{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_43439/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_43439","id":"gutenberg_43439","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/43439","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Parenthood & Family Relations","Category: Philosophy & Ethics","Category: Religion/Spirituality","Category: Teaching & Education","Ethics"],"text":"SHORT STUDIES IN ETHICS\n\n_AN ELEMENTARY TEXT-BOOK FOR SCHOOLS_\n\nBY\n\nREV. J. O. MILLER, M.A.,\n\n_Principal of Bishop Ridley College_\n\nTORONTO:\nTHE BRYANT PRESS\n1895\n\n\nEntered according to Act of the Parliament of Canada, in the office of\nthe Minister of Agriculture, by REV. J. O. MILLER, M.A., St. Catharines,\nCanada.\n\n\n\n\nTABLE OF CONTENTS\n\n\n    I. DUTY                 7\n\n   II. OBEDIENCE           15\n\n  III. TRUTHFULNESS        19\n\n   IV. COURAGE             24\n\n    V. PURITY              30\n\n   VI. UNSELFISHNESS       35\n\n  VII. HONESTY             40\n\n VIII. FAITHFULNESS        45\n\n   IX. PROFANITY           50\n\n    X. JUSTICE             54\n\n   XI. BENEVOLENCE         59\n\n  XII. AMBITION            63\n\n XIII. PATRIOTISM          68\n\n  XIV. BODILY EXERCISE     72\n\n   XV. HABIT               77\n\n  XVI. INDUSTRY            82\n\n XVII. SELF-CONTROL        88\n\nXVIII. SELF-RELIANCE       91\n\n  XIX. FRIENDSHIP          95\n\n   XX. GENTLEMANLINESS    100\n\n  XXI. COURTESY           105\n\n XXII. REPENTANCE         110\n\nXXIII. CHARACTER          115\n\n XXIV. CONSCIENCE         120\n\n\n\n\nPREFACE\n\n\nThis little book has grown out of periodical addresses to my own pupils.\nAn experience of over ten years has convinced me of the necessity of\nteaching systematically the fundamental principles of Morality. The\nscarcity of books suitable as elementary texts is a sufficient proof\nthat the subject is neglected in our schools. It cannot be right that\nchildren should be left to master so wide a subject from incidental\ninstruction and from example.\n\nI should be sorry if any one thought, from glancing at the topics I have\ntreated, that I seemed content to put lessons in practical Morality in\nplace of instruction in the Scriptures and definite religious teaching.\nNothing can take the place of the Scriptures. But I feel convinced that\nthese two aspects of Truth must go hand in hand. The young mind requires\nthe truth to be presented to it from all sides, and nothing appeals to\nit so strongly as a modern example.\n\nMy own idea as to the use of such a book as this is that it should\nsupplement Bible instruction. The lessons are short enough to be taught\nin half an hour. If one topic is taken up each week, and thoroughly\nexplained, and enlarged on by fresh examples from current life and\nhistory, the whole book can be easily mastered in the school year, and\nleave ample time for review and examination. If it should prove helpful\nto other teachers, my labour will be amply rewarded.\n\n_Bishop Ridley College, St. Catharines,\nFeb. 28th, 1895._\n\n\n     [Greek: Megas gar ho ag\u00f4n, megas, ouch hosos dokei, to chr\u00easton \u00ea\n     kakon genesthai.]\n     --_Plato._\n\n\n\n\nNo. I.\n\nDUTY\n\n+Duty is something which is due, and which, therefore, ought to be paid\nor performed. It is something owed by everybody, to God, to self, or to\nothers.+\n\n\nNo other word is more disliked by the slothful than the word Duty. The\nmention of the word itself causes weariness to a boy or man of that\nkind. We can only get to like the word and the thing itself by\naccustoming ourselves to perform it regularly, a little at a time. A boy\nor girl with a fine ear and a natural talent for music hates, at first,\nthe daily practising and the uninteresting lessons; but, as soon as the\ndifficulties are mastered, playing an instrument becomes a delight.\nDuty, in itself, is not a distasteful thing; it is because we hate\nanything which gives us trouble that it seems unbearable. We can teach\nourselves to like taking pains.\n\nDuty is, in one sense, the great law which governs the universe. The\nplanets revolving about the sun, the moon encircling the earth, even the\nerratic comets, in fulfilling the laws of their being, perform the\nduties which they are set. So, too, the plants and animals of the lower\ncreation obey the laws under which they live. Even of inanimate things,\npieces of human mechanism, may this be said. The pendulum of the clock\nwill tick until it is worn out, if it receive the care necessary for its\nwork. We see what wonderful things a machine can be made to do for man\nin Edison's marvellous inventions of the kinetoscope and the\nkinetograph.\n\nHuman duties differ from those of the lower creation and of the\ninanimate world in this, that in the latter the duties are performed by\nvirtue of the great law of necessity, whereas man is free. That is what\nmakes human duties moral--that is where the _ought_ comes in. If we love\nidleness, and most of us do at first, we naturally hate the idea of\nDuty. If we give way to our feelings and desires, we shall only hate\nDuty more intensely, and we are in danger of becoming not much better\nthan the brutes around us; in fact, we are giving way to the brute part\nof our nature. Human nature differs from brute nature in having a\nConscience, which continually whispers in our hearts, \"I must not,\" and\n\"I ought.\" It is our first duty to listen to Conscience.\n\nThe longer we practise doing duties the easier they become. A great man\nonce said: \"A man shall carry a bucket of water on his head and be very\ntired with the burden; but that same man, when he dives into the sea,\nshall have the weight of a thousand buckets on his head without\nperceiving their weight, because he is in the element, and it entirely\nsurrounds him.\" After running two miles for the first time, a boy feels\ngreat stiffness, but after he has done it twenty times he feels nothing\nbut the pleasure of good health arising from pleasant exercise. In the\nsame way, he translates a single sentence in his Latin grammar with\ngreat difficulty at first, but when he can translate C\u00e6sar's campaigns\nwithout trouble the task becomes a delight.\n\nMost people think they are entitled to great credit for doing their\nDuty, and even to reward. If some one owes you a dollar, is he entitled\nto a reward for repaying you? Is he entitled to any special credit? If a\nfather sees his son drowning and jumps into the water to rescue him, is\nhe entitled to any special credit, as a matter of right? Duty is\nsomething _due_; therefore, it is a debt. \"When ye have done all the\nthings that are commanded you, say, We are all bondservants; we have\ndone that which it was our duty to do.\"\n\n(1) Duty is something owing to ourselves. Character is made up of\nduties, and by our character we must stand or fall. We owe it to\nourselves to take the greatest care of our bodies. They should be\ncleansed and exercised every day of our lives. Many a man, who would\nfeel outraged if his favourite horse were not thoroughly groomed and\notherwise cared for daily, neglects his own body, which needs \"grooming\"\nquite as much as that of the horse. We owe it to ourselves to be careful\nas to what we eat, and as to the right quantity. If we give a dog too\nmuch meat or a horse too much grain, we know the result. We are not so\ncareful about ourselves as about our animals.\n\nWe owe it to ourselves to be true in all things. \"First to thine own\nself be true,\" says the great poet. We owe it to ourselves to be honest\nin the very smallest things as well as in the great; to be afraid of\nnothing except evil; to be clean in our thoughts and words; to be\nmodest; to be kind; to be gentle to the weak; to be generous; to be\ncharitable; to be modest about ourselves; to be temperate.\n\n(2) Duty is something owing to others. We owe our parents a return for\ntheir love and care for us at a time when we should have perished\nwithout it. The return that is due them is that we should be a credit to\nthem instead of a disgrace, so that the world may say, \"Those parents\nhave reason to be proud of their children.\" God has said: \"Honour thy\nfather and thy mother.\" We owe it to them to be diligent in our\nlessons, so that we may prepare to earn our own living, and not to be\ndependent upon them all our days. A boy may say: \"I am not going to\nbother my head about this work. My father is rich, and I shall never\nhave to work unless I like.\" A few years hence, men will say: \"Look at\nthat idle fellow! He is a disgrace to his parents. He is fit for\nnothing; he is going to the bad already.\"\n\nWe owe it to others to owe them nothing. \"Owe no man anything.\" It is\nour duty to pay every debt in full, at the earliest moment possible. We\nowe it to others to keep as sacred every confidence reposed in us. We\nowe it to others to say no evil of them. _De mortuis nil nisi bonum_ was\na proverb of the Romans. It is wiser to speak evil of no one at all.\n\n\n     \"He slandereth not with his tongue,\n     Nor doeth evil to his friend,\n     Nor taketh up a reproach against his neighbour.\"\n\n\n(3) Duty is something owing to one's country. The names of the patriots\nwill be the last to die from men's memories. Every man owes to his\ncountry his name, his influence, his strenuous labour, his liberty, his\nlife itself, should that be needed. When Nelson, on the day of\nTrafalgar, gave to his ships the signal, \"England expects every man to\ndo his duty,\" he spoke for all nations, in all ages, under all\ncircumstances. When Pompey's friends tried to dissuade him from setting\nsail for Rome in a storm, telling him that he did so at the peril of his\nlife, he said, \"It is necessary for me to go, it is not necessary for me\nto live.\" Perhaps the greatest example of patriotism shown in a love of\nDuty of modern times is that of Wellington. His greatness lay in doing\nthoroughly every duty that came in his way. For that he would sacrifice\neverything else. Late in his life he was content to suffer a temporary\nloss of popularity through devotion to what he believed to be a duty. He\nwas even mobbed in the streets of London, and had his windows smashed\nwhile his wife lay dead in the house. The great motive power that\nunderlay his whole career was whole-hearted devotion to Duty. He himself\nsaid that Duty was his watchword. \"There is little or nothing in this\nlife worth living for,\" said he; \"but we can all of us go straight\nforward and do our duty.\" Nelson's last words were: \"I have done my\nduty; I praise God for it.\"\n\nSome years ago a troop-ship called the _Birkenhead_ was wrecked off the\ncoast of Africa. The officers and men saw the women and children safely\ninto the boats, which sufficed for them alone. Those brave soldiers and\nsailors fired a salute as the ship went down, and thus cheerfully gave\nup their lives to the watery grave. Upon which a great writer said:\n\"Goodness, Duty, Sacrifice--these are the qualities that England\nhonours. She knows how to teach her sons to sink like men amidst sharks\nand billows, as if Duty were the most natural thing in the world.\"\n\n(4) Duty is something owing to God. The highest act of duty is to\nacknowledge that we owe everything to God, except evil. We owe our lives\nto God, for from Him they came. We owe it to God that man is a human\nbeing, and not merely a higher sort of lower animal. God \"breathed into\nhis nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living _soul_.\" We owe\nto God all that we have, and especially all happiness that we enjoy. It\nis from Him that comes all the love that enters into our lives. He is\nthe great source of love to the human race. That is why we call Him our\nFather; He is the personification of the love of which our earthly\nparents' love is an example. We owe to God gratitude for His love to us,\nmanifested at every step of our lives, and we ought not merely to feel\nthat gratitude, but also to express it to Him daily. It is our duty,\ntherefore, to pray.\n\nThe highest form of prayer is that God's will may be done in our lives.\nIf we are sincere in that, and pray it with our hearts, and not merely\nwith our lips, it will be found sufficient to cover every request that\nwe can make, because our supreme duty is to do God's will in every act\nand desire of life. Arising out of that prayer come the principal duties\nof life, viz., thankfulness for God's goodness to us, the fight against\nevil in every form, the showing to others by example how God's will may\nbe done, and, lastly, perfect trust in God in every circumstance of\nlife.\n\n\n\n\nNo. II.\n\nOBEDIENCE\n\n+Obedience is doing promptly and cheerfully what is commanded by those in\nauthority over us.+\n\n\nObedience is the first great law of life. No nation could continue to\nexist if its citizens were not law-abiding. The most highly civilized\nnations are those whose citizens yield loyal Obedience to the laws, and\nstrive to make all men obey them. Every society has its rules which the\nmembers agree to obey, and it can only exist so long as that obedience\nis observed voluntarily and faithfully. No army could be successful\nagainst the enemy if the soldiers did not obey their officers.\nUnquestioning obedience to the commands of the captain is necessary for\nthe safety of the ship and of the lives of the passengers. Those who are\nemployed in business must obey the instructions of their employers if\nthe business is to succeed. The first lesson that a schoolboy is set to\nlearn is the lesson of Obedience. What happiness could there be in our\nhomes if the children did not obey their parents?\n\nThe greatest part of life is Conduct, and Conduct can only be attained\nby practising Obedience. The little child learns it from its mother, the\nboy from his father, and from his master at school. The young man must\npractise it at college, or at business. The older man continues to obey\nsome one all through his life. If he wish to govern others, he must\nfirst obey himself. If he will not obey himself, he cannot rule others.\nThere is only One who is above Obedience--that is God.\n\nAt the battle of Balaklava, a small brigade of cavalry was ordered to\nattack an immensely strong battery. The order was a mistake, as every\none knew that such an attempt would mean certain death. Yet the officer\ncommanding the cavalry did not hesitate for a moment to carry out the\norders, though he well knew what the result would be. Not a single\nsoldier among those six hundred refused to obey.\n\n\n     \"Theirs not to reason why;\n     Theirs but to do and die.\"\n\n\nAnd so the charge was made, and out of the six hundred only one-quarter\nreturned.\n\nBoys sometimes think it a manly thing to question the orders given them,\nand even to assert their independence by refusing to obey. Brave men\nthink it childish to stop to reason about the commands of those in\nauthority. The wisest men believe that disobedience is one of the\nstrongest signs of radically bad character. Experience teaches us that\ndisobedience will, in time, destroy the character altogether. He that\nwill not submit to authority must become, in time, not merely a useless,\nbut a dangerous, member of society.\n\nObedience, to be worth anything in building up conduct, must be given\n_promptly and cheerfully_. Obedience which is tardy, or yielded through\nfear, is not right Obedience at all. If a boy's father desires him to do\na piece of work which is not agreeable, or not very easy, there is often\na great temptation to put it off, and do other things first. A boy is\ntold to cut the grass when he comes home from school. He returns home,\nand finds the afternoon warm, and the prospect of grass-cutting\nuninviting, and so he first feeds his pigeons; and that reminds him that\nhe is very anxious to make them some new nest-boxes. The afternoon has\nnearly gone when he, at length, drags himself unwillingly to the\nlawn-mower; and he has barely finished the work, when he sees his father\ncoming in at the gate. Perhaps the edges of the grass plot have not been\nclipped, as a finish to the work, because he did not begin soon enough.\nThat is a case of tardy Obedience--not real Obedience. The work was done\nbecause the boy knew he must do it, and not because he loved to obey\nhis father. Real Obedience is _prompt_ Obedience.\n\nReal Obedience is always cheerfully given. He who grumbles at an order,\nand only does it through fear, is not obedient. A boy who will not\ncheerfully give up a game, in order to carry out a command from one in\nauthority, must always be looked upon as one who is at heart\ndisobedient. If the officers of the cavalry, mentioned above, had chafed\nunder the order to put their lives in peril, and had sent the messenger\nback to find out if they were really to make the attack, they would have\nlost their claim to our admiration as truly brave men. If the troopers\nhad grumbled when the order was given to advance into the valley of\ndeath, and had made the attack in a half-hearted way, they would never\nhave gained the undying glory that is theirs, and they would probably\nhave sacrificed the lives of the few who did at last return in safety.\nTheir Obedience gained them immortal fame because it was prompt and\ncheerful.\n\nHe who would become a good citizen, and a really useful member of\nsociety, can only do so by practising Obedience, with great patience,\nand with all his heart, throughout the whole of his life. To attain\nexcellence in it, as in many other things, it must be begun very early\nin life. Above all, it must be willingly given. Real Obedience is\nprompt, cheerful, and from the heart.\n\n\n\n\nNo. III.\n\nTRUTHFULNESS\n\n+Truthfulness is speaking and acting in a perfectly straightforward way,\nwithout any attempt to add to, or take from, the facts. Its opposite is\nLying or Deception.+\n\n\nIf Lying were the rule and Truthfulness the exception, society would\nsoon be destroyed. Men could not do business with each other if they\ncould not be trusted to speak the truth, and to keep faithfully a\npromise once made. Instead of trusting, they would fear one another;\nevery time they were assured of anything they would doubt, and perhaps\nsuspect a trap. If all men resorted to lying, they would soon begin to\ndestroy each other, because it is an instinct of human nature to\npreserve one's self from the attack of enemies. The liar is the enemy of\nmankind. A great man was once asked: \"Do the devils lie?\" \"No,\" was his\nanswer; \"for then even hell could no longer exist.\"\n\n(1) Regard for Truthfulness forbids us to tell, as truth, what we know\nto be false. This is the worst form of lying. Only the most hardened\nwill lie deliberately; no one who has not had long practice in this vice\ncan tell a deliberate falsehood without despising himself. That can only\nbe done when the Conscience is at last asleep, and when the character\nhas become vicious.\n\n(2) Another form of lying is telling, as truth, what we do not know to\nbe true. People often assert things which they cannot possibly know to\nbe true; for instance, the motives of other persons. There are also\nthings which are only probable, and of which we cannot be certain. To\nstate as absolutely true what we cannot know to be true is falsehood.\nAgain, there are things which are merely matters of opinion, and upon\nwhich vastly different opinions may be held. If we would be strictly\ntruthful, we must be careful to state as true only what can be proved to\nbe facts.\n\n(3) Another form of deceit is telling what may be true in fact, but\ntelling it in such a way as to convey a false impression. This may be\ndone by (_a_) exaggerating, or adding to, the facts; or (_b_) by\nwithholding some important part of the facts. Many a character has been\nruined by some enemy who wilfully overstated, or understated, facts of\nthe highest importance to the person's reputation. Many a man has ruined\nhis own character by allowing himself to acquire the habit of\nexaggeration.\n\n(4) Untruthfulness shows itself in other ways. A lie may be acted as\nwell as spoken. For example, when a boy allows himself to be praised for\nsome action he never performed and does not give the praise to the right\nperson, or at least disown it for himself, he acts a lie. The boy who\ntries to make his master believe him to be obedient and studious when he\nis not acts a lie. The boy who brings up as his own work an exercise\nwhich he has cribbed, or in which he has been assisted, acts a lie.\n\n(5) Concealment of the truth may be an unspoken lie. There is an old\nLatin motto which says: \"The suppression of the truth is the suggestion\nof an untruth.\" By keeping back a necessary part of the truth one may\ngive a totally wrong impression of the facts, and this is just as much a\nlie as absolute misstatement.\n\n(6) Trickery, or underhand dealing of any kind, is a kind of lying. A\nLondon merchant had business with another in a foreign country. The\nlatter asked the former to send out certain packages of goods marked\nless than the real weight, so as to escape the customs duty. \"I can't do\nit,\" said the English merchant. \"Very well,\" said the foreigner, \"if\nyou won't, there are plenty of others who will, and I shall take my\nbusiness away from you\"--which he did, causing the other firm a heavy\nloss. A few years afterwards the foreigner wrote to the English\nmerchant: \"Enclosed is a draft for so much, which please put to my\ncredit. I am sending my son to England to learn your way of business.\nThere is nobody in whom I have such confidence as I have in you. Will\nyou take him into your office and make him the same sort of man that you\nare yourself?\"\n\n(7) Truthfulness lays upon us the most solemn obligation to keep our\npromises, no matter how small may be the matter concerned. He who makes\na promise, not intending to keep it, is guilty of gross deception. In\nmaking a promise it is our duty to express our _intention_ in the\nplainest terms, and we must then consider ourselves under obligation to\ncarry out that intention faithfully and fully. When Bl\u00fccher was\nhastening with his army over bad roads to the help of Wellington at the\nbattle of Waterloo, he encouraged his troops by calling out frequently,\n\"Forward, children, forward.\" \"It is impossible; it can't be done,\" was\nthe answer. Again and again he urged them. \"Children, we must get on;\nyou may say it can't be done, but it must be done! I have promised my\nbrother Wellington--_promised_, do you hear? You wouldn't have me _break\nmy word_!\"\n\nLord Chesterfield once said: \"It is truth that makes the success of the\ngentleman.\" Those words should be taken to heart by every boy who wishes\nto honour truth. Clarendon said of Falkland, one of the noblest and\npurest of men, that he \"was so severe an adorer of truth that he could\nas easily have given himself leave to steal as to dissemble.\"\nShakespeare said:\n\n\n     \"This above all: to thine own self be true,\n     And it must follow as the night the day\n     Thou canst not then be false to any man.\"\n\n\n\n\nNo. IV.\n\nCOURAGE\n\n+Courage is that disposition which enables us to meet danger or\ndifficulties firmly and without fear. There are two kinds of Courage:\nPhysical and Moral; and it has two aspects: Fearlessness and Boldness.+\n\n\nThe opposite of Courage is Cowardice, and no greater insult can be\noffered a man than to call him a coward. Courage has always been looked\nupon as one of the greatest virtues. Men may be willing to forfeit\npurity, truth, and honour, but they cling to Courage to the very end.\nCourage is a quality that boys love and respect, because it is a manly\nvirtue.\n\nPhysical Courage appeals most to the young. Nothing so excites their\nadmiration as a feat of daring. Physical Courage is a splendid thing, a\nthing to be prized by every one. As a rule, it is something that every\none may possess a good share of. Physical Courage depends very largely\nupon bodily vigour and strength of muscle. It is when we are nervous and\nfeel our limbs to be weak that our Courage is small. The boy or man who\nexercises his muscles regularly is sure to store up a large amount of\nphysical Courage--enough, at least, to develop its first\nstage--Fearlessness.\n\nHe who possesses a good constitution and a body whose strength he has\ntested by repeated trials is not apt to turn tail at small fears, as are\nthe weak and delicate. He is able to present to difficulties, or, it may\nbe, to danger, a steadfast mind and a calm exterior. It is this sort of\nCourage which makes the English soldier renowned in war. Had it not been\nfor the dogged persistence of his soldiers in holding their ground, in\nspite of a hurricane of shot and shell, Wellington could never have held\nNapoleon at bay at Waterloo. But, while this Fearlessness is much to be\nadmired, it is, after all, the least heroic form of Courage, because so\nmuch of it is purely physical.\n\nFighting, as a test of Courage, is greatly overestimated. Experienced\nsoldiers tell us that it requires a good deal of Courage to go into\nbattle for the first time. \"You look pale,\" said one officer to another,\nas he came within range of the enemy's guns for the first time; \"are you\nafraid?\" \"Yes,\" answered the other; \"if you were half as much afraid,\nyou would turn tail.\" But, with most soldiers, the feeling of fear soon\nwears off, and where there is no fear there is not much trial of\nCourage. The physical Courage that we all covet is that which leads a\nman to do what others dare not. In 1892, a young clergyman, on a visit\nto this country, was crossing the foot-bridge at Niagara Falls. When\nabout one-third of the way across, he saw a lady stepping up from the\ncarriage path to the sidewalk. She caught her toe against the edge,\nstumbled forward, and fell through the open iron work at the side of the\nbridge. She happened to be over the place where the broken rocks line\nthe edge of the water. In her swift descent, she struck her head against\none of the girders and was stunned; her body then turned over and fell\nacross another girder. At this moment the clergyman came up. Looking\nover, he saw her body swaying gently, and evidently about to drop very\nsoon to the awful rocks, over two hundred feet below. Without a moment's\nhesitation, he sprang out over the edge of the bridge, and, seizing one\nof the iron rods that supported the girder, he slid down, and then crept\nalong the narrow girder till he reached the lady. Bracing himself with\nimmense difficulty, he kept her from plunging into the abyss until help\narrived, death beckoning to him from below, if he should lose his head\nfor a single moment. At length a rope was lowered to him, and they were\nsoon drawn up. That is a splendid example of physical Courage.\n\nA higher type of Courage is that which enables us to endure pain.\nEndurance is a rarer quality than dashing Fearlessness. It was said that\nin the Franco-Prussian war, in 1870, the French soldiers were more\nbrilliant in the on-rush than the Prussians, but they lacked endurance,\nand could not stand for long before artillery fire. This type of Courage\nis best seen in bearing pain. When Epictetus was a slave, his master was\none day beating him. The poor slave said: \"If you do not look out, you\nwill break my leg.\" Presently the bone snapped. \"There,\" said Epictetus,\nas _calmly_ as before, \"I told you you would break it.\" One of the most\nremarkable instances of the Courage of endurance is that of the defence\nof Cawnpore, in the days of the Indian Mutiny, by a handful of English\ntroops, with their wives and children. For twenty-one days they endured\nuntold agonies of exposure by a never-ceasing fire, of hunger, of thirst\n(sharp-shooters picking off any one who dared approach the single well\nin the camp), of the midsummer sun, of sickness, and of the unutterable\nfoulness of their surroundings. The soldiers' wives showed even greater\nendurance than the men. Women generally have greater courage than men in\nthe matter of bearing pain.\n\nThe highest type of Courage is that which is called Moral Courage, and\nis exercised about matters of right and wrong as they affect us\nindividually. \"It is shown by the man who pays his debts, who does\nwithout when he cannot afford, who speaks his mind when necessary, but\nwho can be silent when it is better not to speak. It requires Moral\nCourage to admit that we have been wrong.\" It requires Moral Courage to\nstand being laughed at, although it is the sign of a wise man to be able\nto enjoy a laugh at his own expense. It requires Moral Courage to run\nthe risk of losing one's popularity. Socrates was the greatest teacher\nof ancient times, and he was beloved by many of his pupils; but because\nhis lofty teaching ran beyond the attainments and spirit of his age, he\nwas condemned to drink the deadly hemlock. He died calmly, even\njoyfully, discoursing to his judges of the immortality of the soul.\nGalileo was imprisoned when seventy years of age, and, probably,\ntortured. He was content to suffer it, and refused to retract what he\nhad proved to be scientific truth.\n\nWhen we are laughed at or threatened with persecution of any kind,\nCourage bids us stand by our principles.\n\n\n     \"As the crackling of thorns under a pot,\n     So is the laughter of a fool,\"\n\n\nsaid Solomon. It is the part of wisdom to disregard being laughed at.\nWhen a boy lacks backbone, we say he is easily led, which means, easily\nled wrong. How we pity such a boy!\n\nThe highest Courage is that which leads men to sacrifice their lives of\ntheir own free will. Such was the courage of the soldiers and sailors of\nthe _Birkenhead_. In one of the battles of the Peninsular War, a\nsergeant named Robert M'Quaide saw two French soldiers aim their muskets\nagainst a very young officer, sixteen years old. M'Quaide pulled him\nback behind him, saying: \"You are too young, sir, to be killed,\" and\nthen fell dead, pierced by both balls.\n\nCourage is a very different thing from Recklessness, or Foolhardiness.\nAn old proverb says: \"Courage is the wisdom of manhood; foolhardiness\nthe folly of youth.\" And Carlyle said: \"The courage that dares only die\nis, on the whole, no sublime affair.... The Courage we desire and prize\nis not the courage to die decently, but to live manfully.\"\n\n\n\n\nNo. V.\n\nPURITY\n\n+By Purity we mean that state of mind which is possessed by him who\nfights against foul thoughts, drives them away, and who never allows\nhimself to perform an unclean action, or to use filthy, or obscene,\nlanguage.+\n\n\nPurity involves three things: (1) Clean language, (2) clean thoughts,\n(3) clean actions. They are put in this order because it generally\nhappens among the young that impurity begins with hearing unclean\nlanguage, and by imitating it. A little boy hearing others use foul\nlanguage soon begins to use it himself, though he may not know its real\nmeaning. Alas! it does not take long for him to learn the meaning of it\nalso; and it is but a short step from foul language to impure thoughts\nand filthy actions.\n\nPurity is one of the three heroic virtues; the others are Truth and\nCourage. In the age of chivalry men valued Purity above all things\nexcept Truth and Courage. Tennyson makes his hero say:\n\n\n     \"My good blade carves the casques of men,\n       My tough lance thrusteth sure;\n     My strength is as the strength of ten,\n       Because my heart is pure.\"\n\n\nPurity is one of the most manly virtues. Impurity marks the coward and\nthe sneak, because it is nearly always directed in thought or action\nsecretly against those weaker than ourselves. In \"Tom Brown at Oxford,\"\none of Tom Brown's friends says: \"I have been taught ever since I could\nspeak that the crown of all real manliness is Purity.\" You may ask: \"Why\nis it manly?\" It is manly because it cannot be got without a hard\nstruggle; the temptation to be impure in thought, if not in language, is\none of the hardest temptations to overcome. A little boy may not feel\nit, but the older he grows the harder he has to fight against impurity\nin his heart, and in his life.\n\nWe must, first of all, guard against unclean language. There are some\nwords which are merely filthy, without being immoral; both are bad, and\nthe one leads to the other. Little boys often long to have other words\nto put into their language than they have learned at home, because they\nthink the home language not strong enough or manly enough. In order to\nsatisfy themselves that they are no longer children, they begin at\nschool to copy the strong words of the boldest and most reckless of the\nboys they meet, and they quickly add to their vocabulary unclean and\neven immoral words, because such words seem to be the mark of manliness,\nand of personal independence of character. By the time that a boy begins\nto realize what such words really mean, he has already formed the habit\nof using unclean language, and a bad _habit_ is the hardest thing in the\nworld to get rid of.\n\nAny one who thinks about the matter for a moment will admit that filthy\nlanguage is not only not manly, but that it is degrading to the mind and\ncharacter. One of the most manly characters of modern times was\nColeridge Patteson, Bishop of Melanesia, who died in 1874, by the clubs\nof savage islanders, who, when he was dead, placed him in a boat with\nhis hands crossed, and set him adrift upon the Pacific. We are told by\nan old schoolmate of his that once, when he was captain of the cricket\neleven at Eton, some boys at the cricket dinner began to sing a coarse\nsong. \"Coley\" Patteson had said that he would leave the room if such a\nsong were sung, and as soon as they began it he quietly got up and went\nout. The result of his action was that the bad custom was stopped\nentirely. The old poet of Israel sang: \"O Lord, keep the door of my\nlips.\" We all need to make that request. Another of the most manly men\nof modern times was General Grant, President of the United States. We\nare told of him that on one occasion, when a number of gentlemen were\ndining together, some one began to tell an indecent story. He commenced\nby saying: \"I have a first-class story which I may tell, seeing that\nthere are no ladies present.\" \"No! but there are _gentlemen_ present,\"\nsaid General Grant, and the story was not told.\n\nThe use of unclean words leads to impure thoughts and to filthy actions.\nIt is difficult to speak plainly about this matter of personal Purity.\nEvery boy when he reaches a certain age is tempted by the Devil in the\nway of impure thoughts. These are first presented by unclean things\nwhich come into the imagination. If they are not fought against, and\ndriven out by force of strong will, in a short time the imagination,\nnaturally one of the purest and most beautiful faculties of the human\nmind, will become tainted, and at last foul and degraded. Unclean words\ndo harm, first, to the individual character, by destroying its early\npurity and delicacy, just as we spoil the beauty of a grape by rubbing\noff its bloom; and, secondly, to those who hear and may learn to use\nthem. But unclean thoughts, the evil imaginations, injure the _soul_,\nand the _mind_, and the _body_. They injure the soul by making it take\ndelight in that which is foul and base, and which belongs to the brutes.\nThey hurt the mind by destroying its power to concentrate itself on\nwork, or on anything that lies outside of self. They injure the body,\nbecause he who is given up to foul thoughts soon becomes capable of\nnothing else. He avoids companions, he desires to be _alone_, that he\nmay take delight in foul images of the mind, and so the body is\nneglected and loses its strength.\n\nThere is even a worse stage, when the foul imagination results in\n_secret_ acts of filthiness, which eventually will destroy body, mind,\nand soul. The poor wretch who has learned such horrible habits may live\non, but not many years can pass until he shall become an idiot, and must\nbe confined in an asylum, away from his fellow-men. Terrible, indeed, is\nthe fate of such a person. How significant are the words of the great\nTeacher, \"Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God!\"\nAnother great teacher once said that pure religion was: \"To visit the\nfatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself\n_unspotted_ from the world.\"\n\n\n\n\nNo. VI.\n\nUNSELFISHNESS\n\n+Unselfishness is the giving up personal gain or advantage. It is the\ndesire to do the will of another rather than our own. It is making a\nsacrifice to please some one else.+\n\n\nTruth, Purity, and Courage are called the heroic virtues; Unselfishness\nis greater than any of them. It is like the Christian virtue of Charity\nor Love; it makes people forget their own interests for the sake of\nothers. Unselfishness is the great lesson we learn from studying the\nlife of Jesus; He is the great example to the world of absolute\nself-forgetfulness. We admire notable examples of this virtue. One of\nthe members of the Light Brigade tells us that in that terrible charge\nhe was wounded in the knee, and also in the shin. He could not possibly\nget back from the scene of the fight. Another soldier passing by said:\n\"Get on my back, chum.\" He did so, and then discovered from the flowing\nblood that his rescuer had been shot through the back of the head. When\ntold of it, he said: \"Oh, never mind that; it's not much, I don't\nthink.\" But he died of that wound a few days later. The brave fellow\nthought not of his own wound, but only how he might help another, though\nhe belonged to a different squadron and was unknown to him.\n\nUnselfishness is one of the hardest things to learn. A boy may be\nnaturally brave and even generous, but no one is naturally unselfish. We\nare apt to confuse generosity with unselfishness; really they are quite\ndifferent. A generous person gives out of his abundance, liberally; an\nunselfish person of what seems necessary to his happiness. A generous\nboy shares his weekly purchases with his friends; an unselfish boy, out\nof pity at some distressful case, gives away all his allowance for that\nweek, and cheerfully goes without. The selfish boy spends his money upon\nhimself alone. It is hard to neglect Self.\n\nEven the selfish make sacrifices occasionally. But there is not much\nvirtue in being unselfish now and then, if, in the meantime, we think of\nnothing but gratifying our own desires. Real Unselfishness is a habit,\nand needs to be acquired as does any other habit. We have to begin\npractising it, and to go on practising it, in the little things of life\nas well as the great, for a long time before we are finally able to\nforget self and think of others first. It is perhaps impossible to\nforget self altogether; but Unselfishness aims to that.\n\nA boy is going down town for some amusement. His sister asks him to take\na parcel for her to the house of a friend, who lives considerably out of\nthe way. He says he can't be bothered, or that he will miss some of his\nfun; he is selfish. Another boy is next at bat, and the \"Pro.\" is going\nto bowl. A friend asks him to exchange places on the list, as he has to\nmeet his father at the train later on, and he is near the foot of the\nlist. The first boy consents, though he knows he will not get nearly so\ngood a practice; he is unselfish. The unselfish person is constantly\ntrying to lighten the burdens of others.\n\nIf you wish to tell a thoroughly selfish person, watch his conversation.\nHe talks constantly of himself, of what he has done, or will do, or can\ndo. His belongings are better than those of another, merely because they\nare his. He loves himself more than any one else; and it is natural to\ntalk of what we love best. Lord Bacon said: \"It is a poor centre of a\nman's actions, _himself_. It is right earth.\" He also said: \"The\nreferring of all to a man's self is a desperate evil in a citizen of a\nrepublic.\" \"Wisdom for a man's self is, in many branches thereof, a\ndepraved thing. It is the wisdom of rats, that will be sure to leave a\nhouse before it fall. It is the wisdom of the fox, that thrusts out the\nbadger who digged and made room him. It is the wisdom of crocodiles,\nthat shed tears when they would devour.\"\n\nAn old proverb says: \"Love thyself, and many will hate thee.\"\n\nUnselfishness is hard to practise, because it brings no reward in this\nlife. The unselfish man, indeed, is often imposed on by the\nself-seeking, and more often still simply because he is unselfish, and\nnever ceases to think of others. A Christian man in the city of Toronto,\nwidely known for his charities, subscribed $500 to a deserving object.\nThe committee in charge of the matter appointed collectors to go about\nand ask help from the public. A lady called upon this gentleman, not\nknowing that he had already given largely. He was about to tell her of\nhis first subscription, when he noticed her face fall at the expected\nrefusal. He immediately took her little book and put down his name for a\nsecond amount. He could not bear to send her empty away. His first\nsubscription was generosity; his second, Unselfishness. There _is_ a\nreward here for Unselfishness--the approval of one's own Conscience,\nand, after all, that is of greater permanent value than the praise of\nmen.\n\nIn an age when there is so much grasping after personal gain, it is\nrefreshing to read of great instances of forgetfulness of self. When the\n_Victoria_, after her collision with the _Camperdown_, was found to be\nsinking, Admiral Sir George Tryon ordered the sick and the prisoners to\nbe brought up from below, and then gave the usual order, always the last\nto be given on a ship: \"All hands for themselves.\" Not a man broke ranks\nuntil that order was given. Even then the chaplain stayed to help the\nsick, and so lost his life. The Admiral himself went down, standing on\nthe bridge; and, most notable of all, young Lanyon, a junior midshipman,\nrefused to leave the Admiral's side, though told to jump, and they went\ndown together.\n\n\n     \"He that loseth his life shall find it.\"\n\n\n\n\nNo. VII.\n\nHONESTY\n\n+Honesty is Truth practically applied to questions about the property of\nothers. It is the principle of dealing with others as we would desire\nothers to deal with us. The sole guide in fulfilling this obligation is\nnot what the Law may be, but what our Conscience tells us.+\n\n\n(1) Honesty is a form of Truthfulness. It is that form of it which is\nconcerned with our dealings with others, especially as to their\npossessions. The opposite of it is called Dishonesty, and the worst form\nof Dishonesty is Stealing. The thief is hated, and feared, and despised\nmore than any other sort of criminal. Men fear him as they do poisonous\nsnakes; because the thief is a creeping creature, hiding himself and his\nactions from the light of day. He watches you until you feel secure, and\nare less careful than usual of your possessions; then he sneaks about,\nwaiting for a favourable moment when no one is near to observe or\nsuspect him before snatching your property. A man may commit a very\ngrievous offence against another in a moment of passion; and, though we\nacknowledge the justice of his punishment, we do not hate him. But men\nhate a thief because he is a sneak, and because his offence is done in\ncold blood, not in the heat of anger; in an underhand way, not openly\nand above board.\n\nThe confirmed thief is one who has yielded his soul to the Devil. He\ndeliberately sacrifices his character; he surrenders himself of his own\nfree will to a life of evil. Stealing inevitably leads to lying, and\nthese two things degrade the character more quickly than any other evils\nthat touch it. Not only does he destroy the purity of his soul; before\nlong he must yield up his body for punishment. Not one thief in a\nhundred goes long unpunished.\n\n(2) There are other forms of dishonesty not so open as stealing, and, in\nsome cases, not so harmful, but generally degrading and destructive of\nhigh character. One of these is Cheating. If a coal dealer is paid for a\nton of coal and delivers only nineteen hundred pounds, he is guilty of\nstealing. If, however, he gives full weight, but sells the coal as\nfirst-class, when it contains shale or other impurities, and is really\nof a cheap grade, then he is cheating. The schoolboy who copies his\nnight-work from another, or gets help, and then presents the exercise as\nhis own, is guilty of cheating. This form of cheating is made worse\nwhen it is done in examinations, because the result affects not only\nthe standing of the person who cheats, but deprives others of fairly won\nadvantage.\n\n(3) Another form of dishonesty is that by which one person takes\nadvantage of another in a bargain, through his ignorance or\nhelplessness, even though nothing is actually misrepresented. For\nexample, A. asks B. to lend him ten cents for a month. B. knows that A.\nis in a tight place, and must have the money; and so he offers it on\ncondition that A. will pay him twenty cents at the end of the month. B.\nis dishonest, because he takes unlawful advantage of A.'s necessity.\n\n(4) There is a kind of cheating not referred to above--that is cheating\nin games. Apart from the effect of this kind of cheating upon the\ncharacter, the game itself is spoiled. There is a tendency, nowadays, to\nplay games for the sake of the victory alone, and to take no interest in\ngames that one cannot win. We should play the game for its own sake, and\nfrown down all attempts to win it by going just a little outside of what\nwe know to be the rules. He who allows himself to cheat at games is\nforming a habit which will lead him to cheat later on in serious\nbusiness.\n\n(5) Another form of dishonesty is that relating to property lost and\nfound. A boy finds a sum of money in a room, or hall, or playground, or\neven on the street. Money is a thing not easily identified, and there\nis, therefore, a temptation to pocket it and say nothing about it. This\nis dishonest. The duty in such a case is plain, to try to find the\nowner, and, if that cannot be done, then to put the money to some useful\nor charitable purpose, and not into one's own pocket.\n\n(6) Still another form of dishonesty is that in which one person takes\nto himself the praise belonging to another; or allows another to bear\nblame belonging to himself. We often see boys letting others suffer, in\none way or another, for what they have done. Nothing can be meaner or\nmore contemptible. It is not uncommon to see people eager to take the\ncredit, or praise, or even rewards, which properly belong to others, who\nhave been thrust aside, or forgotten, for the moment. It is a form of\ndishonesty.\n\nHonesty has another side also. When practised according to the voice of\nConscience, without regard to what the law may be, it is the sign of a\nnoble character. A young man's father fails in business, and dies\nsuddenly, leaving many debts behind him unpaid. The young man makes a\nsolemn resolution that he will save and save, and work his hardest, to\npay off those debts, though he did not make them; that is the Honesty of\nthe truly noble character. A very striking example of this sort of\nHonesty is that of Sir Walter Scott, who applied himself, though nearly\nsixty years of age, to the enormous task of paying off, by the sale of\nhis stories, a debt of $600,000, which he did not actually incur, and\nfrom which he could have got free, according to the letter of the law.\nBut his inflexible Honesty forced him into making an effort which\ndoubtless shortened his life.\n\n\n\n\nNo. VIII.\n\nFAITHFULNESS\n\n+Faithfulness is being true to our word, and to our friends, fulfilling\nour obligations, and doing what we see is our duty, at all costs.+\n\n\nOf the honest man we say: \"His word is as good as his bond.\" Of the\nfaithful man we say: \"He was never known to desert a friend or neglect\nan important duty.\" Faithfulness is one of the strongest evidences of\nfine character. The boy who is sent on an errand by his mother, and\nresists the temptations of some playmates he meets on the way, to stop\nand have a game, is Faithful. Two boys going for a walk in the country\ndecide to cross a field of ripe grain, and run the risk of being seen by\nthe farmer in the next field. They are seen and chased. One can run much\nfaster than the other; in fact, he can escape if he likes to leave the\nother. But he doesn't; and both are caught, and have their ears cuffed.\nThat is an example of the Faithfulness of a friend. As the gentleman's\npsalm puts it,\n\n\n     \"He sweareth to his own hurt, and changeth not\";\n\n\nor, as it is otherwise translated,\n\n\n     \"He sweareth to his friend, and changeth not.\"\n\n\nIn the history of Napoleon we are told that, after his burial at St.\nHelena, his household sadly embarked for Europe. One of their number,\nhowever, Sergeant Hubert, refused to abandon even the grave of the\nEmperor. For nineteen years he continued at St. Helena, daily guarding\nthe solitary tomb, and when the remains were at length removed to France\nthe faithful old servant followed them home. How often we see people\nprofessing the utmost friendship and loyalty to one who has wealth and\ninfluence; but as soon as his money is gone, his faithless friends\ndepart also. Is not that the case sometimes, even with schoolboys?\n\nWe should be faithful in performing obligations. It is said of Thomas\nBrassey, who has been called a great captain of industry, and who was\none of the first to undertake great railway contracts, that the reason\nof his success lay in the fact that he was faithful in all obligations,\nand trusted his men as they trusted him. On one occasion, when he was\nbuilding a railway in Spain, a man who had agreed to make a cutting\nthrough a hill found that it turned out to be a rock cutting, though the\nprice was to be for a sand cutting. If there had not been perfect trust\nbetween the two men, the work would have stopped, and Mr. Brassey would\nhave lost a large sum through delay. The sub-contractor went steadily on\nwith the work, and had it almost finished, when Mr. Brassey arrived from\nEngland to inspect the works. When he came to the hill, the\nsub-contractor told him what he had done. Some men would have taken\nadvantage of the sub-contractor; but Mr. Brassey allowed him double the\nprice agreed upon, and kept a faithful servant by practising\nFaithfulness himself.\n\nA merchant fails in business. He agrees with his creditors to pay them\nfifty cents in the dollar, and they then discharge him from his\nliabilities, and he begins business again. In a few years he makes a\ngood deal of money. He determines to pay back to his old creditors the\nother fifty cents in the dollar, from payment of which they had\nreleased. That is a case of Faithfulness to one's obligations. The moral\nobligations to pay back everything remained, though his creditors had\nlet him off. There are such men in the business world, and all honour to\nthem! Horace says: \"Fidelity is the sister of Justice.\"\n\nWe should be especially careful to be faithful in the performance of our\npromises. A promise is a sacred thing. It is an obligation undertaken of\nour own free will, and for which we have pledged our honour. That is\nwhat the sacred poet means in saying: \"He sweareth to his own hurt, and\nchangeth not.\" Nothing can turn him from his promise, even though he is\nsure to suffer by it. There is a proverb which says: \"Promises may get\nfriends, but it is performance that must keep them.\"\n\nFaithfulness is most difficult in the daily round and common task of\nlife. Yet it is precisely there that Character is formed and built up. A\nreputation for Faithfulness cannot be made by being strictly faithful a\nfew times, or in a few important things. We have to practise at it, and\ngrow into the character of a faithful man after years of effort. A boy\nis given ten words to parse for next day. He does five carefully; and\nthen, longing to get out to play, he does the others anyhow, just to be\nable to show the exercise, and escape detention; he is unfaithful. Or,\nhe is given four stanzas of poetry to learn. He learns three, and takes\nhis chance of being asked one of the three, and not the fourth; he is\nunfaithful. He is expected by his parents to watch over his younger\nbrother who goes with him to school, but he lets the little fellow fight\nhis own way; he is unfaithful. He listens without protest, or without\nmoving away, to bad, or, perhaps, obscene, language. He is unfaithful to\nGod, and to his father and mother.\n\nThe late Czar of Russia, Alexander III., was many times in danger of\nhis life, and his father had been assassinated by Nihilists. Yet he\nrefused to flinch from the path of duty. He was faithful to his great\nposition and responsibilities, and was called the Peace-keeper of\nEurope. When he was fresh from a hair-breadth escape from the hand of an\nassassin, he said: \"I am ready; I will do my duty at any cost.\"\n\nThe highest examples of faithfulness are to be found in the history of\nthe Christian martyrs, who gave up their lives joyfully, rather than be\nfound unfaithful. In the terrible persecution of the early Christians in\nA.D. 303, a young Roman noble, named Andronicus, was brought before the\ngovernor of the province. He was very bold in professing his faith in\nGod. The judge said: \"Youth makes you insolent; I have my torments\nready.\" Andronicus replied: \"I am prepared for whatever may happen.\" He\nwas tortured upon the rack, scraped with broken tiles, and salt rubbed\ninto his wounds, but remained immovable. Three times the torture was\nrepeated. But with seared and scarred flesh, members cut off, teeth\nsmashed in, and tongue cut out, he maintained his fidelity to the end.\nAt last he was thrown to the wild beasts in the amphitheatre of\nAnazarbus.\n\n\n     \"Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of\n       life.\"\n\n\n\n\nNo. IX.\n\nPROFANITY\n\n+Profanity is using the name of God, or of anything sacred, in a\ndisrespectful or light and careless way.+\n\n\nThere is no vice which has so little excuse for existence as the vice of\nProfanity, commonly called swearing or cursing. Every other vice we can\nthink of has some appearance of reason in it. Thieving is done because\nof the temptation to gratify some desire. In the case of the young\nthief, who is just learning the evil practice, this desire completely\novercomes him. The enjoyment which he thinks he will get from the\ncoveted thing forms an overwhelming temptation. Lying is generally\nresorted to by the young in order to get them out of scrapes, or to\navoid immediate punishment; and we might thus enumerate other vices, and\nthe reasons for their existence. But Profanity can plead no excuse\nwhatever. It is merely a vicious habit acquired without sense or reason.\nBoys learn it from each other, and in many cases from men, who are\ndoubly guilty in allowing the young to overhear evil words. Boys think\nit manly to swear because they hear their elders doing it. But there is\nnothing manly about swearing. The things that are truly manly are such\nthings as Fearlessness, Moral Courage, Endurance, Steadfastness,\nLoyalty, Honour, Faithfulness. Profanity cannot rank with any of these.\nPlaced beside them, it is at once seen to be low and vicious.\n\n(1) The worst form of Profanity is that which is made use of when any\none uses God's name in a disrespectful way. We see this when one person\ncurses another in the name of God. This worst form of Profanity\ngenerally arises from giving way to ungovernable passion.\n\n(2) A less evil form of it arises from allowing one's self to form the\nhabit of swearing; not from a bad motive, but because of the tendency in\nmost of us to imitate others, or from carelessness in watching the words\nwe use. Boys should be as careful of their words as young ladies are of\ntheir steps. It is easy to acquire a habit; it is exceedingly difficult\nto get rid of it.\n\n(3) A little boy asks: Is it Profanity to say _damn_, or to use lightly\nthe name of the _Devil_? It is just as profane to use either of these\nwords as it is to use the name of God carelessly. The power of _damn_,\nas we now understand that word, belongs to God alone; it is a sacred\nthing; therefore, it is profane to speak of it lightly. The devil is the\nruling spirit of evil, and of the souls of those who are entirely given\nup to evil. The destiny of the human soul in such a state is one of the\nmost solemn thoughts that can come to men; to speak lightly of the\nmatter is to profane it.\n\n(4) To scoff at religious things is Profanity. If a boy so behaves in\nchurch as to show that he has no respect for the reading of the Bible,\nor for the singing of sacred songs, or for the act of prayer, he is\nguilty of Profanity. If one person wilfully interferes with another when\nengaged in any sacred exercise, meaning to bring the person or the act\ninto disrepute, he is guilty of Profanity. We see, then, that Profanity\ncovers a much wider field than the mere disrespectful use of God's name,\nwith an evil purpose in the mind.\n\nThe use of profane words is the mark of a coarse and vulgar mind. Many a\nman has been weaned of the habit which he learnt as a boy solely on\naccount of its coarseness and vulgarity. That is not a very high ground\non which to give up a vice; yet it is sufficient to show us that\nProfanity tends to degrade him who practises it. The man who prides\nhimself on being a gentleman, and yet uses bad language, is by no means\naltogether a gentleman. The use of coarse language destroys the fine\nand delicate texture of the mind, and blunts the finer perceptions. He\nwho would keep his very highest faculties uninjured cannot afford to\nindulge in any habit which tends to coarseness.\n\nWashington once asked a number of his officers to dine with him. In one\nof the pauses of conversation, he heard one of them at the far end of\nthe table utter an oath in a voice loud enough to be heard by everyone.\nThe General looked quietly at his guests, and then said: \"I really\nthought I had invited none but gentlemen to dine with me.\"\n\nPlutarch said: \"If any man think it a small matter to bridle his tongue,\nhe is much mistaken.\"\n\nSt. James said: \"If any man offend not in word, the same is a perfect\nman, and able also to bridle the whole body.\"\n\n\n\n\nNo. X.\n\nJUSTICE\n\n+Justice is the principle of awarding to all men, including ourselves,\nwhat we believe to be their just rights. We are morally bound to be just\neven to our enemies, not only in our actions, but also in our words and\nthoughts.+\n\n\nJustice is said to be truth in action, that is, truth carried into\npractical operation. Two brothers at school have a hamper sent them from\nhome. It is directed to the elder, but the letter says it is for both.\nThe elder takes charge of it, and, while enjoying its contents freely\nwith his friends, has the power to allow his brother to partake of the\ngood things very sparingly, and only occasionally. But he allows his\nbrother free access to the basket, that both may share alike. That is a\nsimple case of Justice.\n\nA boy going out to steal apples from an orchard forced a younger and\nsmaller boy to accompany him for the purpose of keeping a lookout. While\nthe bigger boy was in the middle of the orchard the younger lad was\ncaught, and taken back to school to be punished. The real thief, having\nescaped, returned in time to see the little boy punished for the\noffence. Instead of bravely coming forward to take the place of his\ncompanion, who was really his victim, he laughed it off, and promised\nhim some candy at the end of the week. That is a case of gross\ninjustice. The converse of this form of injustice is also common; when\none person takes the praise, or reward, that is really due to another.\nWe see injustice of that kind in business, and, indeed, in every walk of\nlife. It has happened over and over again that the maker of some great\ninvention has been obliged to sell it for bread, while the man who\nbought it has taken advantage of his fellow-man's distress and made a\nfortune, and the other was left in poverty. \"Render, therefore, to all\ntheir dues; tribute to whom tribute is due; custom to whom custom; fear\nto whom fear; honour to whom honour.\"\n\nThe Thebans represented Justice as having neither hands nor eyes; their\nidea being to picture the just judge, who would neither receive a bribe,\nnor respect persons from their appearance. For a similar reason the\nEnglish people picture her with eyes bandaged, and having a sword in one\nhand and a pair of scales in the other. The Emperor Maximilian's motto\nwas _Fiat justitia, ruat coelum_; \"Let justice be done, though the\nheavens fall.\" Mahomet said: \"One hour in the execution of justice is\nworth seventy years of prayer.\"\n\n\n     \"Though the mills of God grind slowly, yet they grind exceeding\n       small;\n     Though with patience He stands waiting, with exactness grinds He\n       all.\"\n\n\nThough man's justice fail, God's justice can never fail in the end.\n\nGrievous injustice is often done by the exaggerations of enemies, or\ncareless busybodies. Two friends fall out, and one, feeling bitter\nagainst the other, repeats something which the other has confessed in\nconfidence, taking care to add a little--just enough to save the story\nfrom absolute misrepresentation, but enough to do his former friend an\ninjury which, perhaps, can never be undone. Gossip about the failings of\nothers almost always ends in injustice.\n\n\"Let every man be swift to hear; slow to speak; slow to wrath,\" if he\nwish to become a just man. One of the most harmful of the smaller sins,\nand most difficult to get rid of, is the sin of exaggeration. It is\nfatal to the growth of Justice in the character. If we would be just to\nothers, it is well to practise the rule of silence unless we have\nsomething favourable to say. The love of Justice should lead us,\nwhenever we hear anything to a man's discredit about which there is no\nabsolute certainty, to give him the benefit of the doubt. When a\nprisoner is being tried for an offence, the judge always tells the jury\nthat if there be any reasonable doubt about the evidence the prisoner\nmust have the benefit of it. It is better that the guilty go free than\nthat the innocent should suffer.\n\nWe can be unjust in our thoughts of others, as well as in our actions\nand in what we say. We are constantly warned by the best and wisest men\nabout the folly of rash judgments. These words, from the Sermon on the\nMount, are an example of many similar warnings: \"Judge not, that ye be\nnot judged; for with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged.\" It is\npossible to be guilty of the gravest injustice to others, by forming\nharsh opinions of them in our own minds for which we have not sufficient\nground. It is not necessary to utter our judgment in order to be unjust;\nwe can harm people merely by thinking evil of them, because a harsh\njudgment in the mind affects all our dealings with them, and may thus\ninjure them in the opinion of others.\n\nIn seeking to be just men, our grand guide should be the Golden Rule:\n\"As ye would that men should do to you, do to them likewise.\" If, when\nabout to do, or say, or think, anything unjust of any one, we could get\ninto the way of asking ourselves how we should look upon the matter if\nthe positions of the persons were reversed, there would be far less\ninjustice in the world. Justice is one of the great virtues, and it is\nworth striving after. It is a virtue that we can only possess in a\nmarked degree by constant practice in doing just acts, in speaking just\nwords, and in thinking just thoughts.\n\n\n\n\nNo. XI.\n\nBENEVOLENCE\n\n+Benevolence is good will. The benevolent man has kind thoughts of\neveryone, kind words for everyone, and a helping hand for those who need\nit.+\n\n\nGoldsmith's biographer tells us that when the poet was taking a stroll\none evening, he met a woman with five children, who implored his\ncharity. Her husband was in the hospital, and she was from the country,\nand had neither food nor shelter for her helpless offspring. Goldsmith's\nkind heart melted at the story. He was almost as poor as herself, and\nhad no money in his pocket, but he took her to the college gate, and\nbrought out to her the blankets from his bed to cover the children, and\npart of his clothes to sell for food. In the night he found himself\ncold, and so he cut open his bed and buried himself among the feathers,\nwhere he was found next morning by a college friend, with whom he had\npromised to breakfast.\n\nOne boy has a feeling of spite against another, owing to some trivial\nquarrel. To vent it, he goes to his enemy's room, and, in his absence,\nslashes the gut of his tennis racket with a knife. That is an example of\nMalevolence, or evil will, or, as it is commonly called, Malice.\n\nThe benevolent man is he who calls the whole world kin, and refuses to\nharbour an evil intention against any one. To have a mind like that\nrequires long practise in patience, charity, fortitude, forgiveness, and\nself-denial. St. Paul, in one of his most famous letters, says that\nBenevolence is made up of these very things; so that in this matter we\nhave not only our own experience, but a great authority to corroborate\nit. Shakespeare, too, says:\n\n\n     \"Deep malice makes too deep incision;\n     Forget, forgive; conclude, and be agreed.\"\n\n\nThe saying of another poet, \"To err is human, to forgive divine,\" might\nwell read, \"To avenge is human, to forgive divine.\" Every one who gives\nway to malicious anger usurps the place of God, and says to himself,\n\"Vengeance is mine.\" But who ever got any lasting satisfaction out of\nrevenge, when wrath has died away, and the injury he has suffered begins\nto look smaller? Sir John Lubbock well says: \"Revenge does us more harm\nthan the injury itself; and no one ever intended to hurt another, but\ndid at the same time a greater harm to himself, 'as the bee shall\nperish if she stings angrily.' The vulture, we are told, scents nothing\nbut carrion, and the snapping turtle is said to bite before it leaves\nthe egg, and after it is dead.\"\n\nIf a little boy is hurt, how kind the big boy becomes in his help and in\nhis words! And yet, when he gets well again, perhaps the same big boy\nwill make his life miserable, through unkindnesses which really amount\nto bullying.\n\nIt is difficult to say kind things of those whom we do not like, and it\nis far harder to think kind thoughts about them; but, if we wish to be\nreally men of good will, we shall have to make the effort to do both.\nDifficult as it may be, it is quite certain that the trial is worth\nmaking. The benevolent man is the happiest man in the world. Happiness\nis thus brought to us by striving to do what we think we shall hate\ndoing. There is an old proverb which says: \"Pursue happiness, and she\nwill flee; avoid her, and she will pursue.\"\n\nThe distinctive feature of Benevolence is willingness to lend a helping\nhand to those in need of it. One great name in this respect is that of\nWilliam Wilberforce, who gave up his time and energies to abolishing the\nslave trade. No other human being ever did a greater work than that, and\nno other name will live longer in history than his. Another great name\nis that of John Howard, who gave the best years of his life to\nimproving the condition of prisons, not only in England, but in other\ncountries, too. \"In three years he personally inspected every prison in\nthe three kingdoms that presented any peculiarity. He travelled ten\nthousand miles at his own expense, and delivered from prison a large\nnumber of poor debtors by paying their debts. Wherever he went he\nbrought some alleviation to the lot of the prisoner by gifts of money,\nbread, meat, or tea, and by remonstrating with jailers, surgeons,\nchaplains, and magistrates. Several prisons underwent a complete\nrenovation and reformation, solely in consequence of his conversations\nwith county magistrates and circuit judges.\"\n\nWe may not all be able to do great deeds of Benevolence; but we can all\nget into the habit of lending a hand whenever it is needed--not merely\nwhen a great occasion demands, but habitually. \"A handful of good life\nis worth a bushel of learning.\" We can all practise keeping cheerful\ntempers, and saying kind words, and doing small acts of kindness, even\nto enemies. What distinguished Christ, as a teacher, from all other\nteachers that went before him, was His treatment of this subject of\nBenevolence. The old and well-established law was: \"An eye for an eye,\nand a tooth for a tooth.\" He laid down a new law, the principle of\nBenevolence: \"If thine enemy hunger, feed him: if he thirst, give him\ndrink.\"\n\n\n\n\nNo. XII.\n\nAMBITION\n\n+Ambition is that longing for pre-eminence which urges men to intense and\nlong-sustained exertions. Ambition is good or evil, according as it is\nselfish, or seeks the good of mankind.+\n\n\nAmbition is the putting forth of immense energy with a definite purpose\nin view. Nearly all the great achievements of the human race have been\naccomplished by means of the ambition of individuals, Alexander the\nGreat, C\u00e6sar, St. Paul, Henry IV. of France, Raleigh, Gustavus Adolphus,\nRichelieu, Warren Hastings, Clive, Napoleon, Wellington, Nelson,\nFaraday, Pallissy, Livingstone, Gordon, Edison, all achieved great deeds\nthrough ambition. But as the names represent types of good and bad\ncharacter, so there are two kinds of ambition, noble and selfish, good\nand bad.\n\nIt must be confessed that Ambition is apt to lead men astray. It is hard\nto be ambitious without being at the same time selfish, proud, and\ncovetous. Ambition is a dangerous possession to the young man whose\ncharacter is not well grounded, and who has not learned to put the good\nof his fellow-men above his own personal advancement; and these two\nthings always clash in questions of right and wrong. We are told that\nwhen the Russian engineers were consulting the Czar about the line of a\nrailway from St. Petersburg to Moscow, he refused to listen to a\nstatement of difficulties, but took a ruler, and, laying it on a map of\nRussia, drew a straight line between the two cities, and ordered the\nengineers to disregard towns, and private homes, and obstacles of any\nother kind. Napoleon literally waded \"through slaughter to a throne,\"\nand cared nothing for the sacrifice of his soldiers or the tears of a\nwhole nation.\n\nAmbition is bad when it leads men to seek power to gratify personal\nends. C\u00e6sar's ambition was evil because he thirsted for personal power\nfor his own gratification and pride. The thirst for money is a bad\nAmbition. It nearly always ends in making man a miser, than whom there\nis no man more contemptible and pitiable. It is seldom a man amasses a\nvery great fortune without depriving other people of their rights. The\nwise man said: \"He that maketh haste to be rich shall not be innocent.\"\n\nAmbition often destroys the character of the man who gives way to it.\nMacbeth was a great general, and a brave and honest man. In thinking\nover the murder of the king, which his wife proposed to him, he said:\n\n\n                     \"I have no spur\n     To prick the sides of my intent, but only\n     Vaulting ambition which o'erleaps itself,\n     And falls on the other\";\n\n\nmeaning that he had no motive whatever for killing Duncan except the\nambition to occupy his throne. Ambition destroyed him. Frederick the\nGreat bound himself to befriend and support the young ruler of Austria,\nyet he violated his oath, robbed his ally, and plunged Europe into a\nlong and desolating war. To quote his own words: \"Ambition, interest,\nthe desire of making people talk about me, carried the day, and I\ndecided for war.\" He sacrificed his own soul for the sake of the glory\narising out of victorious war.\n\nThe danger of Ambition to young men is that it leads to discontent with\ntheir present lot in life. Many a young man has been utterly ruined by\ngiving way to discontent because of Ambition. A young man in a bank,\nfilled with Ambition, wishes to improve his position. His salary is\nsmall, and he feels cramped. He begins to speculate through brokers,\npaying a little cash down. Perhaps he is successful at first. Then he\nhears of some railway shares that are going up in price every day. If he\ncan only get some money to buy he can repay it in a week, and make a\ngreat profit for himself. He takes the bank's money. He does this\nseveral times, until at last the crash comes, as it always does, and the\nyoung man is sent to spend some of the best years of his life in gaol.\nAmbition has destroyed his reputation, and has cost him his liberty and\nhis friends.\n\nTo excel in his present calling, is a lawful Ambition for a young man,\nleaving it to the future, to his reputation, and to God, to lift him\nhigher. How much wiser and happier Macbeth would have been if he had\nkept to his first resolution:\n\n\n     \"If chance will have me king, why, chance may crown me.\"\n\n\nIt is quite possible for Ambition and Contentment to go together, and to\nproduce the very greatest results in the long run. This was the ambition\nof General Gordon, that he might excel others as a soldier, and yet be\ncontent with a position humble as men count such things. He refused\nrepeated offers of money from the Emperor of China. He accepted the\nPeacock Feather and Yellow Jacket to give pleasure to his mother, and to\nenable him to exert the necessary influence upon the Chinese in settling\nthe country after the horrors of war. This was the kind of Ambition held\nby Livingstone, by Palissy the potter, and, above all men in modern\ntimes, by Faraday. When Faraday made known some of his discoveries, he\nwas offered large sums to make experiments for merchants, and he might\nsoon have become very rich, but it would have taken all his time. He\nrefused; he remained poor; he gave himself up to scientific research,\nand he made the name of England great in the scientific world, as it had\nnever been before.\n\nThe highest Ambition a man can have is to be able to make a sacrifice of\nhis inclinations, and to give himself up to some noble work for the good\nof mankind, without any thought of profit or pride, or place or power,\nor any other form of selfishness.\n\n\n\n\nNo. XIII.\n\nPATRIOTISM\n\n+Patriotism is love of and devotion to one's country. It is the spirit\nthat prompts us from love of our country to obey its laws, to support\nand defend its existence and its rights, and to promote its welfare.+\n\n\nMaurice once said, very truly, \"that man is most just, on the whole, to\nevery other nation who has the strongest feeling of attachment to his\nown.\" Love of one's country, if it be real and deeply rooted in the\nheart, is a sacred thing. There are few nobler feelings, if only they\nare genuine. A boy's patriotism is generally associated with fireworks\nand brass bands, and it is right enough that he should make merry on his\ncountry's great days. But we should guard against thinking that there is\nnothing more in Patriotism than fireworks and bragging and brass bands.\nThe show, the display, should be only the mark of a real love and\nrespect within the breast.\n\nIt is natural to be proud of one's country. If a stranger should abuse\nit in our hearing, we should feel indignant, and a natural feeling of\npride would urge us to refute his statements. There are many things to\nbe proud of, even in a country by no means great in arms or in\nterritory. He would be a very small-minded man who refused to\nacknowledge the right of every country to the devotion of its children.\nBut, as Maurice said, \"he is most just to others who has the deepest\nattachment to his own.\" It is not boasting to say that we belong to the\ngreatest race that the world has ever seen. The growth of our race, not\nonly in the little mother island, but also in every continent of the\nworld, has not been paralleled by any other people. No other nation in\nhistory has retained so long its supremacy among the nations of the\nearth. When the great nations of Greece and Rome reached the height of\ntheir power, they maintained it for a time by means of slaves, and gave\nthemselves up to luxury and vice. But, as soon as they became effeminate\nthrough loss of vigour and the idleness of their citizens, their power,\nand even their national existence, were destroyed. Instead of\nmaintaining its power and wealth by slave armies and slave labour, the\nEnglish people abolished slavery off the face of the civilized world.\nEngland paid Portugal $1,500,000, Spain $2,000,000, to induce them to\ngive up the slave trade. For fifty years England kept a squadron on the\nwest coast of Africa to keep down the slave trade, at a cost of\n$3,500,000 a year. She paid the West Indies and Mauritius $100,000,000\nto free their slaves. The sum which it cost the English-speaking people\nof America to put down the slave trade cannot be calculated.\n\nThe ancient nations of Greece and Rome derived immense sums of money\nfrom their colonies. They made the colonies pay for the support of all\nthe armies and the general expense of government. England has never\ntaxed a colony with any great burden. It is estimated by Sir John\nLubbock that in ten years, from 1859 to 1869, $210,000,000 was spent by\nthe mother country upon her colonies.\n\nIt is the glory of Canadians to belong to such a race. The old land from\nwhich we came is worthy of our deepest love and veneration and pride. As\nTennyson patriotically says:\n\n\n     \"There is no land like England,\n     Where'er the light of day be;\n     There are no hearts like English hearts,\n     Such hearts of oak as they be.\"\n\n\nAnd this new land, too, claims our love and loyalty. No boy ever grew to\nmanhood with a fairer heritage than the young Canadian possesses. But if\nhis privileges are many, so, too, are the duties of citizenship. After\nall, the best patriot is the best citizen. It is easy to cheer with the\ncrowd, even when its cry is \"Our country, right or wrong.\" That can\nnever be the cry of the true patriot. In fact, real Patriotism concerns\nitself not with \"cries,\" but with deeds. He is said to be the truest\npatriot \"who can make two blades of corn grow where only one grew\nbefore.\" How true that is for Canadians! Our country does not at this\nstage of its history require the partisan, or the politician; we have\ntoo many of them. It needs men who love her as men love their homes and\nfamilies; thinking it an honour and a pride to labour for them.\n\nPatriotism is a sacred thing, a sacred duty. Ruskin says, \"Nothing is\npermanently helpful to any race or condition of men but the spirit that\nis in their own hearts, kindled by the love of their native land.\"\n\nIt is our duty to cultivate the love of our country, to do everything in\nour power to make that love stronger as we grow older. If we love our\ncountry, if we see that in her which calls forth our enthusiasm, then we\nare ready to make any sacrifice for her that she may demand, even to\nshedding our blood. Ruskin also says: \"It is precisely in accepting\ndeath as the end of all, and in laying down his life for his friends,\nthat the hero and patriot of all time has become the glory and safety of\nhis country.\"\n\n\n\n\nNo. XIV.\n\nBODILY EXERCISE\n\n+Mens sana in corpore sano.+\n\n+\"The glory of young men is their strength.\"+\n\n+\"He that hath clean hands waxeth stronger and stronger.\"+\n\n\nDr. Hall tells the following true story: Two friends are in a canoe in\nthe Mozambique channel. A flaw of wind upsets the boat, which fills and\nsinks, and the men are left to swim for their lives. One says to the\nother: \"It is a long pull to the shore, but the water is warm and we are\nstrong. We will hold by each other, and all will be well.\" \"No,\" says\nhis friend, \"I have lost my breath already; each wave that strikes us\nknocks it from my body.\" In a moment he is gone. His friend can do\nnothing; only swim, and then float, and rest himself, and breathe; to\nswim again, and then float, and rest again; hour after hour to swim and\nfloat with that calm determination that he will go home; hour after\nhour, till at last the palm trees show distinct upon the shore, and then\nthe figures of animals. And then, at last, his foot touches the coral,\nand he is safe. That is an example of the difference wrought in two men\nmerely by exercise, or the steadiness of training.\n\nExercise makes the body strong. Many a man has reason to bless the\nmemory of his father or teacher, who, when he was a weak boy, with\nflabby muscles, and without energy or strength of will, made him take\nregular exercise. A young man who was threatened by weak lungs was\nordered to take regular Exercise every day with clubs and dumb-bells and\na vigorous walk in the open air. After a few months' steady practice he\nfound that he could, with his hands, lift his elder brother, lying flat\non the ground, by the clothes and elevate him above his own head.\nNeglect of Exercise keeps the muscles weak, makes the blood impure, and\nrenders the body liable to the diseases which are ever ready to attack\nhim. We now know that diseases enter the human body by means of minute\nliving germs, which float unseen in the atmosphere. Practically, no\npeople living in towns escape these germs; but the strong body is able\nto throw them off, while the weak succumbs. There are in the blood\nthousands of little bodies which act as scavengers, and are continually\nfighting against foreign invaders that get into the system. If the body\nbecomes weak through lack of Exercise, the blood suffers, the number of\nscavengers becomes lessened, and disease more easily fastens upon it.\n\nNot only is the body weakened by lack of Exercise, but the brain is even\nmore so. If a stream of pure blood be necessary for the strength of the\nbody, it is far more necessary for the health of the brain. Parents\noften complain that their sons are stupid, and are not able to see\nthrough things, and have poor memories, when the trouble lies chiefly in\nthe fact that the blood is unable to carry off the worn-out elements of\nthe brain, because it is not kept pure by regular Exercise and fresh\nair. The secret of mental activity is complete bodily health. The boy\nwho is subject to headaches cannot study hard; nine-tenths of the\nheadaches arise from giving the stomach too much hard work, and the\nbrain too little. The stomach is capable of an immense amount of labour\nif the other members of the body will only work, too; but if they get\nidle, it is apt to break down under its burdens, and then the brain\nsuffers.\n\nThe English race has always been characterized by immense energy.\nProbably no other race has ever been so distinguished for enterprise and\nenergy. It is the energy of the race which has led to the growth of its\nvast colonies, and to the maintenance of empire over less civilized\npeoples. It has made the United States the great nation that it is.\nEnergy makes the man, as it makes the nation. The vast majority of\npeople depend for energy upon Exercise. Loafing destroys energy. Mental\nenergy depends very largely upon physical energy, except in the case of\nthe sick. Physical energy depends upon taut muscles and supple joints.\n\nThe relation of Exercise to morality is very close. If a young man fills\nup his spare time with Exercise, he runs no risk of going to the bad\nmorally. After a day's work, and active Exercise to end it, he needs a\ngreat deal of sleep; and his sleep is sound and refreshing. The\nsleeplessness that arises from loafing causes an immense amount of\nmischief to the moral nature--impure thoughts, or half-waking dreams,\nwith, perhaps, degrading habits growing out of them. When the body is in\na good state of health, man's faith in God, and in truth, purity, and\nhonour, is bright and steadfast. When his body is run down, through\nneglect, everything looks gloomy.\n\nAn important part of Exercise is the work of keeping the body clean. It\nis just as necessary to keep the outside of the body clean and sweet as\nthe inside; and as the inside is being continuously cleansed by pure\nblood, the outside should be cleansed regularly with water. The decayed\nmatter in the body, carried off by the blood, escapes chiefly in one\nway--that is, through the pores of the skin, and if these pores are\nallowed to get choked by neglect the dead matter remains in the system\nand pollutes it, and the body soon gets out of order. It is a duty to\ntake sufficient exercise every day to incite perspiration, and then a\ncold plunge or sponge bath, or, at least, a vigorous rub-down. If we\ncould only get into the habit of doing that, we might snap our fingers\nat most kinds of disease.\n\nThese things depend largely upon daily Exercise: Bodily Strength, Mental\nActivity, Energy, the Moral Life.\n\n\n\n\nNo. XV.\n\nHABIT\n\n+By Habit is meant accustoming ourselves to do certain things regularly.\nHabit is a tendency of the mind and body resulting from frequent\nrepetition of the same acts.+\n\n\nAn old man who had very deformed fingers said: \"For over fifty years I\nused to drive a stage, and these bent fingers show the effect of holding\nthe reins for so many years.\" Carlyle said: \"Habit is the deepest law of\nhuman nature. It is our supreme strength, and also, in certain\ncircumstances, our miserablest weakness.\" In the life of the young,\nespecially, the two greatest laws are Habit and Imitation. There is\nnothing a boy's parents fear so much as that he will imitate bad things\nin the characters of others, and so learn bad habits. When a boy has\nlearnt a great many bad habits, it is almost impossible to get rid of\ntheir effects, even though he should change his habits. They leave marks\nupon the character, just as smallpox does upon the face.\n\nIt is easy to learn bad habits. It is just like the old game of \"Follow\nyour Leader.\" Unless the leader is a very clever athlete, most boys\nhave no difficulty in following and imitating what he does. When once a\nboy makes up his mind that he is not going to be very particular about\nhis language, it is astonishing how easily he will learn to swear, and\nto use unclean words. But if he should become ashamed of such a habit,\nhow hard it is to drop it! He may make the strongest resolutions, and\ntry his best to put them in practice; but he will find himself dropping\ninto profane language when he gets excited, or loses his temper, or at\nother times when it is particularly necessary for him to be careful.\n\nWith many people to do a thing once is to form the Habit. It is well\nknown that the taste for wine and spirits is often inherited by a boy\nfrom his parents. For that boy, or young man, to drink once is to form a\nHabit, though he may be quite unconscious of it. We always do form\nhabits unconsciously, and we often know nothing of them until they are\nfully formed and have nearly mastered us. If some kind friend warn the\nyouth, he may drop the habit at once; but, if not, drinking will soon be\na positive pleasure, and, before he knows it, he will be on the primrose\nway. Let a young man give way a few times to impure imaginations and\nthoughts, and he will soon be in danger of a habit that will destroy\nhim, body and soul. The curse of the human race is the tendency to form\nbad habits.\n\nThe surest way to avoid bad habits is to form good ones before the\nformer become established. And the first good Habit that will help us to\navoid or conquer bad ones is _never to be idle_. \"An idle man is like\nthe housekeeper who keeps the door open for any burglar.\" I do not mean\nby not being idle that we should never cease from work. But I do mean\nthat as soon as work ceases play should begin. Idleness is loafing; and\nnothing so surely produces other bad habits as the habit of loafing. The\nboy who has a game in view the moment his work ceases is not in very\ngreat danger of forming bad habits. The boy who is in danger is he who,\nhaving done the least possible amount of work in school hours, is tired\nby the effort to do nothing, and so would rather lie upon his bed than\ntake exercise.\n\nThe Habit of exercise is a sacred duty. All feel the effects of\nsystematic neglect of fresh air and muscular training, and most young\nmen and boys do take exercise spasmodically--one day a great deal, and\nthe next, perhaps, none at all. The bodily system can no more flourish\nunder that sort of treatment than it could if one were to over-eat on\none day, and go absolutely without on the next. The only way to bring\nthe body to a high state of cultivation and to keep it there is to form\nthe habit of exercise, and let nothing interfere with it. It need not be\nalways the same; it should be varied; but it should always be active.\nIf a boy does not care for very violent exercise, he can substitute for\nit light gymnasium work, or club and dumb-bell exercise. The great\nSandow says that he keeps his strength up to the point of efficiency by\nclubs and dumb-bells, and open-air exercise. The great thing about it is\nregularity; that is to say, Habit.\n\nAnother great factor of success in life is the Habit of early rising. We\nall love to lie in bed a little longer than we ought; but we should\nfight against it. Mr. Gladstone, throughout his years of vigour, took\nseven hours sleep, and he said to a friend: \"I should like to have\neight; I hate getting up in the morning, and I hate it the same every\nmorning. But one can do anything by habit, and when I have had my seven\nhours sleep my habit is to get up.\" King George III. was an early riser.\nHe once said to a man who came late: \"Six hours sleep enough for a man,\nseven for a woman, and eight for a fool.\" Dickens use to rise at seven,\nhave a cold bath, \"and then blaze away till three o'clock.\" Kant, the\ngreatest philosopher of modern times, used to retire at ten, and his\nservant had strict orders never to allow him to sleep later than five,\nno matter how strongly he might plead for rest. Sir Walter Scott said:\n\"God bless that habit of getting up at seven. I could do nothing without\nit.\" The Duke of Wellington said that when we turn in bed it is time to\nturn out.\n\nThe wise boy will form habits of reading good books regularly,\nespecially the Bible; of exact and strict punctuality in all his\nengagements, great or small; of neatness in his appearance; of personal\ncleanliness; of politeness of speech. A Habit once learned will stick to\none, whether good or bad.\n\n\n     \"Habit at first is but a silken thread....\n     Beware! that thread may bind thee as a chain.\"\n\n\n\n\nNo. XVI.\n\nINDUSTRY\n\n+Industry is the fully formed habit of work. It is that which prevents us\nfrom wasting time, and strength, and the powers of mind. Its opposite is\nIndolence, or Laziness.+\n\n\nWork is a fundamental law of life. He who does not work must suffer,\nwhether he be rich or poor, because man cannot break any law of nature\nwithout paying the penalty. If a man deliberately sin against nature,\nthat is, against God, he may be forgiven, but he cannot escape the\nresult, or, in other words, the punishment.\n\nBut all work is not Industry. If we are compelled to work against our\nwill, that is not Industry. There must be the habit, and no habit can be\nfully formed without the mind's consent. Industry is work done with a\nwill; not at odd moments, with wide spaces of idleness between, but\nregularly as a habit, which is as much the business of life as eating\nand sleeping.\n\nIn the history of mankind, Industry has been a far greater power than\nGenius. Genius, indeed, has been called \"the power of taking pains\";\nthat is, immense perseverance. The amount of good done to mankind by men\nof genius who have had no Industry is hardly worth counting up. Nearly\nall the world's great men have been men of great diligence. As Cicero\nsaid: \"Diligence is the one virtue that includes all the rest.\" Solomon\nhas the same thought: \"The soul of the diligent shall be made fat.\" It\nis astonishing what a large number of great men have risen by their own\nindustry to positions of the highest authority and influence. Faraday\nwas the greatest chemist of modern times. His father was a village\nblacksmith, and he himself was first a newsboy, and then learnt the\ntrade of bookbinding. He became interested in books through making their\ncovers. Turner, the greatest modern landscape painter, was the son of a\nbarber. He left school when he was thirteen; and from that time earned\nhis own living.\n\nSir William Jones, the great oriental scholar, was a man of enormous\nIndustry. Before he was twenty years old, he had mastered Greek, Latin,\nItalian, Spanish, and Portuguese, and had made great progress in Arabic\nand Persian. He divided his day as follows:\n\n\n     \"Seven hours to law, to soothing slumber seven,\n     Ten to the world allot, and all to heaven.\"\n\n\nHugh Miller, the great geologist, began life as a stonemason. Elihu\nBurritt, a blacksmith, mastered eighteen languages and twenty-two\ndialects. Such perseverance and diligence should make us feel ashamed of\nneglected opportunities.\n\nThe main thing to keep in mind about Industry is that it is a habit,\nand, like most good habits, somewhat difficult to acquire. A boy is\ngiven a piece of work by his father. He goes at it with great vigour;\nbut, in a short time, his attention is attracted by his dog, or birds,\nand he leaves the work for something more pleasant; he is not\nIndustrious. A boy begins his night lessons and works five minutes, and\nthen remembers something that happened that afternoon at play; he\nreturns to his book for five minutes more, and then thinks of the next\nhalf-holiday--and so on. Industry means concentration, and he has not\nlearnt anything about that yet.\n\nAt the beginning of the lesson, a boy pays close attention; but he soon\nsees that his nails require attention, or his pencil a finer point, or\nthe nearness of his neighbour suggests a small trick. Perhaps his head\nis heavy and requires to be held up by one hand, or the hero of the\nlatest story persists in thrusting himself upon the mind, or he wishes\nhe were out camping. Industry is attention; and he has not yet learned\nhow to keep his mind on his work.\n\nMost boys suffer from lack of power to pay attention for a considerable\ntime. With some it is a disease arising from physical causes. If a boy\nhas got into the habit of imagining impure things, his power of\nattention is in danger of being destroyed; if he has learned to practise\nsecret vice, his brain is being destroyed. Some boys possess marvellous\npower of concentration. Macaulay's mother tells us that he wrote a\nfairly complete history of the world, occupying twelve pages, when he\nwas seven years old. But the average boy needs to have his power of\nattention cultivated, as any other faculty is trained. He can do this,\nfirst, by striving to take an interest in everything that presents\nitself to his mind, no matter how dry; and, secondly, by practising\nattention. He can do this by keeping a watch open, and seeing how long\nhe can work without thinking of outside things. There is no more notable\nexample of industry in our own day than that of Edison. He is said to\nsleep only three or four hours in the twenty-four for months at a time.\nThose who live with him say that his Industry is the most remarkable\nthing about him. Some one once asked him how to succeed in life. His\nanswer was: \"Don't look at the clock!\"\n\nAttention produces the habit of Industry, that is, of wasting not a\nmoment in idleness. Lord Nelson said that he attributed his success in\nlife to a habit he formed of being fifteen minutes ahead of time for all\nhis engagements. Imagine a boy being fifteen minutes ahead of time in\nrising, and at meals, lessons, and prayers! The habitual late comer is\ndestroying his faculty for Industry. No one can afford to waste time;\nand there would be less time wasted if we could only remember that\nidleness is Suffering, if not now, then later on.\n\nThe great Cobbet said: \"I learned grammar when I was a private soldier\non the pay of sixpence a day. The edge of my berth was my seat; my\nknapsack was my bookcase; a bit of board on my lap was my writing table.\nI had no money for candles; in the winter time it was rarely that I\ncould get any evening light but that of the fire, and only my turn at\nthat.\"\n\nSir John Lubbock says: \"Industry brings its own reward. Columbus\ndiscovered America while searching for a western passage to India; and,\nas Goethe pointed out, Saul found a kingdom while he was looking for his\nfather's asses.\"\n\nThere is, for a boy, no motto grander than Luther's _Nulla dies sine\nlinea_.\n\nAn old sun-dial in a churchyard in Scotland has these words engraved on\nit:\n\n\n     \"I am a shadow,\n     So art thou;\n     I mark time,\n     Dost thou?\"\n\n\n\n\nNo. XVII.\n\nSELF-CONTROL\n\n+Self-control is the power a man exercises over himself--the power to\ncheck his desires and passions; the power to deny himself present\npleasures for the sake of a great purpose; the power to concentrate his\nenergies on a single object in life.+\n\n\nSelf-control is the basis of all Character, and the root of all the\nvirtues. Without it, man is like a ship that has lost its rudder, and\ntosses helpless upon the waves. Self-control is one of the hardest\nthings to learn, though no one can succeed in life without it. We say of\nthe poor drunkard: \"He could never say no!\" The young man who can say no\nto his friends, when his Conscience tells him he should, has learned one\nof the hardest lessons of his life, and is in no danger of many of the\nworst pitfalls of early manhood. Tennyson says:\n\n\n     \"Self-reverence, self-knowledge, self-control,\n     These three alone lead life to sovereign power.\"\n\n\nThe wise man said: \"He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty;\nand he that ruleth his spirit than he that taketh a city.\"\n\nA boy at school finds the greatest difficulty in paying _attention_.\nHis mind keeps wandering away from his work. He makes good resolutions,\nbut finds that, in spite of them, he cannot _fix_ his attention. After a\ntime, he despairs of himself, and gives up his chance, and perhaps\nbitterly disappoints his parents. The trouble was lack of Self-control.\nHe had never learned how to master himself. He who can master himself\ncan master almost any difficulty. He must learn what Concentration\nmeans. It is a habit, and can only be acquired little by little, by\nearnest effort, and a strict watch upon self. A good plan is to keep a\nwatch open, and see how long the mind can be kept at work without\nsuffering any interruption.\n\nIf we learn to control self in one way, it becomes easier to do so in\nothers. If a boy is given to flying into a rage, and practises checking\nhimself, until the habit is controlled, it will not be nearly so hard to\ncontrol himself in other ways. One of the hardest things to conquer is\nthe habit of exaggeration; it is so easy to overstate a thing, so hard\nto keep to the _exact_ truth. The boy who conquers a habit like that is\non the road to thorough Self-control.\n\nControl of the appetite is, perhaps, the most difficult form of\nSelf-control for boys to practise. He who gives way to his appetite\nyields the reins to a reckless driver. There is no vice more disgusting\nor more dangerous than gluttony. It is the vestibule to all the other\nvices. It is quite as important a duty to control one's stomach as to\ncheck one's tongue. The best things are apt to come to him who has\nlearned to do without; though Self-control for its own sake is the\nherald of happiness. In the life of General Gordon, we are told that he\nonce offered a native of the Soudan a drink of water. The man declined\nthe water, saying that he had had a drink _the day before_. A drink\nevery other day was enough for him; he had learned Self-control.\n\nHistory is full of examples of the failure of men and nations through\nthe loss of Self-control. The Greek nation was destroyed because the\npeople gave themselves up to idleness and the gratification of their\ndesires. So were the Romans, who were conquered by the savage Goths, who\npossessed the virtue of Self-restraint. No man ever yet became great who\ndid not practise the great virtue of Self-denial.\n\nSt. Paul said: \"I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection.\"\n\n\n\n\nNo. XVIII.\n\nSELF-RELIANCE\n\n+Self-reliance is the power to help one's self. It is personal\nindependence. It is that which makes labour enjoyable. It is that which\nadds Zest to a man's pursuits in life, and produces the highest success.+\n\n\nHe who learns the great lesson of Self-reliance will never lack the\nmeans of livelihood or the opportunity for usefulness. It is the duty of\nevery boy to learn to depend upon himself. His father may be a rich man\nnow, but it is far easier to lose wealth than to create it, and the day\nmay come when his father may have to depend upon him. That every man\nshould earn his own bread is one of the fundamental duties of life. St.\nPaul laid it down as a law for the Christians in Thessaly that \"if any\nwould not work, neither should he eat.\"\n\nMost people have the stern necessity to labour laid upon them; but there\nare some who have inherited, or expect to inherit, wealth, and who see\nno need to employ their abilities in active, steady, persistent labour,\nand yet it is just these who have the power to confer special benefits\nand blessings upon their fellow-men. He who has no cares about the\nearning of his daily bread has a great opportunity to devote himself to\nsome special line of labour which will result in a lasting benefit to\nthe community in which he lives, and which requires leisure for its\nproper development. The rich man is a curse to his country, instead of a\nblessing, if he keeps his capital from active employment, and at the\nsame time neglects to use for the good of his fellows that higher sort\nof capital--his personal abilities.\n\nIf the schoolboy wish to make real progress, he must learn to depend\nupon himself alone. He will never master a subject thoroughly if he go\nconstantly to the master, or to another boy, for help. He who gets\nanother to do his lessons for him cheats not only the master, but\nhimself also. The boy who loves to overcome difficulties, whether they\nbe in the gymnasium, or the class-room, or the cricket field, is sure to\nsucceed in the struggles of after life.\n\nSelf-reliance comes naturally to some people, especially to those who\nhave bodies trained by vigorous exercise. To others it becomes a habit\nonly after long effort, but it is beyond the reach of no one. Two things\nare required for its attainment: determination and practice. We need\nnot expect to attain any good habit without failure at first. But, as\nhas been wisely said: \"Perseverance, self-reliance, energetic effort,\nare doubly strengthened when you rise from failure to battle again.\"\n\nEmerson said: \"Self-trust is the first secret of success\"; and in\nanother place: \"Self-trust is the essence of heroism.\"\n\nIt would be easy to give a great many examples of the virtue of\nSelf-reliance. One of the greatest in modern times was that of Lord\nBeaconsfield, Prime Minister of England. He tried many times before he\nat last got a seat in parliament. The first time he tried to speak in\nthat great assembly, he was received with shouts of laughter, when he\nsaid: \"Gentlemen, I now sit down, but a day will come when you shall\nhear me.\" All will remember the wonderful Self-reliance of the Black\nPrince at the battle of Cre\u00e7y. At the close of his life, Jean Paul said:\n\"I have made as much out of myself as could be made of the stuff, and no\nman should require more.\"\n\nLord Bacon said: \"Men seem neither to understand their riches nor their\nstrength: of the former they believe greater things than they should, of\nthe latter much less. Self-reliance and Self-control will teach a man\nto drink out of his own cistern, and eat his own sweet bread, and to\nlearn and labour truly to get his living, and carefully to expend the\ngood things committed to his trust.\"\n\nSelf-reliance does not mean Self-assertion. The truly self-reliant man\nis modest in his language and manners. The boaster has usually very\nlittle backbone to his character. Self-reliance is a deeply-rooted\nfeeling of reserve power, which makes a man strong under all\ncircumstances. It carries with it an equally strong feeling of\nself-respect. The old French proverb says that a man is rated by others\nas he rates himself.\n\nGoethe's advice to young men was: \"Make good thy standing place, and\nmove the world.\"\n\n\n\n\nNo. XIX.\n\nFRIENDSHIP\n\n+Friendship is that feeling between people which leads them to trust each\nother entirely, to tell each other of their difficulties, hopes, and\nfears; to share with each other pleasures and sorrows; to help each\nother when need arises, even though it involves a sacrifice.+\n\n\nCicero thought Friendship of so much importance in life that he wrote a\ntreatise on it. He said: \"Of all the things which wisdom provides for\nthe happiness of a lifetime, by far the greatest is friendship.\"\nCertainly, it is a thing for which human nature seems to cry out. Lord\nBacon quotes an old saying: \"Whosoever is delighted in solitude is\neither a wild beast or a god.\" Just as we all desire to be liked rather\nthan to be hated, so we long to have, at least, one friend to whom we\ncan tell everything, and who will stand by us. We envy him who has many\nfriends. We may set it down as a truth, that if we have no friends the\nfault lies in ourselves. There is something lacking in us, or there is\nsome horrid thing in our character that others cannot like. Real\nFriendship must be based on admiration, or liking for some quality that\nhe who is desired as a friend possesses. The boy who lacks friends, but\nlongs for them, must search his own heart and character to see if he\ncannot find out what is the matter with him.\n\nIt is better to have one or two friends than to be popular with the\ncrowd. Some boys will do anything to be popular, even to sacrificing\nFriendship. It is quite a common thing for boys to make themselves out\nto be much worse than they really are in order to gain admiration. They\nwill pretend to be guilty of all sorts of things in order to get others\nto think them more daring than themselves. The worst of it is that a boy\nof that kind often becomes thoroughly bad at heart.\n\nIt is in the power of every one to have at least one sincere friend; if\nwe are willing to be unselfish, to forget ourselves, and to try to help\nothers, we can have many. There is nothing that makes the daily life so\npleasant as the companionship of a friend present, or the thought of a\nfriend absent. Cicero said: \"A true friend is he who is, as it were, a\nsecond self.\" But, if we wish to keep our friends, we must be prepared\nto make sacrifices sometimes. No man ever kept a friend for a long time\nwithout occasionally doing something to prove the warmth of his feeling\nfor that friend. Friendships are generally broken because one or the\nother partner turns out selfish. Boyish Friendships would be much more\nlasting than they are, except for the great difficulty most boys have in\n\"giving up\" to others.\n\nIf Friendship is a sacred thing, how necessary it is to use care in\nmaking a friend! It is the sign of wisdom to have many companions, but\nfew friends. To have many companions is to knock off our own rough\ncorners, and to teach us the principle of \"give and take.\" In dealing\nwith a real friend, it should be mostly \"give\" and very little \"take.\"\nHe who tries to make a friend should begin by giving his Friendship, and\ngive it with all his heart. But if he does that to one who is morally\nbelow his own standard, the result will be disastrous. The old Romans\nhad a saying, taken from their poet Virgil, _Facilis descensus Averno\nest_, which means that it is wonderfully easy to lower one's standard of\nright and wrong. The poet went on to say: \"But to retrace your steps,\nand escape to the upper air, this is a work, this is a toil.\"\n\nThere is nothing truer than the saying that a man is known by his\nfriends. A man's Friendships are the test of his character. A Spanish\nproverb says: \"Tell me whom you live with, and I will tell you who you\nare.\" When a boy leaves school to go into a bank, or other business\nhouse, his employers watch to see what friends he has. If they are not\nwhat they should be, the young man is looked upon with suspicion; he is\nnot put into a position of trust; he may, some day, be told that his\nservices are no longer wanted. In buying an article which we intend to\nlast a long time, we are careful to choose the very best that can be had\nfor the money. If a man is going to buy a horse, how careful he is to\nsee that there is no blemish in him, and how particular he is to secure\na thoroughly reliable man to look after him! And yet the same person is\nperhaps quite careless about the choice of his friends, though their\npower to yield him the greatest pleasures in life, or to bring to him\nthe greatest sorrows, cannot be measured. Wise is he who heeds the words\nof the wise man:\n\n\n     \"Enter not into the path of the wicked,\n     And go not in the way of evil men.\n     Avoid it, pass not by it,\n         Turn from it, and pass away.\n\n     \"For they sleep not,\n       Except they have done mischief;\n     And their sleep is taken away,\n       Unless they cause some to fall.\n\n     \"For they eat the bread of wickedness,\n       And drink the wine of violence.\n\n     \"But the path of the just\n       Is as the shining light,\n     That shineth more and more\n       Unto the perfect day.\"\n\n\nIf you possess a friend who satisfies your heart and conscience, cling\nto him under all circumstances. If he find fault with you, be patient.\n\"Faithful are the wounds of a friend.\" If he give way to wrath, give\nback the soft answer that turns it away.\n\nIf you cannot have the Friendship of the illustrious living, it is easy\nto obtain that of the illustrious dead. The Friendship of good books is\none of the greatest pleasures of life. To win it, it is only necessary\nto form the habit of reading regularly, no matter how little at a time.\n\nThe best guide for a boy in forming Friendships is to choose none for\nhis friend whom his father or mother would disapprove of, _if they knew\nall about him_.\n\n\n\n\nNo. XX.\n\nGENTLEMANLINESS\n\n+The four chief marks of a gentleman are: Honesty, Gentleness,\nGenerosity, Modesty.+\n\n\nThackeray, who is noted among great English writers as a hater of shams,\nsaid: \"Perhaps a gentleman is a rarer man than some of us think for.\nWhich of us can point out many such in his circle--men whose aims are\ngenerous, whose truth is constant, whose want of meanness makes them\nsimple, who can look the world honestly in the face with an equal manly\nsympathy for the great and small? We all know a hundred whose coats are\nvery well made, and a score who have excellent manners, and one or two\nhappy beings who are what they call in the inner circles, and have shot\ninto the very centre of fashion; but of gentlemen, how many?\"\n\nThese four qualities of the gentleman include more than might appear at\na single glance. Honesty means far more than not stealing. The\n\"gentleman's psalm\" tells us as one of his characteristics that \"he\nspeaketh the truth in his heart.\" He who does that is honest in his\nwords, in his deeds, and in his thoughts. He so hates dishonesty that\nhonesty has become part of his life--it is in his heart. Such a man can\nlook the world in the face without flinching. He is the most fearless of\nmen, because he has nothing to hide from the light of day. As one great\nman once said of another, \"He has the ten commandments stamped upon his\ncountenance.\" Here, then, to be honest is to be brave also; we cannot\nimagine a true gentleman as a coward.\n\nThe second quality is Gentleness. It is hard for a boy to be gentle,\nbecause he spends most of the time during which he controls his own\nactions with other boys, and gentleness is not much called for. Some\nboys look upon this quality as womanish, the mark of a coward, a thing\nto be avoided. But what should we say of a boy who roughly handled a\nbird with a broken wing? All boys possess this quality of Gentleness,\nbecause it is founded on sympathy with the sufferings of the weak. If a\nsmall boy falls and breaks his arm, how eagerly the bigger boys come to\nhis assistance, and how careful they are to touch the broken limb with\nall tenderness! The feeling of sympathy makes them gentle. No boy is\nwithout this God-given faculty. It is there to begin with, and if a boy\nwish to become a gentleman he must cultivate it, as he does his other\npowers. It is a faculty soon lost if we neglect it; it is easy to learn\nto be rough and loud-mouthed, and roughness soon leads to cruelty. The\ntrue gentleman practises Gentleness towards the weak at all times,\nwhether they are suffering or not. The boy should learn it in his own\nhome; that is the best and easiest place to learn it. It is easy to be\ngentle with one's mother; it is a bad-hearted boy who suffers himself to\nbe rough in his speech, or rude in his manner, to her. The same rule of\nGentleness should be steadily observed towards his sisters and younger\nand weaker brothers. He who has thus practised gentleness in his home\nwill go out into the world a character actually trained to be gentle to\nthose weaker than himself, and to be sympathetic towards the sorrows and\nsufferings of the unfortunate.\n\nThe third mark of a gentleman is Generosity. By this I do not mean\nopen-handedness about money. Lavish liberality may be only another name\nfor careless imprudence. By Generosity is meant the utter absence of\nselfishness. Aristotle called his true gentleman the magnanimous man.\nGenerosity is large-heartedness. It involves the absence of all thought\nof self, and a never-failing consideration for the feelings of others.\nSuch a man was Sir James Outram. When the English army was marching to\nthe relief of Lucknow, Sir James, who was the senior officer, allowed\nHavelock to take command, and to win the glory of the siege, and himself\nwent in a subordinate position. Of him it was said that he was \"one of\nthe bravest, and yet gentlest, of men; respectful and reverent to women,\ntender to children, helpful to the weak, stern to the corrupt, honest as\nday, and pure as virtue.\" When Edward the Black Prince took the French\nking and his son prisoners at the battle of Poictiers, he gave a banquet\nfor them in the evening, and he insisted on waiting upon and serving\nthem at the table. At the battle of Dettingen a squadron of French\ncavalry charged an English regiment, and the two leaders found\nthemselves opposed to each other. The young French officer raised his\nsword to attack his opponent, when he saw that he had only one arm, with\nwhich he held his bridle. Instead of cutting him down, the Frenchman\nsaluted him with his sword, and passed on.\n\nThe fourth mark of a gentleman is Modesty about his actions and\nopinions. Nothing more surely marks his opposite in society than\nself-assertiveness and bragging. The true gentleman never boasts of what\nhe has done. On the other hand, he does not seek to belittle a good\naction for which he is praised. If such an action comes to general\nnotice, he accepts the praise justly offered, and then seeks by\nsilence, or by changing the topic of conversation, to withdraw\nparticular notice from himself. He is content to do and let others talk.\nSir Isaac Newton was one of the most modest men. He kept secret for a\nlong time some of his greatest discoveries for fear of the notoriety\nthey would bring him. He did not publish his marvellous discoveries of\nthe Binomial Theorem and the Law of Gravitation for years, and when he\npublished his solution of the theory of the moon's rotation round the\nearth he forbade the publisher to insert his name. The true gentleman is\nmodest about his opinions. Comparatively few have deeds to boast about;\nbut all have _opinions_ to advance. We should guard against asserting\nthem too strongly, or attempting to force them down people's throats. If\nan opinion is true or valuable, it is sure to make its own way by reason\nof its own force; it is only weakened by the loud assertion of the man\nof rude manner and coarse nature. It is a wise saying of the great\napostle: \"Not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think.\"\nThe old Hebrew poet thought the highest type of gentleman him \"that\nwalketh uprightly, and worketh righteousness, and speaketh the truth in\nhis heart.\"\n\n\n\n\nNo. XXI.\n\nCOURTESY\n\n+Courtesy is kindness of heart, combined with good manners. It is the\nspecial mark of a gentleman, particularly in his treatment of those in a\nhumbler position than himself.+\n\n\nOne of the most famous schools in England, founded by William of\nWykeham, in the reign of Henry III., has for its motto the words,\n\"Manners maketh the man.\" Though this does not express the whole truth,\nit is, nevertheless, undoubtedly true that many a man owes his success\nin life to his good manners. Two boys leaving school desire to enter a\nbank. One is a boy of very pleasing manners; the other, though, perhaps,\npossessing greater ability, is unpolished in appearance, and gruff in\nmanner. If the bank manager has reason to believe them fairly equal in\nknowledge and ability, he will take the pleasant-mannered youth in\npreference to the other, because he believes in securing a clerk who\nwill be civil to customers, and obliging to all with whom he comes in\ncontact. It is worth while, then, to cultivate politeness in speech and\nmanner. A famous woman once said: \"Civility costs nothing, and buys\neverything.\"\n\nWe must be careful to distinguish between Politeness and Courtesy. Any\none can learn certain rules of Politeness, even though he be coarse at\nheart. Some men put on Politeness with their evening coats, but are the\nreverse of polite in their everyday garb. To such men Politeness is like\nvarnish or veneer; scratch them on the surface, or merely rub them the\nwrong way, and their real nature comes out.\n\nPoliteness is an excellent thing when it is joined to genuine kindness\nof heart. It then becomes Courtesy. Courtesy is Kindness and Politeness\njoined together and exhibited at all times to all persons, no matter\nwhat their rank in life. The man who is kind to his servant, and speaks\npolitely to him at one time, and at another gets into a furious temper\nand abuses him, has not learned Courtesy. Courtesy implies a certain\ngentleness in dealing with other people. It is a mistake to think that\nManliness and Gentleness do not go together. The strongest and most\nmanly men are noted for their quietness of disposition. Not only are\nthey not self-assertive, but they are actually gentle to the weak.\n\nCourtesy comes easily to some people; to others it is difficult. Some\npersons are naturally open and unreserved in their nature; others are\nreserved and shy, and it is hard to get at them. Boys and young men\noften suffer far more than people think on account of shyness, which\nkeeps them from being openly friendly with people whom they do not know\nwell. This shyness is sometimes put down to bad temper, or moroseness,\nor sometimes even to a desire to be rude. How earnestly should the boy\nor young man strive to get rid of a failing which may be the unfortunate\ncause of doing him so much harm in the eyes of others!\n\nBacon says: \"If a man be gracious and courteous to strangers, it shows\nhe is a citizen of the world, and that his heart is no island cut off\nfrom other lands, but a continent that joins to them.\" If you wish to be\nknown as a courteous man, begin at once to do little acts of kindness to\nothers. Acts of kindness form the basis of true Courtesy. Lord\nChesterfield said: \"The desire to please is, at least, half the art of\ndoing it.\" If we wish to learn how to get a reputation for Courtesy, we\nmust make an effort to do what others like, though we may not care about\nit ourselves. Many a man owes his success in life to doing pleasant\nthings in a pleasant way. The headmaster of one of the greatest public\nschools in England said: \"Courtesy begets Courtesy; it is a passport to\npopularity. The way in which things are done is often more important\nthan the things themselves.\" Another writer has said: \"A good deed is\nnever lost. He who sows Courtesy reaps friendship.\"\n\nTo be Courteous, we must not only do kindnesses; we must do them in a\npleasing manner. \"Manner will do everything. Give a young fellow on\nsetting out in life a good manner, and he will want neither meat, drink,\nnor clothes. 'I like that lad,' some one says, 'he has such nice\noff-hand manners.'\" \"Sir Walter Raleigh was every inch a man, a brave\nsoldier, a brilliant courtier, and yet a mirror of Courtesy. Nobody\nwould accuse Sir Philip Sidney of having been deficient in manliness,\nyet his fine manners were proverbial. It is the Courtesy of Bayard, the\nknight, _sans peur et sans reproche_, which has immortalized him quite\nas much as his valour.\" Burke said: \"Manners are of more importance than\nlaws. Upon them, in a great measure, the laws depend. Manners are what\nvex, soothe, corrupt or purify, exalt or debase, barbarize or refine us,\nby a constant, steady insensible operation, like that of the air we\nbreathe in.\"\n\nDr. Johnson once said: \"Sir, a man has no more right to _say_ an uncivil\nthing than to act one--no more right to say a rude thing to another than\nto knock him down.\" We should be especially courteous to servants and\nthose below us in the world. A great man returned the salute of a negro\nwho had bowed to him. Some one told him that what he had done was very\nunusual. \"Perhaps so,\" said he, \"but I would not be outdone in good\nmanners by a negro.\"\n\nThe truly courteous man is never caught napping. He is courteous not\nonly in crowds, where every one can see him, or in social life, among\nhis equals; but also in little things, at odd moments, when no one of\nimportance is by, and to the poor and ignorant. He is courteous, too, in\nhis own home. That, perhaps, is the final and hardest test of all. It is\neasy to be polite when we are out at a party of friends, though even\nthere it is sometimes hard to show real Courtesy. In giving advice to\nyoung men, Thackeray said: \"Ah, my dear fellow, take this counsel:\nAlways dance with the old ladies, always dance with the governesses!\" He\nmeant: show your gentlehood by being kind to those who have not many\nfriends. But it is hard to be Courteous in the home when things do not\nplease us, and we are out with the world. Yet it is there we must begin\nto practise Courtesy. It is there we must learn that kindness, and\ncheerfulness, and good manners which will earn for us the epitaph of\nTennyson's friend:\n\n\n     \"And thus he bore without abuse\n     The grand old name of gentleman.\"\n\n\n\n\nNo. XXII.\n\nREPENTANCE\n\n+We are often sorry when we do wrong; this is the first step towards\nRepentance; but Repentance itself is more than being sorry; it is\nceasing to do wrong, and beginning to do right.+\n\n\nMan differs from the most intelligent of the lower animals in having a\nmoral nature, called a soul; that is, he is responsible for his actions.\nOne great evidence of this is to be found in the fact that, after he has\ndone evil, his conscience generally reproaches him sharply, and he feels\nremorse, which is the keen pain brought about by the memory of\nwrongdoing. But we must not mistake this pain of remorse for Repentance.\nIt should be the beginning of Repentance; but Repentance itself must go\nmuch further than that.\n\nTwo men with evil-looking faces were seen to enter a great church in\nRome one day, where, in little chapels attached to the church, people\nwere making confession of their sins to the priests, and obtaining\nabsolution from them. These two men looked as though something very\nserious was weighing on their minds, as they searched for a priest to\nwhom to confess. A short time after they had found one, they were again\nseen, coming down the aisle of the church, laughing together, and\nlooking as jolly as possible. Next day they were arrested for attacking\na traveller on the highway and almost murdering him. Probably those two\nmen felt the pangs of remorse when they were in the church seeking to\nconfess their sins. But there was no Repentance, because they went back\nat once to their evil courses.\n\nA sick man was said by his doctor to be dying. His clergyman came to see\nhim, and begged him to be reconciled to a neighbour with whom he had had\na serious quarrel. At last he consented, and when the neighbour was\nbrought to his bedside they had a short, friendly conversation, and\nshook hands. But as the neighbour was leaving the room, the sick man\ncalled out: \"_But you must remember this stands for nothing if I get\nbetter again._\" There was no real Repentance in the sick man's heart.\n\nA man who had been living a very careless and sinful life went to hear a\ngreat man preach. The sermon had such an effect upon him that his\nconscience became very uneasy, and he felt keen remorse for the evil of\nhis life, and determined to stop it all and begin again in a different\nway. He first went to see a neighbour who scoffed at religious things,\nand who, the moment he went in, began to ask him about the great\npreacher, and to make fun of him for paying much attention to what was\n\"absurd, and all a lie.\" The man replied: \"Never mind the preacher just\nnow; I want to tell you about a very serious matter. Four years ago you\nlost two fine sheep out of your flock, and though you searched\neverywhere you could not find them. Those sheep came into my pasture\nfield, and I caught them, and marked my brand on top of yours, and so\nthey were not discovered. But I have now come to tell you of the matter,\nand to put myself in your hands. You can, if you like, have me arrested,\nor I will pay you whatever you ask.\" The neighbour was astonished, but\nat last said he would take the value of the sheep, with interest on the\nmoney from the time they were stolen. The man paid this down, and then\ndoubled the amount. After he had gone his neighbour began to think that\nthe sort of religion which made a man confess a sin long past, and which\nno one could ever find out, must have some reality about it, and he\nscoffed no more. That is a case of genuine Repentance.\n\nHappy is the man who repents while there is yet the opportunity to undo,\nto some extent, the evil he has done. Some men repent when it is too\nlate to undo the mischief. Henry II., King of England, rode from London\nto Canterbury in the night, and when he came to the gates he dismounted,\nand walked barefooted to the shrine of the martyr. He there made public\nconfession of his sin, and was scourged with a knotted cord before the\npeople, though he was then king. Imagine the Emperor of Germany being\npublicly scourged! Though Henry repented, he could not bring Becket back\nto life again. Henry Ward Beecher told the story of a young man who came\nto Indianapolis, when Mr. Beecher was minister there, on his way to\nsettle in the west. While there he was robbed in a gambling saloon of\nfifteen hundred dollars, all that he had. It led to his suicide. \"I know\nthe man who committed the foul deed; he used to walk up and down the\nstreet. Now, suppose this man should repent? Can he ever call back that\nsuicide? Can he ever wipe off the taint and disgrace that he has brought\non the escutcheon of that young man's family?\"\n\nEverybody has need of practising Repentance, because no one can live a\nperfect life. Goldsmith said: \"Our greatest glory consists not in never\nfalling, but in rising every time we fall.\" If we rise again every time\nwe fall, there is but little danger that we ever fall so low that we\ncannot rise at all, or of doing that which we cannot, to some extent,\nput right.\n\n\n               \"Confess yourself to Heaven;\n     Repent what's past, avoid what is to come.\"\n\n\nIt is unwise to put off Repentance. It should be done now. The\nopportunity may slip away from us altogether. As a wise man once said:\n\"I know that a man, going--swept down that great Niagara--if his little\nskiff be driven near to one shore, he can make one great bound and reach\nthe solid ground--I know _he may be saved_ from destruction: but it is\nan awful risk to run.\"\n\nWe can best learn the value of Repentance by practising it in little\nthings. If a boy is guilty of rudeness to any one, and especially to a\nlady, he should go at once and, in a manly way, acknowledge it. The fact\nthat he has begged her pardon will keep him from committing the same\noffence again. If we practise Repentance in the small matters of daily\nlife, it will be easier for us to practise it in things of great and\nserious moment.\n\n\n\n\nNo. XXIII.\n\nCHARACTER\n\n+The word Character comes from a Greek word meaning to cut, or engrave.\nBy Character we mean the peculiar qualities impressed by Nature or Habit\non a person; in other words, what he really is.+\n\n\nCharacter is the crown of life; to the evil it is a crown of infamy; to\nthe good, a crown of glory. Some scientists believe that all the facts\nof knowledge which we acquire are stamped upon the brain, making many\ngrooves and creases upon its surface. Our actions and thoughts and words\nand habits being impressed upon the soul form its Character. The\nformation of good Character takes many years, and is a very gradual\nprocess; but every action has its part in the final result, and every\nhabit binds the parts together. Bad Character is developed in the same\nway as good character; but the process is easy and rapid. A boy begins\nby stealing something; soon he is led on to lie about it. One lie leads\nto another, and the success of the bad experiment leads to another theft\nand more lying. Bad companions soon gather round him, and the sprouting\nplant of evil grows like a weed. Ere long it has fastened its thousand\nroots in the depths of his soul.\n\nGibbon said: \"Every man has two educations--one which he receives from\nothers, and one, more important, which he gives himself.\" In the\nbusiness world, the men of highest reputation value their Character\nabove everything else, because no one can take it from them, unless they\ndeliberately yield it. It is valued highly, because it has been earned\nby never-wavering effort through long years. They have educated\nthemselves by unceasing practice to put Truth and Honour, Chastity and\nCourtesy, Industry and Temperance, Self-Reliance and Self-Control,\nModesty and Charity, Justice and Benevolence above Cleverness and Love\nof Gain, which so often make a man unscrupulous in dealing with his\nfellows.\n\nIn the studies which have gone before, we have seen what these qualities\nmean. They go to make up Character. But Character cannot be produced by\nlearning lessons about it in books. Character is the education which a\nman gives himself. In reading the lives of great men, we see very\nclearly that they began to acquire the qualities which afterwards\ndistinguished them when they were boys. A great writer has said that\nConduct is three-fourths of life. If we wish to be distinguished for\nCharacter, we must begin to practise those things which produce it while\nwe are schoolboys.\n\nThe grand thing about Character is that it is independent of\ncircumstances. The man who values Honour above all things cannot be put\ninto any position where there is any real danger of losing it. After the\ngreat battle of Assaye, the native prince sent his prime minister to the\nDuke of Wellington to find out privately what territory and other\nadvantages would be secured to his master in the treaty with the Indian\nnabobs. They offered Wellington five hundred thousand dollars for the\nsecret information. The great general looked at him quietly for a few\nseconds, and then said: \"It appears, then, that you are capable of\nkeeping a secret.\" \"Yes, certainly,\" replied the minister. \"_Then, so am\nI_,\" said Wellington, smiling, and bowed him out of the room. Take\nanother instance, in humble life. Once, when the Adige was in flood, the\nbridge of Verona was carried away, only the centre arch standing. On\nthis was a house whose inmates called loudly for help, as this arch was\nslowly giving way. A nobleman called out, \"I will give a hundred French\nlouis to any one who will go to the rescue.\" A young peasant seized a\nboat, managed with great difficulty to reach the pier, and, at the risk\nof his life, rescued the family just in time. When they reached the\nshore, the count handed the promised money to the young man. \"No,\" said\nhe, \"I do not sell my life; give the money to these poor people, who\nneed it.\"\n\nThe man of noble Character values, above all other things, these: Truth,\npersonal Honour, Moral Courage, Unselfishness, the Voice of Conscience.\nChaucer, the father of English poetry, said:\n\n\n     \"Truth is the highest thing that man may keep.\"\n\n\nIn the days of chivalry, the noble-hearted soldier sang to her who wept\nat his going:\n\n\n     \"I could not love thee, dear, so much,\n     Loved I not honour more.\"\n\n\nOf Courage, Addison said:\n\n\n     \"Unbounded courage and compassion joined,\n     Tempting each other in the victor's mind,\n     Alternately proclaim him good and great,\n     And make the hero and the man complete.\"\n\n\nOf Selfishness, Shelley said:\n\n\n                  \"How vainly seek\n     The selfish for that happiness denied\n     To aught but virtue!\"\n\n\nThe voice of Conscience is the voice of God, That voice was never yet\ndisregarded without suffering; to reject Conscience is to incur\nretribution. The wise man cultivates his Conscience; that is, he\nlistens for its warnings and suggestions, and yields his desires at its\ncall. The man of Character seeks its advice at every important movement\nof his life.\n\nIt is impossible to build up a noble Character without a model. Before\nbeginning to erect a magnificent building, the architect must provide a\nplan for the workman to follow. The shipbuilder requires a model for the\nconstruction of a beautiful racing yacht. Before making a new and\nintricate machine, the craftsman must have a working model. In the\nbuilding of Character, the working model is Jesus of Nazareth. He is the\nexample to the human race of all the traits of true manliness which men\nadmire. He is the model of willing Obedience, of undaunted Courage, of\nabsolute Truthfulness, of Generosity, of Gentleness to the weak and\nsuffering. He is the model of all the virtues. An old poet said of\nJesus, with the greatest reverence, that He was\n\n\n     \"The first true gentleman that ever lived.\"\n\n\nHe who sincerely wishes to build up his life into noble Character will\nbe helped by nothing so much as by the study of the actions and words of\nJesus, the model of nobleness to all men, in all ages, since He came\ninto the world.\n\n\n\n\nNo. XXIV.\n\nCONSCIENCE\n\n+Conscience is that faculty of the mind which teaches us to distinguish\nbetween right and wrong. It often warns us when we are about to do\nwrong, and reproaches us for the wrong we have done.+\n\n\nA great man once said that when he was a small boy he was walking one\nday by the side of a pond, when he saw a turtle creeping out of the\nwater. He had never yet killed anything, and he felt a great temptation\nto kill it with his stick, when some one seemed to whisper to him: \"It\nis wrong.\" He went home and asked his mother what it was. She told him\nthat men called it Conscience; but she called it the voice of God,\nspeaking in his heart. He said that he often afterwards tried to listen\nfor the voice, and it kept him from much wrong that he would otherwise\nhave done.\n\nConscience has been compared to the needle in the sailor's compass; by\nits means the ship is kept upon her proper course. If we consult\nConscience, we cannot go far astray. A boy is about to steal some money\nfor the first time. Just as his hand is upon it, he fancies he hears\nsteps approaching. He hastily drops the money, and turns away with a\nbeating heart. But he finds he is mistaken, and, perhaps, thinks it was\nonly imagination. He is wrong; the beating heart and the imaginary\nnoises are Conscience warning him that he is about to do wrong. If he is\nan unthinking boy, he merely laughs at his fears, and next day goes back\nagain. This time he _listens for the sound of steps_, but he does not\nhear them. The fact that he listened shows that Conscience has been at\nhim again; but this time the warning is fainter, and he commits the\ntheft. It is possible to stifle Conscience altogether.\n\nAccording to an Eastern tale, a great magician presented his prince with\na ring of great value. Its value did not consist in the precious stones\nit contained, but in a peculiar property of the metal. Whenever the\nprince had a bad or lustful thought, or meditated a bad action, or was\nabout to say a wicked, or cruel, or unjust thing, the ring contracted,\nand the pain caused by the pressure on the finger warned him against the\nevil. The poorest person may possess and wear such a ring as that, for\nthe ring of the fable is just that Conscience which is the voice of God\nin our hearts.\n\nWhen Macbeth was on his way to murder King Duncan, he had a frightful\nvision of what he was about to do, and he saw an imaginary dagger\nbeckoning him the way that he was going; the handle was towards his\nhand, and had gouts of blood upon it. That was Conscience calling upon\nhim to stop before it was too late. Conscience sometimes speaks to us\nwhile we are actually doing evil.\n\nWhile Conscience speaks to us about what are, for us, great wrongs, it\nseldom does so about little wrongs until they are over and passed away.\nA boy says: \"I do many things of which I am ashamed, and which I would\nnot have done had Conscience warned me.\" That shows us very plainly that\nConscience is a thing we must cultivate if it is to be of any real\nservice to us in the way of preventing us from the doing of evil. A.\nsays to B.: \"I am going across to the corner store for some candy. If\nthat master over there should see me, you tell him I have just gone over\nthe fence after something.\" B. thinks for a moment, and says: \"Can't do\nit; it's not straight.\" A. then asks C., who agrees to do it. B.\nconsults Conscience; C. does not. If they go on thus, in a few years B.\nwill meet some great temptation and overcome it; C. will meet some great\ntemptation, and fall under it.\n\nIf we do not form the habit of looking to Conscience for guidance, the\ntime will come when its voice will be heard reproaching us for the evil\nthat we have done, and that we can never undo. So common is it for men\nto think of Conscience only when the harm is done that it has been\ncalled \"the awful compulsion to think.\" Half the grief that people\nsuffer is through their own sins in the past, and it is Conscience\npricking them that causes the grief. Sometimes this grief is so terrible\nthat men, and even women, are led to take their own lives. He who\nlistens to Conscience will never leave this world with the red blot of\n\"suicide\" staining his character.\n\nDr. Johnson said: \"Conscience is the sentinel of virtue.\" The wise\ncaptain never lets his men sleep on the field without posting one or\nmore sentinels. The young man going out into the world is going on to\nthe battlefield of his life, and to be caught napping is to fall into\nthe enemy's hands. He needs all his forces, and, above all, the\nsentinel, Conscience, to keep guard when the enemy is lying in ambush,\nand danger seems far away. St. Paul tells us that if we wish to war a\ngood warfare we must have two things, \"Faith, and a good Conscience.\"\n\n\"No whip cuts so sharply as the lash of Conscience.\"\n\n\"The voice of Conscience is so delicate that it is easy to stifle it;\nbut it is also so clear that it is impossible to mistake it.\"","title":"Short Studies in Ethics: An Elementary Text-Book for Schools","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":25132}