The Seminole Indians have a tradition regarding the white man’s
origin and superiority. The Great Spirit made three men of
fair complexion and then led them to a lake and bade them leap
in. One immediately obeyed, and came out of the water whiter
than before; the second did not leap in until the water became
slightly muddy, and when he bathed he came out copper-colored;
the third leaped in when the water was black with mud and he
came out black.
Every man has some choice as to the kind of environment into which he
will plunge, and the color of his character will ultimately show his
choice.
(921)
* * * * *
The gardener bird of New Guinea builds its nest, and lays out a
garden-plot in front, of grass and mosses; and when the female
bird is sitting on her eggs the mate flies about in search of
the brightest-colored leaves and flowers, which are placed upon
this plateau of garden.
Many men have been reclaimed and encouraged by surrounding them with a
beautiful environment.
(922)
* * * * *
Surely, it is not environment that makes temperament. Bittern
and blackbird both frequent bogs, yet the bittern is a
lonely misanthrope, whom I more than half suspect of being
melancholy-mad, while the blackbird is as cheery and as fond of
his fellows as a candidate.--WINTHROP PACKARD, “Wild
Pastures.”
(923)
* * * * *
You may take a piece of wax, and a piece of meat, and some sand,
and some clay, and some shavings, and put them in the fire, and
see how they act. One goes to melting, and one to frying, and
one to drying up, and one to hardening, and one to blazing; and
every one acted on by the same agent.
So, under identical moral influences and in the same environment,
one man goes wrong, another repents, and another remains indifferent.
Not what is done to us but what we do is the thing that determines
character and destiny.
(924)