Certainly when one compares a portrait of Reynolds,
Gainsborough, or Stuart with one by Sargent, Thayer, or Alexander,
there is a noticeable difference of type, indicative of a different
ideal of life in the upper stratum of society, an ideal of effort and
efficiency, which is far better than a patrician dilettantism, but
has in turn its dangers.We need to recall the line of AEschylus,
"All the gods' work is effortless and calm." Or Matthew Arnold's
sonnet on Quiet Work:
"One lesson, Nature, let me learn of thee, A lesson that on every wind
is borne, A lesson of two duties kept at one Though the loud world
proclaim their enmity: Of toil unsevered from tranquility, Of labor
that in lasting fruit outgrows Far noisier schemes, accomplished in
repose, Too great for haste, too high for rivalry..."
Most of us would find our powers adequate to our duties if we learned
to rest when we are not working, and spend no energy in worry and
fretfulness. [Footnote: Cf. W. James's essay on "The Gospel of
Relaxation," in Talks to Teachers and Students, or Annie Payson Call's
books, of which the best known is Power Through Repose.] This nervous
leakage is a notoriously American ailment; we knit our brows, we work
our fingers, we fidget, we rock in our chairs, we talk explosively,
we live in a quiver of excitement and hurry, in a chronic state of
tension. We need to follow St. Paul's exhortation to "Study to be
quiet"; to learn what Carlyle called "the great art of sitting still.
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