Precept & Practice – MAY 5 – Dullness

I myself am of opinion that dullness is responsible for a large amount of human error and misery.   One danger of dullness, whether natural or acquired, is the danger of complacently lingering among stupid and conventional ideas and losing all the bright interchange of the larger world.   The dull people are not as a rule simple people, they are generally provided with a narrow and self-sufficient code;  they are often entirely self-satisfied, and are apt to disapprove of everything that is lively, romantic, and vigorous.

It is difficult to live in a small world and not grow small one’s self to match it;  it is almost impossible for a woman, who is born to a commonplace lot with a commonplace intellect, to make her world a large one…..   They want more interests in their lives, their minds and souls are starved for lack of proper nourishment, and as starving bodies eat garbage rather than nothing, starving souls will do the same.

Dullness does not always make one feel dull;  it deadens one’s faculties and one’s capabilities as well, and makes one a poorer creature altogether.   Those men and women who see no visions and have not perception of that which is invisible, but keep their eyes steadfastly fixed on things too small to be considered at all, magnify trifles till their spiritual microscope transforms a midge into a monster, and a drop of rain into a regular witch’s cauldron.

E. Thornycroft Fowler (A Double Thread)

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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