44 URBANITY IN BUSINESS. eat with one who did not respect the truth or the laws than with a slovenly and unpresentable person;" but I will admit that fine manners make citizenship and truth much more attractive. The good and bad of manners has been defined as that which helps or hinders fellowship. As fellowship facilitates the working of business relations, we may see, then, the practical importance of urbanity in the counting-house and the wareroom, the office and the workshop. СНАРТER III. CHARACTER. IR HENRY TAYLOR is right, I think, in his suggestion, which, indeed, is not a novel one, that humility is the true mother and nurse of independence; and that pride, which is so often supposed to stand to it in that relation, is, in reality, the stepmother, by whom is wrought-novercalibus odiis-its ruin and very destruction. But whether he be correct in his genealogy or not, I suppose that most people will be of opinion that a certain independence of character is essential to the work of self-culture. There may be in it a mixture both of pride and humility, or it may spring from humility alone, but no man who seeks to live worthily can dispense with the quality that makes him self-reliant, totus in se ipso, that teaches and strengthens him to stand upon his feet. It is very desirable that a young man should always remember how little he knows, how far below his own standard he inevitably falls, how greatly his desires and aspirations exceed his attainments; should always remember the reverence due to his elders and superiors, and the courtesy due to his equals and inferiors, for so much is necessary to self-respect. It is well for him to bear in mind the saying of Jeremy Taylor, that all the world, all that we are and all that we have, our bodies and our souls, our actions and our sufferings, our conditions at home, our accidents abroad, our many sins and our seldom virtues, are so many arguments to make our souls dwell low in the deep valley of humility. Humility, however, must not be confounded with that humbleness which leads a man to depend almost helplessly on the opinions of others, which cripples his will and deadens his perceptions, which holds him back when he should move forward, and prevents him from arriving at any prompt or opportune decision. The oft-quoted lines of the Elizabethan poet contain a truth which every disciple of self-culture must take as his watchword in the battle of life : "Man is his own star, and the soul that can 46 “SINK NOT IN SPIRIT.” Hamlet must answer for himself; Horatio cannot answer for him. By himself he must confront his visitor from the "other world;" no friend, however loyal, can bear his responsibility or work out his mission. We may listen with due deference to the voice of experience, and accept with gratitude the counsels or monitions of wisdom; but as it is by our actions that we must stand or fall, we must strenuously maintain our independence of thought and judgment. The youth who always looks down will never look up; and though looking down will keep us within the track, it will not show us where that track leads. Independence of spirit does not mean churlishness of manner or arrogance of temper. George Herbert has described it exactly :— "Pitch thy behaviour low, thy projects high, So shalt thou humble and magnanimous be. Shoots higher much than he that means a tree." A Roman politician, when captured by traitors, was tauntingly asked:—“Where is thy stronghold now?" Placing his hand upon his heart, he answered:-"Here!" And this must be the stronghold of every seeker after knowledge. I am sure that no good work in the way of self-culture will be done by young men who accustom themselves to lean upon others, who are always finding new leaders, and professing themselves disciples of new Gamaliels. They must learn to think their own thoughts, to form their own opinions, valuing authority justly, but not submitting to it slavishly. Much of the popularity which to this day clings about Dr. Johnson, and renders him so familiar a figure in our literature, is due to his sturdy independence, the bold self-reliant manliness of his character; and one must often feel, when studying the life of his friend and contemporary, Goldsmith, that it was the want of this independence, this manliness, which involved him in continual suffering and hurried him to a premature grave. "Every one," writes Thierry, the historian, "can make his own destiny, every one employ his life nobly. This is what I have done, and would do again if I had to recommence my career: I would choose that which has brought me where I am." Call it independence, self-reliance, self-help, what you will; the spirit I speak of is that which distinguishes the man from the slave. It is the spirit which made Columbus the discoverer of the New World; Luther the author of the German Reformation. It is the spirit that glowed in the great Reformer's heart when he replied to the messenger who half-warned, half-threatened him not to visit Worms :-" Go, tell thy master that were there as many devils in Worms as there are tiles upon its roofs, I would enter it." It is the spirit that emboldened Eschylus, in the confidence of genius, to say of his tragedy, "The Seven against Thebes," that he who beheld it must needs become a hero. It is the spirit that strengthens a THE CHARM OF SELF-RELIANCE. 47 man to live laborious days and bear the storms of poverty in order that he may gain some small portion at least of the ample treasures of knowledge. It is the spirit that nerves us to resist temptation, to trample it under our feet, to repel the wicked sug gestion, to love and defend the pure. It is the spirit that in the workshop keeps a young man temperate and true, in spite of the example and solicitations of men who, having forfeited their own self-respect, are intent upon dragging others down into the same slough of despond. It is the spirit that ennobled the loneliness of the great Beethoven, and found expression in his favourite saying "The barriers are not erected which can say to aspiring talents and industry, 'Thus far and no farther.'" It is the spirit which has raised the poor out of their poverty and the ignorant out of their abasement, which has opened up a career to industry and diligence. It is the spirit which makes eloquent the maxim engraved on the old warrior's sword :-" A way I will find or will make." It is the spirit which fired Clive, ignoring the advice of his lieutenants, to throw his handful of Europeans and Sepoys against the hosts of the Bengalis and win the blattle of Plassey. It is the spirit which animated Palissy the potter in his long and painful search for the secret of the enamelled ware. It is the spirit which lifts a man above the common herd, gives him a purpose and an aim in life, and constitutes him a centre of wholesome and elevating influences; as was said of Sir Philip Sidney, that "his wit and understanding leant upon his heart, to make himself and others, not in word or opinion, but in life and action, good and great." It is the spirit that confirmed the energy of Scott when, in his middle age, he refused the assistance of his friends towards the reduction of his crushing liabilities, and sat down, with no other help than his genius and his courage, to clear them by his own exertions. Says George Wither : "Whether thralled or exiled, Whether poor or rich thou be, Not a rush it is to thee: This nor that thy rest doth win thee, These lines breathe the true spirit of independence, which is, indeed, to be a moral and intellectual power, unfettered by circumstances and disregardful of material conditions. The young student who does his work thoroughly and honestly, who feeds his mind with the contemplation of wise thoughts and noble actions, who is conscious of aspirations after an ideal truth and beauty, who helps as best he can to diminish the vast mass of human suffering, who struggles persistently towards the light, who nobly scorns the solicitations of worldly pleasure, who holds himself free to weigh the worth of everything that is set before him, who 48 A STORY OF SELF-SACRIFICE. cherishes in his heart a deep reverence for woman, who strives after knowledge and wisdom with a ceaseless endeavour, and who, knowing God, daily lifts up hands of prayer both for himself and those who call him friend, he it is whom I would call independent. He can go his way, leaning on no man's arm, borrowing staff or crutch from none, and "Acting the law he lives by without fear!" I have somewhere read that every one ought to study in a triple book in the book of Creation, that he may find God; in the book of Conscience, that he may know himself; in the book of Scripture, that he may love his neighbours. It is by so studying that he will develop that noble spirit of independence which is a man's best hope and faith and consolation. 66 But if it be well for a young man to preserve his independence, it is better that he should always and in all circumstances prove himself chivalrous. I want to see him defying wrong and resisting oppression; I want to see him thinking of others rather than himself; I want to see him brave in the presence of moral as well as of physical danger; I want to see him possessed with the spirit of Self-Sacrifice. Not long ago I came upon a story, a true story, which moved me almost to tears. "Bill the Banker" was a poor navvy, whose work, when he was engaged in the construction of railway embankments, lay amongst the "tip" waggons. At the time to which my narrative refers, he was tip-man" over a shaft in one of the many tunnels found necessary on the Manchester and Leeds Railway. This shaft was about two hundred feet deep, with sides and bottom of solid rock. His duty was to raise the trucks filled below, and run them to the top, returning them empty to his mates at bottom. If a chain broke away, or a great boulder slipped off a truck, Bill had to shout, "Waur out!" and the miners below crept farther into their "drives," allowing the dangerous article to come down harmlessly. One unhappy day, Bill's foot slipped hopelessly, and he knew that he must be hurled from side to side of the narrow shaft, until he lay, a crushed thing, at the bottom. But his mates? If he screamed, the unusual noise would call them all out together to ascertain the cause. Never losing his presence of mind, he gave the usual signal with an unfaltering voice, "Waur out below!" And his mates heard in their safe retreat the dreadful thud, thud, and final crash of this true hero's mangled remains. "Bill the Banker," to my mind, was as truly a model of chivalry as the most famous knight who ever set lance in rest or shook his plumes in the stress of battle. That noble contempt for self, that generous thought for others which he so finely exemplified, lies at the bottom of all real chivalry. We may have no opportunity of exhibiting it on so terribly grand a scale as he did, but we can never lack occasions for its exercise at home, or in society, or |