"During this time,"
said the preacher, "the man of thought speaks his immortal word; the
man of action does his immortal deed; all the time the World is
refusing to listen or to heed; but finally, when the fires of genius
have burned low, when the great thoughts have been uttered and the
great works wrought, then it is willing to give ear and eye to the
necessarily feebler acts and thoughts of the great man's later days."
It refuses to come near the fire when in full glow; it comes and puts
its hands into the ashes after the flame has died out and the ashes
themselves are growing cold. Do we not find ourselves worshiping
echoes and ghosts in the persons of men who _once_ wrought
splendidly, and denying the real forces of the present hour until they
compel recognition by their overwhelmingness; and then, having
exhausted themselves, become in their turn ghosts and echoes.
It is all right to honor those who have done big things and are
"living on their reputations"; but it is all wrong to deny to those
young men who are doing and will do big things, now and in the future,
full and glad recognition of their power and possibilities.
The first thing that the world should remember about the young man who
is confronting it, asking his daily bread of it, is the inestimable
value of the qualities of freshness, of innocence, of faith, of
confidence, of high honesty, of Don Quixote courage which the young
man brings to it.
Pages:
333
334
335
336
337
338
339
340
341
342
343
344
345
346
347
348
349
350
351
352
353
354
355
356
357