LETTER XXIV.
Dear Charles,—I can furnish your reverence with sermons,
to be sure; but perhaps some persons would do better
to write their own, and not borrow so much from the living
and the dead. No offence: yet it is said, some of your
profession plagiarize by wholesale. (?)
As to originality, I cannot agree with you. In my “humble”
opinion no man is wholly destitute of originality. If
all would work their own mines, and not rummage in their
neighbors' stores, all would bring out genuine ore: and that
would be more to their credit, even if the inferior metals
copper and iron came forth. Very often when we neglect
the home material, we get after all from our neighbors only
tinsel, or at best gold leaf beaten nearly thin as air. Even
apples of gold in frames of silver cease to delight if paraded
for ever; and many sermon-makers, and other writers,
do little else than show off their ancestral ware. Perhaps—
(take courage, my metaphor is now spun out)—copper and
iron metaphysically are, to the mass of men, more serviceable
than silver and gold.
Indolence and false modesty cause us to set up and worship
intellectual popes. Most people tamely surrender good
thoughts and sentiments, unless like current coin they are
found stamped with the imprint of some autocrat in the literary
world. A nearer connection than is seen at a superficial
view exists between mental cowardice and slavery,
and spiritual thraldom. Indolence and submission of the
one kind prepare the way for the other. Freedom, in all
things, requires effort. Many who deem themselves freemen
are indeed the veriest slaves and tools:—in vulgar parlance,
they dare not say to the magnates of the world, “My
soul's my own.” One indubitable evidence of this cowardice
ever is, when this question is asked, “What will the world
think?” for usually the fear of man, and not of the truth,
is then before our eyes: and he that fears man is a slave.
The majority could not continue to live without Fathers and
Authority. Hence they remain children for ever; and they
cannot become Fathers and Authority themselves. They
are always in the bib-age.
No small amount of stereotype twaddle is current about
the nicety and elegance of a pulpit style. The ignoble sentiment
is prevalent in certain quarters, that some parsons had
better read other men's compositions in the pulpit than preach
their own. To us it seems better that these honest gentlemen
who are unable to write their own discourses, ought to
yield their office and salary to such men as can; for others
may be found who can cultivate nicety and elegance sufficient
for all practical purposes, and yet manufacture their
own articles in the pulpit line. Shame! that any should
plead for clerical ninnyism.
Any pious man of ordinary understanding, who will conscientiously
and diligently study, will bring forth new things
as well as old, and his own copper and iron will please more,
and indeed profit more, than if he piled before and on us all
the riches of the Fathers.
I repeat it, Charles, and that whether the thought occur
in the standard authors or not, I repeat that all men have a
native force, an originality. If every man will sedulously
cultivate his own intellectual powers; if he will court and
patiently endure criticism; if he will set his face like a flint
against the ridicule and scorn which this boldness will cause,
he will be vastly more useful and interesting than if he serve
as a mere conduit to convey water from other men's cisterns.
Nay—and you may laugh away—I aver originality is an
improveable quality. Talents differ, and by consequence
originalities differ; but a man will ever find that he profits
and delights more by being himself, and not another. We
wish not all metals to be gold, nor all jewels diamonds, nor
all flowers roses; but each has a separate beauty and a separate
use, and all the beauties and uses combined are of surpassing
glory and advantage.
Part of our originality is our experience. And if we,
on fitting occasions, relate what we know and have felt, we
shall both please and profit. Others may have had the same
or analogous experience: still will there be a delightful
freshness in our narrations to stir the souls of others, and the
more, if their experience in any degree tallies with our own.
In us, men recognize themselves, and that delights. Giving
ourselves, is in all respects better than retailing or wholesaling
the thoughts and words even of the geniuses. Therefore,
let every one that writes or speaks mind his own idiosyncracy,
and let his neighbor's alone. And if praised or blamed,
let it be for natural offspring and not adopted.
This originality of mine will not furnish your leanness
with the promised sermon matter; and so the sheet shall be
finished with an illustrative incident or two.
Without immodesty, it may be said that like other professed
Christian men, I have “given to the poor,” and like
others, with a deep and settled trust that it was literally
“lending to the Lord.” That trust has never been disappointed.
So uniformly and plainly has the loan been returned,
and with compound interest, that I have more than
once been alarmed lest my paltry donations should be made
to get gain! and for fear a reward in this life might be the
sole one! A profound feeling of satisfaction sometimes exists,
as if the money were deposited in a bank, and I am certain
to receive my dividends. Nay, without entering into the
discussion whether or not assurance companies may not be
the very means in the providence of God to secure something
for one's family, I am nearly ready to bestow the annual
instalment that is paid to an assurance corporation upon
the poor, and upon religious charities, and to trust for suitable
returns from God.
I have several stories on this head, and intended to narrate
them minutely, but I shall content myself with saying,
that on two occasions, when in great distress, letters have
suddenly and unexpectedly arrived with presents of large
sums! On other occasions, claims to lands, supposed to be
lost and therefore neglected, have been, without any labor
of mine, acknowledged, and moneys paid me for the
transfer!
Beside these larger and actually startling returns of the
loans, innumerable small returns are continually making;
all which rivet the conviction of a special providence, and of a
literal fulfilment of its promises! I shall be chargeable with
great folly and base ingratitude, if, to the end of life, I
do not, according as God has prospered me, lay by and give
joyously to the poor.
