The value of the 
 
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 The Value of the Intellectual Life 
 
 REV. CHARLES W. WENDTE 
 
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 Jn /iRemoriam 
 JOHN H. SMYTH
 
 SMYTH MEMORIAL WINDOW. 
 Subject :—" Inspiration," St. John at Patmos.
 
 The Value of the Intellectual Life 
 
 A DISCOURSE 
 
 BY 
 
 REV. CHARLES W. WENDTE 
 
 DELIVERED AT THE 
 
 FIRST UNITARIAN CHURCH 
 
 Oakland, Cal. 
 
 Sunday, September i8th, 1892 
 
 On the subject of the Stained Glass Window placed in the Church to the 
 memory of JOHN H. SMYTH, by his wife, S. Gertrude Smyth.
 
 • t 
 
 • r *
 
 
 The Value of the Intellectual Life. 
 
 "And he said unto me, Write, for these words are true and 
 faithful." — Rev. xxi : 5. 
 
 ( Inscription on the Smyth Memorial Window.) 
 
 The purpose of my discourse this morning is to 
 interpret to you the legend of tlie stained glass win- 
 so dow which has been placed in the north front of this 
 ^ church, in loving memory of .John ^^ . Smyth, and to 
 >!■ draw from it the nermanent lessons of truth and 
 2 beauty which it seeks to convey to our souls. 
 —I It is proper that I begin with some account of the 
 ^ man whom this beautiful work of Christian art com- 
 g mem orates. 
 
 John H. Sm3^th was born in 1830 in Dublin, Ireland. 
 He came of energetic and -^turdy Scotch-Irish stock. 
 In his infancy his parents emigrated to the New 
 World. His education was gained in Quebec, and 
 later at the Jesuit College in Montreal, where he grad- 
 uated as a student of the law. He shortly after re- 
 moved to Milwaukee, where he was admitted to the 
 bar. The talented young lawyer, full of energy and 
 ambition, longed for a larger field for the develop- 
 ment of his powers. Accordingly, in 1S62 he came to 
 San Francisco. Entering into a law partnership, he 
 
 3 
 
 295587
 
 began a successful professional career, devoting him- 
 self especially to cases involving the title and owner- 
 ship of land. One of the fruits of his diligent study 
 and legal acumen was a treatise on the law of home- 
 stead and exemption. This publication received high 
 praise at the time of its appearance. It was the first 
 attempt to arrange and classify this young but already 
 huge body of law, and was a thorough and conscien- 
 tious piece of work. It still remains a valuable book 
 of reference for the legal profession. 
 
 But while Mr. Smyth attained a highly creditable 
 standing as an attorney, and acquired a com- 
 petence through the practice of his profession, his 
 friends were wont to say of him that his analytic 
 mind and scholarly tastes better fitted him for a pro- 
 fessor's chair. In looking over his literary remains; 
 I have myself been impressed with this opinion. 
 He was a man of intellect and culture, of diligent 
 research, and keen observing powers. He pos- 
 sessed a good classical training, and was acquainted 
 with several modern languages. Some of his papers 
 before the Berkeley Literary Club, of this city, of 
 which he was a valued member, especially displayed 
 his varied gifts, and exhibited no small degree of lit- 
 erary talent. Two of these, memorial tributes to de- 
 Darted members of the Club, Rev. Dr. Hamilton and 
 Hon. John W. Dwindle, were especially noticeable, 
 and found their way into print. He also contributed 
 numerous articles and reviews to the public press. 
 
 But it was the domain of Science which especially 
 attracted and interested him. In a public lecture 
 on The Life and Times of Galileo, first delivered 
 in 1872, he spoke in brave and eloquent terms of
 
 Charles Darwin, and gave thoughtful consideration to 
 his doctrine of the Descent, or rather Ascent, of INIan. 
 He incurred no little theological odium for this utter- 
 ance. Mr. Smyth was a member of the Academy of 
 Sciences, and of the California Microscopical and His- 
 torical Societies. His most important contribution to 
 his favorite study was a treatise on Panspermy versus 
 Abiogeny, in which he discussed with much acute- 
 ness the questions attending the theory of spontaneous 
 generation. He gives an interesting account of the 
 researches of the eminent French scientist Pasteur in 
 this field of investigation, and reaches, at last, the 
 conclusion that the spontaneous generation of life 
 has not been proven, and that the dictum, " no life 
 without antecedent life," is firmly established by the 
 latest researches. This essay has been preserved in 
 pamphlet form. 
 
 In his private and domestic life Mr. Smyth was 
 very happy. In 1867 he married Miss S. G. Beers, a 
 student and teacher of Oberlin, Ohio, who sympa- 
 thized with his intellectual tastes, and was very de- 
 voted to him. A charming trait in him was his equa- 
 ble and sweet temper in his home. 
 
 He was deeply interested in tlie political life and 
 reform movements of his adopted country. Two of 
 his brothers served in the Union army during the 
 civil war, and one of them was killed on the field of 
 battle. He himself was only restrained from a 
 soldier's career by the necessity for one member of the 
 family remaining at home to support it. With voice 
 and pen he upheld the cause of human liberty and 
 the preservation of the Union. 
 
 He was especially interested in the domestic, social
 
 and industrial emancipation and political enfranchise- 
 ment of the women of America. 
 
 In 1S80, symptoms of a malady of the brain began 
 to reveal themselves, the result of a too intense appli- 
 cation to his business and his books. For several 
 years he lingered at his pleasant home on San 
 Pablo avenue, with little power of mental concentra- 
 tion, but enjoying the sunshine, and the trees and 
 flowers whicli he had planted with loving hand. His 
 declining years were tenderly watched over by his 
 devoted wnfe. On the 22d of January, 1888, it became 
 my mournful duty, as pastor of this church, to con- 
 duct Christian rites of burial over his grave. We laid 
 him away in the beautiful cemetery which nestles 
 among yonder hills that overlook our city. His body, 
 worn and wasted, we committed to kindly mother 
 earth, his eager, restless mind, his ardent, aspiring 
 spirit to God who gave it. 
 
 THE VALUE OV THE INTELLECTUAL LIFE. 
 
 In pondering the lessons of the life of Mr. Smytli, 
 it has seemed to me that the aspect in which he pre- 
 sents himself to our imagination and memory is that 
 of the student, the scholar and thinker. It was with 
 this conception of him in mind that the following in- 
 scription was penned for the mural tablet which is to 
 be affixed to the wall near his window to accompany 
 and explain it: 
 
 In studious ways he sought, with cultured mind, 
 
 Guided by reason's torch, justice and truth to tind ; 
 
 His earnest life its faithful witness bore 
 
 That, while he sought the truth, he loved mankind the more. 
 
 Last Sunday morning I treated of the worth and 
 dignity of manual labor and the mechanic arts, as 
 
 6
 
 illustrated in the legend of the memorial window in 
 the west wall of the church. I took occasion at that 
 time to utter a protest against the unlovely contempt 
 and arrogance so often displayed toward occupa- 
 tions involving handwork and physical toil by our 
 educated, professional and wealthy classes. This 
 morning we dedicate a memorial representative to us 
 of Intellectual Labor, of the work of the student and 
 thinker and seer. It is no less in order for me to call 
 your attention in turn to the lack of appreciation and 
 disparagement which intellectual occupations so often 
 encounter from the so-called working classes. The 
 man who supports himself by the. labor of his hands 
 often fails to do justice to the industry and self-denial, 
 the severe, unremitting toil of the student and profes- 
 sional man. He does not know in what the work of 
 the scholar and thinker consists, and hence denounces 
 him for his idleness or envies him his leisure and easy 
 circumstances. Many workingmen look upon the 
 professors at our State University, for instance, as so 
 many drones in the social hive, supported, through a 
 foolish deference for culture, in semi-idleness at the 
 public expense. A few lectures weekly is all that is 
 required of them, and these are merely an interrup- 
 tion of their long vacations and years of travel abroad 
 at the cost of the State. How little do such critics 
 understand the true nature of the scholar's vocation. 
 They are ignorant of his faithful toil over his books 
 or his instruments, protracted often till deep into the 
 night. They cannot appreciate the difficult problems 
 in language, philosophy and science that harass his 
 mind, his arduous pursuit of truth stretching his rea- 
 son till it aches, the severe discipline of mental powers
 
 necessary for the acquisition of knowledge, or the 
 abilit}^ to impart it to others. 
 
 " In the sweat of thy brow shalt thou eat thy bread " 
 is a command honored by the brain worker quite as 
 much as by the artisan or day laborer. 
 
 I recall coming suddenly once upon the poet 
 preacher, Robert Collyer, as he sat at his study table> 
 literally toiling over his Sunday sermon. His form 
 was bent over the desk before him ; his face flushed 
 purple with intellectual strain, the veins on his fore- 
 head were swollen and knotted. " What, Robert," I 
 cried, " so hard at work ! I thought you, of all men, 
 wrote by inspiration." " Ah, my lad, it's oftener per- 
 spiration," was the reply. No toil of the blacksmith 
 Robert Collyer, as, in his earlier days, he hammered at 
 his anvil, caused him such stress and pain as his labor 
 in framing, pen in hand, those winsome sentences that 
 charm us with their blended Anglo-Saxon strength 
 and musical beauty. No struggle with unruly beasts 
 refusing to be shod was so strenuous and exhausting 
 as to restrain and concentrate the Pegasus flight of his 
 imagination upon the serious moral purpose of his 
 sermon. One has well said that the scholar also 
 perspires at his task, but it is inwardly rather than 
 outwardly. The acquirement of a clear and elegant 
 style in writing and speaking is as laborious as the 
 acquirement of a trade, and yet this style is only the 
 beginning of the scholar's vocation, the tools with 
 which he is to pursue his art as an author and a 
 teacher. There are, indeed, indolent students, inef- 
 fective scholars who render the world but slight ser- 
 vice; but so are there lazy workingmen, shiftless and 
 useless followers of the mechanic arts. All high 
 
 8
 
 literary and scientific culture is the product of 
 years of unceasing toil. The scholar's task never 
 ends, for knowledge and truth can never be ex- 
 hausted. The most laborious and erudite student 
 must confess at the last, like the profound Sir Isaac 
 Newton, that for all his attainments, he seems to him- 
 self only a child playing by the seashore, amusing 
 himself with finding a curious pebble or bit of shell 
 now and then, while the great ocean of undiscovered 
 truth stretches away before him. 
 
 But let not this confession of the limitations of hu- 
 man capacity and knowledge be construed into a dis- 
 paragement of the work of the scholar and his value 
 to the community. "All past history proves the 
 immensity of the debt which the world owes to those 
 who gave their whole time and attention to intellectual 
 pursuits." Without Aristotle and Plato, Moses and 
 Lycurgus, Cuvier and Darwin, Newton and Humboldt' 
 Voltaire and Strauss, Jesus and Luther, human history 
 would lose its brightest pages, and man still he groping 
 in the errors and brutalities of his earlier and savage 
 condition. 
 
 Even the Fine Arts are not the mere playthings of 
 his leisure, but have their high mission to refine and 
 exalt his soul, to fill his eyes with beauty and his heart 
 with gladness. Artists like Shakspeare, Phidias, Rafael 
 and Beethoven, — how poor the world would be without 
 these creators of the aesthetic treasures of mankind! 
 The humblest workingman, whose home is something- 
 more than a roof and four walls, or who reads some- 
 thing besides an account of a prize fight or ball match, 
 is a debtor to art. In every graceful curve in the lines 
 of his habitation, in every picture on its walls, in 
 
 9
 
 every garment that he puts on, in every book that he 
 reads, in every song he sings, in every spectacle he 
 witnesses, in every sermon he hears, he renders con- 
 stant, however unconscious, tribute to the value of the 
 fine arts in human life. 
 
 Yet facility in art production is not an original gift 
 to man, it is only to be acquired through long and 
 persistent endeavors. The artist must enter upon a 
 ceaseless struggle against technical difficulties. "The 
 "fine arts," says P. G. Hamerton. " offer drudgery enough 
 and disappointment enough to be a training both in 
 patience and humility." • 
 
 " The true artist is born," we sometimes say. Assur- 
 edly, but his art is not born with him ; only his artistic 
 impulse. His native capacity is God's free gift to him, 
 the cultivation of that capacity must be his own achieve- 
 ment. Only by industry and toil, by self-denial and 
 self-discipline can he develop liis gifts and make them 
 useful to mankind. Meissonier, the eminent French 
 artist, painted very small canvases. They were in 
 such eager demand that you would have to cover its 
 surface many times with gold to purchase one of them. 
 But Meissonier's studies for each figure in his crowded 
 pictures were painted from living models and life-size, 
 and every tint and line in his paintings was the fruit 
 of the most unremitting, painstaking toil. 
 
 Again, do not imagine that the literary art is the 
 idle and easy employment of leisure hours. Nine- 
 tenths of it is drudgery. Wordsworth, we are told, 
 shrank from the composition of his poems much more 
 sensitively than from his monotonous vocation as an 
 agent for the sale of government stamps. Most poets, 
 while they love to dream over the conception of their 
 
 10
 
 poems, have a horror of the pen. To engage in the 
 labor of actual composition requires all their moral 
 courage and resolution ; and how often are they not 
 discouraged and disheartened when, in spite of all 
 their faithful endeavors, their imagination and senti- 
 ment spurn the fetters of language and verse. When 
 a poet tells you his lines cost him little or no effort, 
 depend upon it he is not aiming at the highest in his 
 art— the divine flame is not in him. The only poetry 
 worth writing or reading is that which has racked 
 one's brain, or is coined out of the agony of one's heart. 
 
 Let us then honor intellectual labor in all its forms. 
 The lawyer who pores all day with intense mind 
 over his briefs and law books, and takes the varying 
 fortunes of his clients before judge and jury home 
 with him to ponder in the still night-watches; the 
 doctor, whose anxious thought is concerned with the 
 recovery of his patients, and the fearful issues of life 
 and death that so often depend upon his skill and 
 faithfulness; the business man, carrying in his mind 
 the infinite ramification and detail of a large mercan- 
 tile or manufacturing establishment — are not these 
 workmen, who need not to be ashamed, faithful toilers 
 for the upbuilding of the world in health and wealth, 
 truth and knowledge, grace and goodness? 
 
 Men do not appreciate this as they should. AVhen 
 I visited a German relation of mine, years ago, and 
 told him that I was about to study for the minis- 
 try, he exclaimed, with sincere regret, "0, why 
 couldn't you have chosen something useful?" I 
 might have answered him with the words of Jesus • 
 "Man cannot live by bread alone." Nay, nor by 
 the sharpened intelligence that furnishes him with 
 
 11
 
 bread. The minister, if he be true to his calling, is 
 no idler. He has it within possibility to be one of the 
 most useful men in the community. To study not 
 only books, but human nature, not only theology, but 
 all arts and knowledges that enrich and adorn human 
 life; to preach and teach, to comfort and inspire, to 
 lend a hand and lead, to seek for truth and rebuke 
 unrighteousness, to try and make himself a better 
 man for his own and his brethren's sake — here is 
 work enough to do, to confute the vulgar notion that 
 he does not earn the bread he eats. 
 
 The workingman toils hard and for a modest in- 
 come (with all my heart I pray for its large increase), 
 but when his eight or ten hours' stint is done his toil 
 is over, his mind is free from care, he is his own master, 
 and can give himself to whatever pursuit or pleasure 
 he will. The work of a pastor, a doctor, a business man 
 or lawver is never done. His cares follow him into his 
 home, they haunt his pillow, they pursue him on his 
 vacations, until he looks with envy upon the brawn and 
 muscle, the healthy appetite and sweet sleep of the 
 toiler at forge or bench or plow. 
 
 How wrong, then, are the popular cavils and slurs 
 upon intellectual labor! Not only is it equal in 
 severity and hardship to manual toil, but in its pro- 
 ductive results upon human welfare and happiness it 
 is of equal if not superior importance to the so-called 
 industrial occupations of man. " Of all the toils," says 
 Philip Hamerton, " in which men engage, none are 
 nobler in their origin or their aim than those by 
 which they endeavor to become more wise." Any 
 jealousy and disparagement on the part of these two 
 classes in human society, the brain-workers and the 
 
 12
 
 hand-workers, is unwise and unjust. Each needs the 
 other. Each shoukl respect and honor the other. 
 Such is the teaching of the New Testament. "For 
 now are there many members, yet but one body; and 
 the eye cannot say unto the hand, ' I have no need of 
 thee,' nor again the head to the feet, ' I have no need 
 of you.' . . . There shoukl be no scliism in the 
 body, but the members should have the same care one 
 for another. And whether one member suffer all the 
 members suffer with it, or one member be honored all 
 the members rejoice with it. . . . But covet earn- 
 estly the best gifts." Thus the Gospel teaches the 
 equal right and honor of all labor, whether the hand 
 or brain is predominently employed in it. No honest 
 work is disgraceful to man, whatever it be. It is not 
 his particular vocation, but the manner in which he 
 pursues it, that makes it honorable or dishonorable. 
 
 Yet we are to " covet the best gifts," for while it is 
 apparent that all kinds of work may be equally hon- 
 orable, so far as individual character and merit are 
 concerned, not every occupation is of equal value to 
 the community and the welfare of man in general. 
 The toil of a road-mender or trench-digger, however 
 faithfully performed, can never be as great a con- 
 tribution to the welfare of his country or his kind as 
 that of a great jurist, or poet, or thinker. One Edison 
 is worth more than a million Chinese coolies to the 
 world. A George William Curtis, dedicating his great 
 brain and heart to the upbuilding of true political and 
 social ideals among his countrymen, is worth more 
 to American civilization than a hundred thousand 
 foreign-born voters in New York, whose influence and 
 ballot are devoted to overthrowing them. While there 
 
 13
 
 exists in mankind this native disparity of intellectual 
 and moral endowment there can be no absolute 
 equality among men. The rewards for labor may be 
 more equitably adjusted, and manual toil receive a 
 larger share of the world's goods and opportunities. 
 This seems to have been in Jesus' thought also, for in 
 his parable of the talents, he wdio had received the ten 
 and he who had received the five talents were promised 
 the same reward — the joy of their Lord. But no human 
 adjustment of compensation for labor can ever remove 
 native differences of endowment or make one occu- 
 pation equal to another in importance to mankind. 
 Even if the Socialistic philosophy were to be put 
 into practice, and, through governmental compulsion, 
 every worker, whether with brain or hand, be equally 
 compensated, still intellectual and moral superiority 
 would make itself felt, and those vocations which ex- 
 ercised the most wide-reaching influence on human 
 affairs w^ould receive the greatest consideration and 
 dignity, — w^ould be most admired, sought after and 
 rewarded with social distinction. This would be the 
 more true if those who pursued them were inspired, as 
 they should be, by a lofty sense of moral obligation 
 to their Creator and their kind, and, remembering 
 that from those who have received much, much is re- 
 quired, dedicated their exceptional gifts and opportu- 
 nities to the service of the common brotherhood. 
 
 The window which has been set in yonder wall to 
 commemorate a departed student and professional 
 man, represents to us the value and dignity of intel- 
 lectual labor. 
 
 But all high forms of intellectual activity involve 
 a corresponding moral endeavor. In them the human 
 
 14
 
 mind becomes conscious of its larger and spiritual 
 relations, its kinship with the Eternal and Divine. 
 This loftier exercise of the intellectual faculties in 
 man we call Inspiration, and it is this great spiritual 
 fact which our window symbolizes and glorifies. In 
 a central circular panel is displayed upon a pearly 
 background, patterned after the mosaics of ancient 
 Byzantine art, the seated figure of St. John, the Seer 
 of Patmos. His red prophetic mantle envelops him. 
 In one hand he holds, unrolled, the scroll of revela- 
 tion, in the other an uplifted pen. His face, swept by 
 his venerable and flowing beard, is upturned to 
 heaven, with a listening and rapt expression. The 
 whole attitude of the figure is one of the most eager, 
 intense expectancy. Above is inscribed the injunction 
 from the Apocalypse : " And He said unto me. Write, 
 for these words are true and faithful." (Revelations, 
 xxi, 5.) Eight panels surround the central opening, 
 and are filled with representations of flowers and fruit 
 employed in Christian symbolism, the lily, the pas- 
 sion-flower, the pomegranate and the vine. These 
 panels are further connected with the central picture 
 by a circle of cherubic and winged heads which sur- 
 rounds it. 
 
 Inspiration is the theme of this beautiful work of 
 Christian art. But, remember, inspiration is not an 
 absolutely free gift of God, disassociated from all 
 human effort. It presupposes, not a passive and per- 
 ceptive, but an active and responsive condition of the 
 mind. These two must co-operate — the purpose of 
 God and the will of man, the influx of the divine 
 spirit and the open and eager mind that yearns to re- 
 ceive it. 
 
 15 
 
 295587
 
 Ill even the most usual exercise of the thinking 
 powers the mind can act only as it is quickened from 
 above. How much greater, then, is its obligation to 
 divine impulses when it is concerned with the pro- 
 founder problems of human investigation! The holy 
 spirit of God is to the mind what light is to the eye. 
 Its office is not to impart truth, but to show it; to so 
 awaken the intelligence and kindle the moral and 
 spiritual nature of man that he may see the truth, 
 love the good and do the right; that with fear and 
 trembling he may work out his own salvation, and yet 
 know that it is God who worketh in him to do His 
 will and pleasure. 
 
 Inspiration comes to men in different forms, ac- 
 cording to the character of their seeking. Moses and 
 Gladstone are inspired to make laws, the Psalmist to 
 pour out his soul in song, Plato and Emerson to im- 
 part wisdom, Isaiah and Wendell Phillips to utter 
 prophecies, Luther and Channing to free the soul of 
 man, Raphael and Mozart to breathe beauty into the 
 sordid world, Jesus to lift it by his cross towards 
 heaven and God. And not only these crowned spirits 
 of the race — every honest thought, however humble, 
 every loving deed, every unselfish prayer, from the 
 lowliest as well as the highest-placed among men, 
 has its Godward side. " There are diversities of gifts, 
 but the same spirit, diversities of operations, but it is 
 the same God who worketh all in all." 
 
 But this implies that man must do his part, the 
 human intelligence and will must co-operate with the 
 Divine Purpose. Then truly the voice is heard from 
 heaven: "Write, for my words are true and faithful!" 
 then a great conviction seizes upon each faithful 
 
 16
 
 servant of the Most Iligb, whatever his gift or station; 
 then the mind is clear, the heart enhirged, truth is 
 seen at firsthand, right is second nature, and God is 
 
 all in all. 
 
 To this highest form of the intellectual life our 
 window is dedicated. As from Sunday to Sunday it 
 lends its beauty to our service, may its legend and 
 lesson sink deep into our hearts, encouraging us with 
 the reminder that the Divine inspiration is continuous 
 and universal. It quickens the thought and nerves 
 the will of men to-day as truly as in ancient and Bible 
 times. It is ours in fullness proportioned to our obe- 
 dience and trust, and we may sing with grateful confi- 
 dence in the Divine Presence and Communication, the 
 inspired, hymn of Whittier: 
 
 All souls that struggle and aspire, 
 
 All hearts of prayer by thee are lit; 
 And, dim or clear, thy tongues of fire 
 
 On dusky tribes and centuries sit. 
 
 Nor bounds, nor clime, nor creed thou knowest; 
 
 Wide as our need thy favors fall ; 
 The white wings of the Holy Ghost 
 
 Stoop, unseen, o'er the heads of all. 
 
 17
 
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