Part 33 (1/2)
In rhetoric, as Emerson truly says, this art of o tells in favor of the man who talks but little The presumption is that he is a superior man; and if, in point of fact, he is not a sheer blockhead, the presumption then is that he is very superior indeed” Grant was master of the science of silence
The self-controlled are self-possessed ”Sir, the house is on fire!”
shrieked a frightened servant, running into Dr Lawson's study ”Go and tell yourup froe of household lass out of the , and carried a pair of andirons several rods to a safe place beside a stone wall ”Presence of e in distress are more than armies to procure success”
Xenophon tells us that at one time the Persian princes had for their teachers the four best dom (1) The wisest e (3) The most just to train the moral nature (4) The most temperate to teach self-control We have them all in the Bible, and in Christ our teacher, an example ”If it is a small sacrifice to discontinue the use of wine,” said Sareat sacrifice, do it for your own sake” How s if they could control thelasses of ”wet daar in which Cleopatra dissolved her pearls
Experience shows that, quicker than alency, alcohol breaks down a man's power of self-control But the physical evils of inteht, compared with the moral injury it produces It is not simply that vices and crimes almost inevitably follow the loss of rational self-direction, which is the invariable accompaniment of intoxication; manhood is lowered and finally lost by the sensual tyranny of appetite The drunken iven up the reins of his nature to a fool or a fiend, and he is driven fast to base or unutterably foolish ends
With alned the pledge For six days and nights in a wretched garret, without a ht the fearful battle with appetite Weak, faht; but he had conquered the deh used to describe the struggles of atobacco He threhat he had, and said that was the end of it; but no, it was only the beginning of it He would chew caht another plug of tobacco and put it in his pocket He wanted a chefully, but he looked at it and said, ”You are a weed, and I am a _man_ I'llit in his pocket daily
Natural appetites, if given rein, will not only grow monstrous and despotic, but artificial appetites will be created which, like a ghastly Frankenstein, develop a kind of independent life and force, and then turn on their creator to torment him without pity, and will mock his efforts to free hi drink is one of the most pitiable creatures on earth, he becoues that whisper ”Don't,” but the will lies prostrate, and the debauch goes on What a radation there is in the very appearance of a confirer in possession of himself; the flesh is master; the spiritual nature is sunk in the mire of sensuality, and the mental faculties are a e to a bestial or mad tyrant As Challis says:--
”Once the deladness Dwell there nevers; they are eal Passion is intemperance; so is caprice There is an intemperance even in melancholy and mirth The temperate man is not mastered by his moods; he will not be driven or enticed into excess; his steadfast will conquers despondency, and is not unbalanced by transient exhilarations, for ecstasy is as fatal as despair Temper is subjected to reason and conscience Howor foolish acts by the plea that they have a quick te its very heat and passion into energy that works good instead of evil
Stephen Girard, when he heard of a clerk with a strong telad to eht self-control, were the best workers Controlled teulated, it expends itself as energy in work, just as heat in an engine is transmuted into force that drives the wheels of industry
Croton, and Wellington were ious tempers, but they were also e Washi+ngton's faculties were so well balanced and combined that his constitution was tempered evenly with all the eleanized coor, owed allegiance to reason; and with all the fiery quickness of his spirit, his impetuous and ment He had in his coave hihest excitement the power of self-control, and enabled hiust
It was said by an eneant or indiscreet word never fell from his lips
How brilliantly could Carlyle write of heroise at a rooster crowing in a neighbor's yard
A self-controlled mind is a free mind, and freedo, ”which jealously guards its intellectual rights and powers, which calls no man master, which does not content itself with a passive or hereditary faith, which opens itself to light whencesoever it el fro others, inquires still more of the oracle within itself, and uses instructions from abroad, not to supersede, but to quicken and exalt its own energies I call that mind free which is not passively framed by outward circumstances, which is not swept away by the torrent of events, which is not the creature of accidental impulse, but which bends events to its own i, from immutable principles which it has deliberately espoused I call that ainst the usurpations of society, which does not cower to huher tribunal than her law than fashi+on, which respects itself too much to be the slave or tool of the h confidence in God and in the power of virtue has cast off all fear but that of wrong-doing, which no menace or peril can enthrall, which is calh all else be lost I call that e of habit, which does not mechanically repeat itself and copy the past, which does not live on its old virtues, which does not enslave itself to precise rules, but which forgets what is behind, listens for new and higher monitions of conscience, and rejoices to pour itself forth in fresh and higher exertions I call that uards itself frouards its empire over itself as nobler than the empire of the world”
Be free--not chiefly froes--be The ain The rule o'er chance, sense, circumstance Be free