Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1888-12-20

The Qualities Which Go to Make Good
Character.

hoOert LOUIS stevenson In ScriblerS.
The idealism of serious people in this age of
ours Is of noble character. Itnever seems to
them that they have served enough; they have
a fine Impotence Of their virtues. Itwere. per-
haps, more modest to be singly thankful that
we are no worse. 1t is not only our enemies
those desperate characters-it is we ourselves
who know not what we do; thence springs the
glimmering hope that perhaps we do better
than we think; that to scramble through this
random business with hands reasonably clean.
to have played the part of man or woman with
some reasonable fullness, to have often resisted
the diabolic, and at the end to be still resisting
II, Is for the poor human soldier to have done
right well. To ask to see some print of our
endeavor is but transcendental way of sery-
ing for reward; and what we take to be con-
tempt OF self is only greed of hire. And again,
II We require so much of ourselves, shall we not
require much Of others? II we do not penially
Judge our own deficiencies, is it not to be feared
we shall be even stern to the trespasses of 9TH
ers! And he who, looking back upon his own
life, can see no more than that he has been un-
Considerably long dying, will he not be
tempted to think his neighbor unconscionably
long OF getting hanged? 1t is probable that
nearly all who think Of conduct at all think too
much OF sin. We are not damned for doing
wrong but for not doing right; Christ would
never hear OF negative morality: thou shalt"
was ever his word, with which he superseded
thou shalt not"
To make our idea of morality center on for
bldden acts Is to defile the Imagination and to
introduce into our judgments of our fellowmen
secret element of gusto. II thing is wrong
Tor US, We should not dwell upon the thought
OF it, or we shall soon dwell upon it with in
verted pleasure. If we cannot drive it from
our minds-one thing or two: Either our creed
md sv,I,
remodel it: or else, if our morality be in the
right, we are criminal lunatics and should place
our persons in restraint. A mark of such I'M
wholesomely divided minds is the passion for
interference with others; the fox without the
tail was Of this breed, but had, if his biograph-
now out of date. A man may have a flaw, a
weakness, that units him for the du-
ties Of life, that spoils his temper, that
threatens his integrity, or that betrays
him into cruelty. 1t has to be conquered,
but it must never be suffered to engross his
farther side, and must be attended to with
a whole mind SO soon as this pre-
liminary clearings of the decks has been eff
fected. In order that he may be kind and hon.
est, it may be needful he should become a
total abstainer; let him become 30 then,
and the next day let him forget the cir
Trying to be kind and honest will
require all his thoughts; mortified appetite
is never o wise companion; in SO far as he has
had to mortify an appetite, he will still be the
worse man; and Of such an one a great deal Of
cheerfulness will be required in Judging life,
and great deal OF humility in judging Others
1t may be argued again that dissatisfaction
with our life's endeavor springs in some de-
gree from dullness We require higher tasks,
because we do not recognize the height of
those we have. Trying to be kind and honest
seems an affair too simple and too inconse-
quential for gentlemen Of our heroic mold; we
had rather set ourselves to something bold,
arduous and conclusive; we had rather found a
schism or suppress heresy, cut off a hand or
mortify an appetite.
But the task before us, which is to co-endure
with our existence, is rather one Of microscopic
and the heroism required is that of
patience. There is no cutting Of the Gordian
knots of life; each must be smilingly unravelled.
To be honest, to be kind-tO earn a little and to
spend little less, to make upon the whole
family happier by his presence, to renounce
when that shall be necessary and not to be en-
Uttered, to keep few friends, but these with
out capitulation-above all, on the grim condi-
ton, to keep friends with himself-here is a
task for all that a man has Of fortitude and
delicacy. So look back upon the past year, and
see how little we have striven and to whet small
and how often We have been cowardly
and hung back or temerarious and rushed
unwisely in; and how every day and all day
long we have transgressed the law of kindness
it may seem paradox, but in the bitterness
Of these discoveries. q certain consolation
resides. Life Is not designed to minister to
mans vanity: He goes upon his long business
most Of the time with a hanging head, and all
the time like blind child. Full of rewards
and pleasures as it is-so that to see the day
break or the moon rise or to meet friend. or
to hear the dinner-cal when he is hungry, fills
him with surprising joys-this world is yet for
him no abiding city. Friendships fail through,
health fails, WEAKNESS assails him, year after
year he must thumb the hardly varying record
OF his own weakness and folly. 1t is o friendly
process Of detachment When the time comes
that he should 60, there need be few illusions
left about himself. Here lies one who meant
well, tried little, failed much; surely that
may be his epitaph Of which he need not be
Nor will he complain Of the sum-
mons. which calls defeated soldier from the
field; defeated, ay, il he were Paul or Marcus
Aurelius-but if there is still one inch of fight
in his old spirit, undishonored