READ not to contradict and confute; nor to believe and take for granted; nor to find talk and discourse: but to weigh and consider. Bacon. OPINIONS OF INDIVIDUALS. If all mankind minus one were of one opinion, mankind would be no more justified in. silencing that one person than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing the world. 7. S. Mill. IN WHAT A MAN'S GREATNESS CONSISTS. A man's greatness lies not in wealth and station, as the vulgar believe, nor yet in his intellectual capacity, which is often associated with the meanest moral character, the most abject servility to those in high places, and arrogance to the poor and lowly; but a man's true greatness lies in the consciousness of an honest purpose in life, founded on a just estimate of himself and everything else, on fre E quent self-examination, and a steady obedience. to the rule which he knows to be right, without troubling himself about what others may think or say, or whether they do or do not do that which he thinks and says and does. Gcorge Long. A MARK OF GREATNESS. We observe with confidence that the truly strong mind, view it as intellect or morality, or under any other aspect, is nowise the mind acquainted with its strength; that here, as before, the sign of health is unconsciousness. Carlyle GREATNESS. Be substantially great in thyself, and more than thou appearest unto others; and let the world be deceived in thee, as they are in the lights of heaven. Sir Thomas Browne. CENSORSHIP OF CUSTOM. In our times, from the highest class of society down to the lowest, every one lives as under the eye of a hostile and dreaded censorship. Not only in what concerns others, but in what concerns only themselves, the individual or the family do not ask themselves-what do I prefer? or, what would suit my character and disposition? or, what would allow the best and highest in me to have fair play, and enable it to grow and thrive? They ask themselves, what is suitable to my position? what is usually done by persons of my station and pecuniary circumstances? or (worse still) what is usually done by persons of a station and circumstances superior to my own? I do not mean that they choose what is customary, in preference to what suits their own inclination. It does not occur to them to have any inclination, except for what is customary. Thus the mind itself is bowed to the yoke: even in what people do for pleasure, conformity is the first thing thought of: they like in crowds; they exercise choice only among things commonly done peculiarity of taste, eccentricity of conduct, are shunned equally with crimes until by dint of not following their own nature, they have no nature to follow their human capacities are withered and starved; they become incapable of any strong wishes or native pleasures, and are generally without either opinions or feelings of home growth or properly their own. Now is this, or is it not, the desirable condition of human nature? J. S. Mill. CHARACTER. Von einem Menschen schlechthin sagen zu können, ,, er hat einen Charakter," heißt sehr viel von ihm, nicht allein gesagt, sondern auch gerühmt; denn das ist eine Seltenheit, die Hochachtung und Bewunderung erregt. Goethe. A MARK OF CHARACTER. Durch Nichts bezeichnen die Menschen mehr ihren Charakter, als durch das was sie lächerlich finden. Goethe. THE LAUGHABLE. Der Verständige findet fast Alles lächerlich, der Vernünftige fast Nichts. Goethe. |