- cation confined to the production of skilled
workmen might prolong the agony, but would not avert the final disaster, because of lack of intelligence in the organization of means to ends in the particular productive enterprise. Thousands of firms concerned with the distribution of products fail annually, not because of lack of interest on the part of those who are managing them, but because of lack of skilful organization of the various forces whose action is necessary to success.
The schools do not exist to-day which undertake to give instruction in these particular fields. Even the body of knowledge which would form the proper field of study has not been organized and put into teachable form. Even the beginnings have hardly been made toward industrial education in this particular field.—Lorenzo D. Harvey, "Proceedings of the National Education Association," 1909.
(2271)
ORGANIZING FOR WORK
The difference between a locomotive engine
and a pile of scrap-iron is that the one is
organized and the other is not. In the case
of the engine machinery, side arms, driving-wheels
and whistle—all have their place and
part. So have driver and stoker. And it is
the organized power and effort that bring
results.
Many men have enough good moral
material for a fine character, but have
not yet put it in effective order, and so
can not bring it to bear. (Text.)
(2272)
Orient, The, and Opportunity—See Opportunity in the Orient.
Original Sin—See Sin, Original.
ORIGINAL SOURCES
The history of the Christian religion might conceivably be written as was this history named below:
Dr. Thomas Addis Emmet found the histories
of the American Revolution so full of
errors that, in his disgust, he resolved to
make some history that could not lie. The
result was the unique folios now in the keeping
of the Lenox library, in which the author
has never written a word, but has told the
story by the assembling of original documents
and letters. He never allowed himself
to insert a copy, no matter how many hundred
dollars the original document might
cost him.
(2273)
ORIGINALITY
A really fertile creative mind has got to
produce—wheat and tares, flowers and
weeds—all springing from a rich soil. Contrary
to the general belief, there is nothing
so deadly to the writer of creative power as
a too early development of the critical
faculty. That is why the young man who is
always conscious of Lowell and Emerson
looking over his shoulder never is original.—Robert
Bridges, Collier's Weekly.
(2274)
As Plutarch tells us, "it is well to go for a light to another man's fire, but not to tarry by it, instead of kindling a torch of one's own." A torch of one's own!—that is a possession worth having, whether it be a flaming beacon on the hilltop or a tiny taper in the window. We can not tell how far a little candle throws its beams, nor who is laying his course by its flickering light. The most that we can do—and it is also the least we should do—is to tend the flame carefully and to keep it steady.—Brander Matthews.
(2275)
See Newness of Each Soul.
ORIGINALITY OF MAN
If we mean by individuality differences in
character and disposition, then is there a fair
measure of individuality among the animals.
No two animals are just alike, any more
than any two trees are just alike. But if we
mean the possession of striking original
traits, unique powers and capacities, as
among men, then there is very little. Animals
do not differ in the degree that men
differ. What one does all of its kind will
sooner or later do. Anything you can learn
of one bird or beast that is not true of every
member of its species is unimportant.
I, myself, like to dwell upon what seems like individual differences in the manners and characters of the birds and the mammals. We all love the specific and characteristic; but we are aware of these differences mainly because we have a few birds or mammals under observation and not the whole class. Some day we shall observe the same trait or habit in another of the same class. We see something in the eye or the face of a member of one's own family and think it peculiar and original; then, in the face of an Eskimo or a Cossack, we see the same look.—John Burroughs, The Independent.
(2276)
Origins, Unknown—See Unknown Realities.
