1 00:00:00,200 --> 00:00:05,799 Sympathy. The remaining pillars are the four central pillars in the temple of prosperity. 2 00:00:06,559 --> 00:00:10,640 They give it greater strength and stability, and add both to its beauty 3 00:00:10,679 --> 00:00:16,120 and utility. They contribute greatly to its attractiveness, for they belong to the 4 00:00:16,199 --> 00:00:22,120 highest moral sphere, and therefore to great beauty and nobility of character. They 5 00:00:22,160 --> 00:00:26,679 indeed make a man great, and place him among the comparatively few, whose 6 00:00:26,719 --> 00:00:33,799 minds are rare and that shine apart in sparkling purity and bright intelligence. Sympathy 7 00:00:33,799 --> 00:00:38,399 should not be confounded with that maudlin and superficial sentiment, which, like a 8 00:00:38,399 --> 00:00:44,560 pretty flower without root, presently perishes and leaves behind neither seed nor fruit. 9 00:00:45,439 --> 00:00:51,799 To fall into hysterics about some suffering abroad is not sympathy. Neither are bursts 10 00:00:51,840 --> 00:00:57,840 of violent indignation against the cruelties and injustices of others, any indication of a 11 00:00:57,880 --> 00:01:02,759 sympathetic mind. If if one is cruel at home, if he badgers his 12 00:01:02,880 --> 00:01:07,439 wife, or beats his children, or abuses his servants, or stabs his 13 00:01:07,480 --> 00:01:15,040 neighbors with shafts of bitter sarcasm, what hypocrisy is his profession of love for 14 00:01:15,159 --> 00:01:19,159 the suffering people. Who are outside the immediate range of his influence. What 15 00:01:19,319 --> 00:01:26,680 shallow sentiment informs his bursts of indignation against the injustice and hard heartedness in the 16 00:01:26,680 --> 00:01:32,599 world around him? Says Emerson, of such, go love, thy infant 17 00:01:33,159 --> 00:01:37,920 love, thy wood chopper, be good natured and modest, have that grace, 18 00:01:38,599 --> 00:01:42,560 and never varnish your hard, uncharitable ambition with this incredible tenderness. For 19 00:01:42,640 --> 00:01:48,640 black folk a thousand miles off, thy love afar is spite at home. 20 00:01:49,760 --> 00:01:53,319 The test of a man is in his immediate acts, not in ultra sentiments. 21 00:01:55,040 --> 00:01:59,959 And if those acts are consistently informed with selfishness and bitterness, if those 22 00:02:00,239 --> 00:02:04,920 at home hear his steps with dread and feel a joyful relief on his departure, 23 00:02:05,680 --> 00:02:10,039 how empty are his expressions of sympathy for the suffering or downtrodden. How 24 00:02:10,080 --> 00:02:15,680 futile his membership of a philanthropic society. Though the well of sympathy may feed 25 00:02:15,719 --> 00:02:21,560 the spring of tears, that spring more often draws its supply from the dark 26 00:02:21,599 --> 00:02:27,319 pool of selfishness, For when selfishness is thwarted, it spends itself in tears. 27 00:02:28,400 --> 00:02:32,319 Sympathy is a deep, silent, inexpressible tenderness which is shown in a 28 00:02:32,360 --> 00:02:38,680 consistently self forgetful, gentle character. Sympathetic people are not gushing and spasmodic, 29 00:02:39,360 --> 00:02:46,039 but are permanently self restrained, firm, quiet, unassuming, and gracious. 30 00:02:46,960 --> 00:02:52,960 Their undisturbed demure where the suffering of others is concerned, is frequently mistaken for 31 00:02:53,039 --> 00:02:59,680 indifference by shallow minds, but the sympathetic and discerning eye recognizes in their quiet 32 00:02:59,680 --> 00:03:05,360 strength and their swiftness to aid while others are weeping and wringing their hands the 33 00:03:05,400 --> 00:03:12,319 deepest, soundest sympathy. Lack of sympathy is shown in cynicism, ill natured 34 00:03:12,400 --> 00:03:19,639 sarcasm, bitter ridicule, taunting in mockery, and anger in condemnation, as 35 00:03:19,680 --> 00:03:23,120 well as in that morbid in faulse sentiment, which is a theoretical and assumes 36 00:03:23,159 --> 00:03:30,719 sympathy, having no basis in practice. Lack of sympathy arises in egotism. 37 00:03:30,479 --> 00:03:38,000 Sympathy arises in love. Egotism is involved in ignorance. Love is allied to 38 00:03:38,120 --> 00:03:43,199 knowledge. It is common with men to imagine themselves as separate from their fellows, 39 00:03:43,759 --> 00:03:47,439 with separate aims and interests, and to regard themselves as right and others 40 00:03:47,479 --> 00:03:53,080 wrong in their respective ways. Sympathy lifts a man above this separate and self 41 00:03:53,120 --> 00:03:58,840 centered life and enables him to live in the hearts of his fellows and to 42 00:03:58,919 --> 00:04:03,120 think and feel with them. He puts himself in their place and becomes, 43 00:04:03,199 --> 00:04:10,319 for the time being as they are, as witmen. The hospital hero expresses 44 00:04:10,360 --> 00:04:14,599 it, I do not ask the wounded person. It is a kind of 45 00:04:14,639 --> 00:04:19,959 impertinence to question a suffering creature. Suffering calls for aid and tenderness, not 46 00:04:20,040 --> 00:04:27,040 for curiosity, And the sympathetic man or woman feels the suffering and ministers to 47 00:04:27,079 --> 00:04:32,040 its alleviation. Nor can sympathy boast, And wherever self praise enters in, 48 00:04:32,519 --> 00:04:39,319 sympathy passes out. If one speaks of his many deeds of kindness and complains 49 00:04:39,360 --> 00:04:43,720 of the ill treatment he has received in return, he has not done kindly 50 00:04:43,800 --> 00:04:47,600 deeds, but has yet to reach that self forgetful modesty, which is the 51 00:04:47,639 --> 00:04:55,040 sweetness of sympathy. Sympathy, in its real and profound sense, is oneness 52 00:04:55,040 --> 00:05:00,079 with others in their strivings and sufferings, so that the man of sympathy he 53 00:05:00,160 --> 00:05:03,519 is a composite being. He is, as it were, a number of 54 00:05:03,600 --> 00:05:08,720 men, and he views a thing from a number of different sides, and 55 00:05:08,839 --> 00:05:13,680 not from one side only, and that his own particular side. He sees 56 00:05:13,720 --> 00:05:17,800 with other men's eyes, hears with their ears, thinks with their minds, 57 00:05:18,279 --> 00:05:24,040 and feels with their hearts. He is thus able to understand men who are 58 00:05:24,120 --> 00:05:28,680 vastly different from himself. The meaning of their lives is revealed to him, 59 00:05:29,439 --> 00:05:33,079 and he is united to them in the spirit of good will, said Balzac. 60 00:05:34,079 --> 00:05:39,519 The poor fascinate me. Their hunger is my hunger. I am with 61 00:05:39,639 --> 00:05:44,879 them in their homes their privations, I suffer, I feel the beggar's rags 62 00:05:44,959 --> 00:05:48,399 upon my back. I for the time become the poor and despised man. 63 00:05:49,560 --> 00:05:55,000 It reminds us of the saying of one greater than Balzac, that a deed 64 00:05:55,040 --> 00:05:59,680 done for a suffering little one was done for him. And so it is. 65 00:06:00,480 --> 00:06:03,560 Sympathy leads us to the hearts of all men, so that we become 66 00:06:03,639 --> 00:06:08,800 spiritually united to them. And when they suffer, we feel the pain. 67 00:06:09,480 --> 00:06:13,480 When they are glad, we rejoice with them. When they are despised and 68 00:06:13,560 --> 00:06:18,279 persecuted, We spiritually descend with them into the depths and take into our hearts 69 00:06:18,319 --> 00:06:25,199 their humiliation and distress. And he who has this binding, uniting spirit of 70 00:06:25,240 --> 00:06:30,600 sympathy can never be cynical and condemnatory, can never pass thoughtless and cruel judgments 71 00:06:30,720 --> 00:06:35,959 upon his fellows, because in his tenderness of heart he is ever with them 72 00:06:35,959 --> 00:06:41,920 in their pain. But to have reached this ripened sympathy, it must be 73 00:06:42,040 --> 00:06:46,000 that one has loved much, suffered much, and sounded the dark depths of 74 00:06:46,079 --> 00:06:53,680 sorrow. It springs from acquaintance with the profoundest experiences, so that a man 75 00:06:53,800 --> 00:07:00,560 has had conceit thoughtlessness and selfishness burnt out of his heart. No man can 76 00:07:00,560 --> 00:07:04,800 have true sympathy who has not been, in some measure at least a man 77 00:07:04,839 --> 00:07:11,519 of sorrows and acquainted with grief. But the sorrow and grief must have passed, 78 00:07:12,040 --> 00:07:16,360 must have ripened into a fixed kindness and habitual calm. To have suffered 79 00:07:16,399 --> 00:07:23,040 so much in a certain direction that suffering is finished and only its particular wisdom 80 00:07:23,079 --> 00:07:30,199 remains enables one wherever that suffering presents itself, to understand and deal with it 81 00:07:30,279 --> 00:07:34,839 by pure sympathy. And when one has been perfected by suffering in many directions, 82 00:07:35,519 --> 00:07:41,000 he becomes a center of rest and healing for the sorrowing and broken hearted 83 00:07:41,480 --> 00:07:46,240 who are afflicted with the afflictions which he has experienced and conquered. As a 84 00:07:46,319 --> 00:07:51,040 mother feels the anguish of her suffering child, so the man of sympathy feels 85 00:07:51,079 --> 00:07:57,720 the anguish of suffering men. Such is the highest and holiest sympathy. But 86 00:07:57,800 --> 00:08:01,920 a sympathy much less perfect, is a great power for good in human life, 87 00:08:01,360 --> 00:08:07,319 and a measure of it everywhere and every day is needed. While rejoicing 88 00:08:07,319 --> 00:08:11,680 in the fact that in every walk of life there are truly sympathetic people, 89 00:08:11,399 --> 00:08:18,639 one also perceives that harshness, resentment, and cruelty that are all too common. 90 00:08:18,600 --> 00:08:22,879 These hard qualities bring their own sufferings, and there are those who fail 91 00:08:22,879 --> 00:08:28,680 in their business or particular work entirely because of the harshness of their disposition. 92 00:08:30,720 --> 00:08:33,960 A man who is fiery and resentful, or who is hard, cold and 93 00:08:35,039 --> 00:08:39,120 calculating, with the springs of sympathy dried up within him, even though he 94 00:08:39,200 --> 00:08:46,200 be otherwise an able man, will in the end scarcely avoid disaster in his 95 00:08:46,279 --> 00:08:50,519 affairs. His heated folly in the one case, or cold cruelty in the 96 00:08:50,559 --> 00:08:56,879 other, will gradually isolate him from his fellows and from those who are immediately 97 00:08:56,919 --> 00:09:01,360 related to him. In his particular avocation, so that the elements of prosperity 98 00:09:01,399 --> 00:09:07,600 will be eliminated from his life, leaving him with a lonely failure and perhaps 99 00:09:07,600 --> 00:09:13,559 a hopeless despair. Even in ordinary business transactions, sympathy is an important factor, 100 00:09:15,279 --> 00:09:18,559 for people will always be attracted to those who are of a kindly and 101 00:09:18,679 --> 00:09:22,720 genial nature, preferring to deal with them rather than with those who are hard 102 00:09:22,759 --> 00:09:28,759 and forbidding. In all spheres where direct personal contact plays an important part, 103 00:09:30,120 --> 00:09:35,120 the sympathetic man with average ability will always take precedence of the man of greater 104 00:09:35,240 --> 00:09:39,919 ability, but who is unsympathetic. If a man be a minister of clergymen, 105 00:09:41,600 --> 00:09:46,960 a cruel laugh or an unkind sentence from him will seriously injure his reputation 106 00:09:46,120 --> 00:09:52,200 and influence, but particularly his influence, for even they who admire his good 107 00:09:52,279 --> 00:09:58,200 qualities will, through his unkindness, unconsciously have a lower regard for him in 108 00:09:58,240 --> 00:10:05,200 their personal lisaths. If a business man professes religion, people will expect to 109 00:10:05,240 --> 00:10:09,679 see the good influence of that religion on his business transactions. To profess to 110 00:10:09,679 --> 00:10:15,120 be a worshiper of the gentle Jesus on Sunday and all the rest of the 111 00:10:15,120 --> 00:10:20,240 week, be a hard grasping worshiper of Mammon, will injure his trade and 112 00:10:20,320 --> 00:10:26,320 detract considerably from his prosperity. Sympathy is a universal spiritual language which all, 113 00:10:26,600 --> 00:10:33,639 even the animals, instinctively understand and appreciate, For all beings and creatures are 114 00:10:33,679 --> 00:10:39,399 subject to suffering, and this sameness of painful experience leads to that unity of 115 00:10:39,480 --> 00:10:45,879 feeling which we call sympathy. Selfishness impels men to protect themselves at the expense 116 00:10:45,960 --> 00:10:50,519 of others, but sympathy impels them to protect others by the sacrifice of self. 117 00:10:52,480 --> 00:10:56,039 And in this sacrifice of self there is no real and ultimate loss. 118 00:10:56,759 --> 00:11:03,039 For while the pleasure of selfishness are small and few, the blessings of sympathy 119 00:11:03,200 --> 00:11:07,440 are great and manifold. It can be asked, how can a business man 120 00:11:07,879 --> 00:11:15,159 whose object is to develop his own trade practice self sacrifice? Every man can 121 00:11:15,200 --> 00:11:18,559 practice self sacrifice just where he is, and in the measure that he is 122 00:11:18,639 --> 00:11:24,840 capable of understanding it. If one contends that he cannot practice a virtue, 123 00:11:24,559 --> 00:11:31,679 for were his circumstances different, he would still have the same excuse. Diligence 124 00:11:31,679 --> 00:11:37,039 in business is not incompatible with self sacrifice for devotion to duty, even though 125 00:11:37,080 --> 00:11:43,519 that duty betrayed, is not selfishness, but may be an unselfish devotion. 126 00:11:43,759 --> 00:11:48,559 I knew a businessman who, when a competitor who had tried to cut him 127 00:11:48,600 --> 00:11:52,679 out of business, cut himself out and failed, set that same competitor up 128 00:11:52,720 --> 00:11:58,399 in business again. Truly a beautiful act of self sacrifice, and the man 129 00:11:58,440 --> 00:12:03,039 that did it is today one of the most successful and prosperous of business men. 130 00:12:03,840 --> 00:12:09,759 The most prosperous commercial traveler I have ever known was overflowing with exuberant kindness 131 00:12:09,799 --> 00:12:15,559 and geniality. He was as innocent of all tricks of trade as a newborn 132 00:12:15,639 --> 00:12:20,440 infant, but his great heart and manly uprightness won for him fast friends. 133 00:12:20,480 --> 00:12:26,080 Wherever he went, men were glad to see him come into their office or 134 00:12:26,159 --> 00:12:30,559 shop or mill, and not alone for the good, embracing influence he brought 135 00:12:30,559 --> 00:12:35,320 with him, but also because his business was sound and trustworthy. This man 136 00:12:35,440 --> 00:12:41,639 was successful through sheer sympathy, but sympathy so pure and free from policy that 137 00:12:41,759 --> 00:12:46,840 he himself would probably have denied that his success could be attributed to it. 138 00:12:48,120 --> 00:12:54,559 Sympathy can never hinder success. It is selfishness that blights and destroys. As 139 00:12:54,639 --> 00:13:01,559 good will increases, man's prosperity will increase. All interests are mutual and stand 140 00:13:01,639 --> 00:13:05,840 or fall together. And as sympathy expands the heart, it extends the circle 141 00:13:05,919 --> 00:13:13,080 of influence, making blessings, both spiritual and material, to more greatly abound. 142 00:13:13,360 --> 00:13:18,960 Fourfold are the qualities which make up the great virtue of sympathy, namely 143 00:13:18,679 --> 00:13:31,000 one kindness, two generosity, three gentleness, four insight. Kindness, when 144 00:13:31,039 --> 00:13:35,240 fully developed, is not a passing impulse, but a permanent quality. An 145 00:13:35,279 --> 00:13:41,879 intermittent and unreliable impulse is not kindness, though it often goes under that name. 146 00:13:41,600 --> 00:13:46,679 There is no kindness in praise if it be followed by abuse. The 147 00:13:46,759 --> 00:13:50,759 love which seems to prompt the spontaneous kiss will be of little account if it 148 00:13:50,799 --> 00:13:56,559 be associated with a spontaneous spite. The gift, which seems so gracious will 149 00:13:56,600 --> 00:14:03,159 lose its value, should the giver after wish its value in return. To 150 00:14:03,279 --> 00:14:07,039 have one's feelings aroused, to do a kind action toward another by some external 151 00:14:07,120 --> 00:14:13,519 stimulus, pleasing to oneself, and shortly afterwards to be swayed to the other 152 00:14:13,639 --> 00:14:20,039 extreme towards the same person by an external event unpleasing to oneself should be regarded 153 00:14:20,080 --> 00:14:24,039 as weakness of character. It is also a selfish condition to be thinking of 154 00:14:24,120 --> 00:14:31,840 oneself only. A true kindness is unchangeable and needs no external stimulus to force 155 00:14:31,879 --> 00:14:35,559 it into action. It is a well from which thirsty souls can always drink, 156 00:14:37,120 --> 00:14:41,279 and it never runs dry. Kindness, when it is a strong virtue, 157 00:14:41,799 --> 00:14:46,960 is bestowed not only on those who please us, but also upon those 158 00:14:46,960 --> 00:14:50,720 whose actions go contrary to our wish and will, and is a constant and 159 00:14:50,840 --> 00:14:56,159 never varying glow of genial warmth. There are some actions of which men repent, 160 00:14:58,000 --> 00:15:01,919 such are all unkind actions. There are other actions of which men do 161 00:15:01,960 --> 00:15:07,360 not repent, and such are all kind actions. The day comes when men 162 00:15:07,440 --> 00:15:11,200 are sorry for the cruel things they said and did, but the day of 163 00:15:11,240 --> 00:15:16,879 gladness is always with them for the kindly things they have said and done. 164 00:15:16,200 --> 00:15:22,039 Unkindness mars a man's character, It mars his face as time goes on, 165 00:15:22,919 --> 00:15:28,200 and it marks that perfection of success which he would otherwise reach. Kindness beautifies 166 00:15:28,200 --> 00:15:33,919 the character, It beautifies the face with the growth of years, and it 167 00:15:33,039 --> 00:15:39,600 enables a man to reach that perfection of success to which his intellectual abilities entitle 168 00:15:39,679 --> 00:15:45,600 him. A man's prosperity is mellowed and enriched by the kindness of his disposition. 169 00:15:46,840 --> 00:15:52,360 Generosity goes with a larger hearted kindness. If kindness be the gentle sister, 170 00:15:52,080 --> 00:15:58,120 generosity is the strong brother. A free, open handed, and magnanimous 171 00:15:58,240 --> 00:16:06,720 character is always attractive and influential. Stinginess and meanness always repel. They are 172 00:16:06,799 --> 00:16:12,159 dark, cramped, narrow and cold. Kindness and generosity always attract. They 173 00:16:12,200 --> 00:16:18,919 are sunny, genial, open and warm. That which repels makes for isolation 174 00:16:18,080 --> 00:16:25,879 and failure. That which attracts makes for union and success. Giving is as 175 00:16:25,919 --> 00:16:30,039 important a duty as getting, and he who gets all he can and refuses 176 00:16:30,080 --> 00:16:34,919 to give will at last be unable to get. For it is as much 177 00:16:34,919 --> 00:16:40,519 a spiritual law that we cannot get unless we give, as that we cannot 178 00:16:40,600 --> 00:16:45,639 give unless we get. Giving has always been taught as a great and important 179 00:16:45,720 --> 00:16:49,720 duty by all religious teachers. This is because giving is one of the highways 180 00:16:49,759 --> 00:16:55,120 of personal growth and progress. It is a means by which we attain to 181 00:16:55,200 --> 00:17:00,080 greater and greater unselfishness, and by which we prevent the falling back in to 182 00:17:00,240 --> 00:17:07,160 selfishness. It implies that we recognize our spiritual and social kinship with our fellow 183 00:17:07,240 --> 00:17:10,839 men, and are willing to part with a position of that which we have 184 00:17:10,920 --> 00:17:15,200 earned or possess. For a man who the more he gets, hungers for 185 00:17:15,319 --> 00:17:22,319 more still and refuses to loosen his grasp upon his accumulating store, like a 186 00:17:22,359 --> 00:17:26,599 wild beast with its prey, is retrogressing. He is shutting himself out from 187 00:17:26,599 --> 00:17:33,559 all the higher joy giving qualities and from free in life giving communion with unselfish, 188 00:17:33,920 --> 00:17:40,079 happy human hearts. Dickinson Scrooge in a Christmas Carol, represents the condition 189 00:17:40,200 --> 00:17:45,759 of such a man with graphic vividness and dramatic force. Our public men in 190 00:17:45,839 --> 00:17:51,640 England today, probably also in America, are nearly all I think I might 191 00:17:51,720 --> 00:17:56,480 say all, for I have not yet met an exception great givers. These 192 00:17:56,599 --> 00:18:03,960 men lord mayors, may magistrates, town and city councilors, and all men 193 00:18:04,039 --> 00:18:11,680 fulfilling responsible public offices. Being men who have been singularly successful in the management 194 00:18:11,680 --> 00:18:15,000 of their own private affairs, are considered the best men for the management of 195 00:18:15,039 --> 00:18:22,640 public affairs, and numerous noble institutions throughout the land are perpetual witnesses to the 196 00:18:22,720 --> 00:18:27,039 munificence of their gifts. Nor have I been able to find any substantial truth. 197 00:18:27,079 --> 00:18:33,640 And accusation so often hurled against such men by the envious and unsuccessful, 198 00:18:33,160 --> 00:18:38,599 that their riches are made unjustly. Without being perfect men. They are an 199 00:18:38,599 --> 00:18:45,240 honorable class of manly, vigorous, generous, and successful men who have acquired 200 00:18:45,359 --> 00:18:52,119 riches and honor by sheer, industry, ability, and uprightness. Let a 201 00:18:52,160 --> 00:18:56,279 man beware of greed, of meanness, of envy, of jealousy, of 202 00:18:56,319 --> 00:19:02,480 suspicion. For these things, if harbored, will rob him of all that 203 00:19:02,640 --> 00:19:07,759 is best in life, even all that is best in material things, as 204 00:19:07,799 --> 00:19:11,440 well as all that is best in character and happiness. Let him be liberal 205 00:19:11,480 --> 00:19:18,400 of heart and generous of hand, magnanimous and trusting, not only giving cheerfully 206 00:19:18,559 --> 00:19:22,319 and often of his substance, but allowing his friends and fellow men freedom of 207 00:19:22,359 --> 00:19:29,000 thought and action. Let him be thus, and honor, plenty and prosperity 208 00:19:29,519 --> 00:19:33,799 will come knocking at the door for admittance as his friends and guests. Gentleness 209 00:19:33,839 --> 00:19:38,720 is akin to divinity. Perhaps no quality is so far removed from all that 210 00:19:38,799 --> 00:19:44,240 is coarse, brutal, and selfish as gentleness, so that when one is 211 00:19:44,319 --> 00:19:48,640 becoming gentle, he is becoming divine. It can only be acquired after much 212 00:19:48,720 --> 00:19:55,759 experience and through great self discipline. It only becomes established in a man's heart 213 00:19:56,279 --> 00:20:00,400 when he has controlled and brought into subjection his animal voice, a distinct, 214 00:20:00,519 --> 00:20:07,400 firm but quiet annunciation, and freedom from excitement, vehemence, or resentment in 215 00:20:07,480 --> 00:20:15,079 particularly aggravating circumstances. If there is one quality which, above all others, 216 00:20:15,559 --> 00:20:19,640 should distinguish the religious man, it is the quality of gentleness, for it 217 00:20:19,680 --> 00:20:26,000 is the hall mark of spiritual culture. The rudely aggressive man is an affront 218 00:20:26,039 --> 00:20:33,000 to cultivated minds and unselfish hearts. Our word gentleman has not altogether departed from 219 00:20:33,039 --> 00:20:37,559 its original meaning. It is still applied to one who is modest and self 220 00:20:37,559 --> 00:20:44,839 restrained, who is considerate for the feelings and welfare of others. A gentleman 221 00:20:45,359 --> 00:20:51,359 whose good behavior is prompted by thoughtfulness and kindliness, is always loved, whatever 222 00:20:51,440 --> 00:20:56,240 may be his origin. Quarrelsome people make a display in their bickering and recriminations 223 00:20:56,839 --> 00:21:02,559 of their ignorance and lack of culture. The man who has perfected himself in 224 00:21:02,640 --> 00:21:07,319 gentleness never quarrels. He never returns the hard word. He leaves it alone, 225 00:21:07,960 --> 00:21:11,680 or meets it with a gentle word, which is far more powerful than 226 00:21:11,720 --> 00:21:18,720 wrath. Gentleness is wedded to wisdom, and the wise man has overcome all 227 00:21:18,759 --> 00:21:23,440 anger in himself, and so understands how to overcome it in others. The 228 00:21:23,519 --> 00:21:30,440 gentleman is saved from most of the disturbances and turmoils with which uncontrolled men afflict 229 00:21:30,480 --> 00:21:36,200 themselves. While they are wearing themselves out with wasteful and needless strain, he 230 00:21:36,279 --> 00:21:41,920 is quiet and composed, and such quietness and composure are strong to win in 231 00:21:41,960 --> 00:21:48,200 the battle of life. Insight is the gift of sympathy. The sympathetic mind 232 00:21:48,279 --> 00:21:53,119 is the profoundly perceiving mind. We understand by experience and not by argument. 233 00:21:55,000 --> 00:21:59,359 Before we can know a thing or being, our life must touch it or 234 00:21:59,440 --> 00:22:06,480 his life. Argument analyzes the outer skin, but sympathy reaches to the heart. 235 00:22:06,799 --> 00:22:10,480 The cynic sees the hat and coat and thinks he sees the man. 236 00:22:11,359 --> 00:22:15,160 The sympathetic seer sees the man and is not concerned with the hat and coat. 237 00:22:17,240 --> 00:22:22,440 In all kinds of hatred, there is a separation by which each misjudges 238 00:22:22,519 --> 00:22:26,359 the other. In all kinds of love, there is a mystic union by 239 00:22:26,359 --> 00:22:32,480 which each knows the other. Sympathy, being the purest form of this the 240 00:22:32,519 --> 00:22:37,960 greatest poet, because he has the largest heart. No other figure in all 241 00:22:37,000 --> 00:22:42,079 literature has shown such a profound knowledge of the human heart and of nature, 242 00:22:42,160 --> 00:22:48,480 both animate and inanimate. The personal Shakespeare is not to be found in his 243 00:22:48,599 --> 00:22:55,160 works. He is merged by sympathy into his characters, the wise man in 244 00:22:55,200 --> 00:23:00,440 the Philosopher, the madman in the Fool, the drunkard in the Harlot. 245 00:23:00,680 --> 00:23:04,799 These he, for the time, into their particular experiences, knew them better 246 00:23:04,839 --> 00:23:11,799 than they knew themselves. Shakespeare has no partiality, no prejudice. His sympathy 247 00:23:11,839 --> 00:23:18,440 embraces all, from the lowest to the highest. Prejudice is the great barrier 248 00:23:18,519 --> 00:23:22,960 to sympathy and knowledge. It is impossible to understand those against whom one harbors 249 00:23:22,960 --> 00:23:27,720 a prejudice. We only see men and things as they are. When we 250 00:23:27,799 --> 00:23:33,920 divest our minds of partial judgments, we become seers as we become sympathizers. 251 00:23:34,759 --> 00:23:41,720 Sympathy has knowledge for her companion. Inseparable are the feeling heart and the seeing 252 00:23:41,799 --> 00:23:45,839 eye. The man of pity is the man of prophecy, he whose heart 253 00:23:45,880 --> 00:23:51,160 beats in tune with all hearts. To him the contents of all hearts are 254 00:23:51,200 --> 00:23:56,680 revealed, nor are past in future any longer insoluble mysteries. To the man 255 00:23:56,720 --> 00:24:03,359 of sympathy, his moral insight apprehends the perfect round of human life. Sympathetic 256 00:24:03,440 --> 00:24:07,119 insight lifts a man into the consciousness of freedom, gladness, and power. 257 00:24:08,000 --> 00:24:14,319 His spirit inhales joy as his lungs inhale air. There are no longer any 258 00:24:14,359 --> 00:24:18,480 fears of his fellow men, of competition, hard times, enemies and the 259 00:24:18,759 --> 00:24:25,359 like. These groveling illusions have disappeared, and there has opened up before his 260 00:24:25,440 --> 00:24:29,119 awakened vision a realm of greatness and grandeur.