Gold Hill daily news. [volume] (Gold Hill, N.T. [Nev.]) 1863-1882, 1868-07-15
puL AND pR1Ncrp1E,

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It was formerly held that in early life
all persons have hearts and minds like
blank sheets of paper, waiting to re-
ceive impressions from the external
world. But It would seem, from the
worlds experience, that all young per-
IONS are possessed by many various i'm
pulses and passions, which by degrees
work themselves into that enduring
and consistent form which we shall
call character. There is an inevitable
tendency about each one Of those pas
sions and powers, to grayitate into
some settled relations to all the others.
Character, therefore, is the sum Of these
p~ropensities, good or bad, which result
from every action of our whole past ex-
isteuce, and their tendency to reproduce
themselves in the future. Each one OF
these impulses either acquires or loses
force, according to what is allowed or
denied to it, and every mans future
character depends on the force accorded
to his various impulses. In some, APP
petites and passions obtain supreme
power. Such are sensualists in char
acter. With others intellect gradually
obtains the supreme authority. Night
and day they seek for mental food, and
the whole world is digested simply in
relation to the ideas-the thoughts it
contains. With others, the sense of
duty is supreme its authority rises
above all else-what is right, is the
great motto on which they act. But
none of these obtain the settled mastery
suddenly, or without many back.sets.
In youth, especially, they all work to-
gether, and ferment in strange copfu-
sion, but gradually settle down through
habit into certain fixed relations to each
other. To the formation Of a settled
character, every action of life, every
word spoken and every thought in
dulged, is daily contributing, giving to
each impulse, good or bad, its force
and direction.
A character, in which duty in the
broadest sense is supreme, in which it
subsidies every part Of the nature, SO
that all other impulses work harmoni.
ously under its direction, is the most
perfect type Of the human character.
In proportion as u dispositions are
daily tending to that, they are becom-
ing more elevated, and in proper
ton as they fall away from this
standard, we sink in the scale
of being. We know how much
our daily habits change our bddi-
ly constitutions the feeble pbysi-
cal frame may attain to great power,
endurance and longevity, by suitable
bodily cultivation ; while those Of ro-
bust health, originally, may degenerate
and die by neglectiug such daily exer-
cises. The same is true Of the intellect.
It is not the men Of the greatest quick
ness of mind that make, as a whole, the
most substantial scholars. On the con
trary, they often become the most fiashy
and empty, relying on a certain quick
witted supericiality, while many a
youth of rather dull powers originally,
by steady application, becomes, in the
course of a few years, a man of real
mental force and usefulness, whose
name will live 10 after years, when that
of the superficial genius is forgotten.
And so in morals ; it is not be who has
the most lively and imaginative expert
ences, and who can talk the most glibly
and weep the most ~copiously, that will
make the best man or citizen. This
very excitability Of temperament often
gives its possessor a fatal ~fluency Of
superficial Scripture language which
d~eceiyes himself and others.
There is probably no n on earth
who has not at times some ~virtusus
feelings or sentiments indeed they
form an essential element in mans ma
ture, but with the moro perfect charac-
ter, these feelings are cherished, cult
waited and trained into settled principles,
regulated and strengthened, until they
become the supreme and ruling motive
of a new life, operating and producing
fruit. We should, then, live in the con-
slant remembrance that each action is
contributing to the formation of char
acter, and in all our aims for ourselves
or others, correct principles should
guide each action. To cultivate nm in
ward moral perception, whereby always
to perceive the true line of right, is the
greatest attainment in life. This is
like the golden thread in the tabled
bower Of tair Rosamond, conducting oil
who follow it safely through the laby-
rinths and complexities Of life.