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Show QUESTION OF IMPORTANCE How Important Questions Are Answered Future Man Depends on Parental Care j and Ambitions Substantial in Train-, j ing Character Analyzed Its Essen- I tials. , - (Continued.) m On the contrary, the life of a man of character i is a decided unity something' knit firmly together ' into a consistent whole not rigid or elastic neces- sarily, hut still a unified structure. The man of ! character has his impulses, and his circumstances. I too, both of rhich try to dominate him just as in ? the case of the "other fellow." But his attitude . towards botli is different. It is the attitude of a master, not a slave a dominating, ruling, direct- ing attitude, which uses both impulses and cir- ' cumstiuices as amenable to his own purposes, and makes them his tools. There is a calculation, a i i.- delibcrateness about him which the creature with-r with-r , jf ' out diameter has not got. He may be a good man. or a bad man, but he will be masterfully good or bad. He may indulge his evil impulses as the "other ' fellow" does; but, if so, it is with deliberation and pet purpose. Tie may also restrain his impulses: but, if so, this will not be out' of a weak fear of r leing caught, or a dread of unpleasant conse quences, but out of deliberate policy and set purpose, pur-pose, because he has an object in view. In other words, the man of character is a man ruled, not j by impulse or circumstances, but by internal mo- 1 tives in short, his life is dominated by principles. i These principles may be good or bad, right or I wrong. But there they are; and it is due to their presence that he is what he is, and consistently j what he is. That is what we mean by a man of I character. What, then, is a principle? A principle is some I pregnant, idea relating to conduct, grasped firmly j j by the mind, branded in consciousness, brooded over, elevated into standard of action, and applied I ; habitually to circumstances as they arise. A prin- j ciple means something more than a rule. By a rule I we generally mean some eut-and-dried positive en- ! actment defining in clear terms what shall be done and what shall not be done under certain eircum- 1 stances.. Its application is rigidly according to the s letter; and it is only necessary to understa?id what I the rule says in order to execute it. Given this in- J telligence, and fhe disposition to obey, the rule t works just like a slot machine put in the coin and 1 out comes the cigarette or stick of chocolate. So, in like manner, whenever the circumstances con- templated in the rule arise, it is merely a matter ! f implicit obedience to carry it out. If under un- usual circumstances the execution of the rule be- comes impossible or inadvisable, the rule is broken. even though advisably and justifiably. It is quite otherwise with principles. A principle is some great I general idea to be understood according to its t spirit, and to be applied with discretion. If cir- cumstanees arise under which it is desirable to leave the principle aside, the principle itself is t not broken. For it is of the nature of a principle t to be discretionary in its application; and the lay- i ing of it aside is in fact nothing else bue the bring- ing of some other and more radical principle to - bear on the case, to which the more subordinate principle must give place. The same maxim can become either a principle ; or a rule, according as it is conceived rigidly in the j letter or elasticity in the spirit or again, accord- ing as it is applied mechanically or with deliberate discretion. Treating of principles brings us to the ques- tion of ideals. By an ideal, we mean some type of excellence which we imagine as possible or desirable, desir-able, and which we aspire to realize in our life. There can be bad and good ideals, healthy and mor- i bid ideals, possible and impossible ideals. Ideals ! are formed in various ways, but always empirically. Sometimes they are suggested by reading about some towering personality, such as Xapoleon or Xewman ; sometimes they are made up piecemeal out of the different qualities which we have come across in our living fellow men, which, we admire and would fain imitate, and which we gradually join together and construct into a whole. However How-ever it comes about, the resultant ideal is always reducable to a certain type of character; and character, as we have seen, is life dominated by principles. So in the end it comes to this. Our ideal, reduced to definite terms, is nothing other than the gTOup of principles which we have set our hearts upon as the guiding standards of our life; and the pursuit of our ideal is nothing else than the cherishing of these principles and their i assiduous application. jiA It is this second item to which we must attach - V .the chief importance, h . -There are many people whose minds are filled A with ideals, and those of tne most exalted kind. 'Af But they never get beyond the stage of admira-' admira-' 'J tion ; or at most a sort of velleity a- wish to have it, but an indisposition to go through the labor f of attaining it. This is a bogus idealism a delu sion and a snare. But there are others who, actuated ac-tuated by a like inspiration, do really make efforts ef-forts toward its attainment; but who, through want of strength, or perhaps through difficulties of temperament and circumstances, make a poor show for their exertions. Nevertheless the genuine thing begins as soon as exertion appears on the scene. In this case every encouragement is to be given to 'persevere unless the ideal is something mani-J mani-J fectly impossible; and then it should be humbly ' watered down. So now we have reached the answer to our first question : 1. The end and aim of training is (generically) to produce men of character and (specifically) men of the best and noblest character which circumstances circum-stances and the capacity of the .subject will allow. 2. Character is life dominated by principles, as distinguished from life dominated by mere impulses im-pulses from within and mere circumstances from without. 3. Principles are ethical conceptions deeply rooted in the mind, elevated into standards of conduct, con-duct, and consistently applied to life. 4. A collection of principles covering all departments de-partments of life constitutes an ideal. A man of principles is, therefore, a man with an ideal. 5. There cannot be character without some ideal, but there can be an ideal without character. To be effective, an ideal must not be merely principles dominating life, and then must be embodied in a set of definite principles dominating life, and then it will result in character. 6. The great business training, therefore, is. first, to lay before the child the best and noblest possible ideal; secondly, to get that ideal stamped into his mind in the concrete form of sound principles; prin-ciples; thirdly, so firmly to establish the habit of acting according to those principles that it will last for the rest of his life. |
