Chapter twenty nine. Right thinking and personality. Quote Whatever crushes individuality is despotism,
by whatever name it may be called. Unquote John Stuart Mill on liberty.
Quote. Right thinking fits for complete living by developing the power to appreciate
the beautiful in nature and art, power to think the true and to will
the good, power to live the life of thought and faith and hope and
love. Unquote NC. Schaffer, thinking and learning to think. The speaker's
most valuable possession is personality, That indefinable, imponderable, something which sums up
what we are and makes us different from others, That distinctive force of self,
which operates appreciably on those whose lives we touch. It is personality alone
that makes us long for higher things, rob us of our sense of individual
life, with its gains and losses, its duties and joys, and we
grovel. Quote. Few human creatures, said John Stuart Mill, will consent
to be changed into any of the lower animals for a promise of the fullest
allowance of a beast's pleasures. No intelligent human being would consent to be a
fool. No instructed person would be an ignoramus, No person of feeling and
conscience would be selfish and base, even though he should be persuaded that the
fall, or the dunce or the rascal is better satisfied with his lot than
they were theirs. It is better to be a human being dissatisfied than a
pig satisfied, better to be a Socrates dissatisfied than a fool satisfied. And
if the fall or the pig is of a different opinion, it is only
because they know only their own side of the question. The other party to
the comparison knows both sides unquote. Now it is precisely because the Socrates type
of person lives on the plan of right thinking and restrain, feeling and willing,
as he prefers his state to that of the animal. All that a
man is, all his happiness, his sorrow, his achievements, his failures,
his magnetism, his weakness, all are in an amazingly large measure,
the direct results of his thinking, thought, and heart combine to produce right
thinking. As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he as he
does not think in his heart, so he can never become. Since this
is true, personality can be developed and its latent powers brought out by careful
cultivation. We have long since ceased to believe that we're living in a realm
of chance, so clear and exact a nature's laws that we forecast scores of
years in advance the appearance of a certain comet, and foretell to the minute
an eclipse of the sun. And we understand this law of cause and effect
in all our material realms. We do not plant potatoes and expect to pluck
hyacinths. The law is universal. It applies to our mental powers, to
morality, to personality, quite as much as to the heavenly bodies and the
grain of the fields. Whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap,
and nothing else. Character has always been regarded as one of the chief factors
of the speaker's power. Cato defined the orator as were bonus stichendi peritus,
a good man skilled in speaking. Phillips Brooks says, quote, nobody can
truly stand as an utterer before the world unless he be profoundly living and earnestly
thinking une quote. Character, says Emerson, is a natural power, like
light and heat, and all nature cooperates with it. The reason why we
feel one man's presence and do not feel another's is as simple as gravity.
Truth is the summit of being, justice as the application of it to affairs.
All individual natures stand in a scale according to the purity of this element
in them. The will of the pure runs down into other natures as water
runs down from the higher into a lower vessel. This natural force is no
more to be withstood than any other natural force. Character is nature in the
highest form. Unquote, it is absolutely impossible for impure, bestial, and
selfish thoughts to blossom into loving and altruistic habits. Thistle seeds bring forth only
the thistle. Contrariwise, it is entirely impossible for continual, altruistic, sympathetic,
and serviceful thoughts to bring forth a low and vicious character. Either thoughts
or feelings proceed and determine all our actions. Actions develop into habits. Habits
constitute character, and character determines destiny. Therefore, to guard our thoughts and
control our feelings is to shape our destinies. The syllogism is complete and old.
As it is, it is still true. Since character is nature in
the highest form, the development of character must proceed on natural lines. The
garden left to itself will bring forth weeds and scrawny plants, but the flower
beds, nurtured carefully will blossom into fragrance and beauty. As the student enter
in college largely determines his vacation by choosing from the different courses of the curriculum,
so do we choose our characters by choosing our thoughts, with deadly going
up toward that which we most wish for, or steadily sinking to the level
of our low desires. What we secretly cherish in our hearts is a symbol
of what we shall receive. Our trains of thoughts are hurrying us on to
our destiny. When you see the flag fluttering to the south, you know
the wind is coming from the north. Or when you see the straws and
papers being carried to the northward, you realize the wind is blowing out of
the south. It is just as easy to ascertain a man's thoughts by observing
the tendency of his character. Let it not be suspected for one moment that
all this is merely a preachment on the question of morals. It is that,
but much more, for it touches the whole man, his imaginative nature,
his ability to control his feelings, the mastery of his thinking faculties,
and perhaps most largely, his power to will and to carry his volition into
effective action. Right thinking constantly assumes that the will sits enthroned to execute the
dictates of mind, conscience, and heart. Never tolerate for an instant suggestion
that your will is not absolutely efficient. The way of will is to will.
And the very first time you attempted to break a worthy resolution, and
you will be You may be certain of that. Make your fight then and
there. You cannot afford to lose that fight. You must win it.
Don't swerve for an instant, but keep that resolution. If it kills you,
it will not. But you must fight, just as though life depended
on the victory. And indeed your personality may actually lie in the balances.
Your success or failure as a speaker will be determined very largely by your thoughts
and your mental attitude. The present writer had a student of limited education enter
one of his classes in public speaking. He proved to be a very poor
speaker, and the instructor could conscientiously do little but point out faults. However,
the young man was warned not to be discouraged with sorrow in his voice,
and the essence of earnestness beaming from his eyes. He replied, I
will not be discouraged. I want so badly to know how to speak.
It was warm, human and from the very heart, and he did keep
on trying and developed into a creditable speaker. There is no power under the
stars that can defeat a man with that attitude. He who down in the
deeps of his heart earnestly longs to get facility in speaking, and is willing
to make the sacrifices necessary, will reach his goal. Ask and ye shall
receive, Seek and ye shall find. Knock and it shall be opened unto
you is indeed applicable to those who would acquire speech power. You will not
realize the prize that you wish for languidly, but the goal that you start
out to attain, with the spirit of the old guard that dies but never
surrenders, you will surely reach. Your belief in your ability and your willingness
to make sacrifices for that belief are the double index to your future achievements.
Lincoln had a dream of his possibilities as a speaker. He transmuted that dream
into life solely because he walked many miles to borrow books, which he read
by the log fire glow at night. He sacrificed much to realize his vision.
Livingstone had a great faith in his ability to serve the benighted races of
Africa. To actualize that faith, he gave up all, leaving England for
the interior of the dark continent. He struck the death blows to Europe's prophet
from the slave trade, Joan of Arc had great self confidence, glorified by
an infinite pacity to sacrifice. She drove the English beyond the Loire and stood
beside Charles while he was crowned. These all realize their strongest desires. The
law is universal. Desire greatly, and you shall achieve sacrifice much, and
you shall obtain Stanton Davis Kirkham has beautifully expressed this thought quote. You may
be keeping accounts, and presently you shall walk out of the door that has
so long seemed to you the barrier of your ideals, and shall find yourself
before an audience, the pens still behind your ear, the ink stains on
your fingers, And then and there shall pour out the torrent of your inspiration.
You may be driving sheep, and you shall wander to the city,
bucolic and open mouthed, shall wander under the intrepid guidance of the spirit,
into the studio of the Master. And after a time he shall say,
I have nothing more to teach you, And now you have become the master
who did so recently dream of great things while driving sheep. You shall lay
down the sore and the plane to take upon yourself the regeneration of the world.
Unquote. Questions and exercises. One, what, in your own words
is personality? Two? How does personality and a speaker affect you as a
listener? Three? In what ways does personality show itself in a speaker?
Four? Deliver a short speech on the power of will in the public speaker.
Five Deliver a short address based on any sentence you choose from this chapter.
End of section twenty nine.