Youth: Its Education, Regimen, and HygieneHall, G. Stanley (Granville Stanley)
Science
Youth: Its Education, Regimen, and Hygiene
Hall, G. Stanley (Granville Stanley)
Adolescence; Children -- Health and hygiene; Educational psychology
Perhaps nothing is more opposed to the idea of a gentleman than the
_sæva animi tempestas_ [Fierce tempest of the soul] of anger. A testy,
quarrelsome, mucky humor is antisocial, and an outburst of rage is
repulsive. Even non-resistance, turning the other cheek, has its
victories and may be a method of moral combat. A strong temper well
controlled and kept in leash makes a kinetic character; but in view of
bullying, unfair play, cruel injustice to the weak and defenseless, of
outrageous wrong that the law can not reach, patience and forbearance
may cease to be virtues, and summary redress may have a distinct
advantage to the ethical nature of man and to social order, and the
strenuous soul must fight or grow stagnant or flabby. If too
repressed, righteous indignation may turn to sourness and sulks, and
the disposition be spoiled. Hence the relief and exhilaration of an
outbreak that often clears the psychic atmosphere like a thunderstorm,
and gives the "peace that passeth understanding" so often dilated on
by our correspondents. Rather than the abject fear of making enemies
whatever the provocation, I would praise those whose best title of
honor is the kind of enemies they make. Better even an occasional nose
dented by a fist, a broken bone, a rapier-scarred face, or even
sometimes the sacrifice of the life of one of our best academic youth
than stagnation, general cynicism and censoriousness, bodily and
psychic cowardice, and moral corruption, if this indeed be, as it
sometimes is, its real alternative.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account