Living the Radiant Life: A Personal NarrativeJames, George Wharton
Religion
Living the Radiant Life: A Personal Narrative
James, George Wharton
Conduct of life
There are few, if any, human beings in the world who radiate only evil,
or, on the other hand, only good. Man is a _human_ being, not divine.
Humanity implies a lower stage than divinity, and whether what we call
evil be but manifestations of the imperfect and incomplete, or
deliberate wrong choice for which one is personally responsible, we are
all compelled to admit that there are few people with whom we meet who
radiate toward us and all others only that which is good. Sometimes
these "not good" radiancies have no immoral intent in them, though they
produce bad results.
For instance, it is a well-known fact that many a man is driven to
drunkenness by an unhappy home life, yet probably no member of the
household has the deliberate intention of producing such a result. It
may be that he is equally to blame for the conditions in his home, for
all are imperfect, yet if the appetite for drink has been formed, or
environment supplies great temptation, the complaints, taunts, or anger
of his unhappy family do not increase his powers of resistance, but
rather weaken them. There are men, also, who frankly confess to a
reckless impulse to do wrong whenever they come under any very
depressing influence. It may be true that some peculiarity of
temperament renders them liable to be thrown out of mental balance.
There may be inherent weakness, or hereditary tendency, which renders
them unusually susceptible to depressing radiancies, but the results are
just as deplorable.
Doubtless many a woman, too, warped and twisted out of normal conditions
by disappointment, ill-treatment, and mental suffering, becomes a
tongue-lasher, goes to the bad, or commits suicide, when different
influences and environment would have saved her from such consequences.
There may not seem to be any immorality in the nagging of a husband, or
a wife, or a parent, yet the persistent nagging of some person, whose
intent was only good, has produced direful effects in various ways.
These and a thousand other tendencies of the human being point to our
present imperfection or subjugation to error, out of which we must rise.
_I know a poet._ His words have thrilled millions to a nobler and better
life. His pen has never incited to a mean or ignoble thought or action;
it has always written high and noble truth--peace, good will to men, the
dignity of labor, the joy of helping, the blessing of purity, the
never-failing help of God--and yet in his personal life he sometimes
radiates the degradation of drunkenness and the awfulness of impurity.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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