Precept & Practice – JANUARY 17 – Enthusiasm

Enthusiasm, that being acted upon by the Divine Spirit, that presence of the God within, shedding forth His influence upon life.   O how that joy in work carries a man on! It drives him on in the absorbing pursuit of an ideal, through the rough and smooth places of the world, forgetting all else but the object of his search, in invention, in labour, in art, yes, in holiness.   It sustains him in that burning resolve to achieve something, to redress something, to overcome something, which is irresistible.   Is there not rather a tendency as we get older to lose our enthusiasm, to get a little dull, and a little blunted?     and to say that we have sobered down?     Ah!  should it not rather be ‘they also shall bring forth more fruit in old age’?   ‘The joy of the Lord is thy strength.’   And the simple ‘power of being pleased’ is in itself not to be despised.   We mistake sometimes our coldness and sternness, and that dignified nil admirari, for something else than it really is.

Canon Newbolt

Enthusiasm is the height of man;  it is the passing from the human to the divine.

R. W. Emerson

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From the Introduction to Precept and Practice

The kindly welcome given to my other little books, ‘Being and Doing’ and ‘Character and Conduct,’ must be my excuse for adding another collection of extracts to the number now in circulation.

The quotations are gathered from the books of many earnest thinkers, and deal with Life in all its length and breadth, with ourselves, our characters, our plain unvarnished faults and weaknesses, our often untoward circumstances, and with all that drags us down;-  with our purposes, our religion, our love and friendships, and with all that uplifts us;-  with our relation to others, our influence and responsibilities, and finally with those stages of our journey which bring us to the Road’s Last Turn and to the Silent Land.

CONSTANCE  M. WHISHAW