Like begets like, and good makes good. "It is
astonishing," says Canon Moseley, "how much good goodness makes.
Nothing that is good is alone, nor anything bad; it makes others
good or others bad--and that other, and so on: like a stone
thrown into a pond, which makes circles that make other wider
ones, and then others, till the last reaches the shore.... Almost
all the good that is in the world has, I suppose, thus come down
to us traditionally from remote times, and often unknown centres
of good." (5) So Mr. Ruskin says, "That which is born of evil
begets evil; and that which is born of valour and honour, teaches
valour and honour."
Hence it is that the life of every man is a daily inculcation of
good or bad example to others. The life of a good man is at the
same time the most eloquent lesson of virtue and the most severe
reproof of vice. Dr. Hooker described the life of a pious
clergyman of his acquaintance as "visible rhetoric," convincing
even the most godless of the beauty of goodness. And so the good
George Herbert said, on entering upon the duties of his parish:
"Above all, I will be sure to live well, because the virtuous life
of a clergyman is the most powerful eloquence, to persuade all who
see it to reverence and love, and--at least to desire to live
like him. And this I will do," he added, "because I know we live
in an age that hath more need of good examples than precepts.
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