Hence there is no better provision for the
uses of either private or public life, than a fair share of
ordinary good sense guided by rectitude. Good sense, disciplined
by experience and inspired by goodness, issues in practical
wisdom. Indeed, goodness in a measure implies wisdom--the
highest wisdom--the union of the worldly with the spiritual.
"The correspondences of wisdom and goodness," says Sir Henry
Taylor, "are manifold; and that they will accompany each other is
to be inferred, not only because men's wisdom makes them good, but
because their goodness makes them wise." (6)
It is because of this controlling power of character in life that
we often see men exercise an amount of influence apparently out of
all proportion to their intellectual endowments. They appear to
act by means of some latent power, some reserved force, which acts
secretly, by mere presence. As Burke said of a powerful nobleman
of the last century, "his virtues were his means." The secret is,
that the aims of such men are felt to be pure and noble, and they
act upon others with a constraining power.
Though the reputation of men of genuine character may be of slow
growth, their true qualities cannot be wholly concealed. They may
be misrepresented by some, and misunderstood by others; misfortune
and adversity may, for a time, overtake them but, with patience
and endurance, they will eventually inspire the respect and
command the confidence which they really deserve.
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