The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1904-01-27
Self Control the Root OF All Virtue
(Rev. Thomas B. Gregory in Atlanta
Journal.)

There was quarrel, the hot blood
flushed his face, the uplifted hand
came down with the rapidity of the
lightnings fash and one man was
dead, and the other was forever ours
ed with murderer's remorse!
"My God! What have I donev'
He would have given all the world not
to have struck that blow. But tie
deed was done, aud could not be un-
done; and there he stood, looking
down upon the dead mans face, feel
ing the hell he could not describe!
"Greater is he,' saith the Old
Book, "who ruleth his spirit than he
that taketh the CITY," 1t is grand to
be stormer of cities and vanquish-
er of armies, but how slow we are in
perceiving that it is greater to be the
conqueror of ones self, the master of
ones own ugly passions.
Control yourself there is the be-
ginning of all true empireship. To be
the master of ones own spirit, to be
the lord Of ones own temper!-there
is the secret of all true power and
greatness.
Who has not rea6 of the battle
prowess of Hannibal, Frederick the
Great, and William the Silent, but do
we remember the still more important
fact that these great captains we're
even greater in the control which they
had over their naturally hot and i'm
pulsive natures than they were in
their power over armies and battles?
The grandest thing about Hannibal
was not the habit of victory on the
battlefield that 80 persistently charac-
terized him, but the habit of patience
with which he always met the mean
treatment that came to him from the
home government.
|. Frederick was great in action
thrillingly, sublimely, great-but he
was greater in the calm, patient. un-
conquerable self-oontrol with which
he faced the terrible odds which
more than once threatened to crush
him.
And william tie tie Silent, so.called
not because he could not talk, but
because, when it became necessary,
he would not talk-was a marvel of
patience and self-possession. Silent
ly the great man could bear many
griefs, and silently he could endure
many provocations ard wrongs.
Times without number he was tried
to the utmost limit of human endur-
anoe, but he never failed to keep rea-
son on the throne and his passion
firmly in the leash.
No American, certainly, can feel
otherwise than proud when he thinks
Of the battle triumphs that will ever
cluster about the names Of Grant and
and Lee, but is he not Infinitely
prCuder Of the magnificent self.oon-
troll with which the Two great captains
met at Appomattoxl
Than Grant at Appomattox was
there ever general who had greater
cause for exultation? Had he not
conquered the mightiest revolt of his
tory, and was there not already shin
ing about his name the glory that
should never die?
And then Lee, was there ever o
commander who had better reason
for feeling utterly broken hearted and
undone?
But what happened? Was there
any sign Of rejoicing or braggadocio
in the bearing of the victor, or any
token Of despair OF ugliness in that Of
the vanquished? No! Conquer or
and conquered kept themselves so
we'll in hand that their meeting will
stand to the end of time as chining
example of self-control.
To be able to master ones self is
the noblest accomplishment in the
list Of human virtues. Such mastery
is absolutely essential to any rational,
human success.
Let man give the reins to his i'm
pulses and passions and from that
moment he ceases to be man. He
is, carried along the current of li,n and
becomes the slave of the appetite or
passion which, for the time being,
happens to be the strongest.
To be free-to be morally free-to
be man not mere animal-one mus,
be able to resist the wild impulse
which would goad him on to despera-
tion and ruin.
e (tI,, 4 h ~e -