Virginia citizen. (Irvington, Va.) 1891-1921, 1910-07-08
THE ASTROLABE
OF CHARACTER,

uhltey COsnet, 81Cer switching the
earth with its tail and soaring some of
our inhabitants out of their wits. is
now rushing off into the unmeasured
abysses of space at the rate of three
million miles day. We are told it
will return when we are three-quarters
of century older. There are other
| comets which never come back, saw
those on parabolic orbit. But astron-
omers by pointing their telescopes and
mapping the curve on which these
witches of the heavens are moving, can
tell just where they will be when q
thousand years are gone.
Can we do this with a human life?
Can we. by studying it's present track,
tell where and what that life will be in
the ages to come.
The future is veiled The keenest
vision can see only one step at e time.
Man is never satisfied with this fact.
but must strive to put aside that veil
and discern the secrets of the days
that are to be. Men have read the
riddles of life in the flight of birds, in
the swarming of bees, by searching
the bodies of dead animals and by the
phases and cOnjunctions of the stars.
Even great minds have been subject
to this impulse. Wallenstein carried an
sstrologer in ali his campaigns. Napo-
leon believed himself to be the child of
destiny.
Can we tell a fortune, not by the
hocus-pocus of the long haired Oriental
humbug or the veiled lady, ''the seventh
daughter of the seventh son." but by
scientific laws of proven certainty?
Yes. We can. A man will do what he
is. After all. the introspection theory
within limits is correct. What we are
drowns the sound of what we saw. II
is that secret essence of the personal
ity which We call character, that domi-
mates the life. Acts are but the out
going of this personality, the concret-
ing IN deeds of the decisions of the inner
soul. Life is the acting out of ones
self.
Personal character cannot be created.
let us say it reverently, even by ON
Impotence. None of us have any when
porn. We come into the world with
but a collection of tendencies. Parents
cannot transmit it. They can only pre-
sent us with traits. Character is the
result OF thousands of deeds, either
performed or neglected, of thousands
OF temptations resisted or yielded to. of
countless burdens borne or ignored. of
numberless responsibilities met or
shirked.
And it growsl Like an icicle, drop
by drop each thought or deed length
ems and widens it for good or evil. We
are architects building a structure be-
hind screen. BY and by when the
screen' which We call this present life,
Is taken down. there will be revealed
splendid palace or miserable hut.
And character alone endures. We
may shake off all other undesirable
companions. but never ourselves When
Alexander died, he ordered that he be
buried with his hands outside the grave
clothes and with palms outward. to
show that though he had conquered the
world he went out of it absolutely
empty handed. And Saladin, that brave
and chivalrous heather, who though
warning against the armies of Christian
Europe, taught them so many lesson.
OF true courtesy. directed that after
his death. herald should march up ane
D down through the camp with the chief
: tain's shroad upon q spear and pro
> claim, ''This is all that remains of tn,
glory of the great Saladin."
Although it be true that,
"The boast Of heraldry, the pomp O
: power,
g And all that beauty. all that wealth e'e
O gave,
. Await alike the Inevitable hour:
The paths OF glory lead but to tn
d grave"
: Ii is also true that
' "We are but farmers of ourselves. We
8 may,
a Ii we can stock ourselves and thrive.
uplay
day."
}, Pau ID IL o.