The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-10-09
Admiring the Admirable.

Philadelphia Ledger.
 A wise man once said that the more ex- perience he had with life the more firmly he became convinced that the great difference between man and man was not due to birth or education. or even ability. but to the finer and better taste which some men possessed. This quality of taste distinguishes the gentle- man from the boor, the sympathetic from the callous. the cultivated from the vulgar. Addi- son, the essayist and critic speaking of it- erary taste. says that 1t is the faculty which discerns the beauties of an author with pleas ure and the imperfecttons with dislike. So it Is In all the multifarious concerns of life. Taste. by which Is meant good taste. Is the faculty which sits In judgment and decides on the merits of things. and Is guide 10 the politics and business. in literature and the fine arts. fin all acts and qualities. Haziitt in an acute essay, defines this general taste as ',nothing but sensibillty to the different de- art and nature;'' a love and attachment for the good and the beautiful and the noble of every kind.
 will reject the low and the mean. and this rejection is only to be accounted virtue when 1t implies a preference for and attach xnent to what is better" Taste ia, therefore, an important faculty in the formation of character. As man who hates the evil and loves the high and the admirable must neces- sar1ly be 6 good man. the acquisition of taste is of prime importance. The general impress sion that taste is born with us is only par tiaily true. Edmund Burke speaks of the cause
 
 which may arise from e natural weakness of understanding or. "which is much more com Tnonly tho oase," may arise from want of proper and well directed exercise which alone can make t strong and ready" He dwells on the fact that in general taste Is improved exactly as we improve our judgment by ex- tending our knowledge, by e steady attention to our object and by frequent exercise"
 You may accurately judge @ man by the company he keeps. the books he reads. the pleasures he affects-or. in a word, by his admirations which sensibly or insensibly de- termlne his character and his career The great object of education and training Is not to convey merely many facts, or to give a certain degree of intellectual nimbleness, but to instlll into the mind the great bedrock prn- ciples and springs of action by holding up to the gaze of youth the great, heroic men of all ages and by compelling admiration for their glorious deeds. This precious admiration Is only to be ''eduoated." as Goethe said. by the contemplation not of the tolerabiy good. but of the truly excellent" which arouses ambition.
 The love of the excellent in literature. life. in morals. and In conduct. conpels a detesta- ton of the small, mean and the vicious. and thus leads one on to the higher way. One who lives with the high things and moves through life in constant touch with good books, good men and with admiration for the strong. true and honorable. adjusts him self and his actions to the high standards which are insensibly created in his mind forms the habit of referring his conduct and his thought to the ideals which are his. and comes finally to hate and detest low things.