Attempt > Volume 1 and Select writings

THE ATTEMPT
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this all, those precious germs of knowledge would lie for ever in confusion and dark¬
ness, unproductive, apparently dead as the grains in the withered hand of an Egyptian
mummy. The alchemy of Thought alone can draw from them their hidden life, nay,
transform them into part of the life of the mind itself. This is the royal power which
all others do hut serve and feed. It is at once the root, the life, the sap, and the fruit
of the tree. Let us call Thought into vigorous exercise, and the other powers will
not sleep. Memory will no longer work in the dreary monotony of forced labour, but
in the alacrity of a joyful service. The knowledge laid up by it will appear no longer
as a jewel deposited in a casket, to be brought out unchanged or tarnished for occa¬
sional show, but as a seed which will spring up sooner or later, to refresh and enrich
the child’s whole nature, as a stone cast into the water, whose eddies will spread out¬
ward long after the stone itself has sunk to the bottom.
There will be joy, both for teacher and scholar, in teaching animated by such a
spirit; for every living thing must rejoice in feeling its own strength, in putting forth
the life that is in it. It is only when work is excessive, objectless, or unsuited to the
powers employed in it, that it becomes pain. Real, earnest work, if stopped the
instant the little mind becomes weary, and succeeded by perfect freedom, is the way
of happiness as well as of progress. The powers of endurance must be gradually
taxed as they increase in firmness. Hard, even dull tasks must come to be plodded
through. But the child who has felt the delight of rising ever higher and higher
will front with energy the dark and toilsome ascent, trusting that it will lead him to
clearer daylight.
M. L.
lines mt ^esipata.
Move gently, for we enter here
The chamber of the dead;
Behold her stretched upon her bier,
And her last words are said.
Two days ago she little thought
To be among the dead;
But when the awful summons came,
She meekly bowed her head.
Though first of all she gently said,
Oh, God, I am afraid!
Then He the Holy Spirit sent,
And all her fears were stayed.
He words of comfort to her said,
“ I will be with thee still: ”
“ I am content, I do not fear;
Father, do thou Thy will.”