The Baltimore County Union

The Genius of Little Things.—Few men do great deeds. Many strive to emulate the few. No one finds all there is in life—few appreciate what they find. The pride and ambition of man mock at and despise the little common courtesies of life, which make beautiful and lovely the path we journey. Great deeds are often clothed in modest attire, and men overlook them in their vain search for something by which they may give their names to the world, illuminated by a blaze of glory. A trifling deed is often, in reality, the most truly great and noble.

The cup of cold water given to the poor wayfarer; the kind word of sympathy to the bereaved and desolate; the friendly remonstrance breathed in the ear of the erring; the little self-denial for the happiness of others, are more great and noble than the costly banquet, the polished address, the eloquent moral lecture, or the fleeting pleasure of self-gratification. The high places of this world are its low ones; its great things are its little things. Life is made up of them; and only those whose names are coupled with little things, are truly great. The favored few who march in the ranks of genius forget this, and as we all do slight the smaller demonstrations of love and goodness which beautify the human soul, and which, like the flowers and green grass by the wayside, make life less wearisome. To give a cup of cold water to the thirsty one is a blessed deed, and may be done with a grace which makes it great and beautiful.

He who, with eye fixed upon the mountain top, as he shouts "Excelsior," has no right to trample with his feet the life from the modest flowers, and as he presses forward, he may find a higher work to do, in carefully putting aside the thorns which lie in wait for some heedless child's unprotected feet.

The idea is false that, because one has mistaken himself to be on a more glorious mission, he cannot stoop to the thousand little amenities of every-day life needed to soften its roughness. Let men try to make life beautiful, homes happy, and to emulate that principle which made Christ God—then the world shall know them great, and be holier from their example.