hich he
cannot escape; that, as we merely go into a room in which several
persons are sitting, there goes out from us a power, a silent influence
that all will feel and will be influenced by, even though not a word be
spoken. This has been the power of every man, of every woman, of great
and lasting influence in the world's history.
It is just beginning to come to us through a few highly illumined souls
that this power can be grown, that it rests upon great natural law that
the Author of our being has instituted within us and about us. It is
during the next few years that we are to see many wonderful developments
along this line; for in this, as in many others, the light is just
beginning to break. A few, who are far up on the heights of human
development, are just beginning to catch the first few faint flushes of
the dawn. Then live to your highest. This of itself will make you of
great service to mankind, but without this you never can be. Naught is
the difference how hard you may try; and know, even so far as your own
highest interests are concerned, that the true joy of existence comes
from living to one's highest.
This life, and this alone, will bring that which I believe to be one of
the greatest characteristics of a truly great man,--humility; and when
one says humility, he necessarily implies simplicity; for the two always
go hand in hand. The one is born of the other. The proud, the vain, the
haughty, those striving for effect, are never counted among the world's
greatest personages. The very fact of one's striving for effect of
itself indicates that there is not enough in him to make him really
great; while he who really is so needs never concern himself about it,
nor does he ever. I can think of no better way for one to attain to
humility and simplicity than for him to have his mind off of self in the
service of others. Vanity, that most dangerous quality, and especially
for young people, is the outcome of one's always regarding self.
Mrs. Henry Ward Beecher once said that, when they lived in the part of
Brooklyn known as the Heights, they could always tell when Mr. Beecher
was coming in the evening from the voices and the joyous laughter of the
children. All the street urchins, as well as the more well-to-do
children in the vicinity, knew him, and would often wait for his coming.
When they saw him in the distance, they would run and gather around him,
get hold of his hands, into those large overcoat poc
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