Self Help by Samuel Smiles (desktop ebook reader txt) 📖

CHAPTER XIII—CHARACTER—THE TRUE GENTLEMAN

“For who can always act? but he,

To whom a thousand memories call,

Not being less but more than all

The gentleness he seemed to be,

 

But seemed the thing he was, and joined

Each office of the social hour

To noble manners, as the flower

And native growth of noble mind;

 

And thus he bore without abuse

The grand old name of Gentleman.”—Tennyson.

 

“Es bildet ein Talent sich in der Stille,

Sich ein Charakter in dem Strom der Welt.”—Goethe.

 

“That which raises a country, that which strengthens a country, and

that which dignifies a country,—that which spreads her power,

creates her moral influence, and makes her respected and submitted

to, bends the hearts of millions, and bows down the pride of

nations to her—the instrument of obedience, the fountain of

supremacy, the true throne, crown, and sceptre of a nation;—this

aristocracy is not an aristocracy of blood, not an aristocracy of

fashion, not an aristocracy of talent only; it is an aristocracy of

Character. That is the true heraldry of man.”—The Times.

 

The crown and glory of life is Character. It is the noblest

possession of a man, constituting a rank in itself, and an estate

in the general goodwill; dignifying every station, and exalting

every position in society. It exercises a greater power than

wealth, and secures all the honour without the jealousies of fame.

It carries with it an influence which always tells; for it is the

result of proved honour, rectitude, and consistency—qualities

which, perhaps more than any other, command the general confidence

and respect of mankind.

 

Character is human nature in its best form. It is moral order

embodied in the individual. Men of character are not only the

conscience of society, but in every well-governed State they are

its best motive power; for it is moral qualities in the main which

rule the world. Even in war, Napoleon said the moral is to the

physical as ten to one. The strength, the industry, and the

civilisation of nations—all depend upon individual character; and

the very foundations of civil security rest upon it. Laws and

institutions are but its outgrowth. In the just balance of nature,

individuals, nations, and races, will obtain just so much as they

deserve, and no more. And as effect finds its cause, so surely

does quality of character amongst a people produce its befitting

results.

 

Though a man have comparatively little culture, slender abilities,

and but small wealth, yet, if his character be of sterling worth,

he will always command an influence, whether it be in the workshop,

the counting-house, the mart, or the senate. Canning wisely wrote

in 1801, “My road must be through Character to power; I will try no

other course; and I am sanguine enough to believe that this course,

though not perhaps the quickest, is the surest.” You may admire

men of intellect; but something more is necessary before you will

trust them. Hence Lord John Russell once observed in a sentence

full of truth, “It is the nature of party in England to ask the

assistance of men of genius, but to follow the guidance of men of

character.” This was strikingly illustrated in the career of the

late Francis Horner—a man of whom Sydney Smith said that the Ten

Commandments were stamped upon his countenance. “The valuable and

peculiar light,” says Lord Cockburn, “in which his history is

calculated to inspire every right-minded youth, is this. He died

at the age of thirty-eight; possessed of greater public influence

than any other private man; and admired, beloved, trusted, and

deplored by all, except the heartless or the base. No greater

homage was ever paid in Parliament to any deceased member. Now let

every young man ask—how was this attained? By rank? He was the

son of an Edinburgh merchant. By wealth? Neither he, nor any of

his relations, ever had a superfluous sixpence. By office? He

held but one, and only for a few years, of no influence, and with

very little pay. By talents? His were not splendid, and he had no

genius. Cautious and slow, his only ambition was to be right. By

eloquence? He spoke in calm, good taste, without any of the

oratory that either terrifies or seduces. By any fascination of

manner? His was only correct and agreeable. By what, then, was

it? Merely by sense, industry, good principles, and a good heart—

qualities which no well-constituted mind need ever despair of

attaining. It was the force of his character that raised him; and

this character not impressed upon him by nature, but formed, out of

no peculiarly fine elements, by himself. There were many in the

House of Commons of far greater ability and eloquence. But no one

surpassed him in the combination of an adequate portion of these

with moral worth. Horner was born to show what moderate powers,

unaided by anything whatever except culture and goodness, may

achieve, even when these powers are displayed amidst the

competition and jealousy of public life.”

 

Franklin, also, attributed his success as a public man, not to his

talents or his powers of speaking—for these were but moderate—but

to his known integrity of character. Hence it was, he says, “that

I had so much weight with my fellow citizens. I was but a bad

speaker, never eloquent, subject to much hesitation in my choice of

words, hardly correct in language, and yet I generally carried my

point.” Character creates confidence in men in high station as

well as in humble life. It was said of the first Emperor Alexander

of Russia, that his personal character was equivalent to a

constitution. During the wars of the Fronde, Montaigne was the

only man amongst the French gentry who kept his castle gates

unbarred; and it was said of him, that his personal character was a

better protection for him than a regiment of horse would have been.

 

That character is power, is true in a much higher sense than that

knowledge is power. Mind without heart, intelligence without

conduct, cleverness without goodness, are powers in their way, but

they may be powers only for mischief. We may be instructed or

amused by them; but it is sometimes as difficult to admire them as

it would be to admire the dexterity of a pickpocket or the

horsemanship of a highwayman.

 

Truthfulness, integrity, and goodness—qualities that hang not on

any man’s breath—form the essence of manly character, or, as one

of our old writers has it, “that inbred loyalty unto Virtue which

can serve her without a livery.” He who possesses these qualities,

united with strength of purpose, carries with him a power which is

irresistible. He is strong to do good, strong to resist evil, and

strong to bear up under difficulty and misfortune. When Stephen of

Colonna fell into the hands of his base assailants, and they asked

him in derision, “Where is now your fortress?” “Here,” was his

bold reply, placing his hand upon his heart. It is in misfortune

that the character of the upright man shines forth with the

greatest lustre; and when all else fails, he takes stand upon his

integrity and his courage.

 

The rules of conduct followed by Lord Erskine—a man of sterling

independence of principle and scrupulous adherence to truth—are

worthy of being engraven on every young man’s heart. “It was a

first command and counsel of my earliest youth,” he said, “always

to do what my conscience told me to be a duty, and to leave the

consequence to God. I shall carry with me the memory, and I trust

the practice, of this parental lesson to the grave. I have

hitherto followed it, and I have no reason to complain that my

obedience to it has been a temporal sacrifice. I have found it, on

the contrary, the road to prosperity and wealth, and I shall point

out the same path to my children for their pursuit.”

 

Every man is bound to aim at the possession of a good character as

one of the highest objects of life. The very effort to secure it

by worthy means will furnish him with a motive for exertion; and

his idea of manhood, in proportion as it is elevated, will steady

and animate his motive. It is well to have a high standard of

life, even though we may not be able altogether to realize it.

“The youth,” says Mr. Disraeli, “who does not look up will look

down; and the spirit that does not soar is destined perhaps to

grovel.” George Herbert wisely writes,

 

“Pitch thy behaviour low, thy projects high,

So shall thou humble and magnanimous be.

Sink not in spirit; who aimeth at the sky

Shoots higher much than he that means a tree.”

 

He who has a high standard of living and thinking will certainly do

better than he who has none at all. “Pluck at a gown of gold,”

says the Scotch proverb, “and you may get a sleeve o’t.” Whoever

tries for the highest results cannot fail to reach a point far in

advance of that from which he started; and though the end attained

may fall short of that proposed, still, the very effort to rise, of

itself cannot fail to prove permanently beneficial.

 

There are many counterfeits of character, but the genuine article

is difficult to be mistaken. Some, knowing its money value, would

assume its disguise for the purpose of imposing upon the unwary.

Colonel Charteris said to a man distinguished for his honesty, “I

would give a thousand pounds for your good name.” “Why?” “Because

I could make ten thousand by it,” was the knave’s reply.

 

Integrity in word and deed is the backbone of character; and loyal

adherence to veracity its most prominent characteristic. One of

the finest testimonies to the character of the late Sir Robert Peel

was that borne by the Duke of Wellington in the House of Lords, a

few days after the great statesman’s death. “Your lordships,” he

said, “must all feel the high and honourable character of the late

Sir Robert Peel. I was long connected with him in public life. We

were both in the councils of our Sovereign together, and I had long

the honour to enjoy his private friendship. In all the course of

my acquaintance with him I never knew a man in whose truth and

justice I had greater confidence, or in whom I saw a more

invariable desire to promote the public service. In the whole

course of my communication with him, I never knew an instance in

which he did not show the strongest attachment to truth; and I

never saw in the whole course of my life the smallest reason for

suspecting that he stated anything which he did not firmly believe

to be the fact.” And this high-minded truthfulness of the

statesman was no doubt the secret of no small part of his influence

and power.

 

There is a truthfulness in action as well as in words, which is

essential to uprightness of character. A man must