hunger after them.--George Eliot
The man who thinks himself inferior to his fellows, deserves to be, and
generally is.--William Black
It is characteristic of small men to avoid emergencies; of great men to
meet them.--Charles Kingsley
Every man has characteristics which make him a distinct personality; a
different individual from every other individual. It is an interesting
fact that a man cannot change his nature, though he may conceal it;
while no art or application will teach him to know himself, as he really
is, or as others see him.
If the idea of humanity carry with it the corresponding idea of a
physical, intellectual, and moral nature--if it be this trinity of being
which constitutes the man,--then let us think of the first or the second
elements as we may, it is the third which completes our conception. Let
us praise the mechanism of the body to the utmost; let it be granted
that the height and force of our intellect bespeaks a glorious
intelligence; still our distinctive excellence and preeminence lies in
moral and spiritual perfection.
There are those who think and speak as if manhood consisted in birth or
titles, or in extent of power and authority. They are satisfied if they
can only reckon among their ancestors some of the great and illustrious,
or if noble blood but flow in their veins. But if they have no other
glory than that of their ancestors; if all their greatness lies in a
name; if their titles are their only virtues; if it be necessary to call
up past ages to find something worthy of our homage,--then their birth
rather disparages and dishonors them.
That these creatures lay claim to the name and the attributes of man, is
a desecration. Man is a _noble_ being. There may be rank, and
title, and ancestry, and deeds of renown, where there is no intellectual
power. Nor would we unduly exalt reason. There may be mental greatness
in no common degree, and yet be a total absence of those higher moral
elements which bring our manhood more clearly into view. It is the
combination of intellectual power and moral excellence which goes to
make the perfect man.
The world wants a man who is educated all over; whose nerves are brought
to their acutest sensibility; whose brain is cultured, keen, and
penetrating; whose hands are deft; whose eyes are alert, sensitive,
microscopic; whose heart is tender, broad, magnanimous, true. Indeed,
the only man who can satisfy the demands of an age like this, is the man
who has been rounded into perfectness by being cultured along all the
lines we have indicated in the foregoing pages.
This education must commence with the very first opening of the infant
mind. Our lessons will multiply and be of a still higher character with
the progress of our years. Truth may succeed truth, according to the
mental power and capacity; nor must our instruction cease till the
probationary state shall close. Our education can finish only with the
termination of life.
Every one is conscious of a most peculiar feeling when he looks at
anything whose formation or development is imperfect. Let him take up an
imperfectly-formed crystal, or an imperfectly-developed flower, and he
can scarcely describe his feelings. The same holds true as to the
organization and structure of the human body. Who ever contemplates
stunted growth, or any kind of visible deformity, with complacency and
satisfaction? And why should we not look for full mental development,
and for the most perfect moral maturity? If what is imperfect
constitutes the exception in the physical world, why should it be
otherwise in the world of mind and of morals? Is it a thing to be
preferred, to be stunted, and little, and dwarfish, in our intellectual
and moral stature? Or do we prefer a state of childhood to that of a
perfect man? If the mind is the measure of the man, and if uprightness
constitutes the noblest aspect of life, then our advancement in
knowledge and in righteousness should appear unto all men.
There is a god in the meanest man; there is a philanthropist in the
stingiest miser; there is a hero in the biggest coward,--which an
emergency great enough will call out. The blighting greed of gain, the
chilling usages and cold laws of trade, encase many a noble heart in
crusts of selfishness; but great emergencies break open the prison
doors, and the whole heart pours itself forth in deeds of charity and
mercy.
The poor and unfortunate are our opportunity, our character-builders,
the great schoolmasters of our moral and Christian growth. Every kind
and noble deed performed for others, is transmuted into food which
nourishes the motive promoting its performance, and strengthens the
muscles of habit. Gladstone, in the midst of pressing duties, found time
to visit a poor sick boy whom he had seen sweeping the street crossings.
He endeared himself to the heart of the English people by this action
more than by almost any other single event of his life; and this
incident is more talked about to-day than almost any of his so-called
greater deeds.
Not what men do, but what their lives promise and prophesy, gives hope
to the race. To keep us from discouragement, Nature now and then sends
us a Washington, a Lincoln, a Kossuth, a Gladstone, towering above his
fellows, to show us she has not lost her ideal.
We call a man like Shakespeare a genius, not because he makes new
discoveries, but because he shows us to ourselves,--shows us the great
reserve in us, which, like the oil-fields, awaited a discoverer,--and
because he says that which we had thought or felt, but could not
express. Genius merely holds the glass up to nature. We can never see in
the world what we do not first have in ourselves.
"Every man," says Theodore Parker, "has at times in his mind the ideal
of what he should be, but is not. In all men that seek to improve, it is
better than the actual character. No one is so satisfied with himself
that he never wishes to be wiser, better, and more perfect."
The ideal is the continual image that is cast upon the brain; and these
images are as various as the stars; and, like them, differ one from
another in magnitude. It is the quality of the aspiration that
determines the true success or failure of a life. A man may aspire to be
the best billiard-player, the best coachman, the best wardroom
politician, the best gambler, or the most cunning cheat. He may rise to
be eminent in his calling; but, compared with other men, his greatest
height will be below the level of the failure of him who chooses an
honest profession. No jugglery of thought, no gorgeousness of
trappings, can make the low high, the dishonest honest, the vile pure.
As is a man's ideal or aspiration, so shall his life be.
But when all this has been said, it still remains true that much of the
difference between man and man arises from the variety of occupations
and practices,--a certain special training which develops thought and
intelligence in special directions. All men meet, however, on the
common level of common sense. A man's thought is indicated by his talk,
by verbal expression. Mental action and expression is affected by the
senses, passions, and appetites.
Whatever great thing in life a man does, he never would have done in
that precise way except for the peculiar training and experience which
developed him; and no single incident in his life, however trifling, may
be excepted in the work of rounding him out to the exact character he
becomes.
The poet is really calling for what we regard as the ideal man, when he
says:
"God give us men. A time like this demands
Strong minds, great hearts, true faith and ready hands:
Men whom the lust of office does not kill;
Men whom the spoils of office cannot buy;
Men who possess opinions and a will;
Men who have honor--men who will not lie;
Men who can stand before a demagogue
And scorn his treacherous flatteries without winking;
Tall men, sun-crowned, who live above the fog
In public duty, and in private thinking."
XXXV.
WHAT CONSTITUTES GOOD CITIZENSHIP.
MEMORY GEMS.
A great nation is made only by worthy citizens.--Charles Dudley Warner
Nothing is politically right that is morally wrong.--O'Connor
The noblest principle in education is to teach how best to live for
one's country.--G. T. Balch
The good citizen will never consent that his voice and vote shall
sanction a public wrong.--A. M. Gow
Let our object be, our country, our whole country, and nothing but
our country.--D. Webster
An old English picture represents a king, with the motto beneath, "I
govern all;" a bishop, with this sentence, "I pray for all;" a soldier,
with the inscription, "I fight for all;" and a farmer, who reluctantly
draws forth his purse, and exclaims with rueful countenance, "I pay for
all." The American citizen combines in himself the functions of these
four. He is king, prophet, warrior, and laborer. He governs, prays, and
fights for himself, and pays all expenses.
It is neither desirable nor possible, however, for men to be wholly
independent of one another. Their very nature reveals the fact that they
are intended to be associated in the bonds of mutual intercourse and
affection; and such forms of associated life we see all about us, in
the life of the family, the community, and the nation.
For a body of human beings to attempt to live together without regard
for each other's interests, would be certain to lead to confusion, if
not to disaster. There would be no security for life or property; no
recognized standard of values; no ready and certain means of
communication; nor any of the higher conveniences which mark the life of
our own land and age. That which is needed to insure these necessary
benefits, is some common understanding, or some such generally accepted
agreement, as finds expression in those forms of government which have,
for these very reasons, become common to all civilized lands.
It is in this idea of associated life that citizenship finds its real
beginning. But between the formulation of the idea, and such citizenship
as we now enjoy, there have been long centuries of slow growth and
steady development. Each of these succeeding centuries has marked a
decided improvement in the condition of mankind; and the outlook for the
future of the race is more hopeful at the present than in any period of
the past.
Men like to praise old times. They are fond of telling about "the good
old days," when there was simplicity, and a rude but rugged virtue, and
men were gay and happy. But if you were to take these men up, and carry
them back there, and let them sleep where men slept then, and let them
eat what men ate then, and let them do what men had to do then, and take
from them what men did not have then,--you would hear the most piteous
whining and complaining that ever afflicted your ears.
Do not be misled by such of our empty-headed reformers as would tell you
that the workman's lot is harder at the present than in the far-away
centuries of the past; for their statements cannot be verified, but are
untruthful and pernicious in the highest degree. The sober, industrious,
self-respecting artisan of to-day has the privilege of entrance to many
places and families which were closed against the merchants and
manufacturers of one hundred years ago; and he stands possessed of
opportunities such as were not possible even to the men of the last
generation.
Citizenship stands inseparably connected with the family. The family is
practically a little state in itself, embodying on a smaller scale, all
those vital and fundamental principles which make up the larger life of
the nation. It is in the family that we first come under government. Our
earliest lessons in obedience are those which arise from the authority
of our parents and guardians. It is in the home that we discover that we
cannot do altogether as we please, but that others, as well as
ourselves, must be regarded. And it will not be difficult to discern
that, in the various phases of home life, we have represented almost all
the forms of government which have become embodied in the various kinds
of national administration now prevailing in the various parts of the
earth.
In a well-ordered home, the authority would be such that every one could
have the largest freedom of action consistent with the general good.
When the freedom of any one made itself a cause of annoyance to the
rest, it would have to be curtailed. As fast as the children grew to
deserve more liberty, it would be given them; but always on condition
that they prove themselves worthy to be entrusted with this larger life.
But with this increase of freedom and privilege, comes the increase of
responsibility. Every member of the family who is old enough to
appreciate its privileges, is old enough to share its burdens. Some
specific duties should be assigned to each, however simple these may be;
and for the performance of these duties, each should be held to be
personally responsible. Precisely this is needed in the larger sphere of
the state; and when this can be attained and maintained, the good of the
state will be both effectually and permanently assured.
A true lover of his country will have, as his ruling idea, that the
state is for the people, and that America has been made to make and
sustain happy Americans. No nation is in a satisfactory condition when
large portions of its population are discontented and miserable. The
comfortable classes will generally take care of themselves; but they
need to know that their own prosperity is bound up with the condition of
the uncomfortable classes. And even if it were not so, it would be their
duty to advocate such social reforms as would tend to raise men
intellectually, morally, and circumstantially. The carrying into effect
of all this opens up a vast realm of service for the public good; and
the proper performance of this service, in all its several branches,
constitutes good citizenship.
Speaking in general terms, we may say that a citizen of a country is one
born in that country. If you were born in the United States, then you
are a citizen of the United States. This one simple fact endows you with
all the privileges of our great nation, and, at the same time, lays upon
you a measure of responsibility for the nation's welfare.
In addition to those who are trained for American citizenship in
American homes, we have among us a large body of men who are "citizens
by adoption." Millions of people have emigrated to America; and to these
it has become the country of their own free choice.
We are sorry to observe, in certain quarters, a growing disposition to
regard all immigrants as "a bad lot"; for while we concede that many of
those who come here, might certainly be much better than they are, we
would yet remind you that these "citizens by adoption" have repeatedly
proved their loyalty to our national institutions, and their
willingness to die in following our national flag.
Every good citizen will give attention to public affairs. He will not
only vote for good men and good measures, but he will use his personal
influence to have others do the same. Ours is a government of the
people, and is neither better nor worse than the people make it. We
should study the needs of our country, and keep ourselves well informed
on all the current questions of the day, and then, by an honest and
intelligent exercise of the privileges which the nation grants us, prove
ourselves citizens of the very highest type.
XXXVI.
THE CITIZEN AND THE HOME.
MEMORY GEMS.
The hand that rocks the cradle rules the world.--Anon
The fireside is the seminary of the nation.--Goodrich
Early home associations have a potent influence upon the life of the
State.--Child
Nothing proves more ruinous to the State than the defective education
of the women.--Aristotle.
The sorest spot in our municipal and national condition, is the
decadence of the home idea.--G. H. Parkhurst
The fact that children are so long in growing up, and pass so many years
together under the care of their father and mother, is most important in
the history of the race. During this long period of growth in the home
they become fitted, as they could not in any other way, to take their
places in the larger world of men and women. If children remained with
their parents as short a time as the young of animals do, it is probable
that men would never have risen above the state of barbarism. The home
has been the great civilizer of the world.
The home is more than the family dwelling; it is the seat of the family
life; and the family life stands to the life of the nation in the same
relation as the index to the volume, or the expression of the
countenance to the feeling of the heart. Our Saxon race has been
distinguished from its historic beginnings for its love of personal
liberty, and is the only race that has ever been able perfectly to
realize this blessing in its highest and noblest form.
If the word home could be squeezed into the language of the savage, it
could have no such meaning for him as it possesses for us. The hut of
the savage is simply a place to eat in and sleep in. He selects no spot
on which to plant, and build, and educate. He claims to occupy so much
territory as will furnish him with subsistence, but his "home," if he
really has one, is in the forest, like the game he hunts. It is a fact
beyond dispute, that all migratory people are low down in the scale of
civilized life.
The homes of any people are the very beginnings of its progress, the
very centers of its law and order, and of its social and political
prosperity. They are the central points around which the crystallizing
and solidifying processes of national life and growth can alone be
carried forward. We do not give sufficient prominence to this fact, in
our estimate of the forces which build up our national life. We
recognize art and science, agriculture and industry, politics and
morality; but do we realize, as we should, that, beneath all these, as
the great foundation rock upon which they all must rest, lies the home.
Or, to change the figure, the homes of our people are the springs out of
which flow our national life and character. They are the schools in
which our people are trained for citizenship; for when a young man
leaves the paternal roof, his grade and quality as a citizen is, as a
rule, fully determined.
The training of a good citizen must begin at the cradle, and be
continued through the plastic period of boyhood and carried forward by
his parents, until the youth crosses his native threshold to act his
part and assume his responsibilities in the broader field of his own
independent life.
The home life of New England has been the most potent force, in the
building of this great nation. The homes of our Puritan ancestors were
really the birthplaces of these United States. What then was the
character of these homes? They were simple and even rude, as considered
externally--and especially when contrasted with the homes of the New
Englanders of to-day. But within, there was love and loyalty, reverence
and faith. In the early homes of New England there were so many strong
fibers running from heart to heart, and knitting all together,--and so
many solid virtues woven into the daily life,--that their influence has
done much to make our nation what it is.
A young man trained in such a home, will usually become an example of
sobriety, industry, honesty, and fidelity to principle. He will be felt
to be part of the solid framework which girds society and helps to keep
it healthy,--a kind of human bank, on which the community may draw to
sustain its best interests, and to promote its noblest forms of life.
The home is the birthplace of true patriotism; and a true patriotism is
one of the first and most important characteristics in the upbuilding of
any nation. It is not the wild plebeian instinct that goes for our
country right or wrong, which forms the real element of our strength.
Love of country, to be a real help and safeguard, must be a sentiment
great enough to be moral in its range and quality. Neither the power of
numbers, nor mere oaths of allegiance, will suffice. Patriotism always
falls back upon the home life and the home interests for its inspiration
and its power.
Whatever crosses the threshold to desolate the hearth, touches to the
quick one of the strongest sentiments of our nature. The old Latin
battle cry, "For our altars and our firesides," is still the most potent
word which can be given to our soldiers, as they advance upon the foe;
and the man who will not go forward, even to the death, for these, is
rightly counted as little better than a slave.
If you want a man upon whom you can rely in the hour of the nation's
peril, select the man who loves his home; for in proportion as he loves
his home, will he love his country which has protected it.
We therefore repeat that the homes of the people are the secret of our
country's greatness. Acres do not make a nation great. Wealth cannot
purchase grandeur and renown. Resources, however great and wonderful,
cannot crown us with national honor and celebrity. The strength and
prowess of any land lies in the character of its citizens; and their
character depends largely upon the character of their homes.
XXXVII.
THE CITIZEN AND THE COMMUNITY.
MEMORY GEMS.
Municipal government should be entirely divorced from party politics.
--C. H. Parkhurst
Too many of our citizens fail to realize that local government is a
worthy study.--John Fiske
Every citizen should be ready to do his full part in the service of the
community in which he lives.--E. O. Mann
Each separate township needs men who will inspire respect and command
confidence.--W. A. Mowry
Let the man who, without good excuse, fails to vote, be deprived of the
right to vote.--W. H. H. Miller
Whenever men live in a community, they are placed under certain mutual
obligations. Unless these obligations are carefully regarded the
community life will be sure to prove a failure. Man is selfish as well
as social. The weak must, therefore, be protected from the strong; and
in this important work there are common interests which require united
action. This united action may be for the common defense of the
community, or for the general welfare of all.
The unit of government is generally the town, or as it is called in many
parts of our country, the township. A town includes the people who are
permanent residents within a certain limited and prescribed territory,
usually occupying but a few square miles.
The government of a town, or township, is in the hands of the people
permanently residing within the limits of that township. These people
combine together for the protection and mutual good of all. This is the
fundamental principle of government. To carry on this government and
make the necessary provisions for the mutual good of the inhabitants of
the town, taxation is resorted to. The people, therefore, come in
contact with the government first of all at this point.
Taxes are levied by a majority vote of the citizens assembled in town
meeting, such meetings being usually held once a year, in order that the
moneys necessary to be raised, and the business to be done for the
welfare of the people, may receive regular and careful attention.
Where the population is dense and houses are placed close together, so
that within a small area there is a large body of inhabitants,
thegovernment is generally under the form of a city.
Our republican government, which, after making all due allowances, seems
to work remarkably well in rural districts, in the state, and in the
nation, has certainly been far less successful as applied to cities.
Accordingly our cities have come to furnish topics for reflection to
which writers and orators fond of boasting the unapproachable excellence
of American institutions do not like to allude.