One of the weaknesses of the human race is envy. No one is entirely
free from envy, although the true philosopher who has studied himself
and has things sized up correctly is nearly free from envy.
Human kind have three measures for gauging the other fellow. We measure
the other fellow either by his knowledge--which is brains, by his
pedigree--which is birth, or by the money he has accumulated--which is
boodle. These three Bs are like three stars in the sky. The first
star--Brains is usually the dimmest, but it is really the brightest
star of all. Mankind is prone to look at the brighter stars of birth
and boodle.
These three stars of Brains, Birth and Boodle, are three aristocracies.
The first aristocracy has no less authority than that of the Almighty.
The aristocracies of birth and boodle are sham counterfeits gotten up
by man. They do not mean anything when put into the crucible and tested
by fire.
The aristocracy of brains differs from the aristocracies of birth and
boodle as the sun differs from the jack-o-lantern, or as the music of
the soul differs from the bray of the burro, or as a pure woman's love
differs from the stolen affections hashed up by the fourth husband.
Brains like air and water, are not always appreciated until we have
analyzed and investigated thoroughly. The foolish man thinks champagne
is the finest drink. The wise man knows water is the best drink, even
though water costs nothing. The foolish man has for his ideal--money or
birth. The wise man takes off his hat to brains.
The measure of a man is his brain and not his birth or his boodle.
Thought, reason and knowledge are possible to the man who has a brain.
No man can buy brains, and truly he is an aristocrat of the highest
order who is blessed with a good brain.
Some people whose ancestors came over with the Pilgrim Fathers have a
picture of the Mayflower in their homes and they seem to take a great
deal of pride in the picture of the Mayflower. There seems to be a halo
around the Mayflower. The descendants of the passengers of that ship
look upon the picture of the Mayflower as a sort of seal or guarantee
of the good qualities of their forefathers, and consequently, being
direct descendants they take unto themselves a lot of credit for
something in which they had no hand in the making.
The Mayflower was afterwards used as a slave ship, but our disciples of
birth do not want to know about this. Some of the passengers in the
Mayflower performed acts and violated laws and conducted themselves in
such a manner that would cause people of these days to be put in jail
for the same offenses. Some of these good ancestors of the present
descendants of birth burned witches at the stake.
Time wipes out a lot of things, and this is probably as it should be,
but certainly it is true that the world is progressing and the good man
of today is probably better and broader than some of these glorious
ancestors to whom so many take off their hats. Some of our forefathers
in Europe were little less than pirates and buccaneers. Their
descendants today knowing that they can make great claims with little
fear of contradiction, extol the virtue of their forefathers and
complacently take on a superior air. They have thought over the matter
of birth so much that they really think they are superior beings.
Grizzly Pete of Frozen Dog, Idaho, doesn't take much stock in the
aristocracy of birth. He says, "It ain't what's on a man and it ain't
what his father was that counts. The only thing to judge a man by is
what's in him and what kind of brains he has."
One thing about this glorious Western country of ours is that a man
gets credit for and he is punished by his own individual acts. It
doesn't make any difference how far back his pedigree runs, if he
doesn't make good himself, people have no use for him.
The heritage of birth is mighty thin fabric and mighty weak material
for a man to use in making a cloak of exclusiveness to put around him.
We anticipate that some of our readers will take exception to our
attitude on the matter of birth. We wish to be plainly understood that
the matter of good birth and good ancestors is a good thing to have.
The writer has a pedigree that would be his passport into the
aristocracy of birth if he chose to belong to that lodge. Your good
ancestors is no handicap. It is a credit to you, but mark this down
well: You, yourself, are entitled to no credit for any acts of your
ancestors. Your measure is and should be taken for what your own net
worth is.
The aristocracy of boodle is the slimmest aristocracy of all. Yet there
are more people who try to get into that lodge than any other. The
possession of the dollar seems to be the ambition of everyone, and
usually the first thing we try to find out about a man is "how much is
he worth?" The thinker, however, knows that the possession of money
doesn't make a man any better than his neighbor who has no money--their
morals and their acts being even.
Brains. That's the true aristocracy. The professor in college who has
spent a lifetime in study and has devoted his talents to uplifting
mankind is an aristocrat. He may be getting two or three thousand
dollars a year, while his brother with lesser knowledge is getting ten
times that much in another vocation. The aristocracy of brains always
has been, is now and ever will be the enduring aristocracy. Even those
who belong to the aristocracies of birth and boodle find they are sham
counterfeits and many of them turn to study and to good impulses hoping
they may get into the lodge of the aristocracy of brain.
In business the aristocracy of birth or the aristocracy of boodle is a
decided handicap. They make the individual think he is superior and he
is above doing things which seem to him trivial, because he thinks he
is a superior being. The man with brains, however, digs as well as
climbs. Without brains, business would go to the dogs, for if business
were conducted by men of birth and boodle without brains, you can
easily see that the whole fabric would fall to pieces.