5/17/2023 0 Comments Majesty 2 mortal foibles![]() ![]() He works his work he sows his seed but he never sees the harvest. Hence it often happens that as long as he lives he sees no signs of success. Even when he is following the deep current, which none but himself is deep enough to feel, he will be stemming all the shallower currents which bear on their surface those that are living in his day. He will be aiming at that which is to last for centuries but he will find straight in his path the passing passions of the day, roused to fiercer enmity by their own shallowness. For he will be sure to meet with such obstacles as none but leaders ever meet. To this large soul he must add deep convictions. He has room in his heart for many interests, for many impulses, for many aims and he has that within him that shall comprehend and reconcile them all into one great purpose.Ģ. In the great man all that is narrow and confined to himself is overpowered by what is large, what is shared and felt by thousands beside. This is the necessary condition of his being able to take the lead. He must have a large mind to take in, and feel in full force the truths or the impulses which are dimly and dumbly moving in the minds of his fellow-men. Such a man will be sure to be marked with these characteristics he will have a large mind, a strong conviction, and a firm will.ġ. A great man is he who stands out from others, not for some accidental difference, but for something which makes others follow his lead, acknowledge his power, accept his teachings, admire his course. Nor, again, do we call a man great for exceeding goodness, if he have nothing in him which makes that goodness a guide, and not merely a reverenced wonder to his fellows. We do not call a man great simply for cleverness, nor for worldly success, the fruit of cleverness. ![]() Without any argument we feel at once that the hero and the saint belong to different spheres, the hero to nature, the saint to religion the hero to the earth, the saint to heaven if we examine what sort of a man we call great, we shall always find that it is one who leads his fellow-men. To name these two together is at once to put the one far above the other. The witnesses that God has set before the eyes of men are twofold, the witness of greatness and the witness of goodness, the witness of the hero and the witness of the saint.
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