Attempt > Volume 1 and Select writings

16
THE ATTEMPT
who, feeling that he has no genius, settles quietly down to his everyday life, without
troubling himself with the thought that the world beyond his immediate circle of
friends knows not even his name. Such a man is a much nobler creature than those
of us who are eternally fretting ourselves with vain longings after notoriety, which
will never be ours by the absurd measures by which we endeavour to attain it,—
unless, indeed, it is the notoriety of contempt. We do not wish here to disparage
those young aspirants to fame whose desire it may be to attain it either by physical
or mental ability. They are right to do their best, and to multiply the talent, what¬
ever it may be, with which they have been entrusted, and ill will they fare if they
“ hide it under a bushel;” but those whom we would and do condemn are they who
do peculiar things merely for the sake of peculiarity, and who go through life secretly
resolving to differ in every respect from the rest of their kind. Then let those of us
who are mere ordinary mortals be content with our lot. It may not seem to us a
brilliant career which lies before us, but it may be a very happy one, cheered by the
love and esteem of those around us.
des Eaux.
^bkfsfs to tlie
[The Ramsheugh, a small but beautifully-wooded dell, is romantically situated at the foot of the
Ochil Hills, about five miles south-east of the town of Perth.]
Sweet dell! though all unknown to tourist fame
Thy modest beauties and thy humble name,
Though artist’s pencil and though poet’s lays
Have failed their skill to lavish in thy praise,
Endeared thou aye shalt be, as now thou art,
Within the inmost chambers of my heart,—
Endeared by memories of the happy hours
I’ve passed beneath thine over-arching bovvers,
That proud defy, with wild exultant glee,
Man’s power to fashion aught so fair and free.
Ah! who shall say that, ’midst the world’s gay throng,
Where whirls the dance and floats the midnight song,
Where, unregarded, time fleets swift away,
And night fulfils the office of the day,