A Man's Value to Society - Studies in Self Culture and Character

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Publié par	unto
Publié le	08 décembre 2010
Nombre de lectures	33
Langue	English

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Project Gutenberg's A Man's Value to Society, by Newell Dwight Hillis
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Title: A Man's Value to Society
Studies in Self Culture and Character
Author: Newell Dwight Hillis
Release Date: May 19, 2009 [EBook #28875]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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For a complete list, please see the
end of this document.A Man's Value to Society
By NEWELL DWIGHT HILLIS
Eighth Edition
GREAT BOOKS AS LIFE-TEACHERS
STUDIES OF CHARACTER, REAL AND IDEAL
12mo, cloth, gilt top, $1.50
Nineteenth Edition
THE INVESTMENT OF INFLUENCE
A STUDY OF SOCIAL SYMPATHY AND SERVICE
12mo, vellum, gilt top, $1.25
Eighteenth Edition
A MAN'S VALUE TO SOCIETY
STUDIES IN SELF-CULTURE AND CHARACTER
12mo, vellum, gilt-top, $1.25
Tenth Edition
FORETOKENS OF IMMORTALITY
STUDIES FOR "THE HOUR WHEN THE
IMMORTAL HOPE
BURNS LOW IN THE HEART"
Long 16mo, 50 cents; art binding, gilt top,
boxed, 75 cents
Eighth Edition
HOW THE INNER LIGHT FAILED
A STUDY OF THE ATROPHY OF THE SPIRITUAL
SENSE
Quiet Hour Series, 18mo, cloth, 25 cents
BOOKLETS
Right Living as a Fine Art
A study of Channing's Symphony, 12mo,
50 cents.The Master of the Science of Right Living
12mo, 50 cents, net.
Across the Continent of the Years
16mo, 25 cents, net.
A Man's Value to Society
Studies in Self-Culture
and Character
Newell Dwight Hillis
Author of "The Investment of Influence," "Foretokens
of Immortality," etc.
"Spread wide thy mantle while the gods rain gold."
—FROM THE PERSIAN.
TWENTY-FIFTH EDITION
Chicago New York Toronto
Fleming H. Revell Company
MCMIICopyright, 1896, by
Fleming H. Revell Company
Copyright, 1897, by
Fleming H. Revell Company
TO MY WIFE
CONTENTS
Chap. Page
The Elements of Worth in the
I 9Individual
Character: Its Materials and
II 33
External Teachers
III Aspirations and Ideals 55
IV The Physical Basis of Character 77
The Mind and the Duty of Right
V 99
Thinking
VI The Moral Uses of Memory 123
The Imagination as the ArchitectVII 143
of Manhood
VIII The Enthusiasm of Friendship 165
IX Conscience and Character 189
X Visions that Disturb Contentment 213
XI The Uses of Books and Reading 235
XII The Science of Living with Men 259
XIII The Revelators of Character 281
XIV Making the Most of One's Self 301
Index The Elements of Worth in the Individual
"There is nothing that makes men rich and strong but
that which they carry inside of them. Wealth is of the
heart, not of the hand."—John Milton.
"Until we know why the rose is sweet or the dew drop
pure, or the rainbow beautiful, we cannot know why the
poet is the best benefactor of society. The soldier fights
for his native land, but the poet touches that land with
the charm that makes it worth fighting for and fires the
warrior's heart with energy invincible. The statesman
enlarges and orders liberty in the state, but the poet
fosters the core of liberty in the heart of the citizen. The
inventor multiplies the facilities of life, but the poet
makes life better worth living."—George Wm. Curtis.
"Not all men are of equal value. Not many Platos:
only one, to whom a thousand lesser minds look up
and learn to think. Not many Dantes: one, and a
thousand poets tune their harps to his and repeat his
notes. Not many Raphaels: one, and no second. But a
thousand lesser artists looking up to him are lifted to his
level. Not many royal hearts—great magazines of
kindness. Happy the town blessed with a few great
minds and a few great hearts. One such citizen will
civilize an entire community."—H.
[9]I
TOCThe Elements of Worth in the Individual
Our scientific experts are investigating the wastes of society. Their reports
indicate that man is a great spendthrift. He seems not so much a husbandman,
making the most of the treasures of his life-garden, as a robber looting a
storehouse for booty.
Travelers affirm that one part of the northern pineries has been wasted by
man's careless fires and much of the rest by his reckless axe. Coal experts
insist that a large percentage of heat passes out of the chimney. The new
chemistry claims that not a little of the precious ore is cast upon the slag heap.
In the fields the farmers overlook some ears of corn and pass by some
handfuls of wheat. In the work-room the scissors leave selvage and remnant. In
the mill the saw and plane refuse slabs and edges. In the kitchen a part of what
the husband carries in, the wife's wasteful cooking casts out. But the secondary
[10]wastes involve still heavier losses. Man's carelessness in the factory breaks
delicate machinery, his ignorance spoils raw materials, his idleness burns out
boilers, his recklessness blows up engines; and no skill of manager in juggling
figures in January can retrieve the wastes of June.
Passing through the country the traveler finds the plow rusting in the furrow,
mowers and reapers exposed to rain and snow; passing through the city he
sees the docks lined with boats, the alleys full of broken vehicles, while the
streets exhibit some broken-down men. A journey through life is like a journey
along the trackway of a retreating army; here a valuable ammunition wagon is
abandoned because a careless smith left a flaw in the tire; there a brass
cannon is deserted because a tug was improperly stitched; yonder a brave
soldier lies dying in the thicket where he fell because excited men forgot the
use of an ambulance. What with the wastes of intemperance and ignorance, of
idleness and class wars, the losses of society are enormous. But man's
prodigality with his material treasures does but interpret his wastefulness of the
greater riches of mind and heart. Life's chief destructions are in the city of man's
soul. Many persons seem to be trying to solve this problem: "Given a soul
[11]stored with great treasure, and three score and ten years for happiness and
usefulness, how shall one kill the time and waste the treasure?" Man's pride
over his casket stored with gems must be modified by the reflection that daily
his pearls are cast before swine, that should have been woven into coronets.
Man's evident failure to make the most out of his material life suggests a
study of the elements in each citizen that make him of value to his age and
community. What are the measurements of mankind, and why is it that daily
some add new treasures to the storehouse of civilization, while others take from
and waste the store already accumulated? These are questions of vital import.
Many and varied estimates of man's value have been made. Statisticians
reckon the average man's value at $600 a year. Each worker in wood, iron or
brass stands for an engine or industrial plant worth $10,000, producing at 6 per
cent. an income of $600. The death of the average workman, therefore, is
equivalent to the destruction of a $10,000 mill or engine. The economic loss
through the non-productivity of 20,000 drunkards is equal to one Chicago fire
involving two hundred millions. Of course, some men produce less and others
[12]more than $600 a year; and some there are who have no industrial value—non-
producers, according to Adam Smith; paupers, according to John Stuart Mill;
thieves, according to Paul, who says, "Let him that stole steal no more, butrather work." In this group let us include the tramps, who hold that the world
owes them a living; these are they who fail to realize that society has given
them support through infancy and childhood; has given them language,
literature, liberty. Wise men know that the noblest and strongest have received
from society a thousandfold more than they can ever repay, though they vex all
the days and nights with ceaseless toil. In this number of non-sufficing persons
are to be included the paupers—paupers plebeian, supported in the poorhouse
by many citizens; paupers patrician, supported in palace by one citizen,
generally father or ancestor; the two classes differing in that one is the foam at
the top of the glass and the other the dregs at the bottom. To these two groups
let us add the social parasites, represented by thieves, drunkards, and persons
of the baser sort whose business it is to trade in human passion. We revolt from
the red aphides upon the plant, the caterpillar upon the tree, the vermin upon
bird or beast. How much more do we revolt from those human vermin whose
[13]business it is to propagate parasites upon the body politic! The condemnation
of life is that a man consumes more than he produces, taking out of society's
grana