The News-Herald. [volume] (Hillsboro, Highland Co., Ohio) 1886-1973, 1899-05-18
POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE.
Grafton of Miss Cora Work Of
the Senior Glass.
An Interesting Paper Comparing the
Two Extremes Of Human
Character.

In studying electricity we learned that
in the voltaic cell there are two ele
ments, positive and negative. We find
the same to be true of character in the
study OF mankind. A man OF positive
character is an element for good in the
world. He not only distinguishes between
right and wrong. but avoiding the wrong
firmly adheres to the right regardless
of public opinion. He does not fear to
express his own thoughts and disdains
all servile Difference to those Of society.
In the stone wall OF Marischsl College
in Aberdeen is cut the inscription:
"They say. What do they say? Let
them say !" The old Scotchman who
carved these words must have incurred
public censure and meant to declare his
independence. He was undoubtedly OF
positive mature. Many years have
gone by since these words we're written
yet they have lost none of their peril
nence. "They say" What world Of
significance may be contained in two
words and what dread they may inspire!
Only a man of positive character can
withstand them, and ask indifferently,
"What do they ?"; while very few in.
deed can add in the the independent
spirit of the old Scotchman, "Let them
say"
This servility to the opinions Of others!
"What does it profit msn?" Perhaps
in the desire to win their good will, he
gains merely the contempt and distrust
that such dishonesty merits. 1t may
seem harsh to term it dishonesty, yet
what name may be applied to the evil Of
appropriating the opinions of others, 80
prevalent at the present time. Shakes
peare has we'll said, "To be honest as
this world goes is to be one man picked
out of ten thousand"
While mere contempt for the opinions
of others is not in itself virtue, we
should be sturdy enough in our social
attitude to make them very secondary
matter with US. 1t has been said "The
tyranny of mere social opinion is one of
the last enemies of personal liberty and
thus OF the highest manhood. Nothing
is 90 characteristic of man as his liberty
of personal decision. The lower we 70
down in the scale of animal existence,
the greater the subjection to circum-
stances"
This contrast of man and the lower
animals may be carried farther or to the
contrast of barbsrous and civilized man.
Among barbarous nations social opinion
is omnipotent and one must submit to
it or suffer social ostracism.. 1t is said
that convert TO Christianity in Hin.
doc village is forced to 60 into exile un-
less he convert the entire village. An
imals have but instinct to guide them,
hence they initiate and follow the lead
of each other; but man, endowed with
consciousness and reason, should be or.
iginal and of a positive character un.
trammeled by the opinions of others.
Although one should not dissent from
others for the mere pleasure of dissent.
ing, especially in the trivial affairs of
life. and become eccentric in dress or
manner, yet when convinced in your
own mind Of great truth, remain stead.
fast in that conviction.
Social ostracism is not the only evil
that may befall man OF positive char
arter, but poverty, imprisonment, tor
ture and death. Though this may not
be true of society at present, history is
full of examples Socrates, because so
bold as to believe in and teach the i'm
mortality of the soul, and Supreme
Ruler of the universe, was condemned
to drink the fatal hemlock. Anaxagoras
ventured to believe the moon inhabited
and that the sun was not q god but q
glowing rock, as large as the Pelopon-
esus, and was accordingly exiled as was
Galileo in later age.
But perhaps the early Christians are
the truest examples of positive character.
Renouncing the myths and deities of
Rome, they turned to the true God and
nothing could change their purpose.
Oruci6ed, burned and torn by wild
beasts they did not waver. While cen.
turies later Martin Luther, true to his
own convictions, denounced the fraud
and immortality OF the Roman Church,
arraying himself alone and unprotected
against the pope and all Europe.
Thus we find that the old philoso.
phex, teachers and reformers, whose
lives have been OF inestimsble value to
the world, were prosecuted for being in
advance of their age, for daring to have
opinions of their own and boldly declsr-
ing them. Symbolical of the lives OF
such men is the story of Prometheus,
who, in defiance of Jove for the comfort
and advantage Of man, brought fire from