Year: 1871

beast of the fields merely, but over himself,
and himself the superior to everything tnat
has been or NAV be set above him. twill not
do for any to look up to place. family, money
as if they gave power or prerogatve, TO iaii
back from duty or worth because this one mas
an Hon. before his name, or that one can
write million after his to hide away, refuse
labor in the Lords vineyard on plea OF lnslgnln-
canoe. God takes the mites that the most
powerful microscope barely sees into His SER
vice. as much as the leviathan. Heworks with
them what He cam 'twithit. Man isinsignincant
onlv when he prostitutes or sells his manhood.
The figures that go to make up his bank ac-l
count have nothing to do with making him
the circumstances that have pleced HIM IN
position concern him no way; the blood ne
prates of, the ancestors he catalogues make
him no worthier Take them away, the man
is left add them again, there Is no more
man. There was Just as much man under the
cap the tyrant hung upon the pole and Tell
would not bow to there is just as much man
within the futtering rags that scare yagrant
crows from the springing corn, as many times
there is within the garb of fashion or family
or wealth. If the clothes do it all, then is the
wax image sitting SO cozily in the window Dy
the sewing machine on your streets the veriest
lady. The old adage is that "ninetai make
man" The modern faith is that one IS
enough, while if you were to make that nine,
into ninety-nine and go on adding mines to
infnity you would never get your man made
A man is not made. He makes himself. =
clothes could doit respectable scarecrcT
would answer. Society, and what we call life
build themselves up that way-by hanging
upon the outside hollow and deceiving
things, but man is built up from within, as
tree is. 1t is the inner life that makes, ,moulds,
establishes him, life these things do not
touch. If man be all right there, growing
there, who has he to look up to, who has he TO
fear? Who has the right to precede him, who
has greater honor Let him be mechanic
toiling to meet the wants Of a narrow home
clerk ground to the routine of his desk as ut
terly, as hopelessly as Bob Cratchit was (;
farmer watching the early and later rain j.;
laborer digging IN, miner delvng under the
earth-men without bank accounts, without
fine clothes, without blood, without recep-
tion days, or seats in city Councils or Senate
Chambers, without literary degrees or honorary
titles, men who couldn't enter drawing room
or utter the senseless shibboleth fashion stlpu-
lates as her sesame, who never married a rich
mans daughter--let him be any of these, with
aselfrespecting growing manhood, an enlarging
heart, a broadening faith, an honest purpose,
pure and clean before God, true and hearty
toward man, living in no selfish absorption
about his own gains or ends, but as best to
develop himself and satisfy God-you all know
it true, none will dare deny it-that man stands
before kings, and angels, would do homage
before him. That man has no peer among
those on whom ancestry or title or money or
fashion set their only stamp. He stands above
them as the evening star stands above the
earth. He may look down on them as the high
may look down upon the low. He has the
substance, they the shadow; he the reality
they the seeming


''For a. that and a. that,


Their tinsel show and a that;


The honest man, though e'er sac poor
Is king o. men for a. that"


However it may have been in the beginning
the whole trouble does not now lie with the
men who assume superiority. The fault is
quite as much with those who allow as those
who claim it, 1t is the value they see men
below them put upon their position that
strengthens men in it. Caste is ever more en-
couraged by the envy of those outside than the


pride of those within. The strugglers after
class distinctions do more to perpetuate them
than their possessors do. The common con-
sent by which those of lower social grades give
undue place and influence to those of the higher,
only prolOngs that inversion OF values, and
makes reform hopeless Let there be no craving
for these baubles, let men search along the line
of their own manliness and rise only as they
come nearer the standard OF men, let them re-
member mans man for a. that and all these
Fictitious things would subside to their proper
nothingness, perish for want of recruits. True
self-respect would keepus from aping other men,
or aiming at their position. 1t would teach us
content, and make our aspirings to be such as
would meet our best approval. ltwould turn us
from every prize that is not solid and pure; 1t
would inspire us with the courage we need in
order to keep true to ourselves and work out the
work God gave us. Emerson says. "Tis pitt
full the things by which we are rich or poor-a
matter of coins coats, and carpets, a little more
or less stone or wood or paint, the fashion Of
cloak or hat; like the luck OF naked Indians,
of whom one is proud in the possession of
glass bead or red feather and the rest misera-
Bile in the want of it," Suppose instead we
have a new fashion, and get proud because of
what, as men, we grow into; get miserable
only at short sighted short comings, and throw
the whole energies of life,--energies above all
despairs,- bringing out and bringing up
the man in US. think we want that right and
righteous self-respect which will not let us
look with longing at other mems positions or
attainings, but will compel us to look to our
own, to remember our own man gift and work
out our own manhood, and make US make the
most of ourselves. And as for all the rest, all
that may be hung about us in this or that
sphere or caste, why the best thing is Burns
song


''The honest man though e'er poor


Is king o. men for a that"


No doubt these are times of social urest
Abroad it crops out in wars, and threatens
future commissions. At home it is a low, rum
BILE and mutter with now and then an earth
quake shake, as if some great Promethsus
struggled with his chain. 1t speaks out in
conventions, in strikes, in leagues, in unions,
ostensbly and probably to themselves based
on the great vexed problem of work and wages,
but as much on the as vexed problem of social
position. 1t is not a strife for the right of wage
only but for the right of manhood. That is
not the way by which the problem shall be
solved. Men must strike deeper and elsewhere,
strike at this fret for the baubles the world
holds out as its prizes strike out this envy and
ill-placed ambition; and respect the place and
gift of God, and there and with that work out
the work of destiny. There is something better
for man than to squander his days and powers
in the striving after that which however it
keeps its promise to the ear, breaks it to the
hope, and leaves us at last as he was left who
would fain fill himself with the husks the
swine did eat What does it add to aman that
he ride behind six borses that he be able to
control Brokers' boards and markets, rule men,
buy men, shine in assemblies, live before the
public, wear the fine apparel and the gold ring
men bow lowell enough where they are
honest, pleasant enough as side additions to
life, but as life's best, lifes ALL lfessum, ifes
crown, as the emptiness of vanity, adding
nothing to the man as the lack subtracts moth
ing from him. "The mans man for a. that"
and many rejoicing in these, proud in these,
powerful through these, stripped of them and
left to their stark manhood would not
find . pity, an employment, a friend
would be the commonest thing that crawls,
spurned and spit upon and alien. Strike
the blue blood out and what were many
minion before whom men do homage while
they envy his estate take the office, and what
is be who yesterday had voice in the fate of ma
tious /; lose your place with fashion and at what
price shall you be valued To the common herd,
undistinguished and forgotten, he descends who
loses the prestige external things have giveu, but
the man not held on high by these, the
man not centred in these, the man of selfpoise
and self-respect has that in him these touch not,
on which be stands and stands secure though
every thing beside have failed and faded. He is
a man for a. that


was struck with sentence in letter from
young man which received the other day
''One thing have learned here-no, moi learned
for knew it before, had better say has been
proved-and that is not to judge man by the
cut or material of his coat" | well remember
the time when judged that way, when | weigh
ed man by his social position, and how hard
have had to fight out of me the caste feeling
which is in my blood. And let me say-for one
can always afford to say the truth and the truth
is always better told-blood is not bad thing.
believe in it, 1t means something. ltamounts
to something. To certain but subordinate ex-
tent, man may rightly regard it. 1t is more
than the fluid in the blue veins. 1t is the subtle
eomethinU that senarates men individuals and