diff options
| -rw-r--r-- | .gitattributes | 3 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 5068-0.txt | 1050 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 5068-0.zip | bin | 0 -> 22962 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 5068-h.zip | bin | 0 -> 318095 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 5068-h/5068-h.htm | 1232 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 5068-h/images/cover.jpg | bin | 0 -> 294613 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | LICENSE.txt | 11 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | README.md | 2 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/5068.txt | 1054 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/5068.zip | bin | 0 -> 22417 bytes |
10 files changed, 3352 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/5068-0.txt b/5068-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..5d82541 --- /dev/null +++ b/5068-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1050 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook of On Being Human, by Woodrow Wilson + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and +most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions +whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms +of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at +www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you +will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before +using this eBook. + +Title: On Being Human + +Author: Woodrow Wilson + +Release Date: April 14, 2002 [eBook #5068] +[Most recently updated: September 10, 2021] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + +Produced by: Jennifer Godwin and Jose Menendez + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ON BEING HUMAN *** + +[Illustration] + + + + +On Being Human + +by Woodrow Wilson + + +Ph.D., Litt.D., LL.D. +President of the United States + +1897 +From the _Atlantic Monthly_ + + +Contents + + I + II + III + IV + V + VI + + + + +I + + +“The rarest sort of a book,” says Mr. Bagehot, slyly, is “a book to +read”; and “the knack in style is to write like a human being.” It is +painfully evident, upon experiment, that not many of the books which +come teeming from our presses every year are meant to be read. They are +meant, it may be, to be pondered; it is hoped, no doubt, they may +instruct, or inform, or startle, or arouse, or reform, or provoke, or +amuse us; but we read, if we have the true reader’s zest and plate, not +to grow more knowing, but to be less pent up and bound within a little +circle,—as those who take their pleasure, and not as those who +laboriously seek instruction,—as a means of seeing and enjoying the +world of men and affairs. We wish companionship and renewal of spirit, +enrichment of thought and the full adventure of the mind; and we desire +fair company, and a larger world in which to find them. + +No one who loves the masters who may be communed with and read but must +see, therefore, and resent the error of making the text of any one of +them a source to draw grammar from, forcing the parts of speech to +stand out stark and cold from the warm text; or a store of samples +whence to draw rhetorical instances, setting up figures of speech +singly and without support of any neighbor phrase, to be stared at +curiously and with intent to copy or dissect! Here is grammar done +without deliberation: the phrases carry their meaning simply and by a +sort of limpid reflection; the thought is a living thing, not an image +ingeniously contrived and wrought. Pray leave the text whole: it has no +meaning piecemeal; at any rate, not that best, wholesome meaning, as of +a frank and genial friend who talks, not for himself or for his phrase, +but for you. It is questionable morals to dismember a living frame to +seek for its obscure fountains of life! + +When you say that a book was meant to be read, you mean, for one thing, +of course, that it was not meant to be studied. You do not study a good +story, or a haunting poem, or a battle song, or a love ballad, or any +moving narrative, whether it be out of history or out of fiction—nor +any argument, even, that moves vital in the field of action. You do not +have to study these things; they reveal themselves, you do not stay to +see how. They remain with you, and will not be forgotten or laid by. +They cling like a personal experience, and become the mind’s intimates. +You devour a book meant to be read, not because you would fill yourself +or have an anxious care to be nourished, but because it contains such +stuff as it makes the mind hungry to look upon. Neither do you read it +to kill time, but to lengthen time, rather, adding to its natural usury +by living the more abundantly while it lasts, joining another’s life +and thought to your own. + +There are a few children in every generation, as Mr. Bagehot reminds +us, who think the natural thing to do with any book is to read it. +“There is an argument from design in the subject,” as he says; “if the +book was not meant to be read for that purpose, for what purpose was it +meant?” These are the young eyes to which books yield up great +treasure, almost in spite of themselves, as if they had been penetrated +by some swift, enlarging power of vision which only the young know. It +is these youngsters to whom books give up the long ages of history, +“the wonderful series going back to the times of old patriarchs with +their flocks and herds”—I am quoting Mr. Bagehot again—“the keen-eyed +Greek, the stately Roman, the watching Jew, the uncouth Goth, the +horrid Hun, the settled picture of the unchanging East, the restless +shifting of the rapid West, the rise of the cold and classical +civilization, its fall, the rough impetuous Middle Ages, the vague warm +picture of ourselves and home. When did we learn these? Not yesterday +nor today, but long ago, in the first dawn of reason, in the original +flow of fancy.” Books will not yield to us so richly when we are older. +The argument from design fails. We return to the staid authors we read +long ago, and do not find in them the vital, speaking images that used +to lie there upon the page. Our own fancy is gone, and the author never +had any. We are driven in upon the books meant to be read. + +These are books written by human beings, indeed, but with no general +quality belonging to the kind—with a special tone and temper, rather, a +spirit out of the common, touched with a light that shines clear out of +some great source of light which not every man can uncover. We call +this spirit human because it moves us, quickens a like life in +ourselves, makes us glow with a sort of ardor of self-discovery. It +touches the springs of fancy or of action within us, and makes our own +life seem more quick and vital. We do not call every book that moves us +human. Some seem written with knowledge of the black art, set our base +passions aflame, disclose motives at which we shudder—the more because +we feel their reality and power; and we know that this is of the devil, +and not the fruitage of any quality that distinguishes us as men. We +are distinguished as men by the qualities that mark us different from +the beasts. When we call a thing human we have a spiritual ideal in +mind. It may not be an ideal of that which is perfect, but it moves at +least upon an upland level where the air is sweet; it holds an image of +man erect and constant, going abroad with undaunted steps, looking with +frank and open gaze upon all the fortunes of his day, feeling even and +again— + +“. . . the joy 1 +Of elevated thoughts; a sense sublime +Of something far more deeply interfused. +Whose dwelling is the light of setting suns. +And the round ocean and the living air, +And the blue sky, and in the mind of man: +A motion and a spirit, that impels +All thinking things.” + + +Say what we may of the errors and the degrading sins of our kind, we do +not willingly make what is worst in us the distinguishing trait of what +is human. When we declare, with Bagehot, that the author whom we love +writes like a human being, we are not sneering at him; we do not say it +with a leer. It is in token of admiration, rather. He makes us like our +humankind. There is a noble passion in what he says, a wholesome humor +that echoes genial comradeships; a certain reasonableness and +moderation in what is thought and said; an air of the open day, in +which things are seen whole and in their right colors, rather than of +the close study or the academic class-room. We do not want our poetry +from grammarians, nor our tales from philologists, nor our history from +theorists. Their human nature is subtly transmuted into something less +broad and catholic and of the general world. Neither do we want our +political economy from tradesmen nor our statesmanship from mere +politicians, but from those who see more and care for more than these +men see or care for. + + + + +II + + +Once—it is a thought which troubles us—once it was a simple enough +matter to be a human being, but now it is deeply difficult; because +life was once simple, but is now complex, confused, multifarious. +Haste, anxiety, preoccupation, the need to specialize and make machines +of ourselves, have transformed the once simple world, and we are +apprised that it will not be without effort that we shall keep the +broad human traits which have so far made the earth habitable. We have +seen our modern life accumulate, hot and restless, in great cities—and +we cannot say that the change is not natural: we see in it, on the +contrary, the fulfillment of an inevitable law of change, which is no +doubt a law of growth, and not of decay. And yet we look upon the +portentous thing with a great distaste, and doubt with what altered +passions we shall come out of it. The huge, rushing, aggregate life of +a great city—the crushing crowds in the streets, where friends seldom +meet and there are few greetings; the thunderous noise of trade and +industry that speaks of nothing but gain and competition, and a +consuming fever that checks the natural courses of the kindly blood; no +leisure anywhere, no quiet, no restful ease, no wise repose—all this +shocks us. It is inhumane. It does not seem human. How much more likely +does it appear that we shall find men sane and human about a country +fireside, upon the streets of quiet villages, where all are neighbors, +where groups of friends gather easily, and a constant sympathy makes +the very air seem native! Why should not the city seem infinitely more +human than the hamlet? Why should not human traits the more abound +where human beings teem millions strong? + +Because the city curtails man of his wholeness, specializes him, +quickens some powers, stunts others, gives him a sharp edge, and a +temper like that of steel, makes him unfit for nothing so much as to +sit still. Men have indeed written like human beings in the midst of +great cities, but not often when they have shared the city’s +characteristic life, its struggle for place and for gain. There are not +many places that belong to a city’s life to which you can “invite your +soul.” Its haste, its preoccupations, its anxieties, its rushing noise +as of men driven, its ringing cries, distract you. It offers no quiet +for reflection; it permits no retirement to any who share its life. It +is a place of little tasks, of narrowed functions, of aggregate and not +of individual strength. The great machine dominates its little parts, +and its Society is as much of a machine as its business. + +“This tract which the river of Time 2 +Now flows through with us, is the plain. +Gone is the calm of its earlier shore. +Border’d by cities, and hoarse +With a thousand cries is its stream. +And we on its breast, our minds +Are confused as the cries which we hear, +Changing and shot as the sights which we see. + +“And we say that repose has fled +Forever the course of the river of Time +That cities will crowd to its edge +In a blacker, incessanter line; +That the din will be more on its banks, +Denser the trade on its stream, +Flatter the plain where it flows, +Fiercer the sun overhead, +That never will those on its breast +See an enobling sight, +Drink of the feeling of quiet again. + +“But what was before us we know not, +And we know not what shall succeed. + +“Haply, the river of Time— +As it grows, as the towns on its marge +Fling their wavering lights +On a wider, statelier stream— +May acquire, if not the calm +Of its early mountainous shore, +Yet a solemn peace of its own. + +“And the width of the waters, the hush +Of the gray expanse where he floats, +Freshening its current and spotted with foam +As it draws to the Ocean, may strike +Peace to the soul of the man on its breast— +As the pale waste widens around him, +As the banks fade dimmer away, +As the stars come out, and the night-wind +Brings up the stream +Murmurs and scents of the infinite sea.” + + +We cannot easily see the large measure and abiding purpose of the novel +age in which we stand young and confused. The view that shall clear our +minds and quicken us to act as those who know their task and its +distant consummation will come with better knowledge and completer +self-possession. It shall not be a night-wind, but an air that shall +blow out of the widening east and with the coming of the light, and +shall bring us, with the morning, “murmurs and scents of the infinite +sea.” Who can doubt that man has grown more and more human with each +step of that slow process which has brought him knowledge, +self-restraint, the arts of intercourse, and the revelations of real +joy? Man has more and more lived with his fellow-men, and it is society +that has humanized him—the development of society into an infinitely +various school of discipline and ordered skill. He has been made more +human by schooling, by growing more self-possessed—less violent, less +tumultuous; holding himself in hand, and moving always with a certain +poise of spirit; not forever clapping his hand to the hilt of his +sword, but preferring, rather, to play with a subtler skill upon the +springs of action. This is our conception of the truly human man: a man +in whom there is a just balance of faculties, a catholic sympathy—no +brawler, no fanatic, no pharisee; not too credulous in hope, not too +desperate in purpose; warm, but not hasty; ardent, and full of definite +power, but not running about to be pleased and deceived by every new +thing. + +It is a genial image of men we love—an image of men warm and true of +heart, direct and unhesitating in courage, generous, magnanimous, +faithful, steadfast, capable of a deep devotion and self-forgetfulness. +But the age changes, and with it must change our ideals of human +quality. Not that we would give up what we have loved: we would add +what a new life demands. In a new age men must acquire a new capacity, +must be men upon a new scale, and with added qualities. We shall need a +new Renaissance, ushered in by a new “humanistic” movement, in which we +shall add our present minute, introspective study of ourselves, our +jails, our slums, our nerve centers, our shifts to live, almost as +morbid as medieval religion, a rediscovery of the round world, and of +man’s place in it, now that its face has changed. We study the world, +but not yet with intent to school our hearts and tastes, broaden our +natures, and know our fellow-men as comrades rather than as phenomena; +with purpose, rather, to build up bodies of critical doctrine and +provide ourselves with theses. That, surely, is not the truly +humanizing way in which to take the air of the world. Man is much more +than a “rational being,” and lives more by sympathies and impressions +than by conclusions. It darkens his eyes and dries up the wells of his +humanity to be forever in search of doctrine. We need wholesome, +experiencing natures, I dare affirm, much more than we need sound +reasoning. + + + + +III + + +Take life in the large view, and we are most reasonable when we seek +that which is most wholesome and tonic for our natures as a whole; and +we know, when we put aside pedantry, that the great middle object in +life—the object that lies between religion on one hand, and food and +clothing on the other, establishing our average levels of +achievement—the excellent golden mean, is, not to be learned, but to be +human beings in all the wide and genial meaning of the term. Does the +age hinder? Do its many interests distract us when we would plan our +discipline, determine our duty, clarify our ideals? It is the more +necessary that we should ask ourselves what it is that is demanded of +us, if we would fit our qualities to meet the new tests. Let us remind +ourselves that to be human is, for one thing, to speak and act with a +certain note of genuineness, a quality mixed of spontaneity and +intelligence. This is necessary for wholesome life in any age, but +particularly amidst confused affairs and shifting standards. +Genuineness is not mere simplicity, for that may lack vitality, and +genuineness does not. We expect what we call genuine to have pith and +strength of fiber. Genuineness is a quality which we sometimes mean to +include when we speak of individuality. Individuality is lost the +moment you submit to passing modes or fashions, the creations of an +artificial society; and so is genuineness. No man is genuine who is +forever trying to pattern his life after the lives of other +people—unless, indeed, he be a genuine dolt. But individuality is by no +means the same as genuineness; for individuality may be associated with +the most extreme and even ridiculous eccentricity, while genuineness we +conceive to be always wholesome, balanced, and touched with dignity. It +is a quality that goes with good sense and self-respect. It is a sort +of robust moral sanity, mixed of elements both moral and intellectual. +It is found in natures too strong to be mere trimmers and conformers, +too well poised and thoughtful to fling off into intemperate protest +and revolt. Laughter is genuine which has in it neither the shrill, +hysterical note of mere excitement nor the hard, metallic twang of the +cynic’s sneer—which rings in the honest voice of gracious good humor, +which is innocent and unsatirical. Speech is genuine which is without +silliness, affectation, or pretense. That character is genuine which +seems built by nature rather than by convention, which is stuff of +independence and of good courage. Nothing spurious, bastard, begotten +out of true wedlock of the mind; nothing adulterated and seeming to be +what it is not; nothing unreal, can ever get place among the nobility +of things genuine, natural, of pure stock and unmistakable lineage. It +is a prerogative of every truly human being to come out from the low +estate of those who are merely gregarious and of the herd, and show his +innate powers cultivated and yet unspoiled—sound, unmixed, free from +imitation; showing that individualization without extravagance which is +genuineness. + +But how? By what means is this self-liberation to be effected—this +emancipation from affectation and the bondage of being like other +people? Is it open to us to choose to be genuine? I see nothing +insuperable in the way, except for those who are hopelessly lacking in +a sense of humor. It depends upon the range and scale of your +observation whether you can strike the balance of genuineness or not. +If you live in a small and petty world, you will be subject to its +standards; but if you live in a large world, you will see that +standards are innumerable—some old, some new, some made by the +noble-minded and made to last, some made by the weak-minded and +destined to perish, some lasting from age to age, some only from day to +day—and that a choice must be made among them. It is then that your +sense of humor will assist you. You are, you will perceive, upon a long +journey, and it will seem to you ridiculous to change your life and +discipline your instincts to conform with the usages of a single inn by +the way. You will distinguish the essentials from the accidents, and +deem the accidents something meant for your amusement. The strongest +natures do not need to wait for these slow lessons of observation, to +be got by conning life: their sheer vigor makes it impossible for them +to conform to fashion or care for times and seasons. But the rest of us +must cultivate knowledge of the world in the large, get our offing, +reaching a comparative point of view, before we can become with steady +confidence our own masters and pilots. The art of being human begins +with the practice of being genuine, and following standards of conduct +which the world has tested. If your life is not various and you cannot +know the best people, who set the standards of sincerity, your reading +at least can be various, and you may look at your little circle through +the best books, under the guidance of writers who have known life and +loved the truth. + + + + +IV + + +And then genuineness will bring serenity—which I take to be another +mark of the right development of the true human being, certainly in an +age passionate and confused as this in which we live. Of course +serenity does not always go with genuineness. We must say of Dr. +Johnson that he was genuine, and yet we know that the stormy tyrant of +the Turk’s Head Tavern was not serene. Carlyle was genuine (though that +is not quite the first adjective we should choose to describe him), but +of serenity he allowed cooks and cocks and every modern and every +ancient sham to deprive him. Serenity is a product, no doubt, of two +very different things, namely, vision and digestion. Not the eye only, +but the courses of the blood must be clear, if we would find serenity. +Our word “serene” contains a picture. Its image is of the calm evening +when the stars are out and the still night comes on; when the dew is on +the grass and the wind does not stir; when the day’s work is over, and +the evening meal, and thought falls clear in the quiet hour. It is the +hour of reflection—and it is human to reflect. Who shall contrive to be +human without this evening hour, which drives turmoil out, and gives +the soul its seasons of self-recollection? Serenity is not a thing to +beget inaction. It only checks excitement and uncalculating haste. It +does not exclude ardor or the heat of battle: it keeps ardor from +extravagance, prevents the battle from becoming a mere aimless mêlée. +The great captains of the world have been men who were calm in the +moment of crisis; who were calm, too, in the long planning which +preceded crisis; who went into battle with a serenity infinitely +ominous for those whom they attack. We instinctively associate serenity +with the highest types of power among men, seeing in it the poise of +knowledge and calm vision, the supreme heat and mastery which is +without splutter or noise of any kind. The art of power in this sort is +no doubt learned in hours of reflection, by those who are not born with +it. What rebuke of aimless excitement there is to be got out of a +little reflection, when we have been inveighing against the corruption +and decadence of our own days, if only we have provided ourselves with +a little knowledge of the past wherewith to balance our thought! As bad +times as these, or any we shall see, have been reformed, but not by +protests. They have been made glorious instead of shameful by the men +who kept their heads and struck with sure self-possession in the fight. +The world is very human, not a bit given to adopting virtues for the +sakes of those who merely bemoan its vices, and we are most effective +when we are most calmly in possession of our senses. + +So far is serenity from being a thing of slackness or inaction that it +seems bred, rather, by an equable energy, a satisfying activity. It may +be found in the midst of that alert interest in affairs which is, it +may be, the distinguishing trait of developed manhood. You distinguish +man from the brute by his intelligent curiosity, his play of mind +beyond the narrow field of instinct, his perception of cause and effect +in matters to him indifferent, his appreciation of motive and +calculation of results. He is interested in the world about him, and +even in the great universe of which it forms a part, not merely as a +thing he would use, satisfy his wants and grow great by, but as a field +to stretch his mind in, for love of journeyings and excursions in the +large realm of thought. Your full-bred human being loves a run afield +with his understanding. With what images does he not surround himself +and store his mind! With what fondness does he con travelers’ tales and +credit poets’ fancies! With what patience does he follow science and +pore upon old records, and with what eagerness does he ask the news of +the day! No great part of what he learns immediately touches his own +life or the course of his own affairs: he is not pursuing a business, +but satisfying as he can an insatiable mind. No doubt the highest form +of this noble curiosity is that which leads us, without self-interest, +to look abroad upon all the field of man’s life at home and in society, +seeking more excellent forms of government, more righteous ways of +labor, more elevating forms of art, and which makes the greater among +us statesmen, reformers, philanthropists, artists, critics, men of +letters. It is certainly human to mind your neighbor’s business as well +as your own. Gossips are only sociologists upon a mean and petty scale. +The art of being human lifts to be a better level than that of gossip; +it leaves mere chatter behind, as too reminiscent of a lower stage of +existence, and is compassed by those whose outlook is wide enough to +serve for guidance and a choosing of ways. + + + + +V + + +Luckily we are not the first human beings. We have come into a great +heritage of interesting things, collected and piled all about us by the +curiosity of past generations. And so our interest is selective. Our +education consists in learning intelligent choice. Our energies do not +clash or compete: each is free to take his own path to knowledge. Each +has that choice, which is man’s alone, of the life he shall live, and +finds out first or last that the art in living is not only to be +genuine and one’s own master, but also to learn mastery in perception +and preference. Your true woodsman needs not to follow the dusty +highway through the forest nor search for any path, but goes straight +from glade to glade as if upon an open way, having some privy +understanding with the taller trees, some compass in his senses. So +there is the subtle craft in finding ways for the mind, too. Keep but +your eyes alert and your ears quick, as you move among men and among +books, and you shall find yourself possessed at last of a new sense, +the sense of the pathfinder. Have you never marked the eyes of a man +who has seen the world he has lived in: the eyes of the sea-captain, +who has watched his life through the changes of the heavens; the eyes +of the huntsman, nature’s gossip and familiar; the eyes of the man of +affairs, accustomed to command in moments of exigency? You are at once +aware that they are eyes which can see. There is something in them that +you do not find in other eyes, and you have read the life of the man +when you have divined what it is. Let the thing serve as a figure. So +ought alert interest in the world of men and thought to serve each one +of us that we shall have the quick perceiving vision, taking meanings +at a glance, reading suggestions as if they were expositions. You shall +not otherwise get full value of your humanity. What good shall it do +you else that the long generations of men which have gone before have +filled the world with great store of everything that may make you wise +and your life various? Will you not take the usury of the past, if it +may be had for the taking? Here is the world humanity has made: will +you take full citizenship in it, or will you live in it as dull, as +slow to receive, as unenfranchised, as the idlers for whom civilization +has no uses, or the deadened toilers, men or beasts, whose labor shuts +the door on choice? + +That man seems to me a little less than human who lives as if our life +in the world were but just begun, thinking only of the things of sense, +reckoning nothing of the infinite thronging and assemblage of affairs +the great stage over, or of the old wisdom that has ruled the world. +That is, if he have the choice. Great masses of our fellow-men are shut +out from choosing, by reason of absorbing toil, and it is part of the +enlightenment of our age that our understandings are being opened to +the workingman’s need of a little leisure wherein to look about him and +clear his vision of the dust of the workshop. We know that there is a +drudgery which is inhuman, let it but encompass the whole life, with +only heavy sleep between task and task. We know that those who are so +bound can have no freedom to be men, that their very spirits are in +bondage. It is part of our philanthropy—it should be part of our +statesmanship—to ease the burden as we can, and enfranchise those who +spend and are spent for the sustenance of the race. But what shall we +say of those who are free and yet choose littleness and bondage, or of +those who, though they might see the whole face of society, +nevertheless choose to spend all a life’s space poring upon some single +vice or blemish? I would not for the world discredit any sort of +philanthropy except the small and churlish sort which seeks to reform +by nagging—the sort which exaggerates petty vices into great ones, and +runs atilt against windmills, while everywhere colossal shams and +abuses go unexposed, unrebuked. Is it because we are better at being +common scolds than at being wise advisers that we prefer little reforms +to big ones? Are we to allow the poor personal habits of other people +to absorb and quite use up all our fine indignation? It will be a bad +day for society when sentimentalists are encouraged to suggest all the +measures that shall be taken for the betterment of the race. I, for +one, sometimes sigh for the generation of “leading people” and of good +people who shall see things steadily and see them whole; who shall show +a handsome justness and a large sanity of view, an opportune tolerance +for details, that happen to be awry, in order that they may spend their +energy, not without self-possession, in some generous mission which +shall make right principles shine upon the people’s life. They would +bring with them an age of large moralities, a spacious time, a day of +vision. + +Knowledge has come into the world in vain if it is not to emancipate +those who may have it from narrowness, censoriousness, fussiness, an +intemperate zeal for petty things. It would be a most pleasant, a truly +humane world, would we but open our ears with a more generous welcome +to the clear voices that ring in those writings upon life and affairs +which mankind has chosen to keep. Not many splenetic books, not many +intemperate, not many bigoted, have kept men’s confidence; and the mind +that is impatient, or intolerant, or hoodwinked, or shut in to a petty +view shall have no part in carrying men forward to a true humanity, +shall never stand as examples of the true humankind. What is truly +human has always upon it the broad light of what is genial, fit to +support life, cordial, and of a catholic spirit of helpfulness. Your +true human being has eyes and keeps his balance in the world; deems +nothing uninteresting that comes from life; clarifies his vision and +gives health to his eyes by using them upon things near and things far. +The brute beast has but a single neighborhood, a single, narrow round +of existence; the gain of being human accrues in the choice of change +and variety and of experience far and wide, with all the world for +stage—a stage set and appointed by this very art of choice—all future +generations for witnesses and audience. When you talk with a man who +has in his nature and acquirements that freedom from constraint which +goes with the full franchise of humanity, he turns easily with topic to +topic; does not fall silent or dull when you leave some single field of +thought such as unwise men make a prison of. The men who will not be +broken from a little set of subjects, who talk earnestly, hotly, with a +sort of fierceness, of certain special schemes of conduct, and look +coldly upon everything else, render you infinitely uneasy, as if there +were in them a force abnormal and which rocked toward an upset of the +mind; but from the man whose interest swings from thought to thought +with the zest and poise and pleasure of the old traveler, eager for +what is new, glad to look again upon what is old, you come away with +faculties warmed and heartened—with the feeling of having been comrade +for a little with a genuine human being. It is a large world and a +round world, and men grow human by seeing all its play of force and +folly. + + + + +VI + + +Let no one suppose that efficiency is lost by such breadth and +catholicity of view. We deceive ourselves with instances, look at sharp +crises in the world’s affairs, and imagine that intense and narrow men +have made history for us. Poise, balance, a nice and equable exercise +of force, are not, it is true, the things the world ordinarily seeks +for or most applauds in its heroes. It is apt to esteem that man most +human who has his qualities in a certain exaggeration, whose courage is +passionate, whose generosity is without deliberation, whose just action +is without premeditation, whose spirit runs toward its favorite objects +with an infectious and reckless ardor, whose wisdom is no child of slow +prudence. We love Achilles more than Diomedes, and Ulysses not at all. +But these are standards left over from a ruder state of society: we +should have passed by this time the Homeric stage of mind—should have +heroes suited to our age. Nay, we have erected different standards, and +do make a different choice, when we see in any man fulfillment of our +real ideals. Let a modern instance serve as test. Could any man +hesitate to say that Abraham Lincoln was more human than William Lloyd +Garrison? Does not every one know that it was the practical +Free-Soilers who made emancipation possible, and not the hot, +impracticable Abolitionists; that the country was infinitely more moved +by Lincoln’s temperate sagacity than by any man’s enthusiasm, +instinctively trusted the man who saw the whole situation and kept his +balance, instinctively held off from those who refused to see more than +one thing? We know how serviceable the intense and headlong agitator +was in bringing to their feet men fit for action; but we feel uneasy +while he lives, and vouchsafe him our full sympathy only when he is +dead. We know that the genial forces of nature which work daily, +equably, and without violence are infinitely more serviceable, +infinitely more admirable, than the rude violence of the storm, however +necessary or excellent the purification it may have wrought. Should we +seek to name the most human man among those who led the nation to its +struggle with slavery, and yet was no statesmen, we should, of course, +name Lowell. We know that his humor went further than any man’s passion +toward setting tolerant men atingle with the new impulses of the day. +We naturally hold back from those who are intemperate and can never +stop to smile, and are deeply reassured to see a twinkle in a +reformer’s eye. We are glad to see earnest men laugh. It breaks the +strain. If it be wholesome laughter, it dispels all suspicion of spite, +and is like the gleam of light upon running water, lifting sullen +shadows, suggesting clear depths. + +Surely it is this soundness of nature, this broad and genial quality, +this full-blooded, full-orbed sanity of spirit, which gives the men we +love that wide-eyed sympathy which gives hope and power to humanity, +which gives range to every good quality and is so excellent a +credential of genuine manhood. Let your life and your thought be +narrow, and your sympathy will shrink to a like scale. It is a quality +which follows the seeing mind afield, which waits on experience. It is +not a mere sentiment. It goes not with pity so much as with a +penetrative understanding of other men’s lives and hopes and +temptations. Ignorance of these things makes it worthless. Its best +tutors are observations and experience, and these serve only those who +keep clear eyes and a wide field of vision. It is exercise and +discipline upon such a scale, too, which strengthen, which for ordinary +men come near to creating, that capacity to reason upon affairs and to +plan for action which we always reckon upon finding in every man who +has studied to perfect his native force. This new day in which we live +cries a challenge to us. Steam and electricity have reduced nations to +neighborhoods; have made travel pastime, and news a thing for +everybody. Cheap printing has made knowledge a vulgar commodity. Our +eyes look, almost without choice, upon the very world itself, and the +word “human” is filled with new meaning. Our ideals broaden to suit the +wide day in which we live. We crave, not cloistered virtue—it is +impossible any longer to keep the cloister—but a robust spirit that +shall take the air in the great world, know men in all their kinds, +choose its way amid the bustle with all self-possession, with wise +genuineness, in calmness, and yet with the quick eye of interest and +the quick pulse of power. It is again a day for Shakespeare’s spirit—a +day more various, more ardent, more provoking to valor and every large +design, even than “the spacious times of great Elizabeth,” when all the +world seemed new; and if we cannot find another bard, come out of a new +Warwickshire, to hold once more the mirror up to nature, it will not be +because the stage is not set for him. The time is such an one as he +might rejoice to look upon; and if we would serve it as it should be +served, we should seek to be human after his wide-eyed sort. The +serenity of power; the naturalness that is nature’s poise and mark of +genuineness; the unsleeping interest in all affairs, all fancies, all +things believed or done; the catholic understanding, tolerance, +enjoyment, of all classes and conditions of men; the conceiving +imagination, the planning purpose, the creating thought, the wholesome, +laughing humor, the quiet insight, the universal coinage of the +brain—are not these the marvelous gifts and qualities we mark in +Shakespeare when we call him the greatest among men? And shall not +these rounded and perfect powers serve us as our ideal of what it is to +be a finished human being? + +We live for our own age—an age like Shakespeare’s, when an old world is +passing away, a new world coming in—an age of new speculation and every +new adventure of the mind; a full stage, an intricate plot, a universal +play of passion, an outcome no man can foresee. It is to this world, +this sweep of action, that our understandings must be stretched and +fitted; it is in this age we must show our human quality. We must +measure ourselves by the task, accept the pace set for us, make shift +to know what we are about. How free and liberal should be the scale of +our sympathy, how catholic our understanding of the world in which we +live, how poised and masterful our action in the midst of so great +affairs! We should school our ears to know the voices that are genuine, +our thought to take the truth when it is spoken, our spirits to feel +the zest of the day. It is within our choice to be with mean company or +with great, to consort with the wise or with the foolish, now that the +great world has spoken to us in the literature of all tongues and +voices. The best selected human nature will tell in the making of the +future, and the art of being human is the art of freedom and of force. + + +1 From “Lines composed a few miles above Tintern Abbey,” by William +Wordsworth.—J.M. +2 From “The Future,” by Matthew Arnold.—J.M. + + +THE END + + + + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ON BEING HUMAN *** + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will +be renamed. + +Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright +law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, +so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the +United States without permission and without paying copyright +royalties. Special rules, set forth in the General Terms of Use part +of this license, apply to copying and distributing Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works to protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm +concept and trademark. Project Gutenberg is a registered trademark, +and may not be used if you charge for an eBook, except by following +the terms of the trademark license, including paying royalties for use +of the Project Gutenberg trademark. If you do not charge anything for +copies of this eBook, complying with the trademark license is very +easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose such as creation +of derivative works, reports, performances and research. Project +Gutenberg eBooks may be modified and printed and given away--you may +do practically ANYTHING in the United States with eBooks not protected +by U.S. copyright law. Redistribution is subject to the trademark +license, especially commercial redistribution. + +START: FULL LICENSE + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full +Project Gutenberg-tm License available with this file or online at +www.gutenberg.org/license. + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or +destroy all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your +possession. If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a +Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound +by the terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the +person or entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph +1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this +agreement and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the +Foundation" or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection +of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual +works in the collection are in the public domain in the United +States. If an individual work is unprotected by copyright law in the +United States and you are located in the United States, we do not +claim a right to prevent you from copying, distributing, performing, +displaying or creating derivative works based on the work as long as +all references to Project Gutenberg are removed. Of course, we hope +that you will support the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting +free access to electronic works by freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm +works in compliance with the terms of this agreement for keeping the +Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with the work. You can easily +comply with the terms of this agreement by keeping this work in the +same format with its attached full Project Gutenberg-tm License when +you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are +in a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, +check the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this +agreement before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, +distributing or creating derivative works based on this work or any +other Project Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no +representations concerning the copyright status of any work in any +country other than the United States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other +immediate access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear +prominently whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work +on which the phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, +performed, viewed, copied or distributed: + + This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and + most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no + restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it + under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this + eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the + United States, you will have to check the laws of the country where + you are located before using this eBook. + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is +derived from texts not protected by U.S. copyright law (does not +contain a notice indicating that it is posted with permission of the +copyright holder), the work can be copied and distributed to anyone in +the United States without paying any fees or charges. If you are +redistributing or providing access to a work with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the work, you must comply +either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 or +obtain permission for the use of the work and the Project Gutenberg-tm +trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any +additional terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms +will be linked to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works +posted with the permission of the copyright holder found at the +beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including +any word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access +to or distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format +other than "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official +version posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm website +(www.gutenberg.org), you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense +to the user, provide a copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means +of obtaining a copy upon request, of the work in its original "Plain +Vanilla ASCII" or other form. Any alternate format must include the +full Project Gutenberg-tm License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +provided that: + +* You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is owed + to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he has + agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the Project + Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments must be paid + within 60 days following each date on which you prepare (or are + legally required to prepare) your periodic tax returns. Royalty + payments should be clearly marked as such and sent to the Project + Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the address specified in + Section 4, "Information about donations to the Project Gutenberg + Literary Archive Foundation." + +* You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or destroy all + copies of the works possessed in a physical medium and discontinue + all use of and all access to other copies of Project Gutenberg-tm + works. + +* You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of + any money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days of + receipt of the work. + +* You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work or group of works on different terms than +are set forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing +from the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the manager of +the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the Foundation as set +forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +works not protected by U.S. copyright law in creating the Project +Gutenberg-tm collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may +contain "Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate +or corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other +intellectual property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or +other medium, a computer virus, or computer codes that damage or +cannot be read by your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium +with your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you +with the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in +lieu of a refund. If you received the work electronically, the person +or entity providing it to you may choose to give you a second +opportunity to receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If +the second copy is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing +without further opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS', WITH NO +OTHER WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT +LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of +damages. If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement +violates the law of the state applicable to this agreement, the +agreement shall be interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or +limitation permitted by the applicable state law. The invalidity or +unenforceability of any provision of this agreement shall not void the +remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in +accordance with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the +production, promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works, harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, +including legal fees, that arise directly or indirectly from any of +the following which you do or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this +or any Project Gutenberg-tm work, (b) alteration, modification, or +additions or deletions to any Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any +Defect you cause. + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of +computers including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It +exists because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations +from people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future +generations. To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation and how your efforts and donations can help, see +Sections 3 and 4 and the Foundation information page at +www.gutenberg.org + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non-profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent permitted by +U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's business office is located at 809 North 1500 West, +Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887. Email contact links and up +to date contact information can be found at the Foundation's website +and official page at www.gutenberg.org/contact + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without +widespread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine-readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To SEND +DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any particular +state visit www.gutenberg.org/donate + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations. To +donate, please visit: www.gutenberg.org/donate + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works + +Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project +Gutenberg-tm concept of a library of electronic works that could be +freely shared with anyone. For forty years, he produced and +distributed Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of +volunteer support. + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as not protected by copyright in +the U.S. unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not +necessarily keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper +edition. + +Most people start at our website which has the main PG search +facility: www.gutenberg.org + +This website includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. + + diff --git a/5068-0.zip b/5068-0.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..aa344c0 --- /dev/null +++ b/5068-0.zip diff --git a/5068-h.zip b/5068-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..e9f0583 --- /dev/null +++ b/5068-h.zip diff --git a/5068-h/5068-h.htm b/5068-h/5068-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..8ee70bb --- /dev/null +++ b/5068-h/5068-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,1232 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" +"http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en"> +<head> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=utf-8" /> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Style-Type" content="text/css" /> +<title>The Project Gutenberg eBook of On Being Human, by Woodrow Wilson</title> +<link rel="coverpage" href="images/cover.jpg" /> +<style type="text/css"> + +body { margin-left: 20%; + margin-right: 20%; + text-align: justify; } + +h1, h2, h3, h4, h5 {text-align: center; font-style: normal; font-weight: +normal; line-height: 1.5; margin-top: .5em; margin-bottom: .5em;} + +h1 {font-size: 300%; + margin-top: 0.6em; + margin-bottom: 0.6em; + letter-spacing: 0.12em; + word-spacing: 0.2em; + text-indent: 0em;} +h2 {font-size: 150%; margin-top: 2em; margin-bottom: 1em;} +h3 {font-size: 130%; margin-top: 1em;} +h4 {font-size: 120%;} +h5 {font-size: 110%;} + +.no-break {page-break-before: avoid;} /* for epubs */ + +div.chapter {page-break-before: always; margin-top: 4em;} + +hr {width: 80%; margin-top: 2em; margin-bottom: 2em;} + +p {text-indent: 1em; + margin-top: 0.25em; + margin-bottom: 0.25em; } + +p.poem {text-indent: 0%; + margin-left: 10%; + font-size: 90%; + margin-top: 1em; + margin-bottom: 1em; } + +p.footnote {font-size: 90%; + text-indent: 0%; + margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + margin-top: 1em; + margin-bottom: 1em; } + +sup { vertical-align: top; font-size: 0.6em; } + +div.fig { display:block; + margin:0 auto; + text-align:center; + margin-top: 1em; + margin-bottom: 1em;} + +a:link {color:blue; text-decoration:none} +a:visited {color:blue; text-decoration:none} +a:hover {color:red} + +</style> + +</head> + +<body> + +<div style='text-align:center; font-size:1.2em; font-weight:bold'>The Project Gutenberg eBook of On Being Human, by Woodrow Wilson</div> +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and +most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions +whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms +of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online +at <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a>. If you +are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the +country where you are located before using this eBook. +</div> +<div style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Title: On Being Human</div> +<div style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Author: Woodrow Wilson</div> +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Release Date: April 14, 2002 [eBook #5068]<br /> +[Most recently updated: September 10, 2021]</div> +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Language: English</div> +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Character set encoding: UTF-8</div> +<div style='display:block; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Produced by: Jennifer Godwin and Jose Menendez</div> +<div style='margin-top:2em; margin-bottom:4em'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ON BEING HUMAN ***</div> + +<div class="fig" style="width:55%;"> +<img src="images/cover.jpg" style="width:100%;" alt="[Illustration]" /> +</div> + +<h1>On Being Human</h1> + +<h2 class="no-break">by Woodrow Wilson</h2> + + +<h4>Ph.D., Litt.D., LL.D.<br /> +President of the United States<br /> +<br /> +1897<br /> +From the <i>Atlantic Monthly</i></h4> + +<hr /> + +<h2>Contents</h2> + +<table summary="" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto"> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap01">I</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap02">II</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap03">III</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap04">IV</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap05">V</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap06">VI</a></td> +</tr> + +</table> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap01"></a>I</h2> + +<p> +“The rarest sort of a book,” says Mr. Bagehot, slyly, is “a +book to read”; and “the knack in style is to write like a human +being.” It is painfully evident, upon experiment, that not many of the +books which come teeming from our presses every year are meant to be read. They +are meant, it may be, to be pondered; it is hoped, no doubt, they may instruct, +or inform, or startle, or arouse, or reform, or provoke, or amuse us; but we +read, if we have the true reader’s zest and plate, not to grow more +knowing, but to be less pent up and bound within a little circle,—as +those who take their pleasure, and not as those who laboriously seek +instruction,—as a means of seeing and enjoying the world of men and +affairs. We wish companionship and renewal of spirit, enrichment of thought and +the full adventure of the mind; and we desire fair company, and a larger world +in which to find them. +</p> + +<p> +No one who loves the masters who may be communed with and read but must see, +therefore, and resent the error of making the text of any one of them a source +to draw grammar from, forcing the parts of speech to stand out stark and cold +from the warm text; or a store of samples whence to draw rhetorical instances, +setting up figures of speech singly and without support of any neighbor phrase, +to be stared at curiously and with intent to copy or dissect! Here is grammar +done without deliberation: the phrases carry their meaning simply and by a sort +of limpid reflection; the thought is a living thing, not an image ingeniously +contrived and wrought. Pray leave the text whole: it has no meaning piecemeal; +at any rate, not that best, wholesome meaning, as of a frank and genial friend +who talks, not for himself or for his phrase, but for you. It is questionable +morals to dismember a living frame to seek for its obscure fountains of life! +</p> + +<p> +When you say that a book was meant to be read, you mean, for one thing, of +course, that it was not meant to be studied. You do not study a good story, or +a haunting poem, or a battle song, or a love ballad, or any moving narrative, +whether it be out of history or out of fiction—nor any argument, even, +that moves vital in the field of action. You do not have to study these things; +they reveal themselves, you do not stay to see how. They remain with you, and +will not be forgotten or laid by. They cling like a personal experience, and +become the mind’s intimates. You devour a book meant to be read, not +because you would fill yourself or have an anxious care to be nourished, but +because it contains such stuff as it makes the mind hungry to look upon. +Neither do you read it to kill time, but to lengthen time, rather, adding to +its natural usury by living the more abundantly while it lasts, joining +another’s life and thought to your own. +</p> + +<p> +There are a few children in every generation, as Mr. Bagehot reminds us, who +think the natural thing to do with any book is to read it. “There is an +argument from design in the subject,” as he says; “if the book was +not meant to be read for that purpose, for what purpose was it meant?” +These are the young eyes to which books yield up great treasure, almost in +spite of themselves, as if they had been penetrated by some swift, enlarging +power of vision which only the young know. It is these youngsters to whom books +give up the long ages of history, “the wonderful series going back to the +times of old patriarchs with their flocks and herds”—I am quoting +Mr. Bagehot again—“the keen-eyed Greek, the stately Roman, the +watching Jew, the uncouth Goth, the horrid Hun, the settled picture of the +unchanging East, the restless shifting of the rapid West, the rise of the cold +and classical civilization, its fall, the rough impetuous Middle Ages, the +vague warm picture of ourselves and home. When did we learn these? Not +yesterday nor today, but long ago, in the first dawn of reason, in the original +flow of fancy.” Books will not yield to us so richly when we are older. +The argument from design fails. We return to the staid authors we read long +ago, and do not find in them the vital, speaking images that used to lie there +upon the page. Our own fancy is gone, and the author never had any. We are +driven in upon the books meant to be read. +</p> + +<p> +These are books written by human beings, indeed, but with no general quality +belonging to the kind—with a special tone and temper, rather, a spirit +out of the common, touched with a light that shines clear out of some great +source of light which not every man can uncover. We call this spirit human +because it moves us, quickens a like life in ourselves, makes us glow with a +sort of ardor of self-discovery. It touches the springs of fancy or of action +within us, and makes our own life seem more quick and vital. We do not call +every book that moves us human. Some seem written with knowledge of the black +art, set our base passions aflame, disclose motives at which we +shudder—the more because we feel their reality and power; and we know +that this is of the devil, and not the fruitage of any quality that +distinguishes us as men. We are distinguished as men by the qualities that mark +us different from the beasts. When we call a thing human we have a spiritual +ideal in mind. It may not be an ideal of that which is perfect, but it moves at +least upon an upland level where the air is sweet; it holds an image of man +erect and constant, going abroad with undaunted steps, looking with frank and +open gaze upon all the fortunes of his day, feeling even and again— +</p> + +<p class="poem"> +“. . . the joy <a href="#1"><sup>1</sup></a><br /> +Of elevated thoughts; a sense sublime<br /> +Of something far more deeply interfused.<br /> +Whose dwelling is the light of setting suns.<br /> +And the round ocean and the living air,<br /> +And the blue sky, and in the mind of man:<br /> +A motion and a spirit, that impels<br /> +All thinking things.” +</p> + +<p> +Say what we may of the errors and the degrading sins of our kind, we do not +willingly make what is worst in us the distinguishing trait of what is human. +When we declare, with Bagehot, that the author whom we love writes like a human +being, we are not sneering at him; we do not say it with a leer. It is in token +of admiration, rather. He makes us like our humankind. There is a noble passion +in what he says, a wholesome humor that echoes genial comradeships; a certain +reasonableness and moderation in what is thought and said; an air of the open +day, in which things are seen whole and in their right colors, rather than of +the close study or the academic class-room. We do not want our poetry from +grammarians, nor our tales from philologists, nor our history from theorists. +Their human nature is subtly transmuted into something less broad and catholic +and of the general world. Neither do we want our political economy from +tradesmen nor our statesmanship from mere politicians, but from those who see +more and care for more than these men see or care for. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap02"></a>II</h2> + +<p> +Once—it is a thought which troubles us—once it was a simple enough +matter to be a human being, but now it is deeply difficult; because life was +once simple, but is now complex, confused, multifarious. Haste, anxiety, +preoccupation, the need to specialize and make machines of ourselves, have +transformed the once simple world, and we are apprised that it will not be +without effort that we shall keep the broad human traits which have so far made +the earth habitable. We have seen our modern life accumulate, hot and restless, +in great cities—and we cannot say that the change is not natural: we see +in it, on the contrary, the fulfillment of an inevitable law of change, which +is no doubt a law of growth, and not of decay. And yet we look upon the +portentous thing with a great distaste, and doubt with what altered passions we +shall come out of it. The huge, rushing, aggregate life of a great +city—the crushing crowds in the streets, where friends seldom meet and +there are few greetings; the thunderous noise of trade and industry that speaks +of nothing but gain and competition, and a consuming fever that checks the +natural courses of the kindly blood; no leisure anywhere, no quiet, no restful +ease, no wise repose—all this shocks us. It is inhumane. It does not seem +human. How much more likely does it appear that we shall find men sane and +human about a country fireside, upon the streets of quiet villages, where all +are neighbors, where groups of friends gather easily, and a constant sympathy +makes the very air seem native! Why should not the city seem infinitely more +human than the hamlet? Why should not human traits the more abound where human +beings teem millions strong? +</p> + +<p> +Because the city curtails man of his wholeness, specializes him, quickens some +powers, stunts others, gives him a sharp edge, and a temper like that of steel, +makes him unfit for nothing so much as to sit still. Men have indeed written +like human beings in the midst of great cities, but not often when they have +shared the city’s characteristic life, its struggle for place and for +gain. There are not many places that belong to a city’s life to which you +can “invite your soul.” Its haste, its preoccupations, its +anxieties, its rushing noise as of men driven, its ringing cries, distract you. +It offers no quiet for reflection; it permits no retirement to any who share +its life. It is a place of little tasks, of narrowed functions, of aggregate +and not of individual strength. The great machine dominates its little parts, +and its Society is as much of a machine as its business. +</p> + +<p class="poem"> +“This tract which the river of Time <a href="#2"><sup>2</sup></a><br /> +Now flows through with us, is the plain.<br /> +Gone is the calm of its earlier shore.<br /> +Border’d by cities, and hoarse<br /> +With a thousand cries is its stream.<br /> +And we on its breast, our minds<br /> +Are confused as the cries which we hear,<br /> +Changing and shot as the sights which we see.<br /> +<br /> +“And we say that repose has fled<br /> +Forever the course of the river of Time<br /> +That cities will crowd to its edge<br /> +In a blacker, incessanter line;<br /> +That the din will be more on its banks,<br /> +Denser the trade on its stream,<br /> +Flatter the plain where it flows,<br /> +Fiercer the sun overhead,<br /> +That never will those on its breast<br /> +See an enobling sight,<br /> +Drink of the feeling of quiet again.<br /> +<br /> +“But what was before us we know not,<br /> +And we know not what shall succeed.<br /> +<br /> +“Haply, the river of Time—<br /> +As it grows, as the towns on its marge<br /> +Fling their wavering lights<br /> +On a wider, statelier stream—<br /> +May acquire, if not the calm<br /> +Of its early mountainous shore,<br /> +Yet a solemn peace of its own.<br /> +<br /> +“And the width of the waters, the hush<br /> +Of the gray expanse where he floats,<br /> +Freshening its current and spotted with foam<br /> +As it draws to the Ocean, may strike<br /> +Peace to the soul of the man on its breast—<br /> +As the pale waste widens around him,<br /> +As the banks fade dimmer away,<br /> +As the stars come out, and the night-wind<br /> +Brings up the stream<br /> +Murmurs and scents of the infinite sea.” +</p> + +<p> +We cannot easily see the large measure and abiding purpose of the novel age in +which we stand young and confused. The view that shall clear our minds and +quicken us to act as those who know their task and its distant consummation +will come with better knowledge and completer self-possession. It shall not be +a night-wind, but an air that shall blow out of the widening east and with the +coming of the light, and shall bring us, with the morning, “murmurs and +scents of the infinite sea.” Who can doubt that man has grown more and +more human with each step of that slow process which has brought him knowledge, +self-restraint, the arts of intercourse, and the revelations of real joy? Man +has more and more lived with his fellow-men, and it is society that has +humanized him—the development of society into an infinitely various +school of discipline and ordered skill. He has been made more human by +schooling, by growing more self-possessed—less violent, less tumultuous; +holding himself in hand, and moving always with a certain poise of spirit; not +forever clapping his hand to the hilt of his sword, but preferring, rather, to +play with a subtler skill upon the springs of action. This is our conception of +the truly human man: a man in whom there is a just balance of faculties, a +catholic sympathy—no brawler, no fanatic, no pharisee; not too credulous +in hope, not too desperate in purpose; warm, but not hasty; ardent, and full of +definite power, but not running about to be pleased and deceived by every new +thing. +</p> + +<p> +It is a genial image of men we love—an image of men warm and true of +heart, direct and unhesitating in courage, generous, magnanimous, faithful, +steadfast, capable of a deep devotion and self-forgetfulness. But the age +changes, and with it must change our ideals of human quality. Not that we would +give up what we have loved: we would add what a new life demands. In a new age +men must acquire a new capacity, must be men upon a new scale, and with added +qualities. We shall need a new Renaissance, ushered in by a new +“humanistic” movement, in which we shall add our present minute, +introspective study of ourselves, our jails, our slums, our nerve centers, our +shifts to live, almost as morbid as medieval religion, a rediscovery of the +round world, and of man’s place in it, now that its face has changed. We +study the world, but not yet with intent to school our hearts and tastes, +broaden our natures, and know our fellow-men as comrades rather than as +phenomena; with purpose, rather, to build up bodies of critical doctrine and +provide ourselves with theses. That, surely, is not the truly humanizing way in +which to take the air of the world. Man is much more than a “rational +being,” and lives more by sympathies and impressions than by conclusions. +It darkens his eyes and dries up the wells of his humanity to be forever in +search of doctrine. We need wholesome, experiencing natures, I dare affirm, +much more than we need sound reasoning. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap03"></a>III</h2> + +<p> +Take life in the large view, and we are most reasonable when we seek that which +is most wholesome and tonic for our natures as a whole; and we know, when we +put aside pedantry, that the great middle object in life—the object that +lies between religion on one hand, and food and clothing on the other, +establishing our average levels of achievement—the excellent golden mean, +is, not to be learned, but to be human beings in all the wide and genial +meaning of the term. Does the age hinder? Do its many interests distract us +when we would plan our discipline, determine our duty, clarify our ideals? It +is the more necessary that we should ask ourselves what it is that is demanded +of us, if we would fit our qualities to meet the new tests. Let us remind +ourselves that to be human is, for one thing, to speak and act with a certain +note of genuineness, a quality mixed of spontaneity and intelligence. This is +necessary for wholesome life in any age, but particularly amidst confused +affairs and shifting standards. Genuineness is not mere simplicity, for that +may lack vitality, and genuineness does not. We expect what we call genuine to +have pith and strength of fiber. Genuineness is a quality which we sometimes +mean to include when we speak of individuality. Individuality is lost the +moment you submit to passing modes or fashions, the creations of an artificial +society; and so is genuineness. No man is genuine who is forever trying to +pattern his life after the lives of other people—unless, indeed, he be a +genuine dolt. But individuality is by no means the same as genuineness; for +individuality may be associated with the most extreme and even ridiculous +eccentricity, while genuineness we conceive to be always wholesome, balanced, +and touched with dignity. It is a quality that goes with good sense and +self-respect. It is a sort of robust moral sanity, mixed of elements both moral +and intellectual. It is found in natures too strong to be mere trimmers and +conformers, too well poised and thoughtful to fling off into intemperate +protest and revolt. Laughter is genuine which has in it neither the shrill, +hysterical note of mere excitement nor the hard, metallic twang of the +cynic’s sneer—which rings in the honest voice of gracious good +humor, which is innocent and unsatirical. Speech is genuine which is without +silliness, affectation, or pretense. That character is genuine which seems +built by nature rather than by convention, which is stuff of independence and +of good courage. Nothing spurious, bastard, begotten out of true wedlock of the +mind; nothing adulterated and seeming to be what it is not; nothing unreal, can +ever get place among the nobility of things genuine, natural, of pure stock and +unmistakable lineage. It is a prerogative of every truly human being to come +out from the low estate of those who are merely gregarious and of the herd, and +show his innate powers cultivated and yet unspoiled—sound, unmixed, free +from imitation; showing that individualization without extravagance which is +genuineness. +</p> + +<p> +But how? By what means is this self-liberation to be effected—this +emancipation from affectation and the bondage of being like other people? Is it +open to us to choose to be genuine? I see nothing insuperable in the way, +except for those who are hopelessly lacking in a sense of humor. It depends +upon the range and scale of your observation whether you can strike the balance +of genuineness or not. If you live in a small and petty world, you will be +subject to its standards; but if you live in a large world, you will see that +standards are innumerable—some old, some new, some made by the +noble-minded and made to last, some made by the weak-minded and destined to +perish, some lasting from age to age, some only from day to day—and that +a choice must be made among them. It is then that your sense of humor will +assist you. You are, you will perceive, upon a long journey, and it will seem +to you ridiculous to change your life and discipline your instincts to conform +with the usages of a single inn by the way. You will distinguish the essentials +from the accidents, and deem the accidents something meant for your amusement. +The strongest natures do not need to wait for these slow lessons of +observation, to be got by conning life: their sheer vigor makes it impossible +for them to conform to fashion or care for times and seasons. But the rest of +us must cultivate knowledge of the world in the large, get our offing, reaching +a comparative point of view, before we can become with steady confidence our +own masters and pilots. The art of being human begins with the practice of +being genuine, and following standards of conduct which the world has tested. +If your life is not various and you cannot know the best people, who set the +standards of sincerity, your reading at least can be various, and you may look +at your little circle through the best books, under the guidance of writers who +have known life and loved the truth. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap04"></a>IV</h2> + +<p> +And then genuineness will bring serenity—which I take to be another mark +of the right development of the true human being, certainly in an age +passionate and confused as this in which we live. Of course serenity does not +always go with genuineness. We must say of Dr. Johnson that he was genuine, and +yet we know that the stormy tyrant of the Turk’s Head Tavern was not +serene. Carlyle was genuine (though that is not quite the first adjective we +should choose to describe him), but of serenity he allowed cooks and cocks and +every modern and every ancient sham to deprive him. Serenity is a product, no +doubt, of two very different things, namely, vision and digestion. Not the eye +only, but the courses of the blood must be clear, if we would find serenity. +Our word “serene” contains a picture. Its image is of the calm +evening when the stars are out and the still night comes on; when the dew is on +the grass and the wind does not stir; when the day’s work is over, and +the evening meal, and thought falls clear in the quiet hour. It is the hour of +reflection—and it is human to reflect. Who shall contrive to be human +without this evening hour, which drives turmoil out, and gives the soul its +seasons of self-recollection? Serenity is not a thing to beget inaction. It +only checks excitement and uncalculating haste. It does not exclude ardor or +the heat of battle: it keeps ardor from extravagance, prevents the battle from +becoming a mere aimless mêlée. The great captains of the world have been men +who were calm in the moment of crisis; who were calm, too, in the long planning +which preceded crisis; who went into battle with a serenity infinitely ominous +for those whom they attack. We instinctively associate serenity with the +highest types of power among men, seeing in it the poise of knowledge and calm +vision, the supreme heat and mastery which is without splutter or noise of any +kind. The art of power in this sort is no doubt learned in hours of reflection, +by those who are not born with it. What rebuke of aimless excitement there is +to be got out of a little reflection, when we have been inveighing against the +corruption and decadence of our own days, if only we have provided ourselves +with a little knowledge of the past wherewith to balance our thought! As bad +times as these, or any we shall see, have been reformed, but not by protests. +They have been made glorious instead of shameful by the men who kept their +heads and struck with sure self-possession in the fight. The world is very +human, not a bit given to adopting virtues for the sakes of those who merely +bemoan its vices, and we are most effective when we are most calmly in +possession of our senses. +</p> + +<p> +So far is serenity from being a thing of slackness or inaction that it seems +bred, rather, by an equable energy, a satisfying activity. It may be found in +the midst of that alert interest in affairs which is, it may be, the +distinguishing trait of developed manhood. You distinguish man from the brute +by his intelligent curiosity, his play of mind beyond the narrow field of +instinct, his perception of cause and effect in matters to him indifferent, his +appreciation of motive and calculation of results. He is interested in the +world about him, and even in the great universe of which it forms a part, not +merely as a thing he would use, satisfy his wants and grow great by, but as a +field to stretch his mind in, for love of journeyings and excursions in the +large realm of thought. Your full-bred human being loves a run afield with his +understanding. With what images does he not surround himself and store his +mind! With what fondness does he con travelers’ tales and credit +poets’ fancies! With what patience does he follow science and pore upon +old records, and with what eagerness does he ask the news of the day! No great +part of what he learns immediately touches his own life or the course of his +own affairs: he is not pursuing a business, but satisfying as he can an +insatiable mind. No doubt the highest form of this noble curiosity is that +which leads us, without self-interest, to look abroad upon all the field of +man’s life at home and in society, seeking more excellent forms of +government, more righteous ways of labor, more elevating forms of art, and +which makes the greater among us statesmen, reformers, philanthropists, +artists, critics, men of letters. It is certainly human to mind your +neighbor’s business as well as your own. Gossips are only sociologists +upon a mean and petty scale. The art of being human lifts to be a better level +than that of gossip; it leaves mere chatter behind, as too reminiscent of a +lower stage of existence, and is compassed by those whose outlook is wide +enough to serve for guidance and a choosing of ways. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap05"></a>V</h2> + +<p> +Luckily we are not the first human beings. We have come into a great heritage +of interesting things, collected and piled all about us by the curiosity of +past generations. And so our interest is selective. Our education consists in +learning intelligent choice. Our energies do not clash or compete: each is free +to take his own path to knowledge. Each has that choice, which is man’s +alone, of the life he shall live, and finds out first or last that the art in +living is not only to be genuine and one’s own master, but also to learn +mastery in perception and preference. Your true woodsman needs not to follow +the dusty highway through the forest nor search for any path, but goes straight +from glade to glade as if upon an open way, having some privy understanding +with the taller trees, some compass in his senses. So there is the subtle craft +in finding ways for the mind, too. Keep but your eyes alert and your ears +quick, as you move among men and among books, and you shall find yourself +possessed at last of a new sense, the sense of the pathfinder. Have you never +marked the eyes of a man who has seen the world he has lived in: the eyes of +the sea-captain, who has watched his life through the changes of the heavens; +the eyes of the huntsman, nature’s gossip and familiar; the eyes of the +man of affairs, accustomed to command in moments of exigency? You are at once +aware that they are eyes which can see. There is something in them that you do +not find in other eyes, and you have read the life of the man when you have +divined what it is. Let the thing serve as a figure. So ought alert interest in +the world of men and thought to serve each one of us that we shall have the +quick perceiving vision, taking meanings at a glance, reading suggestions as if +they were expositions. You shall not otherwise get full value of your humanity. +What good shall it do you else that the long generations of men which have gone +before have filled the world with great store of everything that may make you +wise and your life various? Will you not take the usury of the past, if it may +be had for the taking? Here is the world humanity has made: will you take full +citizenship in it, or will you live in it as dull, as slow to receive, as +unenfranchised, as the idlers for whom civilization has no uses, or the +deadened toilers, men or beasts, whose labor shuts the door on choice? +</p> + +<p> +That man seems to me a little less than human who lives as if our life in the +world were but just begun, thinking only of the things of sense, reckoning +nothing of the infinite thronging and assemblage of affairs the great stage +over, or of the old wisdom that has ruled the world. That is, if he have the +choice. Great masses of our fellow-men are shut out from choosing, by reason of +absorbing toil, and it is part of the enlightenment of our age that our +understandings are being opened to the workingman’s need of a little +leisure wherein to look about him and clear his vision of the dust of the +workshop. We know that there is a drudgery which is inhuman, let it but +encompass the whole life, with only heavy sleep between task and task. We know +that those who are so bound can have no freedom to be men, that their very +spirits are in bondage. It is part of our philanthropy—it should be part +of our statesmanship—to ease the burden as we can, and enfranchise those +who spend and are spent for the sustenance of the race. But what shall we say +of those who are free and yet choose littleness and bondage, or of those who, +though they might see the whole face of society, nevertheless choose to spend +all a life’s space poring upon some single vice or blemish? I would not +for the world discredit any sort of philanthropy except the small and churlish +sort which seeks to reform by nagging—the sort which exaggerates petty +vices into great ones, and runs atilt against windmills, while everywhere +colossal shams and abuses go unexposed, unrebuked. Is it because we are better +at being common scolds than at being wise advisers that we prefer little +reforms to big ones? Are we to allow the poor personal habits of other people +to absorb and quite use up all our fine indignation? It will be a bad day for +society when sentimentalists are encouraged to suggest all the measures that +shall be taken for the betterment of the race. I, for one, sometimes sigh for +the generation of “leading people” and of good people who shall see +things steadily and see them whole; who shall show a handsome justness and a +large sanity of view, an opportune tolerance for details, that happen to be +awry, in order that they may spend their energy, not without self-possession, +in some generous mission which shall make right principles shine upon the +people’s life. They would bring with them an age of large moralities, a +spacious time, a day of vision. +</p> + +<p> +Knowledge has come into the world in vain if it is not to emancipate those who +may have it from narrowness, censoriousness, fussiness, an intemperate zeal for +petty things. It would be a most pleasant, a truly humane world, would we but +open our ears with a more generous welcome to the clear voices that ring in +those writings upon life and affairs which mankind has chosen to keep. Not many +splenetic books, not many intemperate, not many bigoted, have kept men’s +confidence; and the mind that is impatient, or intolerant, or hoodwinked, or +shut in to a petty view shall have no part in carrying men forward to a true +humanity, shall never stand as examples of the true humankind. What is truly +human has always upon it the broad light of what is genial, fit to support +life, cordial, and of a catholic spirit of helpfulness. Your true human being +has eyes and keeps his balance in the world; deems nothing uninteresting that +comes from life; clarifies his vision and gives health to his eyes by using +them upon things near and things far. The brute beast has but a single +neighborhood, a single, narrow round of existence; the gain of being human +accrues in the choice of change and variety and of experience far and wide, +with all the world for stage—a stage set and appointed by this very art +of choice—all future generations for witnesses and audience. When you +talk with a man who has in his nature and acquirements that freedom from +constraint which goes with the full franchise of humanity, he turns easily with +topic to topic; does not fall silent or dull when you leave some single field +of thought such as unwise men make a prison of. The men who will not be broken +from a little set of subjects, who talk earnestly, hotly, with a sort of +fierceness, of certain special schemes of conduct, and look coldly upon +everything else, render you infinitely uneasy, as if there were in them a force +abnormal and which rocked toward an upset of the mind; but from the man whose +interest swings from thought to thought with the zest and poise and pleasure of +the old traveler, eager for what is new, glad to look again upon what is old, +you come away with faculties warmed and heartened—with the feeling of +having been comrade for a little with a genuine human being. It is a large +world and a round world, and men grow human by seeing all its play of force and +folly. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap06"></a>VI</h2> + +<p> +Let no one suppose that efficiency is lost by such breadth and catholicity of +view. We deceive ourselves with instances, look at sharp crises in the +world’s affairs, and imagine that intense and narrow men have made +history for us. Poise, balance, a nice and equable exercise of force, are not, +it is true, the things the world ordinarily seeks for or most applauds in its +heroes. It is apt to esteem that man most human who has his qualities in a +certain exaggeration, whose courage is passionate, whose generosity is without +deliberation, whose just action is without premeditation, whose spirit runs +toward its favorite objects with an infectious and reckless ardor, whose wisdom +is no child of slow prudence. We love Achilles more than Diomedes, and Ulysses +not at all. But these are standards left over from a ruder state of society: we +should have passed by this time the Homeric stage of mind—should have +heroes suited to our age. Nay, we have erected different standards, and do make +a different choice, when we see in any man fulfillment of our real ideals. Let +a modern instance serve as test. Could any man hesitate to say that Abraham +Lincoln was more human than William Lloyd Garrison? Does not every one know +that it was the practical Free-Soilers who made emancipation possible, and not +the hot, impracticable Abolitionists; that the country was infinitely more +moved by Lincoln’s temperate sagacity than by any man’s enthusiasm, +instinctively trusted the man who saw the whole situation and kept his balance, +instinctively held off from those who refused to see more than one thing? We +know how serviceable the intense and headlong agitator was in bringing to their +feet men fit for action; but we feel uneasy while he lives, and vouchsafe him +our full sympathy only when he is dead. We know that the genial forces of +nature which work daily, equably, and without violence are infinitely more +serviceable, infinitely more admirable, than the rude violence of the storm, +however necessary or excellent the purification it may have wrought. Should we +seek to name the most human man among those who led the nation to its struggle +with slavery, and yet was no statesmen, we should, of course, name Lowell. We +know that his humor went further than any man’s passion toward setting +tolerant men atingle with the new impulses of the day. We naturally hold back +from those who are intemperate and can never stop to smile, and are deeply +reassured to see a twinkle in a reformer’s eye. We are glad to see +earnest men laugh. It breaks the strain. If it be wholesome laughter, it +dispels all suspicion of spite, and is like the gleam of light upon running +water, lifting sullen shadows, suggesting clear depths. +</p> + +<p> +Surely it is this soundness of nature, this broad and genial quality, this +full-blooded, full-orbed sanity of spirit, which gives the men we love that +wide-eyed sympathy which gives hope and power to humanity, which gives range to +every good quality and is so excellent a credential of genuine manhood. Let +your life and your thought be narrow, and your sympathy will shrink to a like +scale. It is a quality which follows the seeing mind afield, which waits on +experience. It is not a mere sentiment. It goes not with pity so much as with a +penetrative understanding of other men’s lives and hopes and temptations. +Ignorance of these things makes it worthless. Its best tutors are observations +and experience, and these serve only those who keep clear eyes and a wide field +of vision. It is exercise and discipline upon such a scale, too, which +strengthen, which for ordinary men come near to creating, that capacity to +reason upon affairs and to plan for action which we always reckon upon finding +in every man who has studied to perfect his native force. This new day in which +we live cries a challenge to us. Steam and electricity have reduced nations to +neighborhoods; have made travel pastime, and news a thing for everybody. Cheap +printing has made knowledge a vulgar commodity. Our eyes look, almost without +choice, upon the very world itself, and the word “human” is filled +with new meaning. Our ideals broaden to suit the wide day in which we live. We +crave, not cloistered virtue—it is impossible any longer to keep the +cloister—but a robust spirit that shall take the air in the great world, +know men in all their kinds, choose its way amid the bustle with all +self-possession, with wise genuineness, in calmness, and yet with the quick eye +of interest and the quick pulse of power. It is again a day for +Shakespeare’s spirit—a day more various, more ardent, more +provoking to valor and every large design, even than “the spacious times +of great Elizabeth,” when all the world seemed new; and if we cannot find +another bard, come out of a new Warwickshire, to hold once more the mirror up +to nature, it will not be because the stage is not set for him. The time is +such an one as he might rejoice to look upon; and if we would serve it as it +should be served, we should seek to be human after his wide-eyed sort. The +serenity of power; the naturalness that is nature’s poise and mark of +genuineness; the unsleeping interest in all affairs, all fancies, all things +believed or done; the catholic understanding, tolerance, enjoyment, of all +classes and conditions of men; the conceiving imagination, the planning +purpose, the creating thought, the wholesome, laughing humor, the quiet +insight, the universal coinage of the brain—are not these the marvelous +gifts and qualities we mark in Shakespeare when we call him the greatest among +men? And shall not these rounded and perfect powers serve us as our ideal of +what it is to be a finished human being? +</p> + +<p> +We live for our own age—an age like Shakespeare’s, when an old +world is passing away, a new world coming in—an age of new speculation +and every new adventure of the mind; a full stage, an intricate plot, a +universal play of passion, an outcome no man can foresee. It is to this world, +this sweep of action, that our understandings must be stretched and fitted; it +is in this age we must show our human quality. We must measure ourselves by the +task, accept the pace set for us, make shift to know what we are about. How +free and liberal should be the scale of our sympathy, how catholic our +understanding of the world in which we live, how poised and masterful our +action in the midst of so great affairs! We should school our ears to know the +voices that are genuine, our thought to take the truth when it is spoken, our +spirits to feel the zest of the day. It is within our choice to be with mean +company or with great, to consort with the wise or with the foolish, now that +the great world has spoken to us in the literature of all tongues and voices. +The best selected human nature will tell in the making of the future, and the +art of being human is the art of freedom and of force. +</p> + +<hr /> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="1"><sup>1</sup></a> From “Lines composed a few miles above +Tintern Abbey,” by William Wordsworth.—J.M.<br /> +<a name="2"><sup>2</sup></a> From “The Future,” by Matthew +Arnold.—J.M. +</p> + +<hr /> + +<h4>THE END</h4> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div style='display:block; margin-top:4em'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ON BEING HUMAN ***</div> +<div style='text-align:left'> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +Updated editions will replace the previous one—the old editions will +be renamed. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright +law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, +so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United +States without permission and without paying copyright +royalties. Special rules, set forth in the General Terms of Use part +of this license, apply to copying and distributing Project +Gutenberg™ electronic works to protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG™ +concept and trademark. Project Gutenberg is a registered trademark, +and may not be used if you charge for an eBook, except by following +the terms of the trademark license, including paying royalties for use +of the Project Gutenberg trademark. If you do not charge anything for +copies of this eBook, complying with the trademark license is very +easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose such as creation +of derivative works, reports, performances and research. Project +Gutenberg eBooks may be modified and printed and given away--you may +do practically ANYTHING in the United States with eBooks not protected +by U.S. copyright law. Redistribution is subject to the trademark +license, especially commercial redistribution. +</div> + +<div style='margin:0.83em 0; font-size:1.1em; text-align:center'>START: FULL LICENSE<br /> +<span style='font-size:smaller'>THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE<br /> +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK</span> +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +To protect the Project Gutenberg™ mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase “Project +Gutenberg”), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full +Project Gutenberg™ License available with this file or online at +www.gutenberg.org/license. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; font-size:1.1em; margin:1em 0; font-weight:bold'> +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg™ electronic works +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg™ +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or +destroy all copies of Project Gutenberg™ electronic works in your +possession. If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a +Project Gutenberg™ electronic work and you do not agree to be bound +by the terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person +or entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.B. “Project Gutenberg” is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg™ electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg™ electronic works if you follow the terms of this +agreement and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg™ +electronic works. See paragraph 1.E below. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation (“the +Foundation” or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection +of Project Gutenberg™ electronic works. Nearly all the individual +works in the collection are in the public domain in the United +States. If an individual work is unprotected by copyright law in the +United States and you are located in the United States, we do not +claim a right to prevent you from copying, distributing, performing, +displaying or creating derivative works based on the work as long as +all references to Project Gutenberg are removed. Of course, we hope +that you will support the Project Gutenberg™ mission of promoting +free access to electronic works by freely sharing Project Gutenberg™ +works in compliance with the terms of this agreement for keeping the +Project Gutenberg™ name associated with the work. You can easily +comply with the terms of this agreement by keeping this work in the +same format with its attached full Project Gutenberg™ License when +you share it without charge with others. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are +in a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, +check the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this +agreement before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, +distributing or creating derivative works based on this work or any +other Project Gutenberg™ work. The Foundation makes no +representations concerning the copyright status of any work in any +country other than the United States. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other +immediate access to, the full Project Gutenberg™ License must appear +prominently whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg™ work (any work +on which the phrase “Project Gutenberg” appears, or with which the +phrase “Project Gutenberg” is associated) is accessed, displayed, +performed, viewed, copied or distributed: +</div> + +<blockquote> + <div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> + This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most + other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions + whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms + of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online + at <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a>. If you + are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws + of the country where you are located before using this eBook. + </div> +</blockquote> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg™ electronic work is +derived from texts not protected by U.S. copyright law (does not +contain a notice indicating that it is posted with permission of the +copyright holder), the work can be copied and distributed to anyone in +the United States without paying any fees or charges. If you are +redistributing or providing access to a work with the phrase “Project +Gutenberg” associated with or appearing on the work, you must comply +either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 or +obtain permission for the use of the work and the Project Gutenberg™ +trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg™ electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any +additional terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms +will be linked to the Project Gutenberg™ License for all works +posted with the permission of the copyright holder found at the +beginning of this work. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg™ +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg™. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg™ License. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including +any word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access +to or distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg™ work in a format +other than “Plain Vanilla ASCII” or other format used in the official +version posted on the official Project Gutenberg™ website +(www.gutenberg.org), you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense +to the user, provide a copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means +of obtaining a copy upon request, of the work in its original “Plain +Vanilla ASCII” or other form. Any alternate format must include the +full Project Gutenberg™ License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg™ works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg™ electronic works +provided that: +</div> + +<div style='margin-left:0.7em;'> + <div style='text-indent:-0.7em'> + • You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg™ works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is owed + to the owner of the Project Gutenberg™ trademark, but he has + agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the Project + Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments must be paid + within 60 days following each date on which you prepare (or are + legally required to prepare) your periodic tax returns. Royalty + payments should be clearly marked as such and sent to the Project + Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the address specified in + Section 4, “Information about donations to the Project Gutenberg + Literary Archive Foundation.” + </div> + + <div style='text-indent:-0.7em'> + • You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg™ + License. You must require such a user to return or destroy all + copies of the works possessed in a physical medium and discontinue + all use of and all access to other copies of Project Gutenberg™ + works. + </div> + + <div style='text-indent:-0.7em'> + • You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of + any money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days of + receipt of the work. + </div> + + <div style='text-indent:-0.7em'> + • You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg™ works. + </div> +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project +Gutenberg™ electronic work or group of works on different terms than +are set forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing +from the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the manager of +the Project Gutenberg™ trademark. Contact the Foundation as set +forth in Section 3 below. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.F. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +works not protected by U.S. copyright law in creating the Project +Gutenberg™ collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg™ +electronic works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may +contain “Defects,” such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate +or corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other +intellectual property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or +other medium, a computer virus, or computer codes that damage or +cannot be read by your equipment. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the “Right +of Replacement or Refund” described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg™ trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg™ electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium +with your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you +with the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in +lieu of a refund. If you received the work electronically, the person +or entity providing it to you may choose to give you a second +opportunity to receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If +the second copy is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing +without further opportunities to fix the problem. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you ‘AS-IS’, WITH NO +OTHER WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT +LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of +damages. If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement +violates the law of the state applicable to this agreement, the +agreement shall be interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or +limitation permitted by the applicable state law. The invalidity or +unenforceability of any provision of this agreement shall not void the +remaining provisions. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg™ electronic works in +accordance with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the +production, promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg™ +electronic works, harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, +including legal fees, that arise directly or indirectly from any of +the following which you do or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this +or any Project Gutenberg™ work, (b) alteration, modification, or +additions or deletions to any Project Gutenberg™ work, and (c) any +Defect you cause. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; font-size:1.1em; margin:1em 0; font-weight:bold'> +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg™ +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +Project Gutenberg™ is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of +computers including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It +exists because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations +from people in all walks of life. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg™’s +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg™ collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg™ and future +generations. To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation and how your efforts and donations can help, see +Sections 3 and 4 and the Foundation information page at www.gutenberg.org. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; font-size:1.1em; margin:1em 0; font-weight:bold'> +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non-profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation’s EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent permitted by +U.S. federal laws and your state’s laws. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +The Foundation’s business office is located at 809 North 1500 West, +Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887. Email contact links and up +to date contact information can be found at the Foundation’s website +and official page at www.gutenberg.org/contact +</div> + +<div style='display:block; font-size:1.1em; margin:1em 0; font-weight:bold'> +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +Project Gutenberg™ depends upon and cannot survive without widespread +public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine-readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To SEND +DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any particular state +visit <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/donate/">www.gutenberg.org/donate</a>. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +Please check the Project Gutenberg web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations. To +donate, please visit: www.gutenberg.org/donate +</div> + +<div style='display:block; font-size:1.1em; margin:1em 0; font-weight:bold'> +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg™ electronic works +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project +Gutenberg™ concept of a library of electronic works that could be +freely shared with anyone. For forty years, he produced and +distributed Project Gutenberg™ eBooks with only a loose network of +volunteer support. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +Project Gutenberg™ eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as not protected by copyright in +the U.S. unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not +necessarily keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper +edition. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +Most people start at our website which has the main PG search +facility: <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a>. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +This website includes information about Project Gutenberg™, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. +</div> + +</div> + +</body> + +</html> + + diff --git a/5068-h/images/cover.jpg b/5068-h/images/cover.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..d29b64f --- /dev/null +++ b/5068-h/images/cover.jpg diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..9861039 --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #5068 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/5068) diff --git a/old/5068.txt b/old/5068.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..bf8156c --- /dev/null +++ b/old/5068.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1054 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of On Being Human, by Woodrow Wilson +#2 in our series by Woodrow Wilson + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the +copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing +this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook. + +This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project +Gutenberg file. Please do not remove it. Do not change or edit the +header without written permission. + +Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the +eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is +important information about your specific rights and restrictions in +how the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!***** + + +Title: On Being Human + +Author: Woodrow Wilson + +Release Date: February, 2004 [EBook #5068] +[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] +[This file was first posted on April 14, 2002] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ON BEING HUMAN *** + + + + +This etext was produced by Jennifer Godwin, <http://www.jengod.com/> + + + + + + +On Being Human + +Woodrow Wilson +Ph.D., Litt.D., LL.D. +President of the United States + +1897 +From the Atlantic Monthly + + +On Being Human + + +I + +"The rarest sort of a book," says Mr. Bagehot, slyly, is "a book +to read"; and "the knack in style is to write like a human +being." It is painfully evident, upon experiment, that not many +of the books which come teeming from our presses every year are +meant to be read. They are meant, it may be, to be pondered; it +is hoped, no doubt, they may instruct, or inform, or startle, or +arouse, or reform, or provoke, or amuse us; but we read, if we +have the true reader's zest and plate, not to grow more knowing, +but to be less pent up and bound within a little circle,--as +those who take their pleasure, and not as those who laboriously +seek instruction,--as a means of seeing and enjoying the world +of men and affairs. We wish companionship and renewal of spirit, +enrichment of thought and the full adventure of the mind; and we +desire fair company, and a larger world in which to find them. + +No one who loves the masters who may be communed with and read +but must see, therefore, and resent the error of making the text +of any one of them a source to draw grammar from, forcing the +parts of speech to stand out stark and cold from the warm text; +or a store of samples whence to draw rhetorical instances, +setting up figures of speech singly and without support of any +neighbor phrase, to be stared at curiously and with intent to +copy or dissect! Here is grammar done without deliberation: the +phrases carry their meaning simply and by a sort of limpid +reflection; the thought is a living thing, not an image +ingeniously contrived and wrought. Pray leave the text whole: it +has no meaning piecemeal; at any rate, not that best, wholesome +meaning, as of a frank and genial friend who talks, not for +himself or for his phrase, but for you. It is questionable morals +to dismember a living frame to seek for its obscure fountains of +life! + +When you say that a book was meant to be read, you mean, for one +thing, of course, that it was not meant to be studied. You do not +study a good story, or a haunting poem, or a battle song, or a +love ballad, or any moving narrative, whether it be out of +history or out of fiction--nor any argument, even, that moves +vital in the field of action. You do not have to study these +things; they reveal themselves, you do not stay to see how. They +remain with you, and will not be forgotten or laid by. They cling +like a personal experience, and become the mind's intimates. You +devour a book meant to be read, not because you would fill +yourself or have an anxious care to be nourished, but because it +contains such stuff as it makes the mind hungry to look upon. +Neither do you read it to kill time, but to lengthen time, +rather, adding to its natural usury by living the more abundantly +while it lasts, joining another's life and thought to your own. + +There are a few children in every generation, as Mr. Bagehot +reminds us, who think the natural thing to do with any book is to +read it. "There is an argument from design in the subject," as he +says; "if the book was not meant to be read for that purpose, for +what purpose was it meant?" These are the young eyes to which +books yield up great treasure, almost in spite of themselves, as +if they had been penetrated by some swift, enlarging power of +vision which only the young know. It is these youngsters to whom +books give up the long ages of history, "the wonderful series +going back to the times of old patriarchs with their flocks and +herds"--I am quoting Mr. Bagehot again--"the keen-eyed Greek, +the stately Roman, the watching Jew, the uncouth Goth, the horrid +Hun, the settled picture of the unchanging East, the restless +shifting of the rapid West, the rise of the cold and classical +civilization, its fall, the rough impetuous Middle Ages, the +vague warm picture of ourselves and home. When did we learn +these? Not yesterday nor today, but long ago, in the first dawn +of reason, in the original flow of fancy." Books will not yield +to us so richly when we are older. The argument from design +fails. We return to the staid authors we read long ago, and do +not find in them the vital, speaking images that used to lie +there upon the page. Our own fancy is gone, and the author never +had any. We are driven in upon the books meant to be read. + +These are books written by human beings, indeed, but with no +general quality belonging to the kind--with a special tone and +temper, rather, a spirit out of the common, touched with a light +that shines clear out of some great source of light which not +every man can uncover. We call this spirit human because it moves +us, quickens a like life in ourselves, makes us glow with a sort +of ardor of self-discovery. It touches the springs of fancy or of +action within us, and makes our own life seem more quick and +vital. We do not call every book that moves us human. Some seem +written with knowledge of the black art, set our base passions +aflame, disclose motives at which we shudder--the more because +we feel their reality and power; and we know that this is of the +devil, and not the fruitage of any quality that distinguishes us +as men. We are distinguished as men by the qualities that mark us +different from the beasts. When we call a thing human we have a +spiritual ideal in mind. It may not be an ideal of that which is +perfect, but it moves at least upon an upland level where the air +is sweet; it holds an image of man erect and constant, going +abroad with undaunted steps, looking with frank and open gaze +upon all the fortunes of his day, feeling even and again-- + + "...the joy + Of elevated thoughts; a sense sublime + Of something far more deeply interfused. + Whose dwelling is the light of setting suns. + And the round ocean and the living air, + And the blue sky, and in the mind of man: + A motion and a spirit, that impels + All thinking things." + +Say what we may of the errors and the degrading sins of our kind, +we do not willingly make what is worst in us the distinguishing +trait of what is human. When we declare, with Bagehot, that the +author whom we love writes like a human being, we are not +sneering at him; we do not say it with a leer. It is in token of +admiration, rather. He makes us like our humankind. There is a +noble passion in what he says, a wholesome humor that echoes +genial comradeships; a certain reasonableness and moderation in +what is thought and said; an air of the open day, in which things +are seen whole and in their right colors, rather than of the +close study or the academic class-room. We do not want our poetry +from grammarians, nor our tales from philologists, nor our +history from theorists. Their human nature is subtly transmuted +into something less broad and catholic and of the general world. +Neither do we want our political economy from tradesmen nor our +statesmanship from mere politicians, but from those who see more +and care for more than these men see or care for. + + +II + +Once--it is a thought which troubles us--once it was a simple +enough matter to be a human being, but now it is deeply +difficult; because life was once simple, but is now complex, +confused, multifarious. Haste, anxiety, preoccupation, the need +to specialize and make machines of ourselves, have transformed +the once simple world, and we are apprised that it will not be +without effort that we shall keep the broad human traits which +have so far made the earth habitable. We have seen our modern +life accumulate, hot and restless, in great cities--and we +cannot say that the change is not natural: we see in it, on the +contrary, the fulfillment of an inevitable law of change, which +is no doubt a law of growth, and not of decay. And yet we look +upon the portentous thing with a great distaste, and doubt with +what altered passions we shall come out of it. The huge, rushing, +aggregate life of a great city--the crushing crowds in the +streets, where friends seldom meet and there are few greetings; +the thunderous noise of trade and industry that speaks of nothing +but gain and competition, and a consuming fever that checks the +natural courses of the kindly blood; no leisure anywhere, no +quiet, no restful ease, no wise repose--all this shocks us. It +is inhumane. It does not seem human. How much more likely does it +appear that we shall find men sane and human about a country +fireside, upon the streets of quiet villages, where all are +neighbors, where groups of friends gather easily, and a constant +sympathy makes the very air seem native! Why should not the city +seem infinitely more human than the hamlet? Why should not human +traits the more abound where human beings teem millions strong? + +Because the city curtails man of his wholeness, specializes him, +quickens some powers, stunts others, gives him a sharp edge, and +a temper like that of steel, makes him unfit for nothing so much +as to sit still. Men have indeed written like human beings in the +midst of great cities, but not often when they have shared the +city's characteristic life, its struggle for place and for gain. +There are not many places that belong to a city's life to which +you can "invite your soul." Its haste, its preoccupations, its +anxieties, its rushing noise as of men driven, its ringing cries, +distract you. It offers no quiet for reflection; it permits no +retirement to any who share its life. It is a place of little +tasks, of narrowed functions, of aggregate and not of individual +strength. The great machine dominates its little parts, and its +Society is as much of a machine as its business. + + "This tract which the river of Time + Now flows through with us, is the plain. + Gone is the calm of its earlier shore. + Border'd by cities, and hoarse + With a thousand cries is its stream. + And we on its breasts, our minds + Are confused as the cries which we hear, + Changing and sot as the sights which we see. + + "And we say that repose has fled + Forever the course of the river of Time + That cities will crowd to its edge + In a blacker, incessanter line; + That the din will be more on its banks, + Denser the trade on its stream, + Flatter the plain where it flows, + Fiercer the sun overhead, + That never will those on its breast + See an enobling sight, + Drink of the feeling of quiet again. + + "But what was before us we know not, + And we know not what shall succeed. + + "Haply, the river of Time-- + As it grows, as the towns on its marge + Fling their wavering lights + On a wider, statelier stream-- + May acquire, if not the calm + Of its early mountainous shore, + Yet a solemn peace of its own. + + "And the width of the waters, the hush + Of the gray expanse where he floats, + Freshening its current and spotted with foam + As it draws to the Ocean, may strike + Peace to the soul of the man on its breast-- + As the pale waste widens around him, + As the banks fade dinner away, + As the stars come out, and the night-wind + Brings up the stream + Murmurs and scents of the infinite sea." + +We cannot easily see the large measure and abiding purpose of the +novel age in which we stand young and confused. The view that +shall clear our minds and quicken us to act as those who know +their task and its distant consummation will come with better +knowledge and completer self-possession. It shall not be a +night-wind, but an air that shall blow out of the widening east +and with the coming of the light, and shall bring us, with the +morning, "murmurs and scents of the infinite sea." Who can doubt +that man has grown more and more human with each step of that +slow process which has brought him knowledge, self-restraint, +the arts of intercourse, and the revelations of real joy? Man has +more and more lived with his fellow-men, and it is society that +has humanized him--the development of society into a infinitely +various school of discipline and ordered skill. He has been made +more human by schooling, by growing more self-possessed--less +violent, less tumultuous; holding himself in hand, and moving +always with a certain poise of spirit; not forever clapping his +hand to the hilt of his sword, but preferring, rather, to play +with a subtler skill upon the springs of action. This is our +conception of the truly human man: a man in whom there is a just +balance of faculties, a catholic sympathy--no brawler, no +fanatic, no pharisee; not too credulous in hope, not too +desperate in purpose; warm, but not hasty; ardent, and full of +definite power, but not running about to be pleased and deceived +by every new thing. + +It is a genial image, of men we love--an image of men warm and +true of heart, direct and unhesitating in courage, generous, +magnanimous, faithful, steadfast, capable of a deep devotion and +self-forgetfulness. But the age changes, and with it must change +our ideals of human quality. Not that we would give up what we +have loved: we would add what a new life demands. In a new age +men must acquire a new capacity, must be men upon a new scale, +and with added qualities. We shall need a new Renaissance, +ushered in by a new "humanistic" movement, in which we shall add +our present minute, introspective study of ourselves, our jails, +our slums, our nervecenters, our shifts to live, almost as morbid +as medieval religion, a rediscovery of the round world, and of +man's place in it, now that its face has changed. We study the +world, but not yet with intent to school our hearts and tastes, +broaden our natures, and know our fellow-men as comrades rather +than as phenomena; with purpose, rather, to build up bodies of +critical doctrine and provide ourselves with theses. That, +surely, is not the truly humanizing way in which to take the air +of the world. Man is much more than a "rational being," and lives +more by sympathies and impressions than by conclusions. It +darkens his eyes and dries up the wells of his humanity to be +forever in search of doctrine. We need wholesome, experiencing +natures, I dare affirm, much more than we need sound reasoning. + + +III + +Take life in the large view, and we are most reasonable when we +seek that which is most wholesome and tonic for our natures as a +whole; and we know, when we put aside pedantry, that the great +middle object in life--the object that lies between religion on +one hand, and food and clothing on the other, establishing our +average levels of achievement--the excellent golden mean, is, +not to be learned, but to be human beings in all the wide and +genial meaning of the term. Does the age hinder? Do its many +interests distract us when we would plan our discipline, +determine our duty, clarify our ideals? It is the more necessary +that we should ask ourselves what it is that is demanded of us, +if we would fit our qualities to meet the new tests. Let us +remind ourselves that to be human is, for one thing, to speak and +act with a certain note of gentleness, a quality mixed of +spontaneity and intelligence. This is necessary for wholesome +life in any age, but particularly amidst confused affairs and +shifting standards. Genuineness is not mere simplicity, for that +may lack vitality, and genuineness does not. We expect what we +call genuine to have pith and strength of fiber. Genuineness is a +quality which we sometimes mean to include when we speak of +individuality. Individuality is lost the moment you submit to +passing modes or fashions, the creations of an artificial +society; and so is genuineness. No man is genuine who is forever +trying to pattern his life after the lives of other people-- +unless, indeed, he be a genuine dolt. But individuality is by no +means the same as genuineness; for individuality may be +associated with the most extreme and even ridiculous +eccentricity, while genuineness we conceive to be always +wholesome, balanced, and touched with dignity. It is a quality +that goes with good sense and self-respect. It is a sort of +robust moral sanity, mixed of elements both moral and +intellectual. It is found in natures too strong to be mere +trimmers and conformers, too well poised and thoughtful to fling +off into intemperate protest and revolt. Laughter is genuine +which has in it neither the shrill, hysterical note of mere +excitement nor the hard, metallic twang of the cynic's sneer-- +which rings in the honest voice of gracious good humor, which is +innocent and unsatirical. Speech is genuine which is without +silliness, affectation, or pretense. That character is genuine +which seems built by nature rather than by convention, which is +stuff of independence and of good courage. Nothing spurious, +bastard, begotten out of true wedlock of the mind; nothing +adulterated and seeming to be what it is not; nothing unreal, can +ever get place among the nobility of things genuine, natural, of +pure stock and unmistakable lineage. It is a prerogative of every +truly human being to come out from the low estate of those who +are merely gregarious and of the herd, and show his innate powers +cultivated and yet unspoiled--sound, unmixed, free from +imitation; showing that individualization without extravagance +which is genuineness. + +But how? By what means is this self-liberation to be effected-- +this emancipation from affection and the bondage of being like +other people? Is it open to us to choose to be genuine? I see +nothing insuperable in the way, except for those who are +hopelessly lacking in a sense of humor. It depends upon the range +and scale of your observation whether you can strike the balance +of genuineness or not. If you live in a small and petty world, +you will be subject to its standards; but if you live in a large +world, you will see that standards are innumerable--some old, +some new, some made by the noble-minded and made to last, some +made by the weak-minded and destined to perish, some lasting from +age to age, some only from day to day--and that a choice must be +made among them. It is then that your sense of humor will assist +you. You are, you will perceive, upon a long journey, and it will +seem to you ridiculous to change your life and discipline your +instincts to conform with the usages of a single inn by the way. +You will distinguish the essentials from the accidents, and deem +the accidents something meant for your amusement. The strongest +natures do not need to wait for these slow lessons of +observation, to be got by conning life: their sheer vigor makes +it impossible for them to conform to fashion or care for times +and seasons. But the rest of us must cultivate knowledge of the +world in the large, get our offing, reaching a comparative point +of view, before we can become with steady confidence our own +masters and pilots. The art of being humans begins with the +practice of being genuine, and following standards of conduct +which the world has tested. If your life is not various and you +cannot know the best people, who set the standards of sincerity, +your reading at least can be various, and you may look at your +little circle through the best books, under the guidance of +writers who have known life and loved the truth. + + +IV + +And then genuineness will bring serenity--which I take to be +another mark of the right development of the true human being, +certainly in an age passionate and confused as this in which we +live. Of course serenity does not always go with genuineness. We +must say of Dr. Johnson that he was genuine, and yet we know that +the stormy tyrant of the Turk's Head Tavern was not serene. +Carlyle was genuine (though that is not quite the first adjective +we should choose to describe him), but of serenity he allowed +cooks and cocks and every modern and every ancient sham to +deprive him. Serenity is a product, no doubt, of two very +different things, namely, vision and digestion. Not the eye only, +but the courses of the blood must be clear, if we would find +serenity. Our word "serene" contains a picture. Its image is of +the calm evening when the stars are out and the still night comes +on; when the dew is on the grass and the wind does not stir; when +the day's work is over, and the evening meal, and thought falls +clear in the quiet hour. It is the hour of reflection--and it is +human to reflect. Who shall contrive to be human without this +evening hour, which drives turmoil out, and gives the soul its +seasons of self-recollection? Serenity is not a thing to beget +inaction. It only checks excitement and uncalculating haste. It +does not exclude ardor or the heat of battle: it keeps ardor from +extravagance, prevents the battle from becoming a mere aimless +melee. The great captains of the world have been men who were +calm in the moment of crisis; who were calm, too, in the long +planning which preceded crisis; who went into battle with a +serenity infinitely ominous for those whom they attack. We +instinctively associate serenity with the highest types of power +among men, seeing in it the poise of knowledge and calm vision, +the supreme heat and mastery which is without splutter or noise +of any kind. The art of power in this sort is no doubt learned in +hours of reflection, by those who are not born with it. What +rebuke of aimless excitement there is to be got out of a little +reflection, when we have been inveighing against the corruption +and decadence of our own days, if only we have provided ourselves +with a little knowledge of the past wherewith to balance our +thought! As bad times as these, or any we shall see, have been +reformed, but not by protests. They have been made glorious +instead of shameful by the men who kept their heads and struck +with sure self-possession in the fight. The world is very human, +not a bit given to adopting virtues for the sakes of those who +merely bemoan its vices, and we are most effective when we are +most calmly in possession of our senses. + +So far is serenity from being a thing of slackness or inaction +that it seems bred, rather, by an equable energy, a satisfying +activity. It may be found in the midst of that alert interest in +affairs which is, it may be, the distinguishing trait of +developed manhood. You distinguish man from the brute by his +intelligent curiosity, his play of mind beyond the narrow field +of instinct, his perception of cause and effect in matters to him +indifferent, his appreciation of motive and calculation of +results. He is interested in the world about him, and even in the +great universe of which it forms a part, not merely as a thing he +would use, satisfy his wants and grow great by, but as a field to +stretch his mind in, for love of journeyings and excursions in +the large realm of thought. Your full-bred human being loves a +run afield with his understanding. With what images does he not +surround himself and store his mind! With what fondness does he +con travelers' tales and credit poets' fancies! With what +patience does he follow science and pore upon old records, and +with what eagerness does he ask the news of the day! No great +part of what he learns immediately touches his own life or the +course of his own affairs: he is not pursuing a business, but +satisfying as he can an insatiable mind. No doubt the highest +form of this noble curiosity is that which leads us, without +self-interest, to look abroad upon all the field of man's life at +home and in society, seeking more excellent forms of government, +more righteous ways of labor, more elevating forms of art, and +which makes the greater among us statesmen, reformers, +philanthropists, artists, critics, men of letters. It is +certainly human to mind your neighbor's business as well as your +own. Gossips are only sociologists upon a mean and petty scale. +The art of being human lifts to be a better level than that of +gossip; it leaves mere chatter behind, as too reminiscent of a +lower stage of existence, and is compassed by those whose outlook +is wide enough to serve for guidance and a choosing of ways. + + +V + +Luckily we are not the first human beings. We have come into a +great heritage of interesting things, collected and piled all +about us by the curiousity of past generations. And so our +interest is selective. Our education consists in learning +intelligent choice. Our energies do not clash or compete: each is +free to take his own path to knowledge. Each has that choice, +which is man's alone, of the life he shall live, and finds out +first or last that the art in living is not only to be genuine +and one's own master, but also to learn mastery in perception and +preference. Your true woodsman needs not to follow the dusty +highway through the forest nor search for any path, but goes +straight from glade to glade as if upon an open way, having some +privy understanding with the taller trees, some compass in his +senses. So there is the subtle craft in finding ways for the +mind, too. Keep but your eyes alert and your ears quick, as you +move among men and among books, and you shall find yourself +possessed at last of a new sense, the sense of the pathfinder. +Have you never marked the eyes of a man who has seen the world he +has lived in: the eyes of the sea-captain, who has watched his +life through the changes of the heavens; the eyes of the +huntsman, nature's gossip and familiar; the eyes of the man of +affairs, accustomed to command in moments of exigency? You are at +once aware that they are eyes which can see. There is something +in them that you do not find in other eyes, and you have read the +life of the man when you have divined what it is. Let the thing +serve as a figure. So ought alert interest in the world of men +and thought to serve each one of us that we shall have the quick +perceiving vision, taking meanings at a glance, reading +suggestions as if they were expositions. You shall not otherwise +get full value of your humanity. What good shall it do you else +that the long generations of men which have gone before have +filled the world with great store of everything that may make you +wise and your life various? Will you not take the usury of the +past, if it may be had for the taking? Here is the world humanity +has made: will you take full citizenship in it, or will you live +in it as dull, as slow to receive, as unenfranchised, as the +idlers for whom civilization has no uses, or the deadened +toilers, men or beasts, whose labor shuts the door on choice? + +That man seems to me a little less than human who lives as if our +life in the world were but just begun, thinking only of the +things of sense, recking nothing of the infinite thronging and +assemblage of affairs the great stage over, or of the old wisdom +that has ruled the world. That is, if he have the choice. Great +masses of our fellow-men are shut out from choosing, by reason of +absorbing toil, and it is part of the enlightenment of our age +that our understandings are being opened to the workingman's need +of a little leisure wherein to look about him and clear his +vision of the dust of the workshop. We know that there is a +drudgery which is inhuman, let it but encompass the whole life, +with only heavy sleep between task and task. We know that those +who are so bound can have no freedom to be men, that their very +spirits are in bondage. It is part of our philanthropy--it +should be part of our statesmanship--to ease the burden as we +can, and enfranchise those who spend and are spent for the +sustenance of the race. But what shall we say of those who are +free and yet choose littleness and bondage, or of those who, +though they might see the whole face of society, nevertheless +choose to spend all a life's space poring upon some single vice +or blemish? I would not for the world discredit any sort of +philanthropy except the small and churlish sort which seeks to +reform by nagging--the sort which exaggerates petty vices into +great ones, and runs atilt against windmills, while everywhere +colossal shams and abuses go unexposed, unrebuked. Is it because +we are better at being common scolds than at being wise advisers +that we prefer little reforms to big ones? Are we to allow the +poor personal habits of other people to absorb and quite use up +all our fine indignation? It will be a bad day for society when +sentimentalists are encouraged to suggest all the measures that +shall be taken for the betterment of the race. I, for one, +sometimes sigh for the generation of "leading people" and of good +people who shall see things steadily and see them whole; who +shall show a handsome justness and a large sanity of view, an +opportune tolerance for details, that happen to be awry, in order +that they may spend their energy, not without self-possession, in +some generous mission which shall make right principles shine +upon the people's life. They would bring with them an age of +large moralities, a spacious time, a day of vision. + +Knowledge has come into the world in vain if it is not to +emancipate those who may have it from narrowness, censoriousness, +fussiness, an intemperate zeal for petty things. It would be a +most pleasant, a truly humane world, would we but open our ears +with a more generous welcome to the clear voices that ring in +those writings upon life and affairs which mankind has chosen to +keep. Not many splenetic books, not many intemperate, not many +bigoted, have kept men's confidence; and the mind that is +impatient, or intolerant, or hoodwinked, or shut in to a petty +view shall have no part in carrying men forward to a true +humanity, shall never stand as examples of the true humankind. +What is truly human has always upon it the broad light of what is +genial, fit to support life, cordial, and of a catholic spirit of +helpfulness. Your true human being has eyes and keeps his balance +in the world; deems nothing uninteresting that comes from life; +clarifies his vision and gives health to his eyes by using them +upon things near and things far. The brute beast has but a single +neighborhood, a single, narrow round of existence; the gain of +being human accrues in the choice of change and variety and of +experience far and wide, with all the world for stage--a stage +set and appointed by this very art of choice--all future +generations for witnesses and audience. When you talk with a man +who has in his nature and acquirements that freedom from +constraint which goes with the full franchise of humanity, he +turns easily with topic to topic; does not fall silent or dull +when you leave some single field of thought such as unwise men +make a prison of. The men who will not be broken from a little +set of subjects, who talk earnestly, hotly, with a sort of +fierceness, of certain special schemes of conduct, and look +coldly upon everything else, render you infinitely uneasy, as if +there were in them a force abnormal and which rocked toward an +upset of the mind; but from the man whose interest swings from +thought to thought with the zest and poise and pleasure of the +old traveler, eager for what is new, glad to look again upon what +is old, you come away with faculties warmed and heartened--with +the feeling of having been comrade for a little with a genuine +human being. It is a large world and a round world, and men grow +human by seeing all its play of force and folly. + + +VI + +Let no one suppose that efficiency is lost by such breadth and +catholicity of view. We deceive ourselves with instances, look at +sharp crises in the world's affairs, and imagine that intense and +narrow men have made history for us. Poise, balance, a nice and +equable exercise of force, are not, it is true, the things the +world ordinarily seeks for or most applauds in its heroes. It is +apt to esteem that man most human who has his qualities in a +certain exaggeration, whose courage is passionate, whose +generosity is without deliberation, whose just action is without +premeditation, whose spirit runs toward its favorite objects with +an infectious and reckless ardor, whose wisdom is no child of +slow prudence. We love Achilles more than Diomedes, and Ulysses +not at all. But these are standards left over from a ruder state +of society: we should have passed by this time the Homeric stage +of mind--should have heroes suited to our age. Nay, we have +erected different standards, and do make a different choice, when +we see in any man fulfillment of our real ideals. Let a modern +instance serve as test. Could any man hesitate to say that +Abraham Lincoln was more human than William Lloyd Garrison? Does +not every one know that it was the practical Free-Soilers who made +emancipation possible, and not the hot, impracticable +Abolitionists; that the country was infinitely more moved by +Lincoln's temperate sagacity than by any man's enthusiasm, +instinctively trusted the man who saw the whole situation and kept +his balance, instinctively held off from those who refused to see +more than one thing? We know how serviceable the intense and +headlong agitator was in bringing to their feet men fit for +action; but we feel uneasy while he lives, and vouchsafe him our +full sympathy only when he is dead. We know that the genial forces +of nature which work daily, equably, and without violence are +infinitely more serviceable, infinitely more admirable, than the +rude violence of the storm, however necessary or excellent the +purification it may have wrought. Should we seek to name the most +human man among those who let the nation to its struggle with +slavery, and yet was no statesmen, we should, of course, name +Lowell. We know that his humor went further than any man's passion +toward setting tolerant men atingle with the new impulses of the +day. We naturally hold back from those who are intemperate and can +never stop to smile, and are deeply reassured to see a twinkle in +a reformer's eye. We are glad to see earnest men laugh. It breaks +the strain. If it be wholesome laughter, it dispels all suspicion +of spite, and is like the gleam of light upon running water, +lifting sullen shadows, suggesting clear depths. + +Surely it is this soundness of nature, this broad and genial +quality, this full-blooded, full-orbed sanity of spirit, which +gives the men we love that wide-eyed sympathy which gives hope +and power to humanity, which gives range to every good quality +and is so excellent a credential of genuine manhood. Let your +life and your thought be narrow, and your sympathy will shrink to +a like scale. It is a quality which follows the seeing mind +afield, which waits on experience. It is not a mere sentiment. It +goes not with pity so much as with a penetrative understanding of +other men's lives and hopes and temptations. Ignorance of these +things makes it worthless. Its best tutors are observations and +experience, and these serve only those who keep clear eyes and a +wide field of vision. It is exercise and discipline upon such a +scale, too, which strengthen, which for ordinary men come near to +creating, that capacity to reason upon affairs and to plan for +action which we always reckon upon finding in every man who has +studied to perfect his native force. This new day in which we +live cries a challenge to us. Steam and electricity have reduced +nations to neighborhoods; have made travel pastime, and news a +thing for everybody. Cheap printing has made knowledge a vulgar +commodity. Our eyes look, almost without choice, upon the very +world itself, and the word "human" is filled with new meaning. +Our ideals broaden to suit the wide day in which we live. We +crave, not cloistered virtue--it is impossible any longer to +keep the cloister--but a robust spirit that shall take the air +in the great world, know men in all their kinds, choose its way +amid the bustle with all self-possession, with wise genuineness, +in calmness, and yet with the quick eye of interest and the quick +pulse of power. It is again a day for Shakespeare's spirit--a +day more various, more ardent, more provoking to valor and every +large design, even than "the spacious times of great Elizabeth," +when all the world seemed new; and if we cannot find another +bard, come out of a new Warwickshire, to hold once more the +mirror up to nature, it will not be because the stage is not set +for him. The time is such an one as he might rejoice to look +upon; and if we would serve it as it should be served, we should +seek to be human after his wide-eyed sort. The serenity of power; +the naturalness that is nature's poise and mark of genuineness; +the unsleeping interest in all affairs, all fancies, all things +believed or done; the catholic understanding, tolerance, +enjoyment, of all classes and conditions of men; the conceiving +imagination, the planning purpose, the creating thought, the +wholesome, laughing humor, the quiet insight, the universal +coinage of the brain--are not these the marvelous gifts and +qualities we mark in Shakespeare when we call him the greatest +among men? And shall not these rounded and perfect powers serve +us as our ideal of what it is to be a finished human being? + +We live for our own age--an age like Shakespeare's, when an old +world is passing away, a new world coming in--an age of new +speculation and every new adventure of the mind; a full stage, an +intricate plot, a universal play of passion, an outcome no man +can foresee. It is to this world, this sweep of action, that our +understandings must be stretched and fitted; it is in this age we +must show our human quality. We must measure ourselves by the +task, accept the pace set for us, make shift to know what we are +about. How free and liberal should be the scale of our sympathy, +how catholic our understanding of the world in which we live, how +poised and masterful our action in the midst of so great affairs! +We should school our ears to know the voices that are genuine, +our thought to take the truth when it is spoken, our spirits to +feel the zest of the day. It is within our choice to be mean +company or with great, to consort with the wise or with the +foolish, now that the great world has spoken to us in the +literature of all tongues and voices. The best selected human +nature will tell in the making of the future, and the art of +being human is the art of freedom and of force. + +The End. + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of On Being Human, by Woodrow Wilson + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ON BEING HUMAN *** + +This file should be named 5068.txt or 5068.zip + +This etext was produced by Jennifer Godwin, <http://www.jengod.com/> + +Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we usually do not +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + +We are now trying to release all our eBooks one year in advance +of the official release dates, leaving time for better editing. +Please be encouraged to tell us about any error or corrections, +even years after the official publication date. + +Please note neither this listing nor its contents are final til +midnight of the last day of the month of any such announcement. +The official release date of all Project Gutenberg eBooks is at +Midnight, Central Time, of the last day of the stated month. A +preliminary version may often be posted for suggestion, comment +and editing by those who wish to do so. + +Most people start at our Web sites at: +https://gutenberg.org or +http://promo.net/pg + +These Web sites include award-winning information about Project +Gutenberg, including how to donate, how to help produce our new +eBooks, and how to subscribe to our email newsletter (free!). + + +Those of you who want to download any eBook before announcement +can get to them as follows, and just download by date. This is +also a good way to get them instantly upon announcement, as the +indexes our cataloguers produce obviously take a while after an +announcement goes out in the Project Gutenberg Newsletter. + +http://www.ibiblio.org/gutenberg/etext03 or +ftp://ftp.ibiblio.org/pub/docs/books/gutenberg/etext03 + +Or /etext02, 01, 00, 99, 98, 97, 96, 95, 94, 93, 92, 92, 91 or 90 + +Just search by the first five letters of the filename you want, +as it appears in our Newsletters. + + +Information about Project Gutenberg (one page) + +We produce about two million dollars for each hour we work. The +time it takes us, a rather conservative estimate, is fifty hours +to get any eBook selected, entered, proofread, edited, copyright +searched and analyzed, the copyright letters written, etc. Our +projected audience is one hundred million readers. If the value +per text is nominally estimated at one dollar then we produce $2 +million dollars per hour in 2002 as we release over 100 new text +files per month: 1240 more eBooks in 2001 for a total of 4000+ +We are already on our way to trying for 2000 more eBooks in 2002 +If they reach just 1-2% of the world's population then the total +will reach over half a trillion eBooks given away by year's end. + +The Goal of Project Gutenberg is to Give Away 1 Trillion eBooks! +This is ten thousand titles each to one hundred million readers, +which is only about 4% of the present number of computer users. + +Here is the briefest record of our progress (* means estimated): + +eBooks Year Month + + 1 1971 July + 10 1991 January + 100 1994 January + 1000 1997 August + 1500 1998 October + 2000 1999 December + 2500 2000 December + 3000 2001 November + 4000 2001 October/November + 6000 2002 December* + 9000 2003 November* +10000 2004 January* + + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation has been created +to secure a future for Project Gutenberg into the next millennium. + +We need your donations more than ever! + +As of February, 2002, contributions are being solicited from people +and organizations in: Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Connecticut, +Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, +Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts, +Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New +Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, +Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South +Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West +Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming. + +We have filed in all 50 states now, but these are the only ones +that have responded. + +As the requirements for other states are met, additions to this list +will be made and fund raising will begin in the additional states. +Please feel free to ask to check the status of your state. + +In answer to various questions we have received on this: + +We are constantly working on finishing the paperwork to legally +request donations in all 50 states. If your state is not listed and +you would like to know if we have added it since the list you have, +just ask. + +While we cannot solicit donations from people in states where we are +not yet registered, we know of no prohibition against accepting +donations from donors in these states who approach us with an offer to +donate. + +International donations are accepted, but we don't know ANYTHING about +how to make them tax-deductible, or even if they CAN be made +deductible, and don't have the staff to handle it even if there are +ways. + +Donations by check or money order may be sent to: + +Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +PMB 113 +1739 University Ave. +Oxford, MS 38655-4109 + +Contact us if you want to arrange for a wire transfer or payment +method other than by check or money order. + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation has been approved by +the US Internal Revenue Service as a 501(c)(3) organization with EIN +[Employee Identification Number] 64-622154. Donations are +tax-deductible to the maximum extent permitted by law. As fund-raising +requirements for other states are met, additions to this list will be +made and fund-raising will begin in the additional states. + +We need your donations more than ever! + +You can get up to date donation information online at: + +https://www.gutenberg.org/donation.html + + +*** + +If you can't reach Project Gutenberg, +you can always email directly to: + +Michael S. Hart <hart@pobox.com> + +Prof. Hart will answer or forward your message. + +We would prefer to send you information by email. + + +**The Legal Small Print** + + +(Three Pages) + +***START**THE SMALL PRINT!**FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN EBOOKS**START*** +Why is this "Small Print!" statement here? You know: lawyers. +They tell us you might sue us if there is something wrong with +your copy of this eBook, even if you got it for free from +someone other than us, and even if what's wrong is not our +fault. So, among other things, this "Small Print!" statement +disclaims most of our liability to you. It also tells you how +you may distribute copies of this eBook if you want to. + +*BEFORE!* YOU USE OR READ THIS EBOOK +By using or reading any part of this PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm +eBook, you indicate that you understand, agree to and accept +this "Small Print!" statement. If you do not, you can receive +a refund of the money (if any) you paid for this eBook by +sending a request within 30 days of receiving it to the person +you got it from. If you received this eBook on a physical +medium (such as a disk), you must return it with your request. + +ABOUT PROJECT GUTENBERG-TM EBOOKS +This PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm eBook, like most PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm eBooks, +is a "public domain" work distributed by Professor Michael S. Hart +through the Project Gutenberg Association (the "Project"). +Among other things, this means that no one owns a United States copyright +on or for this work, so the Project (and you!) can copy and +distribute it in the United States without permission and +without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, set forth +below, apply if you wish to copy and distribute this eBook +under the "PROJECT GUTENBERG" trademark. + +Please do not use the "PROJECT GUTENBERG" trademark to market +any commercial products without permission. + +To create these eBooks, the Project expends considerable +efforts to identify, transcribe and proofread public domain +works. Despite these efforts, the Project's eBooks and any +medium they may be on may contain "Defects". Among other +things, Defects may take the form of incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other +intellectual property infringement, a defective or damaged +disk or other eBook medium, a computer virus, or computer +codes that damage or cannot be read by your equipment. + +LIMITED WARRANTY; DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES +But for the "Right of Replacement or Refund" described below, +[1] Michael Hart and the Foundation (and any other party you may +receive this eBook from as a PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm eBook) disclaims +all liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including +legal fees, and [2] YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE OR +UNDER STRICT LIABILITY, OR FOR BREACH OF WARRANTY OR CONTRACT, +INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE +OR INCIDENTAL DAMAGES, EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE +POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES. + +If you discover a Defect in this eBook within 90 days of +receiving it, you can receive a refund of the money (if any) +you paid for it by sending an explanatory note within that +time to the person you received it from. If you received it +on a physical medium, you must return it with your note, and +such person may choose to alternatively give you a replacement +copy. If you received it electronically, such person may +choose to alternatively give you a second opportunity to +receive it electronically. + +THIS EBOOK IS OTHERWISE PROVIDED TO YOU "AS-IS". NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, ARE MADE TO YOU AS +TO THE EBOOK OR ANY MEDIUM IT MAY BE ON, INCLUDING BUT NOT +LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A +PARTICULAR PURPOSE. + +Some states do not allow disclaimers of implied warranties or +the exclusion or limitation of consequential damages, so the +above disclaimers and exclusions may not apply to you, and you +may have other legal rights. + +INDEMNITY +You will indemnify and hold Michael Hart, the Foundation, +and its trustees and agents, and any volunteers associated +with the production and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm +texts harmless, from all liability, cost and expense, including +legal fees, that arise directly or indirectly from any of the +following that you do or cause: [1] distribution of this eBook, +[2] alteration, modification, or addition to the eBook, +or [3] any Defect. + +DISTRIBUTION UNDER "PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm" +You may distribute copies of this eBook electronically, or by +disk, book or any other medium if you either delete this +"Small Print!" and all other references to Project Gutenberg, +or: + +[1] Only give exact copies of it. Among other things, this + requires that you do not remove, alter or modify the + eBook or this "small print!" statement. You may however, + if you wish, distribute this eBook in machine readable + binary, compressed, mark-up, or proprietary form, + including any form resulting from conversion by word + processing or hypertext software, but only so long as + *EITHER*: + + [*] The eBook, when displayed, is clearly readable, and + does *not* contain characters other than those + intended by the author of the work, although tilde + (~), asterisk (*) and underline (_) characters may + be used to convey punctuation intended by the + author, and additional characters may be used to + indicate hypertext links; OR + + [*] The eBook may be readily converted by the reader at + no expense into plain ASCII, EBCDIC or equivalent + form by the program that displays the eBook (as is + the case, for instance, with most word processors); + OR + + [*] You provide, or agree to also provide on request at + no additional cost, fee or expense, a copy of the + eBook in its original plain ASCII form (or in EBCDIC + or other equivalent proprietary form). + +[2] Honor the eBook refund and replacement provisions of this + "Small Print!" statement. + +[3] Pay a trademark license fee to the Foundation of 20% of the + gross profits you derive calculated using the method you + already use to calculate your applicable taxes. If you + don't derive profits, no royalty is due. Royalties are + payable to "Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation" + the 60 days following each date you prepare (or were + legally required to prepare) your annual (or equivalent + periodic) tax return. Please contact us beforehand to + let us know your plans and to work out the details. + +WHAT IF YOU *WANT* TO SEND MONEY EVEN IF YOU DON'T HAVE TO? +Project Gutenberg is dedicated to increasing the number of +public domain and licensed works that can be freely distributed +in machine readable form. + +The Project gratefully accepts contributions of money, time, +public domain materials, or royalty free copyright licenses. +Money should be paid to the: +"Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +If you are interested in contributing scanning equipment or +software or other items, please contact Michael Hart at: +hart@pobox.com + +[Portions of this eBook's header and trailer may be reprinted only +when distributed free of all fees. Copyright (C) 2001, 2002 by +Michael S. Hart. Project Gutenberg is a TradeMark and may not be +used in any sales of Project Gutenberg eBooks or other materials be +they hardware or software or any other related product without +express permission.] + +*END THE SMALL PRINT! FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN EBOOKS*Ver.02/11/02*END* + diff --git a/old/5068.zip b/old/5068.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..9b5c25a --- /dev/null +++ b/old/5068.zip |
