Rensselaer Republican, Volume 15, Number 47, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 August 1883 — TRIFLES AND DETAILS IN INTELLECTUAL TRAINING. [ARTICLE]

TRIFLES AND DETAILS IN INTELLECTUAL TRAINING.

One of the first essentials in a thorough intellectual training is to learn instantly and accurately to discriminate between trifles and details. It is precisely the careful, patient attention to the latter, as it is ignoring of the former, that marks the well-devel-oped man. Genius is more than half a perception of relative values. The greatest scientist and the greatest artists alike have been the men who knew precisely what to slight and upon what to lavish the closest attention; and the sin and weakness of modem literature lies in a lack of this essential wisdom. No detail can be so slight and insignificant as to be trifling, and, on the other hand, no trifle can be of sufficient importance to be ranked and considered with the details.— Boston Courier.