From the Archive

FROM THE STRAD DECEMBER 1909 VOL. 20NO.236

CHRIS SINGER

A youth with his way to win has got to wrestle along with taut muscles and steadfast aim; but he need not unnecessarily thrust his elbows into his neighbour’s ribs, nor be perpetually on the lookout for slights. It doesn’t take the very least bit of gilt off our own gingerbread to give fair praise to a fair and honest rival, nor thanks for offices well meant if not always just what we desire.

We are on the high road to becoming complacently conceited, if we are not pricked to remember that one day we, too,—we, the now conquering—may unavoidably fall behind through no fault of our own, scratching dull brains and tasking stiff fingers to keep up with the requirements of a day that is no longer ours.

Let us succeed, then, by all means, and with all our might, but without bitterness and without inflation. The world to-day is for the young; and before we deem that we have matured, we are of yesterday, finding the pace tell, and beholding day by day new hills overtopping our old Alps. Of course we do not believe this when we are twentyone. Heaven forbid that we should! for it is often only our untried faith and courage that carries us home so proudly on the crest of the wave. But, since we are, unaccountably, in preaching vein, let us commend to the junior violinist with whom we have travelled so long, knowledge not only of his instrument and of the things that pertain to music, but of the texture of the life that surrounds him, and in which, for good or evil, he plays his individual part. Let him look on with seeing eyes, beholding fruit in the sheathed bud and drawing nourishment from the husks of adversity. To possess oneself; that is the ideal: not to be moved overmuch by praise or blame, nor to excess by wrath or pity; enjoying the pleasant things of life with frank and full appreciation, and accepting the bitter with quietness and a mind open to experience.

Perhaps it is not till we have known and felt the utmost that we are capable of, that it becomes possible for us really to observe and appreciate life; at once entering into it with zest and purpose, yet being sufficiently able to detach ourselves from the hindrance of circumstance to appraise events, qualities and emotions at their true value. But anyone can refuse, from his school days upward, to accept false coin;—sham friendships, worthless approval, empty professions;— and it will be well for the man-that-is-to-be if he puts small faith in either praise or affection that is too easily profuse and extravagant in expression.