Literary Collections
Read books online » Literary Collections » Self Help by Samuel Smiles (desktop ebook reader txt) 📖

Book online «Self Help by Samuel Smiles (desktop ebook reader txt) 📖». Author Samuel Smiles



1 ... 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 ... 70
Go to page:
often does not look beyond it. If he lives

for himself only, he becomes apt to regard other human beings only

in so far as they minister to his ends. Take a leaf from such

men’s ledger and you have their life.

 

Worldly success, measured by the accumulation of money, is no doubt

a very dazzling thing; and all men are naturally more or less the

admirers of worldly success. But though men of persevering, sharp,

dexterous, and unscrupulous habits, ever on the watch to push

opportunities, may and do “get on” in the world, yet it is quite

possible that they may not possess the slightest elevation of

character, nor a particle of real goodness. He who recognizes no

higher logic than that of the shilling, may become a very rich man,

and yet remain all the while an exceedingly poor creature. For

riches are no proof whatever of moral worth; and their glitter

often serves only to draw attention to the worthlessness of their

possessor, as the light of the glowworm reveals the grub.

 

The manner in which many allow themselves to be sacrificed to their

love of wealth reminds one of the cupidity of the monkey—that

caricature of our species. In Algiers, the Kabyle peasant attaches

a gourd, well fixed, to a tree, and places within it some rice.

The gourd has an opening merely sufficient to admit the monkey’s

paw. The creature comes to the tree by night, inserts his paw, and

grasps his booty. He tries to draw it back, but it is clenched,

and he has not the wisdom to unclench it. So there he stands till

morning, when he is caught, looking as foolish as may be, though

with the prize in his grasp. The moral of this little story is

capable of a very extensive application in life.

 

The power of money is on the whole over-estimated. The greatest

things which have been done for the world have not been

accomplished by rich men, nor by subscription lists, but by men

generally of small pecuniary means. Christianity was propagated

over half the world by men of the poorest class; and the greatest

thinkers, discoverers, inventors, and artists, have been men of

moderate wealth, many of them little raised above the condition of

manual labourers in point of worldly circumstances. And it will

always be so. Riches are oftener an impediment than a stimulus to

action; and in many cases they are quite as much a misfortune as a

blessing. The youth who inherits wealth is apt to have life made

too easy for him, and he soon grows sated with it, because he has

nothing left to desire. Having no special object to struggle for,

he finds time hang heavy on his hands; he remains morally and

spiritually asleep; and his position in society is often no higher

than that of a polypus over which the tide floats.

 

“His only labour is to kill the time,

And labour dire it is, and weary woe.”

 

Yet the rich man, inspired by a right spirit, will spurn idleness

as unmanly; and if he bethink himself of the responsibilities which

attach to the possession of wealth and property he will feel even a

higher call to work than men of humbler lot. This, however, must

be admitted to be by no means the practice of life. The golden

mean of Agur’s perfect prayer is, perhaps, the best lot of all, did

we but know it: “Give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with

food convenient for me.” The late Joseph Brotherton, M.P., left a

fine motto to be recorded upon his monument in the Peel Park at

Manchester,—the declaration in his case being strictly true: “My

richness consisted not in the greatness of my possessions, but in

the smallness of my wants.” He rose from the humblest station,

that of a factory boy, to an eminent position of usefulness, by the

simple exercise of homely honesty, industry, punctuality, and self-denial. Down to the close of his life, when not attending

Parliament, he did duty as minister in a small chapel in Manchester

to which he was attached; and in all things he made it appear, to

those who knew him in private life, that the glory he sought was

NOT “to be seen of men,” or to excite their praise, but to earn the

consciousness of discharging the every-day duties of life, down to

the smallest and humblest of them, in an honest, upright, truthful,

and loving spirit.

 

“Respectability,” in its best sense, is good. The respectable man

is one worthy of regard, literally worth turning to look at. But

the respectability that consists in merely keeping up appearances

is not worth looking at in any sense. Far better and more

respectable is the good poor man than the bad rich one—better the

humble silent man than the agreeable well-appointed rogue who keeps

his gig. A well balanced and well-stored mind, a life full of

useful purpose, whatever the position occupied in it may be, is of

far greater importance than average worldly respectability. The

highest object of life we take to be, to form a manly character,

and to work out the best development possible, of body and spirit—

of mind, conscience, heart, and soul. This is the end: all else

ought to be regarded but as the means. Accordingly, that is not

the most successful life in which a man gets the most pleasure, the

most money, the most power or place, honour or fame; but that in

which a man gets the most manhood, and performs the greatest amount

of useful work and of human duty. Money is power after its sort,

it is true; but intelligence, public spirit, and moral virtue, are

powers too, and far nobler ones. “Let others plead for pensions,”

wrote Lord Collingwood to a friend; “I can be rich without money,

by endeavouring to be superior to everything poor. I would have my

services to my country unstained by any interested motive; and old

Scott {27} and I can go on in our cabbage-garden without much

greater expense than formerly.” On another occasion he said, “I

have motives for my conduct which I would not give in exchange for

a hundred pensions.”

 

The making of a fortune may no doubt enable some people to “enter

society,” as it is called; but to be esteemed there, they must

possess qualities of mind, manners, or heart, else they are merely

rich people, nothing more. There are men “in society” now, as rich

as Croesus, who have no consideration extended towards them, and

elicit no respect. For why? They are but as money-bags: their

only power is in their till. The men of mark in society—the

guides and rulers of opinion—the really successful and useful men-

-are not necessarily rich men; but men of sterling character, of

disciplined experience, and of moral excellence. Even the poor

man, like Thomas Wright, though he possess but little of this

world’s goods, may, in the enjoyment of a cultivated nature, of

opportunities used and not abused, of a life spent to the best of

his means and ability, look down, without the slightest feeling of

envy, upon the person of mere worldly success, the man of money-bags and acres.

CHAPTER XI—SELF-CULTURE—FACILITIES AND DIFFICULTIES

“Every person has two educations, one which he receives from

others, and one, more important, which he gives to himself.”—

Gibbon.

 

“Is there one whom difficulties dishearten—who bends to the storm?

He will do little. Is there one who will conquer? That kind of

man never fails.”—John Hunter.

 

“The wise and active conquer difficulties,

By daring to attempt them: sloth and folly

Shiver and shrink at sight of toil and danger,

And MAKE the impossibility they fear.”—Rowe.

 

“The best part of every man’s education,” said Sir Walter Scott,

“is that which he gives to himself.” The late Sir Benjamin Brodie

delighted to remember this saying, and he used to congratulate

himself on the fact that professionally he was self-taught. But

this is necessarily the case with all men who have acquired

distinction in letters, science, or art. The education received at

school or college is but a beginning, and is valuable mainly

inasmuch as it trains the mind and habituates it to continuous

application and study. That which is put into us by others is

always far less ours than that which we acquire by our own diligent

and persevering effort. Knowledge conquered by labour becomes a

possession—a property entirely our own. A greater vividness and

permanency of impression is secured; and facts thus acquired become

registered in the mind in a way that mere imparted information can

never effect. This kind of self-culture also calls forth power and

cultivates strength. The solution of one problem helps the mastery

of another; and thus knowledge is carried into faculty. Our own

active effort is the essential thing; and no facilities, no books,

no teachers, no amount of lessons learnt by rote will enable us to

dispense with it.

 

The best teachers have been the readiest to recognize the

importance of self-culture, and of stimulating the student to

acquire knowledge by the active exercise of his own faculties.

They have relied more upon TRAINING than upon telling, and sought

to make their pupils themselves active parties to the work in which

they were engaged; thus making teaching something far higher than

the mere passive reception of the scraps and details of knowledge.

This was the spirit in which the great Dr. Arnold worked; he strove

to teach his pupils to rely upon themselves, and develop their

powers by their own active efforts, himself merely guiding,

directing, stimulating, and encouraging them. “I would far

rather,” he said, “send a boy to Van Diemen’s Land, where he must

work for his bread, than send him to Oxford to live in luxury,

without any desire in his mind to avail himself of his advantages.”

“If there be one thing on earth,” he observed on another occasion,

“which is truly admirable, it is to see God’s wisdom blessing an

inferiority of natural powers, when they have been honestly, truly,

and zealously cultivated.” Speaking of a pupil of this character,

he said, “I would stand to that man hat in hand.” Once at Laleham,

when teaching a rather dull boy, Arnold spoke somewhat sharply to

him, on which the pupil looked up in his face and said, “Why do you

speak angrily, sir? INDEED, I am doing the best I can.” Years

afterwards, Arnold used to tell the story to his children, and

added, “I never felt so much in my life—that look and that speech

I have never forgotten.”

 

From the numerous instances already cited of men of humble station

who have risen to distinction in science and literature, it will be

obvious that labour is by no means incompatible with the highest

intellectual culture. Work in moderation is healthy, as well as

agreeable to the human constitution. Work educates the body, as

study educates the mind; and that is the best state of society in

which there is some work for every man’s leisure, and some leisure

for every man’s work. Even the leisure classes are in a measure

compelled to work, sometimes as a relief from ennui, but in most

cases to gratify an instinct which they cannot resist. Some go

foxhunting in the English counties, others grouse-shooting on the

Scotch hills, while many wander away every summer to climb

mountains in Switzerland. Hence the boating, running, cricketing,

and athletic sports of the public schools, in which our young men

at the same time so healthfully cultivate their strength both of

mind and body. It is said that the Duke of Wellington, when once

looking on at the boys engaged in their sports in the play-ground

at Eton, where he had spent many of his own younger days,

1 ... 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 ... 70
Go to page:

Free ebook «Self Help by Samuel Smiles (desktop ebook reader txt) 📖» - read online now

Comments (0)

There are no comments yet. You can be the first!
Add a comment