Methods of work / by G. A. Gibson.

Date:
1901
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Methods of work / by G. A. Gibson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    These remarks have been made on the assnmption that the mind of every one of you has been made up as to the necessity of work. The youth’s choice, if we may call it so, has been a favourite subject for the painter in every age. The earliest known picture of Kaphael, and one of his greatest masterpieces, represents a young knight asleep below a laurel tree, the emblem of honour. A fair girl, beautifully attired, stands l)y, offering him a myrtle dower, the signidcance of which needs no comment; while another damsel, with grave mien and simple raiment, bends over him from the other side, offering a sw'ord with her right hand and a book with her left—power and knowledge to aid him in the battle of life. From the clean-cut features and the well-knit limbs of the young knight it is not didicult to divine what will be his choice. To return—the age we live in is above all an epoch of work. Evidences of this are to be seen on every side. The varied triumphs of the last century, which though dead yet speaks to us, could not have been achieved without labour. Sometimes a new’ light is vouchsafed, or a fresh fact is attained by a dash of genius ; much more often, however, such advances are the result of long- continued exertion; and genius may then be held, as it has been put, to be the faculty of taking indnite pains. But we do not only see proofs of this tireless industry around us; some of the greatest writers of the age have consecrated many of their pages to the importance of work. To three of these you will allow me to direct your attention very briedy. Our fellow- countryman Carlyle has given us, in one of his most picturesque books, glowing descriptions of the work done in the olden times by a mitred abbot of the Church, and has shown how in his view the metliods of the old ecclesiastic should be applied in our own days. His hope for the future lies in governments that will guide, a working aristocracy, the nobleness of labour, and captains of industry. “ For there is a perennial nobleness, and even sacred- ness in Work.” “The latest Gospel in this world is. Know thy Work and do it.” “Blessed is he who has found his work; let him ask no other blessedness.” “ Labour is Life: from the inmost heart of the Worker rises his god-given Force, the sacred celestial Life-essence breathed into him by Almighty God ; from his inmost heart awakens him to all nobleness,—to all knowledge, ‘ self- knowledge,’and much else, so soon as Work fitly begins.”^ These are but a few of tlie truths which may be brought before you, by way of illustrating the views of this great writer. Tolstoy, certainly one of the most striking personalities in the world of letters of our time, is also never weary of insisting on the necessity of labour, and in one of his most recent works lie urges a return to the state of society amongst the early Christians. Ihe retention by the labourer of such results alone of liis labour as he can use, and the yielding of all superfluous products of * “ Past and Present,” book in. chap. xi.