In Regards to Recognition and Awards
What is recognition, and what is an award, that a man would say, it is my office to uphold, and it is my position, to have? Is a rabbit in the forest soon startled by a gun? Yet the crowds, and the sentiments, and popularity will not diminish the will of succeeding in this activity. It is good for a person to honestly achieve a certain result, when it is not in harm to anyone else. But ambition, and seeking a trophy for a cause unheeded by good-will, will inherently achieve a fall, or destruction in the end, if the activities and research gone into what has happened to such people in the past is heeded, and if biblical examples are of emolument.
It is good for a person to love his dog... and the dog with his fawning attentiveness will relinquish his will to persevere, and bend his duty to the man who trains and recognizes him as his dog. So a human can say to an idol of a thought, I will attain you, and it will be the upheaval of his state... but is such an idol, that bars humanity from succeeding, or brings others down at the expense of the gain of power, worth its recognition? Is it really a profit, to gain such states, and at the end, lose that position that was gained, however dignified, however labored, because it brought about with cruelty harm to humanity, and did not last? Will the shooting of a duck, gain meat for a meal? So when that meal is gone, can't one be attentive as to where the next meal is going to come? So if one labors for an idol, and it ends in ruin, or does not last, should not a better reasoning be kept close to the heart, which endures, and is alive?
Alex
