The True Citizen, How To Become One

RY G

s his value on

interest as personal c

l education is the de

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cts of thorough inte

r own capacitie

toward intellectual

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sition of knowledge, or the simple development of the intellect alone, may be of little value. Many who have received such imperfect or one-sided education, have proved to be but ciphers in the world; wh

al exclusively, and you have an athlete or a savage; the moral only, and you have an enthusiast or a maniac; the intellectual only, and

e of life capable of being expanded. He, therefore, who does what he can to unfold all his powers and capacities, especially his nobl

are fed and nourished, and decay when they are not fed and nourished. Moreover, every faculty demands appropriate food. What nourishes one will not always

, all unconsciously to himself, to possess the same qualities, and to be transformed by them, until at last he stood revealed to his neighbors as the long promised one, who should be like t

fter another was added, until the character became complete. Manly strength, athletic power and skill, appear first; then, cour

as realized. Henceforth, the character, the man, appears under all the forms of occupation an

es, we attempt more than we can accomplish; if we underrate our abilities we fail to accom

to be a shoemaker attempts the artistic career of an Apelles. When a life-work presents itself we ou

are, some oblong-and the persons acting these parts, by bits of wood of similar shapes, and he says, "we generally find that the tri

and yoked to the chariot of influence. We need to know exactly for what work or sphere we are best fitted, so

tural gifts, it is not needful to imitate the son of the Emerald Isle who always lifted his hat and made an obsequious bow when he spoke of himself or mentioned h

-estimate implied no little boldness in expression. We also read in Greek history, how, when the commanders of the allied fleets gave in, by request, a list of the names of those

a little colored lad who very much wished to have a kitten from a newborn litter, and whose mistress promised that, as soon as they wer old enough, he should take one. Too impatient to wait, he slyly carried one off to his hut. Its eyes were not open, and, in disgust, he d

the life regulated by principle. The end of life is something more than pleasure. Man is not a piece of vitalized sponge, to absorb al

lancholic temper, like a blue lens, imparts its own hue; through the green spectacles of jealousy every one else becomes an object of distrust and dislike; and he who looks through the black gla

d every one's virtues, but his own, dwarfed into insignificance. To the fretful man others seem fretful; to the envious man, envious; and so with the well-disposed, gen

ho extract sweet essences out of bitter herbs, like the old colored woman in the smoky hut, who was "glad of

s of benevolence. The good man visits the hut of misery, the hovel of poverty, leaving in a gentle and delicate way, a few comforts for the table or

t of them by heart; but they did not destroy or compromise his individuality, because he did not try to be Cicero. It has been said that Michael Angelo, who was the most original of ancient or modern artists, was more familiar with the model statues and paintings of the world than any other man

nd noble ends-are within him. He feels it, he knows it to be so; and a denial uttered by ten thousand voices would not check the ardor of his pursuit, or induce him to surrender one atom of his claim. His claim involves a right. He is as conscious of it as of his existe

e circumscribed, and its vibrations consequently fall short of the mark, then its