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THE words of the wise are worth
remembering. They never lose their value. Circumstances
alter, but truth abides, and it is as necessary for the
making of character and the moulding of life in the
present as in the past. Our "Young Men’s Mutual
Improvement Association" was started in 1880, and it still
lives and prospers. When the Association was being
organised, the President wrote to some men of light and
leading, asking words of counsel and sympathy. His request
was kindly responded to, and the letters then received
were read with much care, and have been cherished ever
since with gratitude and pride. We feel honoured in giving
them a place in this Parish record.
"But words are things; and a small
drop of ink,
Falling like dew upon a thought, produces
That which makes thousands, perhaps millions, think.
‘Tis strange the shortest letter which man uses,
Instead of speech, may form a lasting link of ages."
—BYRON.
"BRANTWOOD, CONISTON, LANCASHIRE,
1st January, 1881.
"MY DEAR SIR,—It is at any rate an
encouragement to me in the opening of the New Year to find
that a minister of Christ believes I am able to be useful
to the youth under his charge. But I have little hope
myself of being heard in anything, for, on the whole, my
messages are depressing to the worldly ardours of our day,
and not glowing enough to kindle the heavenly ones. But it
seems to me that if you could persuade your young
Halbert
Glendinnings to set themselves first to get a pure and
noble conception of Scottish life as it might be lived in
Scotland, and then to found all their literary and other
studies on a faithful desire to embellish their Scottish
homes, and to stay in them, and make their days long in
their own land,—not rich nor powerful in other people’s
lands,—you would get at a rule and system of reading, not
to say of thought, which in itself would be extremely
delightful, and open into higher walks for all who felt
qualified for them. Perhaps if your little society were at
first to acquaint itself accurately with the mineralogy
and flora of its neighbourhood, it would be found a good
beginning for all else. If you were to tell me more
definitely your wishes and difficulties, I might perhaps
make a more pertinent answer.— Believe me, always
faithfully yours,
"J.
S. Rusxrn."
"24
HILL STREET, EDINBURGH,
"4th February, 1881.
"DEAR SIR,—You are doing the right
thing. The hope of the age is in the young men, and they
must learn both to instruct and to amuse themselves in a
rational way; otherwise the steam that is in them will
puff itself off unprofitably, or what is worse,
dangerously. In the association and the co-operation of
the intelligent part of the community for moral and
intellectual culture we find our only safeguard against
the evils which are inherent in every form of democracy;
and towards democracy, in some shape or in some degree,
the governments of the world are everywhere tending.—Ever
yours,
"J. S. BLACKIE."
"Buaidh agus Piseach ! "
[literally, Victory and Presperity, a phrase used to
express "Good Luck to you !"]
"UNIVERSITY, ST ANDREWS,
15th February, 1881
"MY DEAR SIR,—I am glad to know that
you see your way to establish a reading-room for your
young people. There is probably no way in which you could
more benefit them. In two directions, at least, your
exertions can go—1st, To enlighten the young as to the
natural world in which we live,
which encompasses us on every side, and which extends from
the dust beneath our feet to the remotest stars that
telescope can reach, and beyond. 2d. To help them to know
the world of men, what human life has been in
past
ages, and what it is now, with some thought of what it may
be here and hereafter.
"This is the benign influence of
literature, that it enables those who study it to know the
best thoughts that have been thought by the best men
throughout all the ages, and to converse across the gulfs
of time with those men, know their characters, share their
confidences, sympathise with their hopes and fears and
aspirations.
"And this, by reading good books, a
young man may do in the remotest glen of the Monaliath as
well as in Edinburgh or London—perhaps better, because of
his freedom from distraction. I trust that you will be
successful in your good undertaking, and that you may be
guided to select good books, and, if periodicals, only the
wholesome ones. For there are some of these last which are
not wholesome altogether. Also, I hope that amid wider
aims you will not neglect anything that will help the
young men to study local history, to know the past of
their own neighbourhood and to respect it, and to
cultivate a knowledge of whatever is best in Gaelic poetry
and song. I have sometimes observed that a little
knowledge—the first beginnings of education—tends to make
young men despise these local matters, as though they were
trivial and of no account. This is a great mistake, as all
see who have attained to a more thorough knowledge and
genuine insight into the truth of history and of human
nature.—Believe me, yours very faithfully,
"J. C. SHAIRP." |
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