is George Washington. The reason why he is so greatly honored by all nations and peoples is this: At the end of the Revolutionary War he was at the head of a victorious army, and the object of enthusiastic love of the whole people. He was urged to make himself a king or emperor; but unlike Napoleon Bonaparte in France, under similar conditions, he refused a crown, because he was true to the principles of liberty for which he fought. He would not sacrifice the position won, to his personal gain or gratification. It was a marvel to the civilized world, when he quietly laid down all this power; it had never seen such an exhibition of devotion to principle and honor and truth. He twice allowed himself to be chosen president, and then he became a private citizen. To appreciate Lincoln's real greatness as a patriot, his life must be looked at from its crude beginning, not in its sublime ending. He began as a country politician who was ambitious for personal advancement; yet again and again, first in small matters, and then in great ones, he consistently put principle first, and self second. Something of the early crudeness was visible in his external appearance always; but within, he became ever more gentle, pure, tender, and heroic to the end. Becoming president only enabled him to show on a large scale the traits by which his whole life had been governed. One of the best interpretations of Lincoln's character is in Lowell's Commemoration Ode, stanza 6, which is universally accepted as the finest eulogy of Lincoln in literature. See Gettysburg Address. Samuel Adams is called the "father of the American Revolution." George Bancroft said of Henry Clay, "that which will commend him most to posterity is his love of the Union, his patriotism, his love of country." He was the great peacemaker. Note his article on the Compromise of 1850, when he said, "I would rather be right than president." Daniel Webster was a devoted supporter of the Union, even though some of his actions offended the Abolitionists. Robert G. Shaw was selected for the subject, which should typify patriotic devotion. Horace Porter said, "It is a priceless blessing to the Republic that the era of the Civil War did not breed a Marius and a Sulla, a Cæsar and a Pompey, or a Charles I and a Cromwell, but that the power to which the destinies of the country were entrusted were wielded by a Lincoln and a Grant." The Declaration of Independence as first published was signed only with the name of John Hancock, which caused a price to be put upon his head. Patrick Henry thought Americans ought not to pay stamp taxes; what he said about it is memorable in American history. LITERATURE: FOR OLDER CHILDREN Read "Ode Recited at the Harvard Commemoration," by James Russell Lowell; "O Beautiful, My Country," by F. L. Hosmer; "O Captain, My Captain," by Walt Whitman; "Stand By the Flag," by S. N. Wilder; "Never or Now," and "Old Ironsides," by Oliver W. Holmes; "The Flag Goes By," by H. H. Bennett; "The Ship of State," by Henry W. Longfellow; "My Country," by James Montgomery; "The Battle Hymn of the Republic," and "The Flag," by Julia Ward Howe; "Warren's Address," by John Pierpont; "The Star-Spangled Banner," by Francis Scott Key; "What Constitutes a State," by Sir William Jones; "My Maryland," by James R. Randall; "Wounded to Death," by J. W. Watson; "The Call of the Bugles," by Richard Hovey; "Song of Marion's Men," by Bryant; Lincoln's Address at Gettysburg; "Barbara Frietchie," by Whittier; "The Spy," by Fennimore Cooper; Psalm CXXII. INSPIRATION: 1. America has furnished to the world the character of Washington; and if our American institutions had done nothing else, that alone would have entitled them to the respect of mankind.-DANIEL WEBSTER. Then none was for a party; Then all were for the state; Then great men helped the poor, And the poor men loved the great. -MACAULEY. 2. 3. Breathes there the man with soul so dead Who never to himself hath said, 4. This is my own, my native land! From wandering on a foreign strand? -SIR WALTER SCOTT. What pity is it That we can die but once to save our country? 5. He doeth well that serveth the common good rather than his own will.-THOMAS À KEMPIS. 6. The highest political watchword is service.A. H. CLOUGH. 7. And how can man die better Than facing fearful odds, 8. Humble fathers who are training their children in essential manliness, in self-reliance, in independence, making them ashamed to beg, and proud to rely on their own resources-they are patriots. They of every name who make men larger, are working for liberty, and they who are demoralizing men are working for bondage and despotism.-HENRY WARD BEECHER. 9. Whatever strengthens our local attachments is favorable both to individual and national character. Our home, our birth-place, our native land-think for a while what the virtues are which arise out of the feelings connected with these words, and if you have any intellectual eyes you will then perceive the connection between topography and patriotism. Show me a man who cares no more for one place than another, and I will show you in that same person one who loves nothing but himself.-ROBERT SOUTHEY. 10. "Go, stranger, and tell at home that here we died in obedience to the laws."-INSCRIPTION ON THE MONUMENT AT THERMOPYLE. 11. He serves me most who serves his country best. -ALEXANDER POPE. 12. Without a sign, his sword the brave man draws, And asks no omen but his country's cause. -ALEXANDER POPE. 13. Strike for your altars and your fires, Strike for the green groves of your sires, God and your native land. -FITZ-GREENE HALLECK. 14. The safety of a kingdom is not in its arms, nor its treasures, but in its friends.-SALLUST. 15. They love their land because it is their own, and scorn to give aught other reason why.-FITZGREENE HALLECK. 16. The Spartan embodies his religion in his country, and gives up his life to its demand.-UNIDENTIFIED. 17. Oh, never shall the land forget How gushed the life-blood of her brave Blincoln Gushed warm with hope and courage yet, 18. For O, my country, touched by thee The love is all that I can see. For all that thou hast been to me. Many in sad faith sought for her, -JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL. INTRODUCTION: XXXII. CHARACTER. These various traits of character which have been heretofore considered illustrate the principles of morality which underlie all right living. A principle is the starting point in thought or life. With the science of geometry the first principles are called axioms; and to prove its propositions true, one endeavors to trace back his reasoning to one or more axioms which no one disputes. Principle, in morals, is the starting point in our lives. The test of the morality of every act or speech is to ask the question, "Is it right?" "Is it kind?" "Is it fair ?" "Is it true?" The answer to these questions will show what is proper to do. To remember and practice this rule is one of the best means of perfecting character. DEFINITION: Character is the quality of mind expressed by outward behavior. INTERPRETATION: 1. Character is what a man is, not what reputation considers him. Character is one's intrinsic value, not his value in the market of public opinion. It is not learning-it is worth. 2. Character is the crown and glory of life. It dignifies every station, exalts every position in society, and commands the confidence and respect of mankind. Character constitutes real aristocracy, for it gives the only true heraldry to men. It is the throne and crown and scepter of a nation. Character is human nature in its best form, and its possession should be the highest object of life. It commands a far greater power and influence than even educaticn or wealth. The examples of men of character never die, but, like their memories, are immortal. 3. "A man must be one of two things. either a reed shaken by the wind, or a wind to shake the reeds." Though we may know what is right and wrong, we do not always do the right. There is something more required than knowledge. This is will-a willingness to do this, and not to do that, when temptation struggles against the voice of the inward monitor. But to have character, one must have a perfectly educated will. 4. Lavater says, "Actions, words, looks, steps, form the alphabet by which you may spell character." And James A. Garfield says, "Every character is the joint product of nature and nurture." "Whether your life shall be successful or not," says Smiles, "is a question which must be answered by yourself alone. It cannot be done by proxy. Temperance, frugality, honesty, and economy, accompanied by strong determination and perserverance, will bring you to the goal of success and prosperity. Nothing else will. But man does not live by bread alone, but by faith, by admiration, by sympathy. 'Tis very shallow to say that cotton or iron, or silver and gold, are kings of the world; there are rulers that will at any moment make these forgotten. Fear will. Love will. Character will," 5. "He only is advancing in life," says John Ruskin, "whose heart is getting softer, his blood warmer, his brain quicker, whose spirit is entering into living peace. And the men who have this life in them are the true lords or kings of the earth-they, and they only." 6. "Success in life," says an eminent statesman, "does not depend on one thing, or two things, but on a number of things harmoniously blended, and crowned by a true sterling character. True success is not in making money, nor in securing power, nor in winning praise. It is in the building up of true manhood that merits and enjoys these things and employs them for the benefit and happiness of mankind." 7. "A firm faith is the best divinity; a good life the best philosophy; a clear conscience the best law; honesty the best policy, and temperance the best physic." 8. Charles Sumner says: "The highest greatness-surviving time and stone is that which proceeds from the soul of man. Monarchs and cabinets, generals and admirals, with the pomp of courts and circumstance of war, in the lapse of time disappear from sight; but the pioneers of truth, though poor and lowly, especially those whose example elevates human nature, and teaches the rights of man so that a government of the people, by the people, for the people, may not perish from the earth-such a harbinger can never be forgotten, and their renown spreads coextensive with the cause they served so well." 9. Frances E. Willard says: "Beauty of achievement, whether in overcoming a hasty temper, a habit or exaggeration, in exploring a continent with Stanley, or guiding well the ship of state with Gladstone, is always fascinating; and whether known in a circle large as the equator, or only in a family circle at home, those who are in this fashion beautiful are never desolate, and some one always loves them. Beauty of reputation is a mantle of spotless ermine in which, if you are but enwrapped, you shall receive the homage of those about you, as real, as ready, and as spontaneous as any ever paid to personal beauty in its most powerful hour." 10. Character is better security than capital. In the exigencies of business and events capital may be lost, but character remains intact, unharmed by any pecuniary loss, and is trusted to rehabilitate lost fortune. Stephen V. Wnite, a New York financier, became involved and only able to pay 35 cents on the dollar. His character for honesty and integrity was so established that his creditors gave him an absolute, legal release from an indebtedness of almost a million. Within a year he repaid principal and interest. II. Character is greater than intellect. How many of the brilliant intellects about us are be smirched by faults and vices so grave that they have fallen from their high estate, and now none so poor to do them reverence. Universities 12. Character is above education. are insisting upon the needs of ideals and unflinching loyalty to them, and are conferring their honorary degrees for service, rather than for material and selfish prominence. Prof. Josiah Royce sums up the mean of reaching the highest ethical ideals in a single phrase "the cultivation of the spirit of loyalty." He defines loyalty as "the willing and practical and thorough-going devotion to a person or a cause." He feels justified in affirming it to be "the heart of all duties, the central duty among all virtues," and defines it thus-"Loyalty is the will to believe in something eternal, and to express that belief in the practical life of a human being." This thought helps one to appreciate the poverty of egotistical ideals, such as the ideals of power, and indicates the means whereby life can be made more really worth living. 13. H. C. Benson says: "How few of us there are who make our lives into anything! We accept our limitations, we drift with them, while we indignantly assert the freedom of the will. The best sermon in the world is to hear of one who has struggled with life, bent or trained it to his will, plucked or rejected its fruit, but all upon some principle. It matters little what we do; it matters enormously how we do it." 14. If we have already learned how to form good habits, and have striven to make conscience our highest motive power to urge us on to duty, we have been laying the foundation for a life of good conduct, and conduct is but the outward expression of our inward character. As a man's character, so will be his conduct. Can men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? 15. The opportunities for the education of mind and heart and hand are in this country unparalleled; and if the hearts of its youth could be filled with such an inspiration and determina. tion, this republic would lead the world in high principles and beneficent direction, as well as in greatness and glory. 16. It is a duty that every one owes to the state, to strive to make himself worthy of the highest places. It is individual morality which determines the character of the state. The young people of to-day are to be the citizens of the future, and the state looks to them to aim at high ideals, and to strive after perfection, as the hope and promise of her advancing glory. Let every one, in the holy of holies of his own heart, renew his oath of fealty to the State, that he will be true to himself, to his best ideals, to his conscience. Let him in his heart hold aloft the flag of our country, and salute it daily, as the emblem of the world's hope and inspiration. The fulfilling of this alle giance is the doing daily the little things of life. with serious thought and determination, and in striving with all one's might to attain to the fulfillment of character, as exemplified in the Traits herein set forth. ELUCIDATION AND TRAINING: 1. Indicate the two great steps in character as controlled by self: a knowledge of right and wrong, which dawn early in the young mind; a rejection of wrong and an acceptation of right through the influence of reason. Urge the class to exercise the second step, and to become what Carlyle calls their own "soularchitects." Urge that all men more or less must be the architects and builders of their own characters; and if the structure is to be a fine one the work must be commenced at the earliest possible opportunity. Quote Longfellow's poem "The Builders," and encourage children to commit it to memory. Having indicated to what extent the reasoning child builds up his own character, point out the importance of the duty, and the grave responsibility of it. 2. How we form our own characters. By imitation, which is shown to be a great source of inspiration. With the young child it is first mechanical and unreasoning. With the growth of the intellect it becomes discriminating and discretionary. Quote "Make thy imitation by discretion; rest not on the expired merits of others; shine by merits of thine own." Do not desire a slavish imitation; and illustrate by the artist Opie, who, from being a carpenter, rose to eminence as a painter, and whose pictures were noted for the brilliance of their coloring. Being asked how he mixed his paints, he answered, "With brains, sir," meaning that he obtained his beautiful tints by diligent thought and study. Give Carlyle's advice-"Let each become all that he was created capable of becoming," and encourage the children by the exercise of reason to expand to their full growth, like a sound and healthy plant, and to be careful to cast off the fungi of bad habits. Although we do expect a child's reasoning power to compel his acceptance of right and his rejection of wrong, still we do not expect that child to become perfection. What we do expect is that he will select the best models for his imitation, and set up as high a standard of excellence as he can possibly attain to. Illustration: Artists in painting pictures are very particular in getting the best models they can. much more then should we exercise care of judgment in selecting those examples which are to serve as models for our lives! Admit that as each child sets up a separate and different model, so there is no uniformity of excellence. Tastes lead in different directions; but taste need not lead into harm, for Shakespeare says we can How "Find tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, Sermons in stones, and good in everything." -As You LIKE IT. Talents act similarly, and induce the selection of some particular model. Thus Correggio, gazing in ecstasy at a masterpiece of Raphael's, finds his own bent, exclaiming, "And I, too, am a painter!" while Stephenson is influenced by the steam-engine at the pit's mouth, and Pope writes imitations of the older poets. As the handwriting of no two children is alike, and as the leaves on the same tree differ, so no two characters are exactly similar. Encourage the children to be original without being eccentric (strangely out of center, as it were) to have character without idiosyn rasy (a mixture of peculiarities). The complex nature of our minds will give us originality, and that we need not search after it; all we need be anxious about is to select a good model, and then to improve on it if possible. And warn them that when they have set up a standard at which to aim, they must not be disappointed if they do not attain to it. 3. Summarize: Character is the noblest heraldry of man (explain the term "heraldry," and then the application of the whole phrase as a "mark of distinction"). That though we form our characters to a great extent by imitation, such imitations are not indelibly stamped upon us. Reason and maturity modify their impressions. That affinity of tastes and similiarity of talents attract certain young persons to certain models. Warn that though we may never attain perfection, it is essential that in cultivating one phase of character we do not neglect another of vital importance: for example, in following up some pursuit with great perseverance and assiduity, we should not become peevish and irritable. That three things are needed: Self-discipline or implanting fresh qualities; self-control for eradicating bad qualities; self-watchfulness for the culture of good qualities. That our habits fix our character; our conduct indicates our character. Ruskin says character is the fourth conduct. 6. He who has no inner nobleness has nothing, even if he be of noble birth.-UNIDENTIFIED. 7. No true manhood can be trained by a merely intellectual process. You cannot train men by the intellect alone; you must train them by the heart, and this shows the fundamental mistake which is being made by some modern teachers. You can never train a church out of the head; you may have a church so-called and you may open halls and bring to them the most scientific mcn in Europe, and you may lecture on all scientific topics, yet you can never make a church out of the head. You must take hold of manhood by the heart if you would train it into strength and dignity and usefulness.-JOSEPH PARKER. Take these thoughts with you for the year; go down into the valley with your brothers, and work them out in life.-STOPFORD A. BROOKE. That was his deed; he did it well. He had great faith in loaves of bread In words he did not put his trust, His faith in words he never writ, 13. True worth is in being, not seeming; Some little good-not in the dreamin Of great things to do by and by. We get back out mete as we measure; Nor gaining of great nor of small; Through envy, through malice, through Against the world early and late,- Our part is to work and to wait. And slight is the sting of his trouble 14. Companionship with an Ideal 15. One learns that loving is to pray; That bounteous gifts increase one's store; And Hyacinths, if given away, -JAMES TERRY WHITE. I live for those who love me, Whose hearts are kind and true, For the heaven that smiles above me, And awaits my spirit, too; For the human ties that bind me, I live to learn their story Who've suffered for my sake, To emulate their glory, And to follow in their wake,— Bards, patriots, martyrs, sages, The noble of all ages Whose deeds crowd history's pages, I live to hold communion 'Twixt Nature's heart and mine,- And fulfil each grand design. I live to hail that season, By gifted minds foretold, In doing, each day that goes byNIV. OF MICHICA MAY 6 1913 -GEORGE LINNAEUS BANKS. |