Miscellany: Letters From Michigan: Number IV

Som years since, William Wirt, then Attorney General of the United States, was applied to by a young stuóent of the Iaw to know what course of study he must pursue to become the first in h;s pi ofession, and a ruaster of popular oratory. Mr. Wirl, in reply, wrote him a long letter and eummed np hieydvice in three words, "Tkink, think, think!" In a country tvhere action was frec, he considerad that power of thoughl by which a person ie ab!e to master any subject he pleases, to be the first and indispensable requisite to success,espccially in a profession where the effbrt of mind must be directly mot bjthe exertions of other minds. As a general rule, thia position of Wirt, that men will succeed according to their intftllectual vigor, may be true. But it is true only in reference to a whole life and not to particular instances. The man of the most profound knowledge and accurate owers of reflection, in isoïated instances, may be entrapped by cunnmg, deceived by fraud, overreached by duplicity, or detérred by insolence. Yet if he persevere in his general plan of uction, whatever it may be, and have a strong intellect truth on his side, he will finally prevai), and the correctness of his positions will be ocknowledged. But a careful observation of society shows that itis r.ot intellect merely which gives success. A full developement of the animal organs is quite as important as the prominence of the intellectunl functions. The bold, the forward, the selfconfident,and unscrupulous press forward with noise and violence, and crowd the modest intellectual man into the background, unless,he jvill exercise his elbows and his lungs in the same summary manner. Thus thére are two èlements of character, which may be termed the Brutal and the Iniclleclual, boih of which are indispensable to ■uccess in life; and the relativo importance of each is determined by the character of the persons with whom the individual is to act. In governinga mob, or a riotous assembly,the Brutal is imperiouslj demanded. It is a hrgeingrediënt in the charocter of a miliatry com mander; and nn officer may acquire a grea name and reputation in leading on to battle column of armed men, whose attempts lo ad dress an as6embly on any in'ellectual subjec will be laughed at by every village demagogue In proportion as refincment advance&, the in fluence of the Brutal principie diminishes, an the power of Intellect is more sensibly feit Let a hmidred of tho most illiterate, ignoran persons in the Union be placed together for a month, and their acknowledged leaders wouk be those who excelled in physical feats, wbo could sing the loudest song, or were remarka ble for insolence and assurance. On the othe hand, place the same namber of onr most ac complished lawyers together, and at tbe end of the period, the whole body, with much unanimity, would award the palm of intellectual emmence to its rightful possessor. ït is true that impudence and effrontery might be manifested in th9 intellectual assembly, to a great extent, as well as in the other. But then the impudent person would be regarded by the rest according to his true character: for intellectual cultivulion gives ue the power ofmeasuring others as wel! as ourselves. - There b a kind of mental nobilily, so to speak by which intellectual persons gradúate their estímate of each other. The man of great knowledge and extensive ofcservation of the world, can form a right estímate f a green, ignorant, uncultivated pereon,by an intercourse of a few minutes. He reads hira s it were, at a rapid and diatinct preceptioa of characters, whicli Operatea as a glance. He has a sort of intelïectua! instinct by which he guagee the dimensions of all with whom he comes in contact. This perception or feeling teaches him who are his inferiors, who his equals and who Kis superiors.In proportion as the mtss of the people become enlightened and elevated, the influence of the Brutal principie will decreose, lili it shall be unknown, and mankind be governed, hke the angela of God,by appealG only to their intellectual and utoral natures. Bütthtt time, though predicated by Divine inspiration, wil] not come till the spirit of war ehali have ceased. The prevalenee of the Brutal principie is 6tnking-ly seen among us in that taste which eulogize8 mere feats of arms, which countenancea duellingand deadly affrays, and a resort to deadly weapons, and which displays a blind veneration for military leaders. Henee it has become proverbial, that if a man wouid become President, he must be a General or a Lawyer. All other classes aro excluded from the race. Henee Gen. Jackson, Gen. Harrieon, Gen. Scott, Col. Johnson, Gen. Caes, &c. fee. are made to crowd the Presidential race course, wliile their intellectual equale or superiors ure excluded altogether, or are unsuccessful in the contest.But though intellectual men have a spiritual republic oftheirowH, where merit is sure ultimately to receive its just deserts, they labor under the disadvantage of Httle sympathy or assistance from the mass of men. The latter cannot enter into their trains of thought, and are therefore bat Iittle"interested in their objects. Their minds are too little disciplined to enable them tu follow a continued chain of reasoningr, and failiny to understand it,of caurse they hveno interest in the subject. Henee some of the best writers and thinkers in our country are accounted dull and prosy when they attempt to speak in public. A discourse fom Dr. Wayland on Political Economy would probably interest a political mass meeting far less than the common place effusions of a fourth rate demagogue. I do not deny that great truths, put forth by such minds as that of Dr. Wayland, may be simplified, and made plain to common apprehensions: but in these cases ït is the resulls of intellectual efforts, not the trains of thought by which they wcre attained. The astronomical discoveriea of Newton and othera are pub'ished in every Geography. Every school boy can teil you Ijow far the eun is from the earth, and what is his diameter, and how large the moon is; but the process by which these facts may be practically ascertained and demonstrated involves an ninount of thought and inves-" tigation beyond the compreheneion of ordinary minds.Bul while intellectnal men are thus shut out from the fellowship of coramon mind, thcir infiuence over them is proportionately augmented. lt is the thinking men who govern the world. They origínate positions, both correct and erroneous, and others beüeve and act upon thern. They take the lead in establishinjj public opinión. The influence of a single thinking man often determines the condition of a nation. I was forcibiy stmck with a paragraph Tke the following in onè of Dr. frank lin's letters: "I thank you for your pamphlet, con tam ing "Advice to the People of the United States." Should it be read by . onc thinking mind in a hundred, the effecls may he considerable.'1 At first view, this would seem to be a sorry conpliment to the author. It excluded all efièclsaveon thinking minds, and limited its influence to a hundredth part of these. But the Doctor was wcll aware of the greatand iasting influence which a book, ór a newspaper, or a single discourse, may have on the best minds. Franklin tells us that he was indebted for the phüanthropic principies which governed his life to the accidental perusal of a little work entitled, "Essays to do Good," w ritten by Cotton Mather. The former own er had valued it eo little that a pon ion of it was torn out and defaced, yet the remainder formed a noble character to virtue, wliose influence is still operating favorably n thousands of his countrymen. Several manufacturers of Leeds, ore about leaving for Constantinople, where they wili Buperintend largor establishmentunder liberal salaries from the Sultan.