Autor: Sertillanges A. D. (Gilbert)

Buch: The Intellectual Life

Titel: The Intellectual Life

Stichwort: Kreative Arbeit; Schreiben 4, Schwierigkeiten d. intellektuellen Lebens; Thomas: "der dumme Ochs aus Sizilien"; der Weise verteidigt sich nicht

Kurzinhalt: Dissatisfaction with oneself, sluggishness of inspiration, the indifference of those about one, envy, misunderstandings ... all these things can be part of the cross, and all of them come in their turn.

Textausschnitt: III
Accepting Our Trials (eü)

22/9 This balanced alternation of work and restful joy is all the more necessary because the trials of the worker are many. We have suggested this more than once already. In knowledge, as in everything, one attains salvation only through the cross. Dissatisfaction with oneself, sluggishness of inspiration, the indifference of those about one, envy, misunderstandings, sarcastic remarks, acts of injustice, the desertion of leaders, the falling-away of friends, all these things can be part of the cross, and all of them come in their turn. (248; Fs) (notabene)

"Superiority has to face so many obstacles and to endure so much suffering," wrote George Sand apropos of Balzac, "that the man who fulfils the mission of talent with patience and gentleness is a great man." You will not take the last word to yourself; but if in any degree you become someone, you must expect rare trials and be prepared to taste to the full their different qualities: the trial of the ideal which appears further off the more eagerly you strive to reach it; the trial of fools who do not understand a word of what you say and take scandal at it; the trial of jealous rivals who consider you impudent because you have passed beyond their line of battle; the trial of the good who waver in their confidence, suspect you, and throw you over; the trial of the mediocre who form the mass and whom you make uncomfortable by your silent affirmation of a superior world. "If you had been of the world, the world would love its own," declares our Saviour; "but because you are not of the world [...] therefore, the world hateth you." (John 15:19.) (248f; Fs) (notabene)

23/9 The distractions mentioned above as means of relaxation may help you here also. Everything that affords rest from work helps also to soothe suffering. However, have recourse above all to supernatural means, and among them to work done for a supernatural motive—which is our one and only purpose. (249; Fs) (notabene)

Work cures the pains of work and those of the worker; it is the foe of annoyances, sickness, and sin; it lifts us into a high region where the vexations of life and the weaknesses of the body find alleviation. The urge it rouses, the direction it gives to our energy, are an anodyne for worry and release us from wretched preoccupations. (249; Fs)

24/9 If you are idle and investigate your body, you will probably feel a good deal of vague discomfort of various kinds; work energetically and you will forget it all. We can say the same about the troubles of the soul. When I ask myself what remedy I shall use against the fits of anxiety and dullness that come over me in my work, I find only one answer: work. What stimulus can I find for my courage, if I lose heart about my work? Work. What means have I of resisting those who are hostile to my endeavor and those others who are jealous of my success? Work. Work is the remedy, work is the balm, work carries me along through every trial. Add to work its companion, silence, and its inspiration, prayer; rest in some loving friendship if God grants it to you, and you can overcome everything. (249f; Fs)

Work maintains the balance of the soul; it brings about interior unity. Along with the love of God, which regulates the hierarchy of values, it brings our powers into due subordination, and the soul becomes stable. Otherwise, the need for unity can be satisfied only by some hobby or by some passion, and all our weaknesses will resume their sway. (250; Fs)

25/9 Not in vain is idleness called the mother of all vices; it is also the mother of discouragement and of trials, or at least it contributes to them. The sense of victory springing from work combats such depression; the expenditure of our powers in an orderly rhythm tones them up and regularizes them, giving them something of the spirit of the boat's crew which sings while rowing. (250; Fs)

Truth is another defense; it steadies and strengthens us; it gives us delight; in its company we are consoled for our own shortcomings and those of others; its discovery is a reward, its manifestation a noble vengeance on days of contradiction. (250; Fs)

The worker is exposed, among other annoyances, to that which is perhaps most keenly felt by the intellectual, and even by the man: criticism does not spare him. When the criticism is superficial and unjust, he is hurt, he is inclined to be irritated; but if it touches his weak point and picks out in his productions or in his character faults that not being able to overcome he would like to forget or conceal, it is then that he is cut to the quick. (250f; Fs)

26/9 What adequate retort can he find and what attitude is he to take up? The same as before. "To every reproach I know now but one answer," says Emerson, "namely to go again to my own work."1 It is said of St. Thomas also that when he was attacked, which happened much oftener than his posthumous triumph would lead one to suppose, he tried to consolidate his position, to define and clear up his doctrine, and was then silent. "The dumb ox from Sicily" was not going to let himself be turned from his path by the gestures and cries of a crusade of children. (251; Fs) (notabene)

To correct one's mistakes and to keep silence is the great maxim; those who have practiced it have always risen to the heights; they turned the force that aimed at pulling them down into a forward impetus to victory; with the stones cast at them they built their dwelling. (251; Fs) (notabene)

27/9 It is childish to defend one's work or to try to establish its worth. Worth defends itself. The solar system does not intervene to settle the dispute between Ptolemy and Copernicus. Truth is; true works share in its being and in its power. To fuss and be disturbed about them weakens you. Be silent; humble yourself before God; distrust your judgment, and correct your mistakes; then stay firm as the rock lashed by the waves. The time and strength you would expend in defending a piece of work will be better employed in producing another, and your peace is worth more than some commonplace success. (251f; Fs) (notabene)

"The truly wise man does not dispute," writes Keyserling; "he does not defend himself. He speaks or he listens; he states or he tries to discover the meaning of things." (252; Fs)

28/9 When a reproach is leveled at you, instead of rebelling interiorly or exteriorly like an animal bristling up, observe like a man the bearing of what is said; be impersonal and honest. If the criticism is right and you wrong, do you mean to resist truth? Even if it had its origin in some enmity, have the courage to acknowledge your error, and the noble purpose of utilizing the ill-will that God puts at your service. For evil itself is in the hands of God, and ill-natured criticism, because it is the sharpest, can turn most to your profit. (252; Fs)

Having thus drawn your advantage from it, leave the rest to the Lord who judges for you and will do justice in His good time. Do not listen any further. "People do not speak ill," writes St. Augustine, "before the man who does not listen." Envy is a tax levied on the income of glory, distinction, or work. Work, invulnerable in itself, demands its price from the worker. Let him pay and not complain. "Great souls suffer in silence," says Schiller. (252; Fs)

29/9 When there is nothing to be gotten out of an attack, one must still get oneself out of it—one must come out of it in the first place intact, free from weakening of purpose and from rancor; and then greater, improved by the trial. Real spiritual strength is intensified in persecution; it murmurs sometimes but its murmuring is like that of every creature which "groaneth and travaileth in pain," as the Apostle says. (252f; Fs)

We have said that intellectual life is heroism: would you want heroism to cost nothing? Things have value in exact proportion to what they cost. Success is for later on; for later on praise, not perhaps that of men but that of God and of His court who will make your conscience their prophet. Your brother workers will also recognize you in spite of their apparent defection. Many little meannesses, and sometimes big villainies, are committed among intellectuals; but a tacit classification none the less puts its seal on real values, even if they are not publicly acknowledged. (253; Fs) (notabene)

30/9 If you have to defer your usefulness also until later on—who knows? perhaps until you are no longer in this world—be satisfied; posthumous honor is the most disinterested, and posthumous utility is a sufficient fulfilment of the real purposes of your work. What do you desire? Vain glory? Profit? Then you are but a pseudo-intellectual. Truth? It is eternal. There is no need for eternity to be turned to utility. (253; Fs) (notabene)

Truth is revealed little by little; those who bring it out of the shadow have not the right to ask it to make them a halo; they serve, that is enough; to gird on the hero's sword for a single moment or to carry his shield is their reward. (253f; Fs)

31/9 Is not work worthwhile for its own sake? It is one of the crimes of our age to have belittled it and to have substituted for its beauty the ugliness of fierce self-seeking. Noble souls live a glorious life and expect it to be fruitful in addition. They work not only for the fruit, but for the work; they work in order that their lives may be pure, upright, and manly, like that of Jesus, and ready to be united with His. And so disappointments do not stop them. Love does not fear disappointments, nor does hope, nor faith that has really strong roots. (254; Fs) (notabene)

No matter if one works without apparent fruit, if one sows and does not reap, if one swims and is continually buffeted back from the shore, if one walks and sees nothing ahead but limitless space: none of these things disappoints one who believes and hopes; and they are even a happiness for one who loves, because love is better proved when one works for the pleasure of work, for the pleasure of the beloved and of his service. (254; Fs)