Marble may rise from crystal waters spanned
By other marbles: founts may plash on stone,
And fashionably-branched trees may stand
As thieves upon a scaffold. Yet, how cold!
How cold!
We are made up of elements. These elements should be well
balanced. The delicacy of equilibrium is what makes the perfect man, or,
rather, the honorable man. Too much avarice makes a contemptibly mean
man; not enough makes a foolish spendthrift, who is always appealing to
his friends for help. Too much bravery in man makes a bully; not enough
a coward. Too much speech in man makes a bore; not enough a "stick." Too
much hope in man makes a speculator and a gambler; not enough, a hermit
and a man-hater. So of ambition. It is a flame to be guarded--a willing
slave, an unpitying master. In its full sway it is the very essence of
self-conceit and selfishness,--two traits, a little of which goes a
good way. You know that you do not put much blueing into a washtub full
of water. Well, use ambition in the same sparing way. If you spill it in
using it, you will have a difficult affair on your hands. It may be just
possible, of course, that you have clothes to wash, so to speak, which
require the whole box or bottle. If so, your chance of happiness is not
great.
"HE WHO SURPASSES OR SUBDUES MANKIND,"
says Byron, "must look down on the hate of those below." "Who soars too
near the sun, with golden wings, melts them," says Shakspeare. We all
have upon us golden wings of happiness. Let us not soar near the sun.
"Fling away ambition," mourns old Cardinal Wolsely in Henry VIII; "by
that sin fell the angels; how can man, then, the image of his Maker,
hope to win by it?" "It often puts men upon doing the meanest offices,"
says Swift, "as climbing is performed in the same posture with
creeping." It has been aptly called by Sir William Davenant,
"THE MIND'S IMMODESTY."
Watch this petty man. He is consumed by a desire to be a little higher
than he now is. He is driver on a street car, in a city. Unconsciously,
he is an excellent driver. He has not become so by the silent care which
befits a real climber. No! he was born a horseman. But he was also born
ambitious. If he were private secretary to the President, he would want
to be President, simply because his attention would be more closely
directed to the Chief Magistracy than elsewhere.