If James Russell Miller has one failing, it is the frequency with which he fails to identify the authors and books from which he quotes. In modern academic circles this heinous crime that will condemn you to several decades in purgatory. However Miller had died long before this failing was considered a crime.
In 1891, J.R. Miller D.D. wrote the book Making the Most of Life. In chapter 6: The Blessing of a Burden there is mention of "A recent writer" who suggests a new beatitude: “Blessed be drudgery.”
Drudgery, this unnamed writer tells us, is the secret of all culture. He names “as fundamentals in a strong, fine character:”
Readers of Miller's works who would like to learn more of the works of this recent writer are due for a disappointment. True to form, Miller keeps the writer’s name close to his breast.
Again in 1901 The Rev. Miller writing in The Ministry of Comfort In Chapter 18 Stumbling at the Disagreeable says “A genial writer has given us a new beatitude – ‘Blessed be drudgery!’ and in a delightful essay proves that we owe to what we speak of ordinarily as drudgery the best things in our life and character.”
A search of the Web turns up a reference to Edith Ferguson Black. In 1904, 13 years after Miller's book Making the Most of Life was first published, Edith Black wrote a work of fiction called A Beautiful Possibility. This book has a strong religious content. In chapter Chapter 11 of her book, Black writes using Aunt Marthe as a voice piece:
"'Not I, but Christ,'" said Aunt Marthe with a happy smile. She went into the house and returned with a book in her hand. "You asked what culture really was. This writer says 'Drudgery.' Listen while I give you a few snatches, then you shall have the book for your own.
Aunt Marthe then goes on to read “the very fundamentals of all fine manhood and fine womanhood, the fundamentals that underlie all fulness and without which no other culture worth the winning is even possible,” namely:
Clearly this is the same author. However neither Aunt Marthe nor Edith Ferguson Black are willing to share the name of the book or the name of the writer. Miller uses the masculine pronoun, but there the clues end. If anybody can give credit to this writer, please send me a note.
William C. Gannett (1841-1953) wrote Blessed Be Drudgery in 1886.
Gannett was a Unitarian minister in St. Paul, Minn. (1877-1883) and Rochester, N. Y. (1889-1908).
Note added 2005 June 27