Ashtabula weekly telegraph. [volume] (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1853-1873, 1859-10-01

"Selflove is a moto In every mans eye
you love yourself overmuch nobody else will love you
at ALL"
'1f Sleep sleep for myself IL work. know not for
whom"
Tho way to be admired to be what to be thought"
There is a class of men in every commu-
nifty that, more than any other class, de-
sres popularity, and less than any other
class gets it. They may be men of plea
SAINT address and honorable dealing, but
there is something about them that repels
the popular sympathy. If the people were
to be questioned as to the reasons of their
antipathy, they would in most instances,
find it difficult to make an intelligent an
swer. They would say with Tom Brown !:
II do not love thee Doctor Fell
The reason why cannot tell,
But this alone | know full we'll
/ do not love thee Doctor Fell"
The unfailing heart recognizes an un-
worthy and repulsve element in these men,
though the intellect may fail to comprehend
it. Now, if the intellect will make direct
inquiry, it will find that these lovers of
popularity are supremely selfsh-that they
love themselves better than anything, or
anybody else, and that all the popularity
they long for and seek for is demanded by
their self-Iove. They are not men Of gen.
erous impulses, but Of cool painstaking cal
cuation. If they make gift, it is for a
purpose. A policy that has its center in
selfover-rules all their actions.
This element of popularity in a mans
character is very little understood On
looking about us, we shall find the popular
favor bestowed with comparatively little
reference to personal character. Many a
man, known to be immoral, will have troops
of friends, while multitude of Others, of
whom nothing bad can be said, will have
the affections Of no man.
These facts show me how closely, side by
side, the better intuitions and instructive
judgments of the world stand with the cen
tral principle Of Christianity The world,
no less than Christianity great hu-
man heart, no less than the true religion
demands that men shall be unselfsh before
they receive personal affection and favor
Religion asks for more than unselGshness,
because it lays its claims upon personal
character and personal devotion, but it
starts at that, as the initial point. The
world asks that man shall be generous
from natural impulse, and not from any
special principle, or policy. 1t is often
that these impulSively generous men are
impuIsively vicious, yet this does not always,
nor often, repel even the good from SYM
pathy with them. We love some men in
spite of ourselves. Our Judgment con-
demns them, our religious feelings are Of
Tended by them ; yet the one element of
good which they possess receives our admi-
ration and our homage, and we return their
cordial grip and greeting impulsiyely, and
protest only in secret leisure.
All of us love to stand well with our fell
lows. We thirst for popular esteem, and
rejoice in popular good will. This desire
for popularity is universal, though it has
its birth in widely various motives ; but it
is never satisfied when it is called forth by
and to generous natures. The whole world
loves Florence Nightingale, simply because
she unselishly sacrificed the ease and COM
fort of luxurious home, for the purpose
minstering to the wants of the sick and
wounded soldiers. Half of the worlds ad-
miration of Jenny Lind grows out of her
characteristic benevolence. The rough fire.
man who braves the dangers of burning
house, to save the life of some helpless in
mate, is regarded as hero, and we toss up
our caps as he goes by US. The man or
the woman who, from generous impulse,
risks danger and death for others, or who,
from a similar impulse, becomes the subject
of suffering or Inconvenience that others
may be benefited, compels the homage of
every cognizant heart.
If we love ourselves overmuch, nobody
else will love US at all. We cannot get the
worlds esteem without paying for it in ad-
vance and even then, our sacrifices will
avail nothing unless they are made without
reference to the object Of gaining popular
ity. The world has an insight into motives
which easily detects the calculating ele-
ment in all beneficence and all generous do
ing. 1t is the native, impulsive, uncalcula-
ting generosity of a deed that kindles our
admiraton-the doing good without refer
ence to consequences that inspires our love.
We demand that a good deed, to be the
subject Of our admiration, shall be the
spontaneous offspring of an unselfsh, chiv-
alrous heart. The meanest man in the
world admires agnanimity-the stingiest
uncalculating generosity-although he may
feel himself icapable of their exercise
just as man physically weak admires a
commanding personal prowess, and cow
ard deed Of daring. So the tribute to
generous, unselfsh, gallant doing, is uni
Versal.
A thing which is so good and admirable
in universal human judgment is certainly
something which demands careful consid-
Grafton, especially as in it abideS the secret
of this universally coveted good will. The
world declares that selfshness is mean, and
nnsefshnesS, generosity and magnanimity
are noble and admirable. This decision
cannot be altered, and ought not to be. A
man whose plans have reference only to
himself is a contemplate man. We nei-
ther love him nor trust him. The man who
says-"if sleep, sleep for myself if l
work, l know not for whom" is a man
whom all hearts despise-instinctiVely and
inevitably despise. 1t matters not how sell
fish man may be, there is something in
him which tells him that the sel6shness he
sees in Others is contemplate.
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