henry, have been unlearned men,
but no orator has ever fallen short of being an enthusiastic man. A
generation ago there appeared in Paris one whose voice was counted the
most perfect voice in Europe. Musical critics gave unstinted praise to
the purity of tone and accuracy of execution. Yet in a few weeks the
audiences had dwindled to a handful, and in a few years the singer's
name was forgotten. Obscurity overtook the singer because there was no
heart behind the voice and so the tones became metallic. Contrariwise,
the history of Jenny Lind contains a letter to a friend in Sweden, in
which the singer writes: "Oh, that I may live two years longer and be
permitted to save enough money to complete my orphans' home!" As the
sun's warm beams lend a soft blush to the rose and pulsate the crimson
tides through to the uttermost edge of each petal, so a great, loving
sympathy, sang and sighed, thrilled and throbbed through the tones of
the Swedish singer, and ravished the hearts of the people and made her
name immortal.
History portrays many men of giant minds whose intellect could not
redeem them from aimlessness and obscurity. Not until some divine
enthusiasm descended upon the mind and baptized it with heroic action
did these men find themselves. To that young patrician, Saul,
journeying to Damascus, came the heavenly vision, and the new impulse
of the heart made his cold mind warm, lent wings to his slow feet, made
all his days powerful, made his soul the center of an immense activity.
This glowing heart of Paul explains for us the fact that he achieved
freedom of thought and speech, endured the stones with which he was
bruised, the stocks in which he was bound, the mobbings with which he
was mutilated; explains also his eloquence, known and unrecorded;
explains his faith and fortitude, his heroism in death. And not only
has the zeal of the heart made strong men stronger, turned weak men
into giants, lent the soldier his conquering courage and lent the
scholar a stainless life--to men whose will has been made weak by
indulgence, the new love has come to redeem intellect and will from the
bondage of habit.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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