Character and Conduct

Part 1

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CHARACTER AND CONDUCT

SIR E. J. POYNTER, BART., P.R.A.

This picture represents a Roman Guard on duty at one of the palaces during the destruction of Herculanaeum, who, although he might perhaps have made his escape prefers to remain at his post, faithful unto death.]

CHARACTER AND CONDUCT

A Book of Helpful Thoughts by Great Writers of Past and Present Ages

Selected and Arranged for Daily Reading by the Author of "Being And Doing"

With a Frontispiece by Sir E. J. Poynter, Bart., P.R.A.

Liverpool Henry Young & Sons London Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent & Co. Ltd. 1905 First Edition, 2000 copies, printed November 1904 Second Edition, 1000 copies, printed December 1904

E. K.

"It is more men that the world wants, not more systems. It is character that our modern life waits for, to redeem and transform it; and conduct as the fruitage of character."

The Citizen in his Relation to the Industrial Situation, BISHOP POTTER.

PREFACE

This collection of noble thoughts expressed by men and women of past and present ages who have endeavoured to leave the world a little better than they found it, is similar in arrangement and purpose to my former volume "Being and Doing"; and has been compiled at the request of several readers who have found that book helpful.

It is obvious that without the kindly co-operation of many authors and publishers such books could not exist, and I tender sincere and hearty thanks to those who have made the work possible. All have treated me with unfailing courtesy and generosity.

Where I have occasionally used short quotations without permission I ask forgiveness.

It would be impossible to name separately each one to whom I am a grateful debtor, so special mention must only be made of the more heavily taxed, and of those who have asked for a formal acknowledgment, namely:--

The Literary Executors of the late Mr. Ruskin, per Mr. George Allen, for extracts from Mr. Ruskin's works.

Mr. Edward Arnold for those from Red Pottage, by Mary Cholmondeley.

Canon Barnett for those from The Service of God.

Messrs. Deighton Bell & Co. for those from Pastor Pastorum, by the Rev. Henry Latham.

Mr. James Drummond for those from the writings of Professor Henry Drummond.

Messrs. Kegan Paul, Trench, Truebner & Co. for those from Sir Edwin Arnold's Light of Asia.

Miss May Kendall for those from Turkish Bonds, &c.

Messrs. Longmans, Green & Co. for those from the works of Bishop Paget, and from Canon MacColl's Here and Hereafter.

Part 2

Professor MacCunn for those from The Making of Character.

Messrs. Macmillan & Co. for those from the works of Bishop Westcott, Mrs. Bernard Bosanquet; Tennyson's Poems; from the present Lord Tennyson's Life of his father; from the Mettle of the Pasture, by James Lane Allen; and from Mrs. Humphry Ward's translation of Amiel's Journal.

Messrs. Methuen & Co. for one from the Life of R. L. Stevenson.

Mr. Lloyd Osbourne for those from R. L. Stevenson's works.

Messrs. Wells, Gardner, Darton & Co. for those from Bishop Winnington Ingram's Under the Dome and Friends of the Master.

Dr. John Watson for those from his writings.

Permission was kindly given me before by Messrs. Macmillan to quote from the works of the late Archbishop Temple and of Matthew Arnold. By Messrs. Smith, Elder & Co. for quotations from Robert Browning. By Mr. C. Lewes for quotations from George Eliot; and from Lord Avebury and the Rev. Stopford Brooke for those from their works.

In my experience the reading of extracts often leads to the reading of the books from which they were taken, and I hope and believe many of these gleanings will serve as introductions.

CONSTANCE M. WHISHAW.

SUNNY BANK, ARNSIDE, CARNFORTH.

New Year's Day

JANUARY 1

"Here you stand at the parting of the ways; some road you are to take; and as you stand here, consider and know how it is that you intend to live. Carry no bad habits, no corrupting associations, no enmities and strifes into this New Year. Leave these behind, and let the Dead Past bury its Dead; leave them behind, and thank God that you are able to leave them."

EPHRAIM PEABODY.

"WOULD'ST shape a noble life? Then cast No backward glances toward the past, And though somewhat be lost and gone, Yet do thou act as one new-born; What each day needs, that shalt thou ask, Each day will set its proper task."

GOETHE.

"No aim is too high, no task too great, no sin too strong, no trial too hard for those who patiently and humbly rest upon God's grace: who wait on Him that He may renew their strength."

Faculties and Difficulties for Belief and Disbelief, BISHOP PAGET.

Purpose

JANUARY 2

"You did not come into this world by chance, you were not born by accident. You all came charged with a mission to use your best efforts to extend the frontier of your Master's Kingdom by purifying your own hearts and leavening for good the hearts of all who come within the sphere of your influence. Your business here is not to enjoy yourselves in those fleeting pleasures which perish in the using; not to sip as many dainties as you can from the moments as they fly; not to gather as many flowers as you can pluck from the garden of this perishing earth; not even to rest in the enjoyment of those nobler delights which come from the exercise of the intellect in the investigation of the works of God and man; but rather to do your best to fit yourselves and others for the new heavens and new earth, which God has prepared for those who love Him."

Life Here and Hereafter, CANON MACCOLL.

"Do not despise your situation; in it you must act, suffer, and conquer. From every point on earth we are equally near to heaven and to the infinite."

Amiel's Journal.

A Noble Life

JANUARY 3

"A man's greatness lies not in wealth and station, as the vulgar believe, nor yet in his intellectual capacity, which is often associated with the meanest moral character, the most abject servility to those in high places, and arrogance to the poor and lowly; but a man's true greatness lies in the consciousness of an honest purpose in life, founded on a just estimate of himself and everything else, on frequent self-examination, and a steady obedience to the rule which he knows to be right, without troubling himself about what others may think or say, or whether they do or do not do that which he thinks and says and does."

GEORGE LONG.

Part 3

"Whether a life is noble or ignoble depends not on the calling which is adopted, but on the spirit in which it is followed."

The Pleasures of Life, LORD AVEBURY.

"Every noble life leaves the fibre of itself interwoven for ever in the work of the world."

TRENCH.

Holiness

JANUARY 4

"Jesus and His Apostles teach that the supreme success of life is not to escape pain but to lay hold on righteousness, not to possess but to be holy, not to get things from God but to be like God. They were ever bidding Christians beware of ease, ever rousing them to surrender and sacrifice."

The Potter's Wheel, DR. JOHN WATSON.

"The end of life is not to deny self, nor to be true, nor to keep the Ten Commandments--it is simply to do God's will. It is not to get good nor be good, nor even to do good--it is just what God wills, whether that be working or waiting, or winning or losing, or suffering or recovering, or living or dying."

The Ideal Life, HENRY DRUMMOND.

"Do not act as if thou wert going to live ten thousand years. Death hangs over thee. While thou livest, while it is in thy power, be good."

MARCUS AURELIUS.

The Power of the Holy Spirit

JANUARY 5

"We are haunted by an ideal life, and it is because we have within us the beginning and the possibility of it."

PHILLIPS BROOKS.

"The power of the Holy Spirit!--an everlasting spiritual presence among men. What but that is the thing we want? That is what the old oracles were dreaming of, what the modern Spiritualists tonight are fumbling after. The power of the Holy Ghost, by which every man who is in doubt may know what is right, every man whose soul is sick may be made spiritually whole, every weak man may be made a strong man,--that is God's one sufficient answer to the endless appeal of man's spiritual life; that is God's one great response to the unconscious need of spiritual guidance, which He hears crying out of the deep heart of every man.--I hope that I have made clear to you what I mean. I would that we might understand ourselves, see what we might be; nay, see what we are. While you are living a worldly and a wicked life, letting all sacred things go, caring for no duty, serving no God, there is another self, your possibility, the thing that you might be, the thing that God gave you a chance to be."

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