{"collection":"philosophy-ethics","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_32421/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_32421","id":"gutenberg_32421","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/32421","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Philosophy & Ethics","Conduct of life"],"text":"Produced by Audrey Longhurst, Richard J. Shiffer and the\nOnline Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nA Man of the World\n\nBY\n\nANNIE PAYSON CALL\n\n\n_Author of_\n\n\"Power Through Repose,\" \"As a Matter of Course,\" \"The Freedom of Life\"\n\n\nBOSTON\n\nLITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY\n\n1906\n\n\nCOPYRIGHT, 1905,\n\nBY LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY.\n\n\n_All rights reserved_\n\nPublished October, 1905\n\nTHE UNIVERSITY PRESS, CAMBRIDGE, U.S.A.\n\n\n\n\nA MAN _of the_ WORLD\n\n\n\n\nI\n\n\nThere are two worlds in the minds of men: the one is artificial,\nselfish, and personal, the other is real and universal; the one is\nlimited, material, essentially of the earth, the other supposes a kind\nof larger cosmopolitanism, and has no geographical limits at all; it is\nas wide as humanity itself, and only bounded by the capacity for\nexperience, insight, and sympathy in the mind and heart of man. A true\nman of the world, therefore, is not primarily of it,--a true man of the\nworld must know and understand the world; and in order to do so, he\nshould be able at any time to get it into perspective.\n\nCharles Dickens says that by a man who knows the world is too frequently\nunderstood \"a man who knows all the villains in it.\" It is of course, by\ngentlemen, also understood that a man who knows the world knows all its\nmanners and customs, and can adapt himself to them easily and entirely,\nwherever he may be. But this external polish does not preclude the\nidea, even among so-called well-bred men, that a man who knows the world\nknows all the villains in it, and such a man may be more or less of a\nvillain himself, provided he has the cleverness and the ingenuity to\nhide his villainy. To a certain extent the appearance of virtue has been\nalways more or less of a necessity in the world, but the moral standards\nin social, professional, and business life are inconsistent and mixed.\nEven in essentials the highest standards are often modified to suit the\npreference of the majority. It is not always considered dishonorable for\na man to cheat in business, so long as the cheating is done without\ninterfering in any way with the general customs of the business world.\n\nWhen we say that a man of the world is generally understood to be a man\nwho \"knows all the villains in it,\" it seems at first sight an extreme\nstatement, but as the world goes now, it certainly represents the\ngeneral tendency of thought. The distinction is too seldom made between\na man of the world and a worldly man,--between a man who really knows\nthe world as it is and a man whose familiarity with it is narrow and\nsordid. When people speak of \"seeing life\" they seldom mean seeing the\nbest of it.\n\nThe same tendency toward perversion, as being the more interesting phase\nof life, is found among physicians and trained nurses. A good physician\nonce told me, with pained indignation, that his students would go miles\nto see an abnormal growth of tumor, but not one of them would turn\naround to enjoy the mechanism of a healthy heart. And it is a well-known\nfact that many trained nurses will lose interest in a case the moment a\npatient begins to recover. \"A splendid case of typhoid fever\" is, not a\ncase in which the patient is throwing off the effects of the germ with\nwholesome promptness, but one in which the germ is doing its\nworst,--where the illness is extreme, and the delirium exciting. To be\nsure, in such a case, there is intense interest in taking all possible\nmeans, with promptness and decision, to save the patient's life; but, if\nthis were done only with a keen love of wholesomeness and normal health,\nthe interest of the nurses and physicians would never wane until the\npatient had become strong and vigorous. If the standard of the best\nphysical health were steadily before the eyes of physician and nurse,\nand if both had a strong desire to bring the patient, as nearly as\npossible, up to their own high standard of health, there would be a very\ngreat difference in the atmosphere of sick rooms and hospitals. The work\nof physicians and nurses seems to be more often that of protection\nagainst disease than that of achievement of health; and the distinction,\nthough at first sight it may seem a fine one, is nevertheless radical.\n\nNote the parallel between this negative tendency toward health of body,\nand the same negative tendency in the world toward health of soul. It\nis protection against the worst ravages of sin which is the moral aim of\nthe majority of the world; not a striving toward a positive standard of\nhealthy life for both soul and body. What is sin but disease of the\nsoul? Sin is just as truly, just as practically, disease of the soul, as\nany form of known malady is disease of the body. If we could impress\nourselves strongly with the fact that sin is disease,--disorder and\nabnormality,--it would be a radical step toward freedom from sin. By sin\nis meant every kind of selfishness,--whatever form it may take.\n\nA young friend, in speaking of a companion charming in his words and\nmanners and most attractive because of his artistic temperament, but\nevidently loose in his ideas of morality, once expressed the opinion\nthat it was \"all right\" to associate with this charming man,--enjoying\nall that was delightful in him and ignoring, so far as possible, all\nthat was evidently bad.\n\n\"Could you ignore dirty nails, dirty ears, and a bad smell about your\ncompanion?\" someone asked.\n\nWhereupon the young man exclaimed, with an expression of supreme\ndisgust, \"How can you speak of such things,--of course I could not stay\nwith him for five minutes!\"\n\nBut he did not in the least associate the loose, light, unclean way of\nlooking at human relations, with the same careless uncleanness as\napplied to the body. And yet, in reality, the one kind of uncleanness\ncorresponds precisely to the other. In the one case the dirt is on the\ninside and is what we may call living dirt, because it is kept alive by\nthe soul to which it is allowed to cling. In the other case the dirt is\non the outside, and can be washed off with soap and water. Very few\nso-called men or women of the world are willing to appear dirty and\nslovenly in their bodies,--but a great many are willing to be dirty and\nslovenly in their souls. A curious and significant fact it is, that\noften, when a man's nerves give way, even when his external habits have\nbeen most cleanly, or even fastidious, they may change entirely, and he\nmay go about with spotted clothes, dirty hands, and a general slovenly\nappearance, whereas such external shiftlessness would have been\nimpossible to him while his nerves were comparatively well and strong.\n\nWhen such a man's nerves give way, so that he loses to some extent the\nexternal use of his will, the dirty habits of his mind appear in\nslovenly and dirty habits of body, because he has no longer the\nwill-power to confine them to his private thoughts and feelings. The\nhabits of his body become then a true expression of his state of mind.\n\nWe may prove the relation between sin and disease by tracing what might\nbe called a mild sin to its logical extreme. Just as we may follow\nalmost any disease in its development, until it causes the death of the\nbody, if the body is not protected from its growth, so we may follow\nany sin in its development to the death of the soul, if the soul is not\nsimilarly protected. All sin, when allowed to increase according to its\nown laws, is the destruction of both soul and body.\n\nMacbeth's mind became diseased; and we may find many an Iago in our\ninsane asylums to-day, for, with all his cleverness, no Iago can, in the\nlong run, keep control of his mind if his selfish plans are frustrated.\nThe loathsome diseases of the body which are liable to overtake a Don\nJuan may only be spoken of, or thought of, as a means of removing the\nblindness of those who, from dwelling upon the sensations of the body,\ncome to think of sin as pleasant. When their blindness is removed, the\nleast touch of the sensuality which causes the disease will fill them\nwith wholesome horror. It is wonderfully provided by the Creator that\nany sensation, which is selfishly indulged in, any sensation that a man\nremains in for its own sake, must lead first to satiety,--and then to\nworse than satiety and death. This is true both of all selfish\nsensations of the body and of all useless emotions of the mind. Our\nsensations and our emotions must be obedient servants to a wholesome,\nvigorous love of usefulness, or they become infernal masters whose rule\nleads only to weakness and death.\n\nThe old asceticism,--the spiritual stupidity of primitive times,--placed\nthe world, the flesh, and the devil on a level of equality, whereas both\nthe world and the flesh are capable of noble uses, but the devil is not.\nThe world and the flesh are servants, and good servants; they are\nnecessary instruments for the carrying out of the Divine purpose in\nhuman life. But the devil is merely the perversion of good things to\nuseless, trivial, and degrading ends. He has no power in himself except\nas we give him power, and we give him power every day when we associate\nthe idea of the world with that of the villains in it, and when we\ndebase the flesh by not realizing the clean, good service for which it\nis intended. Indeed, we are really feeding the devil in so far as our\nstandards of life are negative, and not positive,--in so far as we are\nonly busy in protecting ourselves from worse sin or from worse disease,\ninstead of casting out _all sin and disease_ as fast as we perceive them\nin ourselves, and working toward the highest possible standard of\nwholesome life for body and soul. To \"_look to the Lord and shun evils\nas sins_,\" means to hold to the standard of health given us by the Lord\nfor both body and soul, so that it may become more and more clear as we\napply it to life with persistent strength. Our present standards of life\nare warped. The abnormal has become so familiar to us as to seem normal.\nThe joy and life-giving power of fresh air for soul and body is too\nlittle known to us. A thoroughly healthy world, with wholesome habits of\nmind and body, is almost out of our ken. The lower standards have\nbecome too generally a matter of course,--that is why we do not think of\nbrave and wholesome manhood when we use the expression \"a man of the\nworld.\"\n\nIt is a certain fact that no man can understand and live in what is good\nand wholesome, _of his own free will_, without having had\ntemptations,--and strong ones,--to what is evil and unwholesome. Thus a\nknowledge of the evil in the world enlarges a man's experience just in\nso far as he uses that knowledge to lead him to the opposite good. A\nknowledge of evil warps a man's character,--however broad his\nexperience may be,--just in so far as he yields to the evil and allows\nit to become a part of himself.\n\n\"And ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free.\" The\ntruth which makes us free is the truth about ourselves, the truth about\nevil, the truth about everything, and our freedom is full and expansive\nin proportion as we recognize, acknowledge, and live by the truth, both\nin general and in detail.\n\n\n\n\nII\n\n\n\"I am a man and nothing human do I consider alien to me,\" said Terence\ntwo thousand years ago.\n\nA man who thoroughly knows the world must be capable of understanding\nall phases of life,--not only those of his own country, class,\nprofession, or sect. It is the humanity in all its phases that he loves\nand understands,--not the phase itself; and therefore nothing that is\nhuman can be so remote as to be unintelligible to his mind or without\nthe power of appeal to his heart. Iago could never understand honesty or\ngenerosity. Don Juan could never understand chastity. On the other hand\nit is possible for an honest man to understand Iago, and for a clean man\nto understand Don Juan. Although in neither case will the man who\nunderstands sympathize with the sin, in both cases the understanding\nwill be clear and comprehensive. A child cannot understand either Iago\nor Don Juan, neither can a childish man; but a truly _childlike_ man can\nunderstand all phases of temptation and sin, and estimate them justly.\n\nThere is an innocence of ignorance, and there is an innocence of wisdom.\nThe innocence of ignorance is involuntary. It is innocence because it\ncannot be anything else. A little child is in the innocence of\nignorance, and it is from that protective innocence that we feel the\nfresh, happy atmosphere of childhood. The innocence of wisdom is\npossible only to those who have known temptation and, through overcoming\nit, have learned to recognize all sin for what it really is,--the filth\nand disease of the soul, and to avoid it as such. The fresh life that\nsprings from such struggle and conquest of selfish tendencies brings\nwith it a vigor of innocence which has a quality of life akin to that of\na healthy child, with the added power and insight of a man's maturity.\nWhatever form or phase of temptation his fellow men may be in, such a\nman, from his own experience, has found the means of understanding them.\nHe has found the means of understanding his neighbor, whether the\nneighbor is immersed in self-indulgence, is struggling desperately to\ngain his freedom, or is well along upon the upward path.\n\nA man who can only understand certain special phases of human nature is\nnarrow and provincial, however he may assume the air of a man of the\nworld; and the false assumption of a broad understanding renders him\npractically still more narrow and provincial, for it stands in the way\nof his learning from those who have it in their power to instruct him.\nBut the true man of the world, whose breadth of vision and penetration\nof insight are the result of a working familiarity with universal\nprinciples in practical life, detests sin without condemning the sinner,\nand is not befooled by the shallow pretensions of the provincial\nPharisee.\n\nTo know the world we must not only be able to understand all phases of\nit in general, but we must also understand the various types in\nparticular. There are nations, there are grades and phases of life in\neach nation, and there are individuals in each phase. There is as great\na difference between the individuals of a small community of people, if\none has the eye to detect it, as there is between nations.\n\nI remember once talking with a famous anthropologist. All men were to\nhim simply representations of ages, nations, or families. No man was a\nman in himself; he was simply a specimen. It gave to a little everyday\nperson a very keen sense of the vastness of humanity in general, past\nand present, to hear this scientific man talk. He had the habit of\nswinging all the nations of the world into his conversation as easily as\nif he lived with them every day, as in his habitual thought he truly\ndid. Whenever I would speak to him of a friend or a relative he would\ncharacterize him by his national and family tendency. To talk with the\nProfessor for an hour or two was most enlightening and expanding; but a\nlong acquaintance proved that a man, even in the region of large\nanthropological and geographical ideas, could be just as narrow and\nprovincial as the self-appointed moral censor of a country town. The\nhuman body and the human mind, in general, seemed to mean a very great\ndeal to him, but man as an individual soul meant nothing at all.\n\nSome of the greatest diplomats, who have stood out as clever in their\ndealings with nations, have been limited in the extreme when their lives\ntook them outside of the rut of their own immediate work. Statesmen who\nhave dealt cleverly with nations have blundered sadly in their dealings\nwith individual men, blundered sometimes when their mistakes would react\nupon their national influence. And yet so established were they in the\nselfish rut of their national diplomacy, so provincial were they in the\nknowledge of individual human nature, that they went on blundering,\nuntil many a time their mistakes led them almost, if not quite, to\nnational disaster. The best lawyers know that to do their work truly\nthey must be able to judge particular cases and special circumstances by\nstandards which to the majority of minds do not exist. For want of such\nclear understanding of human nature which comes from an original\ninstinct for truth itself,--as distinguished from the cut-and-dried\napplication of conventional habit,--lawyers have often failed.\n\nConventional standards are the common standards of the majority; but,\nalthough they are perhaps more serviceable than any others in the\nachievement of commonplace success, they are invariably inadequate on a\nreally high and simple plane of human endeavor. It is rare to find an\nactive man engaged in worldly business who recognizes the laws of\nsimple unselfishness and truth as having any practical existence in\nhuman affairs; but it is still more rare to find such a man\nunderstanding the true relation between essential goodness and the\nconventional principles of morality. There are times when those who act\nfrom higher standards must appear to contradict entirely all\nconventional modes of life, but they do not necessarily oppose such\nconventions, for through a courageous adherence to the spirit of the law\nthey eventually bring new life to its letter. The true man of the world\nis he who can express his essential goodness and truth in wise and\nappropriate ways, and in terms which must be, in the long run,\nintelligible to all kinds of men.\n\nWhen Jesus Christ healed a man on the Sabbath day, He not only ignored\nthe conventional standards of His nation, but He appeared to disobey one\nof the fundamental commandments of the law. The Pharisees, and all the\npeople about Him who stood well in the eyes of the world, were angrily\nindignant. It is not difficult to imagine, after it was all over, a kind\nand conventional soul coming to the Lord and asking Him why He had not\nwaited until the next day before carrying out His intention;--He would\nnot have had to wait long, and the displeasure of the Pharisees would\nhave been avoided. \"Would it not have been more charitable to respect\nthe religious scruples of the Jews? Is it not wrong to fly needlessly in\nthe face of respectable public opinion? Was it not unwise needlessly to\nbreak the letter of the commandment, even while keeping its spirit?\"\nSome doubting soul, who wanted to believe in the goodness of the Lord\nand the purity of His motive, might well have put all these questions\nto Him with a sincere and conscientious desire to serve. And yet this\ndoubter, with all his conscientious kindness, would have been blind and\nstupid. For only the self-righteous or the morally stupid could fail to\nunderstand that, in healing a sick man on the Sabbath day, our Lord was\nestablishing a new precedent of a truer and deeper obedience for all\nmankind. The Pharisees were convinced of their own goodness; it would\nnot have occurred to them as possible that they were narrow, provincial,\nand self-righteous. They would not have admitted for an instant the\npossibility of any circumstances under which it might be right to\nperform a radical cure on the Sabbath day; and they persuaded themselves\nthat they were \"doing God service\" when they subjected to an ignominious\nexecution the man who had so roused all their personal and selfish\nantagonism. The Pharisees were hopelessly unable to understand Him, but\nthat was because of their own blindness. In laying down the principle\nthat the Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath, our Lord\nwas expressing an eternal truth, not only to the world of His own time\nbut to the world of all ages.\n\nTo associate the idea of a man of the world with a knowledge of its dark\nplaces and shallow forms alone, tends to belittle and degrade our\nconception of the world; whereas the world, so far from being only dark\nor shallow, is well worth knowing and serving, provided it is made to\nserve, in its turn, all that is vigorous and wholesome in man. We should\nrecognize the beauty and power of the things of this world as servants\nto our highest law; it is only the perversion of those things that is to\nbe renounced.\n\nThe true man of the world understands perverted human nature,--from the\ngourmand to the keen political sharper; he is a man who is never\ndeceived by appearances, and who sees the real character beneath its\nexternal polish; a man who, with his clearer understanding, takes each\nperversion at its true value, understands the Iagos and the Don Juans\nequally well, with no slightest taste for either. They are all forms of\ndisease to him. He can trace Iago's villainy to its own destruction and\nDon Juan's sensuality to its worse than satiety.\n\nAgain, a true man of the world is a man who knows, and loves, and is a\npart of all the wholesomeness in the world; a man who is quickly at home\nin every variety of good form, because the instincts of a gentleman are\nthe same all the world over, although customs may differ entirely; a man\nwho, while accustomed to all conventions and respecting them where they\nproperly belong, is easily and happily at home without them; a man who,\nwhile preferring fine instincts as well as strong characters in his\nfellow men, is so alive to the best in human nature that he can find the\ngold thread anywhere in the wax, if there is a gold thread there; a man\nwhose thoughts are so much at home in fresh air that he at once detects\na close or tainted atmosphere, but can keep the unpleasant sensation to\nhimself; who never intrudes his love of fresh air upon others, but,\nbeing surrounded by it himself, enjoys it habitually and as a matter of\ncourse. Such a man can never be caught unawares; he is a gentleman in\nall emergencies, because he cannot be otherwise than himself, and he\nnever appears what he is not.\n\nA true man of the world is not of the world primarily, although he\nserves the world and is served by it; it is to him always a means to a\nhigher end,--never an end in itself. It was of true men of the world\nthat the Lord spoke when He said, \"I pray not that Thou shouldest take\nthem out of the world, but that Thou shouldest keep them from the\nevil!\"\n\n\n\n\nIII\n\n\nFrom the point of view of good we can see and understand evil, but from\nthe point of view of evil we can neither see nor understand real\ngoodness. A man to understand the world must be in the process of\ngaining his freedom from its evils. He must be learning to live\naccording to universal and interior standards, not according to the\nstandards of a special time, or of the people who happen to be about\nhim; and, in the process, he will learn that faithfulness to his own\nsincere perception of universal truth will lead him eventually into true\nharmony with the best in others. We know of only one man in the history\nof the world who lived his whole life in a manner consistent with his\nhighest standards.\n\nThe world is a great, well-kept school. No one who believes in\nimmortality can possibly doubt that the short space of time we are here\nis meant for training,--training to prepare us for our work hereafter,\nwhatever that may be, by doing our work here well. If we start with the\nbelief that the world is a school, and that we do not want to stay in\nthe primary class, but that we want to go through all the classes and to\ngraduate honorably,--if that conviction is strong in our minds, it is\nastonishing to realize what a new aspect life will have for us. In\ngeneral and in every detail life will be full of living interest. No\ntrouble will be too hard to bear; there will be no circumstances that we\nwould run away from. We shall want to learn all our lessons, to pass all\nour examinations, and to get the living power for use to others which is\nthe logical result.\n\nTo love his neighbor as himself, a man must be able truly to sympathize\nwith his neighbor and to see through his neighbor's eyes. By this I do\nnot mean that the neighbor's point of view must be his own, but that he\nshould be able to understand it as if it were his own. If a man does\nthis, he can understand the wrong or the right of it much more clearly;\nand can, when advisable, modify his own point of view according to his\nneighbor's. One can easily recognize the advantage it is to a doctor, a\nlawyer, a minister, or a business man, to be able and willing always to\ngrasp the point of view of other people. A doctor makes up his mind as\nto the best course to take in regard to his patient. The patient tells\nhim a long story describing his own state of mind, which seems to the\ndoctor, according to his own experience, entirely ridiculous. If he\nexcludes all appreciation of his patient's point of view and holds\nharshly to his own ideas, he loses the most important means for\nperforming a perfect cure. If he listens attentively, and earnestly\ntries to appreciate what may be good in his patient's ideas, so that the\npatient feels his sympathy, an opportunity is thus opened to lead the\npatient gradually to common sense. In so far as the physician closes\nhis mind to his patient's point of view, in so far he is narrow and\nlacking in the true spirit of a man of the world.\n\nA good, clear-headed lawyer should understand not only his client's\npoint of view, but also that of his opponent. A man can never lose his\nown ground by truly \"throwing himself on the side of his antagonist.\" An\nall-round clear-headedness is a necessity to the best growth in us of\ntrue principles. When a man's eye is single his whole body will be full\nof light, and such light penetrates far and wide within and along the\nwhole horizon, and shows characters, affairs, and circumstances, for\nwhat they really are. But no man's eye can be single unless he takes a\nclear, unprejudiced view of his fellow men in all phases and varieties\nof life. The very large number and variety of people who come steadily\nfor help to a physician or minister receive the greatest help when the\nphysician or minister understands the world entirely without prejudice.\nA quiet understanding of human nature, and a brave, gentle manner of\ndealing with others is one of the greatest blessings that can come to\nany man.\n\nIt is absolutely impossible to rid ourselves of prejudice without at\nthe same time gaining freedom from self-love. If a man is favorably\nprejudiced in a certain direction, it is because there is something in\nthe opposite direction which offends his selfishness. To gain freedom\nfrom the prejudice he must see and acknowledge heartily the selfishness\nin himself which is at its root. This is often a difficult thing to do,\nfor a prejudice may have come to us through the selfish egotism of some\nfar-away ancestor, and may have become rooted in our own personality\nbefore we realized its true nature.\n\nTo be a man of the world one must be able to understand the world,--not\nthree or four corners of it, but the whole of it. This expansion of mind\nand soul is possible to every man who will first understand himself, and\nno man can understand himself who is blindly indulging his own\nselfishness. Every day we are seeing people who are living and acting in\nthe grossest selfishness and they do not know it. Such people sometimes\nfrighten those who are observing them.\n\n\"If John Smith,\" I say to myself, \"is the human beast that I see him to\nbe, and does not know it, perhaps I am unconsciously just as brutal as\nJohn, and do not know it; and if I am, how can I find it out?\"\n\nWe must have the habit of first casting the beam out of our own eye,\nbefore we can be ready to help take the mote from our brother's eye; and\nthe only possible way to be sure of finding ourselves out, is to be\nquietly, willingly, open to criticism; to take every criticism, not with\na desire to prove ourselves right, but with an earnest desire to find\nout and act upon the truth. I do not mean necessarily to invite\ncriticism,--it will come fast enough without invitation,--but to welcome\nit when it appears, and to try at once to see ourselves with the eyes\nof our critics.\n\nSo simple and straightforward is the road to travel, when we sincerely\nwant to become true men of the world, that the expansion of heart and\nmind resulting from a steady walking upon this road must seem impossible\nto worldly men. And yet the narrowness of worldly men is in its essence\nsimilar to the narrowness of the dwellers in a small, gossiping country\ntown. The worldly men have more superficial knowledge than the\ninhabitants of the country town, but they do not necessarily have any\nstronger grasp on the world-wide principles of human nature.\nWorldliness is the love of ease and the pride of life upon a low plane\nof commonplace existence, but a true knowledge of the world requires a\nhigher elevation.\n\nThe ascent of narrow paths and steep inclines leads to the mountain top;\nthence the outlook is wide, and the heights and depths of the landscape\ntake their proper places in their true relation to each other. The\nsingle-minded drudgery and toil which produces character leads also to\nthe wisdom of the seer. Only from the point of view of unselfish love\nand truth can we get a well-balanced and extended view of the heights\nand depths and commonplaces of the world.\n\nWe have seen that a man, to know the world, must know and understand its\nindividuals and types. We have seen that it is out of the question to\nunderstand other individuals, so long as we are clogged by our own\nselfishness or prejudice. We know that, to understand the point of view\nof another person, we must be clear, open-minded, and well grounded in\ntrue principles. We cannot understand another person's point of view\ntruly when we are swayed and blinded by its influence, so that it\nsweeps us off our feet and takes possession of us in spite of ourselves.\nWe must have true standards to judge others by, and those must be\nstandards which we have tried and proved, over and over, for ourselves.\n\nAt once the most interesting and the most profitable character-study in\nthe world is the life of the one man whose life was consistently\nfaithful to a standard which was universally true and all His own, and\nthat standard He has given us for ours. Many of us fail in our\ninterpretation of it, but, if we work diligently to try it and to prove\nit, and are openly willing and glad to acknowledge whenever we have\nmisinterpreted it, we shall be steadily enlightened as to its true\nmeaning.\n\nThe delight of applying the laws of science and of seeing them work, the\npositive joy of watching the certain result of a well-managed scientific\nexperiment is known to many a chemist or electrician. But the joy of\ntesting the practical working of spiritual laws should be deeper, and\nmore quiet, and more expanding than all other delights; for the\nspiritual law, if it exists at all, must underlie all material law.\n\nJust as our problems in chemistry or in physics must fail over and over\nbefore we have the quiet satisfaction of seeing them work, so must we go\nthrough test after test before we can be firmly established in all the\nlaws of human relations.\n\nThe standard of character and life represented by the idea of the man of\nthe world has been dwarfed by a superficial notion of the meaning of\n\"the world.\" \"The world\" means many things to many men, and these\ndifferent meanings are of various degrees of truth and falsehood; but we\nshall find that, generally speaking, they are more and more true in\nproportion as the people who hold them are possessed of vigorous\ncharacter. In art and literature we know that the greatest truth and the\ndeepest beauty is that which appeals at all times to all men. It appeals\nto the universal human heart and mind, and thus it is inconceivable that\nthe human race should ever tire of Shakespere, or Dante, or the Bible.\nSuch books, whatever personal opinions or beliefs we may attach to them,\nare universally acceptable to all men, because they appeal to common\nhuman experience and apply the principles of irresistible human logic.\nThey are the books of the world.\n\nThe world itself is an organism corresponding to that of the individual\nman, and the particular individual whose heart and mind lives and thinks\nmost nearly in harmony with the best life and thought of the world is\nits truest citizen. On the other hand, the individual whose motives and\ninterests in life are confined to the narrowest circle of experience\nrepresents the extreme type of provincialism. The difference between\nthese two extremes is not a matter of long, varied, or conventional\nexperience, but of experience in those elements of human nature which\nare at its root and not at its surface. The statesman, the capitalist,\nthe experienced traveller, although they may have intercourse with men\nin large classes and masses, may be essentially petty in the foundations\nof their character. These, then, are not men of the world in the true\nsense; for, if they were, we should have to mean by \"the world\"\nnumerical or mechanical conceptions of men, purely intellectual\nconceptions of their thoughts, or geographical ideas regarding the\ninhabitants of the earth's surface. None of these things has any\nuniversal quality, unless it is united to the power of human character\nand passion, which carries weight with all men at all times and in all\nplaces. The inhabitant of a country village may be, according to his\nquality, either a man of the village or a man of the world. It depends\nupon his breadth of mind, his largeness of heart, and the depth to which\nhis character will absorb the best results of his experience. Whatever\nis purely local, without being rooted in a general human need,--whatever\nis purely personal, without being founded on a universal human\nprinciple,--whatever is purely sectarian or national, or pertaining to\na class or particular clique of persons, without being rooted in the\nsame general human interests and laws, must, to that extent, be petty,\nprovincial, trivial, and comparatively useless. Character is, and always\nhas been, the motive power of the world; and only through finding his\nown development of character in the service of the world can the\nindividual man find his appointed place as its citizen. There is no law\nhigher than that which is human, in the sense that it is the only guide\nto the growth of what is best in human life. This essential human\nlaw,--which is so different from that which worldly self-interest has\norganized for its own protection,--is that which man derives from the\nDivine. It is the world as made and sustained by the heart and mind of\nGod of which man must be the citizen, and only as such is he truly \"a\nMan of the World.\"","title":"A Man of the World","tradition":"philosophy-ethics","translated_text":null,"word_count":6164}