A Man's Value to Society: Studies in Self Culture and CharacterHillis, Newell Dwight
Philosophy
A Man's Value to Society: Studies in Self Culture and Character
Hillis, Newell Dwight
Character; Self-culture
Two great principles run through all society. First comes the
principle of self-care and self-love. Each man is given charge of his
own body and life. By foresight he is to guard against danger. By
self-defense he is to ward off attack. By fulfilling the instincts for
food, for work and rest he is to maintain the integrity of his being.
Upon each individual rests the solemn obligation to make the most
possible of himself, and to store up resources of knowledge and
virtue, of friendship and heart treasure. But when a man has treated
his reason as a granary and stored it with food, his memory as a
gallery, and filled it with pictures of a beautiful past, his reason
and will as armories, and stored them with weapons against the day of
battle, then a second principle asserts itself. Responsible for his
own growth and happiness, man is made equally responsible for the
happiness and welfare of those about him. By so much as he has secured
his own personal enrichment, by that much he is bound to secure the
enrichment and social advantage of his fellows. To love one's self at
the expense of one's fellows is for selfness to become malignancy. To
love one's neighbors more than one's self is foolishness and
self-destruction.
Whatever of value the individual has, comes from fidelity to the first
of these principles. Self-love working toward reason makes a man a
scholar; working toward his imagination, makes him artist and
inventor; working toward his gift of speech, makes him an orator;
working with pride makes him self-reliant and self-sufficing. And when
the principle of love for others asserts itself, this love, working
toward poverty, transforms man into a philanthropist; working toward
iniquity, makes man a reformer; working toward freedom, makes him a
patriot and a hero; working toward God, makes him a saint and a seer.
The new astronomy makes much of the three cosmic laws. Our earth, by a
form of self-love called molecular attraction, ceases to be scattered
dust, and takes on the shape of a rich and beautiful planet. But
self-loved, our earth is also sun-loved, and drawn by invisible bands
it is swept forward out of winter into summer. Then enters in a third
principle, by which Neptune and Uranus, lying upon the edge of space,
seek fellowship with our planet and hold it at a fixed distance from
the sun's fierce heat. Thus self-love has given the earth
individuality, the love of other planets secures stability, while the
sun's love gives movement and wealth. Working together, these three
principles secure the harmony and stability of the planetary world.
Similarly, each individual is part of a great social system. Each
moves forward under the embrace of three laws, called love to God,
love to neighbor, and love to self. Upon obedience to these laws rests
all social wealth and civilization.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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