The Investment of Influence: A Study of Social Sympathy and ServiceHillis, Newell Dwight
Philosophy
The Investment of Influence: A Study of Social Sympathy and Service
Hillis, Newell Dwight
Conduct of life
Because the law of sacrifice is the law of the Savior, man gains life
through death and renown through self-renunciation.
THE GENTLENESS OF TRUE GIANTHOOD.
"A gentleman's first characteristic is that fineness of structure in
the body which renders it capable of the most delicate sensation; and
of structure in the mind which renders it capable of the most delicate
sympathies--one may say, simply 'fineness of nature.' This is, of
course, compatible with heroic bodily strength and mental firmness, in
fact, heroic strength is not conceivable without such delicacy.
Elephantine strength may drive its way through a forest and feel no
touch of the boughs, but the white skin of Homer's Atrides would have
felt a bent rose leaf, yet subdue its feeling in glow of battle, and
behave itself like iron. I do not mean to call an elephant a vulgar
animal, but if you think about him carefully you will find that his
non-vulgarity consists in such gentleness as is possible to elephantine
nature, not in his insensitive hide, nor in his clumsy foot, but in the
way he will lift his foot if a child lies in his way and in his
sensitive trunk, and still more sensitive mind, and capability of pique
on points of honor. Hence it will follow that one of the probable
signs of high-breeding in men generally will be their kindness and
mercifulness."--_Modern Painters_.
CHAPTER IX.
THE GENTLENESS OF TRUE GIANTHOOD.
History has never known another such an enthusiasm for a hero as the
multitude once felt toward Jesus Christ. There have indeed been times
when such patriots as Garibaldi, Kossuth and Lincoln have kindled in
men an enthusiasm akin to adoration and worship. Yet let us hasten to
confess that the qualities calculated to quicken men into raptures of
devotion appeared in these patriots only in fragmentary form, while
they dwelt in Christ in full-orbed majesty and splendor. The welcome
Chicago gave to Grant upon his return from his journey around the
world; the enthusiasm excited by Kossuth when in 1851 he drove through
Broadway, New York; the wave of gratitude that swept over the Italian
multitude when Garibaldi appeared in Florence--all these are events
that bear witness to society's devotion to its patriots and heroes.
But, be it remembered, these scenes occurred but once in the history of
each of these great men.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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