THE IMPORTANCE OF CHARACTER.
That "Heaven helps those who help themselves," is a maxim as true as
it is ancient. The great and indispensable help to success is
character.
Character is crystallized habit, the result of training and
conviction. Every character is influenced by heredity, environment
and education; but these apart, if every man were not to a great
extent the architect of his own character, he would be a fatalist, an
irresponsible creature of circumstances, which, even the skeptic must
confess he is not. So long as a man has the power to change one
habit, good or bad, for another, so long he is responsible for his
own character, and this responsibility continues with life and
reason.
A man may be a graduate of the greatest university, and even a great
genius, and yet be a most despicable character. Neither Peter Cooper,
George Peabody nor Andrew Carnegie had the advantage of a college
education, yet character made them the world's benefactors and more
honored than princes.
"You insist," wrote Perthes to a friend, "on respect for learned men.
I say, Amen! But at the same time, don't forget that largeness of
mind, depth of thought, appreciation of the lofty, experience of the
world, delicacy of manner, tact and energy in action, love of truth,
honesty, and amiability--that all these may be wanting in a man who
may yet be very learned."
When someone in Sir Walter Scott's hearing made a remark as to the
value of literary talents and accomplishments, as if they were above
all things to be esteemed and honored, he observed, "God help us!
What a poor world this would be if that were the true doctrine! I
have read books enough, and observed and conversed with enough of
eminent and splendidly-cultured minds, too, in my time; but I assure
you, I have heard higher sentiments from the lips of the poor
uneducated men and women, when exerting the spirit of severe, yet
gentle heroism under difficulties and afflictions, or speaking their
simple thoughts as to circumstances in the lot of friends and
neighbors, than I ever yet met with out of the Bible."
In the affairs of life or of business, it is not intellect that tells
so much as character--not brains so much as heart--not genius so
much as self-control, patience, and discipline, regulated by
judgment. Hence there is no better provision for the uses of either
private or public life, than a fair share of ordinary good sense
guided by rectitude. Good sense, disciplined by experience and
inspired by goodness, issued in practical wisdom. Indeed, goodness
in a measure implies wisdom--the highest wisdom--the union of the
worldly with the spiritual. "The correspondences of wisdom and
goodness," says Sir Henry Taylor, "are manifold; and that they will
accompany each other is to be inferred, not only because men's
wisdom makes them good, but because their goodness makes them wise."
The best sort of character, however, can not be formed without
effort. There needs the exercise of constant self-watchfulness,
self-discipline, and self-control. There may be much faltering,
stumbling, and temporary defeat; difficulties and temptations
manifold to be battled with and overcome; but if the spirit be
strong and the heart be upright, no one need despair of ultimate
success. The very effort to advance--to arrive at a higher standard
of character than we have reached--is inspiring and invigorating;
and even though we may fall short of it, we can not fail to be
improved by every honest effort made in an upward direction.
"Instead of saying that man is the creature of circumstance, it would
be nearer the mark to say that man is the architect of circumstance.
It is character which builds an existence out of circumstance. Our
strength is measured by our plastic power. From the same materials
one man builds palaces, another hovels; one warehouses, another
villas. Bricks and mortar are mortar and bricks, until the architect
can make them something else. Thus it is that in the same family, in
the same circumstances, one man rears a stately edifice, while his
brother, vacillating and incompetent, lives forever amid ruins; the
block of granite which was an obstacle on the pathway of the weak,
becomes a stepping-stone on the pathway of the strong."
When the elements of character are brought into action by determinate
will, and influenced by high purpose, man enters upon and
courageously perseveres in the path of duty, at whatever cost of
worldly interest, he may be said to approach the summit of his
being. He then exhibits character in its most intrepid form, and
embodies the highest idea of manliness. The acts of such a man
become repeated in the life and action of others. His very words
live and become actions. Thus every word of Luther's rang through
Germany like a trumpet. As Richter said of him, "His words were
half-battles." And thus Luther's life became transfused into the
life of his country, and still lives in the character of modern
Germany.
Speaking of the courageous character of John Knox, Carlyle says, with
characteristic force: "Honor to all the brave and true; everlasting
honor to John Knox, one of the truest of the true! That, in the
moment while he and his cause, amid civil broils, in convulsion and
confusion, were still but struggling for life, he sent the
schoolmaster forth to all comers, and said, 'Let the people be taught;'
this is but one, and, indeed, an inevitable and comparatively
inconsiderable item in his great message to men. This message, in
its true compass, was, 'Let men know that they are men; created by
God, responsible to God; whose work in any meanest moment of time
what will last through eternity.'
. . . This great message Knox did deliver, with a man's voice and
strength, and found a people to believe him. Of such an achievement,
were it to be made once only, the results are immense. Thought, in
such a country, may change its form, but cannot go out; the country
has attained _majority_; thought, and a certain spiritual manhood,
ready for all work that man can do, endures there. The Scotch
national, character originated in many circumstances; first of all,
in the Saxon stuff there was to work on; but next, and beyond all
else except that, in the Presbyterian Gospel of John Knox."
Washington left behind him, as one of the greatest treasures of his
country, the example of a stainless life--of a great, honest, pure,
and noble character--a model for his nation to form themselves by in
all time to come. And in the case of Washington, as in so many other
great leaders of men, his greatness did not so much consist in his
intellect, his skill and his genius, as in his honor, his integrity,
his truthfulness, his high and controlling sense of duty--in a word,
in his genuine nobility of character.
Men such as these are the true life-blood of the country to which
they belong. They elevate and uphold it, fortify and ennoble it, and
shed a glory over it by the example of life and character which they
have bequeathed. "The names and memories of great men," says an able
writer, "are the dowry of a nation. Widowhood, overthrow, desertion,
even slavery cannot take away from her this sacred inheritance . . .
Whenever national life begins to quicken . . . the dead heroes rise
in the memories of men, and appear to the living to stand by in
solemn spectatorship and approval. No country can be lost which
feels herself overlooked by such glorious witnesses. They are the
salt of the earth, in death as well as in life. What they did once,
their descendants have still and always a right to do after them;
and their example lives in their country, a continual stimulant and
encouragement for him who has the soul to adopt it."
It would be well for every young man, eager for success and anxious
to form a character that will achieve it, to commit to memory the
advice of Bishop Middleton:
Persevere against discouragements. Keep your temper. Employ leisure
in study, and always have some work in hand. Be punctual and
methodical in business, and never procrastinate. Never be in a
hurry. Preserve self-possession, and do not be talked out of a
conviction. Rise early, and be an economist of time. Maintain
dignity without the appearance of pride; manner is something with
everybody, and everything with some. Be guarded in discourse,
attentive, and slow to speak. Never acquiesce in immoral or
pernicious opinions.
Be not forward to assign reasons to those who have no right to ask.
Think nothing in conduct unimportant or indifferent. Rather set than
follow examples. Practice strict temperance; and in all your
transactions remember the final account.