DOI issue:
No. 96 (March, 1901)
DOI article:Baldry, Alfred Lys: The work of J. M. Swan, A.R.A., [1]
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.19787#0099
J. M. Swan, A.R.A.
difference between him and the bulk of the young be made upon him, and therefore had no hesitation
men about him lay, as he perceived, in the fact in setting himself tasks that would have been
that they were influenced by a craving to try bold impossible to anyone of less vigour. Naturally,
flights before their wings would carry them, while the chances of professional failure did not trouble
he, knowing that he would fly well enough by and him, for he knew that he could stay through a
by, was content to keep on his feet, and to devote training severe enough to cripple irretrievably the
to an elaborate consideration of aerial navigation student of average strength.
in all its bearings the time that they were wasting At all events this confidence, whatever the
in aimless excursions. It was nothing to him that sources in which it originated, never led him
the half-fledged youths looked upon him as a astray. He was not afflicted by the delusion that
dreamer who imagined what he was unlikely to he ought to parade his unassorted information in
realise; they could not tempt him to break away an effort to create a premature sensation. Rather
from the restraints by which he had resolved to had it the effect of inducing him to acquire a
discipline his capacities. double portion of the knowledge that goes to the
It may reasonably be assumed that Mr. Swan making of a master in art. He intended to suc-
owes something of his early confidence in himself ceed, but he had proposed to himself a success
to a splendid physique. If his body had not been quite out of the common, and proportioned to
as strong as his mind he might easily have broken lofty ideals. It would be time, he decided, to
down under the strain of shaping his destiny to fit enter upon the creative stage when he felt so sure
in with the preconception that he had formed, of the science of art that he would not have to
His particular ambitions imposed by a dogged will stop in the midst of some imaginative flight to
upon a nervous or weakly personality would not worry about details of construction. And as it
improbably have defeated their own aims by ex- was his ambition to be many-sided, he was impelled
hausting the physical energies through which to cover in his studies a far wider ground than the
alone the plan for his life's work could be carried generality of men care to explore. He had a full
out. But he felt equal to any demands that might scheme of existence mapped out, and he was fol-
"wainamoinen" (norse legend) by j. m. swan, a.r.a.
80
difference between him and the bulk of the young be made upon him, and therefore had no hesitation
men about him lay, as he perceived, in the fact in setting himself tasks that would have been
that they were influenced by a craving to try bold impossible to anyone of less vigour. Naturally,
flights before their wings would carry them, while the chances of professional failure did not trouble
he, knowing that he would fly well enough by and him, for he knew that he could stay through a
by, was content to keep on his feet, and to devote training severe enough to cripple irretrievably the
to an elaborate consideration of aerial navigation student of average strength.
in all its bearings the time that they were wasting At all events this confidence, whatever the
in aimless excursions. It was nothing to him that sources in which it originated, never led him
the half-fledged youths looked upon him as a astray. He was not afflicted by the delusion that
dreamer who imagined what he was unlikely to he ought to parade his unassorted information in
realise; they could not tempt him to break away an effort to create a premature sensation. Rather
from the restraints by which he had resolved to had it the effect of inducing him to acquire a
discipline his capacities. double portion of the knowledge that goes to the
It may reasonably be assumed that Mr. Swan making of a master in art. He intended to suc-
owes something of his early confidence in himself ceed, but he had proposed to himself a success
to a splendid physique. If his body had not been quite out of the common, and proportioned to
as strong as his mind he might easily have broken lofty ideals. It would be time, he decided, to
down under the strain of shaping his destiny to fit enter upon the creative stage when he felt so sure
in with the preconception that he had formed, of the science of art that he would not have to
His particular ambitions imposed by a dogged will stop in the midst of some imaginative flight to
upon a nervous or weakly personality would not worry about details of construction. And as it
improbably have defeated their own aims by ex- was his ambition to be many-sided, he was impelled
hausting the physical energies through which to cover in his studies a far wider ground than the
alone the plan for his life's work could be carried generality of men care to explore. He had a full
out. But he felt equal to any demands that might scheme of existence mapped out, and he was fol-
"wainamoinen" (norse legend) by j. m. swan, a.r.a.
80