Lawrence democrat. (Lawrenceburg, Tenn.) 1884-1925, 1890-05-02
PRIDE AND MERIT.
Gifts That Should BE Regarded with
Modesty by Their Possessors,


What men are perhaps on the whole
most proud of is their blood when they
are we'll descended, and yet no one can
say that they are in the smallest degree
responsible for that; or, again, of their
genius or talents or physical strength if
they are not well descended, and all
these things are endowments, and never
in any great degree due to self-culture.
What women are certainly proudest of
Is their beauty or grace, and neither
beauty nor grace can be acquired with
out considerable original gift; beauty
not in any degree, and even grace in
very small degree, for a grace which is
in any way artificial is not grace but
soft mannerism. AS rule, men show
very distinctly how much they prefee
gifts for which they can claim abso
lutely no merit, to gifts for the pos
session of which they have at least
some small share of merit, by being posi-
lively indignant if they find that any
body happens to aScribe mere wealth
that they have inherited from their ia
theirs, to their own hard work. seldom,
indeed, is family proud of being sup
posed to be new" when it is really old;
but family that is really 'new" is
generally delighted to be mistaken for
an old family. That only means that
family is proud, not of having earned it's
own wealth, but of having had its
wealth transmitted to it, And yet
wealth, if it be self-mado, is just one of
the possessions which is in great meas
ure due to mere effort, steady diligence,
minute care and punctual habits-all of
which are usually more or less acquired
or cultivated qualities, and hardly ever
the mere results of transmitted talent
That shows that men are prouder of
possessions which they can prove to be
Inherited, and not duo in any degree to
their own efforts, than they are of those
which they have acquired by hard serv-
ice. And it is the same with women,
If you admire a woman's Jewels, for in
stance, she is twice as proud Of them
If she can prove that they
are heirlooms, as she is If she
should have bought them her
self out of her earnings. And so,
too, great musician is thousand
times as proud Of gifts of ear and touch
which he can prove that he possessed as
an infant, when it was simply impossi-
BILE that he could have acquired them by
any pains Of his own, as he is of what he
has made his own by hard industrious
drill, But the unquestionable truth
that this is so, is, as matter of fact,
forgotten by the greater number of those
who feel this pride even in its most gen
Gus forms. They do allow their pride to
increase their sense of self-importance,
instead Of as it should do tending
rather to diminish it. The man who is
proud of being an Englishman, for in
stance, is very apt to regard it as sort
of personal credit to himself that he is
an Englishman, in spite of the perfectly
obvious truth that he has no more credit
in the matter than he has for possessing
two hands and legs. The beauty, agaiu,
can very seldom contrive not to think il
credit to herself that she should be a
beauty or the man of genius to doubt
that he deserves all the better Of
the world for having been q
genius. Yet these gifts ought to b;
really regarded with that sort of modes
pride in the possession of treasures tl
which we had no sort of natural RICH
or moral claim, that man feels, for in
stance, in living in fine scenery, or in 8
refined and thoughtful society, In fac
the very same feeling should demon
mate all the nobler kinds of pride which
filed the hearts of the greater saint,
who said that, but for the grace of Goo
that is, but for something which they
could not in any way command or con
trol-they should have been the mos
despicable and sinful of beings. Thu:
the better kind of pride should add, moi
, to the sense of merit, but (rather of the
two) to the sense of demeEit, because il
should deepen and intensity the con
seriousness of the lavish gifts the in
herited advantages, the high level o
opportunity from which we started, an(
, from which it might have been fairl,
q hoped that we should have been able t,
6 achieve far more than we actually hav,
achieved. The higher pride ought T.
y deepen desty.-I.ondon Spectator.
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