Part 24 (1/2)
Exaggerated individuality makes a man impracticable. But the danger of our times is to copy after others, and thus destroy our force and effectiveness. Live, then, like an individual. Take life like a man--as though the world had waited for your coming. Don't take your cue from the weak, the prejudiced, the trimmers, the cowards;--but rather from the ill.u.s.trious ones of earth. Dare to take the side that seems wrong to others, if it seems right to you; and you will attain to an order of life the most n.o.ble and complete.
THOMAS JEFFERSON.
For the last one hundred years, one of the first historical facts taught the youth of American birth, is that Thomas Jefferson wrote our famous Declaration of Independence. His bold, free, independent nature, admirably fitted him for the writing of this remarkable doc.u.ment. To him was given the task of embodying, in written language, the sentiments and the principles for which, at that moment, a liberty-loving people were battling with their lives. He succeeded, because he wrote the Declaration while his heart burned with that same patriotic fire which Patrick Henry so eloquently expressed when he said: ”I care not what others may do, but as for me, give me liberty or give me death.”
In all nations men have sacrificed everything they held dear for religious and political freedom. Their names are justly written in the book of fame; but in the front rank of them all, we place the brave signers of the Declaration of Independence, with Jefferson in the lead.
The acceptance and the signing of this doc.u.ment by the members of the Continental Congress was a dramatic scene, seldom, if ever, surpa.s.sed in the annals of history. As John Hanc.o.c.k placed his great familiar signature upon it, he jestingly remarked, that John Bull could read that without spectacles; and then, becoming more serious, he began to impress upon his comrades the necessity of all hanging together in this matter.
”Yes, indeed,” interrupted Franklin, ”we must all hang together, or a.s.suredly we shall all hang separately.”
The Declaration of Independence placed the American colonies squarely upon the issue of political freedom. Its composition was a master-stroke which will continue as a lasting memorial to the head and heart of its author.
[Footnote: See ”Thomas Jefferson,” by J. T. Morse, Jr. (in American Statesmen Series), and ”Domestic Life of Thomas Jefferson,” by Sarah N.
Randolph, his great-granddaughter.]
x.x.xIV.
THE IDEAL MAN.
MEMORY GEMS.
From the lowest depth there is a path to the highest height.--Carlyle.
A man seldom loses the respect of others until he has lost his own.
--F. W. Robertson
There are certain things we feel to be beautiful and good, and we must 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 const.i.tutes 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 t.i.tles, or in extent of power and authority. They are satisfied if they can only reckon among their ancestors some of the great and ill.u.s.trious, or if n.o.ble 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 t.i.tles 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 _n.o.ble_ being. There may be rank, and t.i.tle, 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.