Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1872-05-22
Mr.. Penney's Lecture.

| We give an abstract OF rev hr. fenuey :
address given at the Free Baptist church last
evening:
After a brief intr oduction, Mr.. Penney an
nounced his theme as Seeming and Being OF
Reputation and Character.
! Character, he said is reality. Reputation,
as distinguished from it, aud antithetical to it,
Is fiction. The one is a scene in actual life,
the other play upon an artificial stage. The
one is real wealth, the other is the show Of
wealth where there is none. In the silver age
in which we once lived, our soundest banks
were permitted to draw three dollars of paper
to one dollar of bullion; but many men draw
hundred times SO much fictitious currency
as has any representation in real coin.
/ character made up of solid parts, is the
result of pains-taking. 1t cannot be extern
ported AS it takes many summers and win
! tiers to bring the oak tree to maturity, 50 the
processes which develop character, cannot be
fastened. Good sound, substantial character
represents an element of time, of patience of
honesty, of fair equivalents rendered for fair
services. And there is no such thing as has
tening it or trumping it up. The appearance
of it-viz. the reputation, that can be created
as quick as bowl of soap bubbles, and it
will go as quick as these, at the touch of
reality.
A mans character is not knitted together
until he has reached the mid way period of life
and then the reputation which lie bears as an
/ outgrowth Of that character, may be said to
be an honor t. him, because it represents
something in him that is real.
/ In placing the standard for character and
IDEAL in life, this should be the determination :
Il will be what am really and not in pre-
tense; and what do | will do. and not sim
/ ply make believe | am doing it, and what
get will earn and not obtain dishonestly." 1t
IS glorious ambition, manly purpose with
which person begins life, when he goes forth
saying: Il mean to make my fortune, to be
sure, and to pluck honor from the highest
boughs of the tree of life: but am determ-
ined not to go one step in honor. or wealth. or
power that is not real step. What have
will pay tor. / will not take ANYTHING with
out giving fair equivalent for it,
Many regard life as a lottery; hut ills not
unless il is made so. The foundation of
things are over,hrown, and all moral jistinc-
j tons effaced. all natural laws confounded
when 4 man feels that his chances IN life are,
in the main, a lottery. There is . connection
between means and ends, cause and effect
and a mans condition in this world depends
upon his will and abilities.
belief in character as distinguished from
reputation will teach men to have more pa
tence with years of delay that intervene be-
f IL
nervous element in our very national charac
ter. We run to brains. We bear the mark
of this peculiarly on the face, in our manner
and our gait. Deliberation is not an Ameri-
can trait. We appear on the street 10 for
eigners to be on the eve of running The
tendency of the nation is to intensity and
quicken. And every man means to make his
fortune in dollhouse and before his neighbor
Thus mea are seen going across lots TO for
tune, and a poor business many of them
make of it. There is great deal of going
across lots to make a beggar of a mans
self in this world. Whereas, the old shioned
homely law, that the man who was to estab.
lish himself in life must take time to lay the
foundations of reality and gradually and stead
lily build thereon, holds good yet This is not
according to the ideas of Young America
but God is older than Young America, and
his law is sure and stcadfast.
The same moral connection in favor of
the real, rather than the seeming, will remove
great cause of failure in life from aiming ar
things above ones capacity.
{ Modesty in the selection Of mems Callings,
and in the position they take in those callings,
is almost unknown TO the American character.
American modesty is much scarcer than Amer
can pearls or diamonds The Yankee thinks
that there is nothing this side the throne of
God that lie cannot do if a chance is given
him. Our children have not the slightest con-
ception but that they can give counsel to their
fathers. Our young men have no idea that
they are not prepared for any station they can
get into. There does not seem to be the first
thought, in the main, among aspirants. when
touched with the fervor of rising in life that
there is any such thing as honesty or modesty.
No man has q right to 60 into any place, the
duties of which he cannot discharge, whether
it be place of business or any other. BY
not using integrity and truth and good sense
in judging of what they are fit for, men bring
upon themselves misfortune and failure. Men
are advanced beyond their own strength and
potency and then make up by fraud and APP
pearance what they lack in reality This is
found in every profession in life. spurious
method of living cannot always last. Stats
ties show that OF the men who are ruined, the
greater number owe their downfall to their in
capacity to carry themselves successfully in
the sphere which they have entered.
The relations of this teaching to public life
were noticed as important and significant. In
this country the duties of government are dis
tributed SO suddenly, and the rotation in Of
fee is so great. that more people are called
to have part in the administration of public
affairs than any country on the earth. So
when men run to seemings rather than 10
substance, to reputation rather than charac-
ter, the most sacred duties ana OfnceS or pa
triotism are regarded as things to be scramble
ed for; and so the ideal of patriotism is
lowered and dishonored. This spirit is one
of the most dangerous things of our time. Its
prevalence and the neglect as TO the disparity
between means and ends, the real and the
seeming, desert and place, serves the public
with men who bring weakness and mischief
rather than ability to the conduct of our public
affairs. We are indebted for our prosperity
less to orr governme IT than to the theory of
our government, which makes - little gov
erning necessary. Solemn lessons are in the
history of this country on this subject. With
in the last forty years almost every principal
public man has sunk and gone ont of sight
one great reason of this is that these men went
to public affairs unprerared, with mere am
bition without titness-sc -amblng for the
highest places without regard to their adapta-
ton for those places, and incapable of holding
them, descended, leaving them for others who
were 70 more fitted for them than they were
The men who have come down to us in his
tory, who are more real to us now than they
were to the people oftheir own day, and whose