| The Ministry of Comfort |
Chapter 18 |
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But such thoughts of life are only idle dreams. The truest definition of genius is that it is merely “an infinite capacity for taking pains.” Those who expect results without processes can only be bitterly disappointed in the end. Nothing beautiful or worthy in any department of life was ever achieved or attained without toil. “Wherever a great thought is born, there also has been Gethsemane.” The lovely works of human creation which people linger before with admiring wonder have all cost a great price. Somebody’s heart’s blood has gone into every great picture, into ever stanza of sweet song, into every paragraph which inspires men. It has been noted that the Anglo Saxon root of the word bless is the word for blood. We can bless another in deep and true ways only by giving of our life blood. Anything that will do real good can be wrought only in tears and suffering. When Raphael was asked how he produced his immortal pictures he replied, “I dream dreams and see visions, and then I paint my dreams and my visions.”
And not only are these painful processes necessary in order to produce results that are worth while, but it is in them that we grow into whatever is beautiful and noble. Work is the only means of growth. Instead of being a curse, as some would have us believe, work is a means of measureless good. Not to work is to keep always an undeveloped hand, or heart, or brain. The things which work may achieve are not half as important as that which work does in us.
“Disappointment is not utter failure,
The striving is a measure of success;
Each wise attempt but makes us stronger grow,
Till, oft repeated, stumbling blocks seem less
And finally prove the stepping stones to gain
The end in view and our fond hopes attain!”
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