The Self-Help The quality of self-help is so splendid a Quality of quality that nothing can compensate for its loss; yet, like every virtue, it can be twisted into a fault, and it becomes a fault if carried to the point of cold-hearted arrogance, of inability to understand that now and then the strongest may be in need of aid, and that for this reason alone, if for no other, the strong should always be glad of the chance in turn to aid the weak.-Ibid. Warm a Cool Head Softness of heart is an admirable quality, Heart and but when it extends its area until it also becomes softness of head, its results are anything but admirable. It is a good thing to combine a warm heart with a cool head. People really fit for self-government will not be misled by over-effusiveness in promise, and, on the other hand, they will demand that every proper promise shall be made good.—Ibid. Good-not "GoodyGoody" The boy can best become a good man by being a good boy-not a goody-goody boy, but just a plain good boy. I do not mean that he must love only the negative virtues; I mean he must love the positive virtues also. "Good," in the largest sense, should include whatever is fine, straightforward, clean, brave, and manly.-Ibid. What is true of your country, my hearers, is true of my own; while we should be vigilant against foes from without, yet we need never really fear them so long as we safeguard ourselves against the enemies within our own households; and these enemies are our own passions and follies. Free peoples can escape being mastered by others only by being able to master themselves.-Oxford Address. SelfMastery It is important to have a good tool. But even if it is the best possible, it is only a tool. No implement can ever take the place of the guiding intelligence that wields it. A very bad tool will ruin the work of the best craftsman; but a good tool in bad hands is no better. In the last analysis the all-important factor in national greatness is national character.-Ibid. Good Tools in Good Hands Hope as well as Concern There is much that should give us concern for the future. But there is much, also, which should give us hope. No man is more for Future apt to be mistaken than the prophet of evil. Ibid. Neither All Work nor Lift up, up If rowing or football or baseball is treated as the end of life by any considerable section of a community, then that community shows itself to be in an unhealthy condition. If treated as it should be, that is, as good, healthy play,—it is of great benefit, not only to the body, but in its effect upon character. To study hard implies character in the student, and to work hard at a sport which entails severe physical exertion and steady training also implies character. The Strenuous Life. Any man at times will stumble, and it is don't Hold then our duty to lift him up and set him on his feet again; but no man can be permanently carried, for if he expects to be carried he shows that he is not worth carrying.-Ibid. Inflaming the Wild Beast Woe to us as a nation if we ever follow the lead of men who seek not to smother but to inflame the wild-beast qualities of the human heart! In social and industrial no less than in political reform we can do healthy work, work fit for a free republic, fit for self-governing democracy, only by treading in the footsteps of Washington and Franklin and Adams and Patrick Henry, and not in the steps of Marat and Robespierre.—Ibid. Of course what we have a right to expect of the American boy is that he shall turn out to be a good American man. Now, the chances are strong that he won't be much of a man unless he is a good deal of a boy. He must not be a coward or a weakling, a bully, a shirk, or a prig. He must work hard and play hard. He must be clean-minded and clean-lived, and able to hold his own under all circumstances and against all comers. It is only on these conditions that he will grow into the kind of American man of whom America can be really proud.-Ibid. ด Our greatest statesmen have always been those who believed in the nation—who had faith in the power of our people to spread until they should become the mightiest among the peoples of the world.-Ibid. Remember, also, that I who address you am not only an American, but also a radical, a real, not a mock democrat, and that what I have to say is spoken chiefly because I am a democrat- a man who feels that his first thought is bound to be for the welfare of the masses of mankind and his first duty to war against violence, injustice, and wrong-doing wherever found.-Guildhall Address. The American Boy Believers in the Nation Not a "Mock Democrat" |