,illustration ,on ,being ,human by ,woodrow ,wilson ,ph4,d41 ,litt4,d41 ,,ll4,d4 ,president of the ,united ,states #ahig ,from the ,atlantic ,monthly ,contents ,i ,,ii ,,iii ,,iv ,v ,,vi ,i 8,the rarest sort of a book10 says ,mr4 ,bagehot1 slyly1 is 8a book to read02 and 8the knack in style is to write like a human being40 ,it is painfully evident1 upon experiment1 that not many of the books which come teeming from our presses every year are meant to be read4 ,they are meant1 it may be1 to be pondered2 it is hoped1 no doubt1 they may instruct1 or inform1 or startle1 or arouse1 or reform1 or provoke1 or amuse us2 but we read1 if we have the true reader's zest and plate1 not to grow more knowing1 but to be less pent up and bound within a little circle1--as those who take their pleasure1 and not as those who laboriously seek instruction1--as a means of seeing and enjoying the world of men and affairs4 ,we wish companionship and renewal of spirit1 enrichment of thought and the full adventure of the mind2 and we desire fair company1 and a larger world in which to find them4 ,no one who loves the masters who may be communed with and read but must see1 therefore1 and resent the error of making the text of any one of them a source to draw grammar from1 forcing the parts of speech to stand out stark and cold from the warm text2 or a store of samples whence to draw rhetorical instances1 setting up figures of speech singly and without support of any neighbor phrase1 to be stared at curiously and with intent to copy or dissect6 ,here is grammar done without deliberation3 the phrases carry their meaning simply and by a sort of limpid reflection2 the thought is a living thing1 not an image ingeniously contrived and wrought4 ,pray leave the text whole3 it has no meaning piecemeal2 at any rate1 not that best1 wholesome meaning1 as of a frank and genial friend who talks1 not for himself or for his phrase1 but for you4 ,it is questionable morals to dismember a living frame to seek for its obscure fountains of life6 ,when you say that a book was meant to be read1 you mean1 for one thing1 of course1 that it was not meant to be studied4 ,you do not study a good story1 or a haunting poem1 or a battle song1 or a love ballad1 or any moving narrative1 whether it be out of history or out of fiction--nor any argument1 even1 that moves vital in the field of action4 ,you do not have to study these things2 they reveal themselves1 you do not stay to see how4 ,they remain with you1 and will not be forgotten or laid by4 ,they cling like a personal experience1 and become the mind's intimates4 ,you devour a book meant to be read1 not because you would fill yourself or have an anxious care to be nourished1 but because it contains such stuff as it makes the mind hungry to look upon4 ,neither do you read it to kill time1 but to lengthen time1 rather1 adding to its natural usury by living the more abundantly while it lasts1 joining another's life and thought to your own4 ,there are a few children in every generation1 as ,mr4 ,bagehot reminds us1 who think the natural thing to do with any book is to read it4 8,there is an argument from design in the subject10 as he says2 8if the book was not meant to be read for that purpose1 for what purpose was it meant80 ,these are the young eyes to which books yield up great treasure1 almost in spite of themselves1 as if they had been penetrated by some swift1 enlarging power of vision which only the young know4 ,it is these youngsters to whom books give up the long ages of history1 8the wonderful series going back to the times of old patriarchs with their flocks and herds0--,i am quoting ,mr4 ,bagehot again--8the keen-eyed ,greek1 the stately ,roman1 the watching ,jew1 the uncouth ,goth1 the horrid ,hun1 the settled picture of the unchanging ,east1 the restless shifting of the rapid ,west1 the rise of the cold and classical civilization1 its fall1 the rough impetuous ,middle ,ages1 the vague warm picture of ourselves and home4 ,when did we learn these8 ,not yesterday nor today1 but long ago1 in the first dawn of reason1 in the original flow of fancy40 ,books will not yield to us so richly when we are older4 ,the argument from design fails4 ,we return to the staid authors we read long ago1 and do not find in them the vital1 speaking images that used to lie there upon the page4 ,our own fancy is gone1 and the author never had any4 ,we are driven in upon the books meant to be read4 ,these are books written by human beings1 indeed1 but with no general quality belonging to the kind--with a special tone and temper1 rather1 a spirit out of the common1 touched with a light that shines clear out of some great source of light which not every man can uncover4 ,we call this spirit human because it moves us1 quickens a like life in ourselves1 makes us glow with a sort of ardor of self-discovery4 ,it touches the springs of fancy or of action within us1 and makes our own life seem more quick and vital4 ,we do not call every book that moves us human4 ,some seem written with knowledge of the black art1 set our base passions aflame1 disclose motives at which we shudder--the more because we feel their reality and power2 and we know that this is of the devil1 and not the fruitage of any quality that distinguishes us as men4 ,we are distinguished as men by the qualities that mark us different from the beasts4 ,when we call a thing human we have a spiritual ideal in mind4 ,it may not be an ideal of that which is perfect1 but it moves at least upon an upland level where the air is sweet2 it holds an image of man erect and constant1 going abroad with undaunted steps1 looking with frank and open gaze upon all the fortunes of his day1 feeling even and again-- 84 4 4 the joy #a ,of elevated thoughts2 a sense sublime ,of something far more deeply interfused4 ,whose dwelling is the light of setting suns4 ,and the round ocean and the living air1 ,and the blue sky1 and in the mind of man3 ,a motion and a spirit1 that impels ,all thinking things40 ,say what we may of the errors and the degrading sins of our kind1 we do not willingly make what is worst in us the distinguishing trait of what is human4 ,when we declare1 with ,bagehot1 that the author whom we love writes like a human being1 we are not sneering at him2 we do not say it with a leer4 ,it is in token of admiration1 rather4 ,he makes us like our humankind4 ,there is a noble passion in what he says1 a wholesome humor that echoes genial comradeships2 a certain reasonableness and moderation in what is thought and said2 an air of the open day1 in which things are seen whole and in their right colors1 rather than of the close study or the academic class-room4 ,we do not want our poetry from grammarians1 nor our tales from philologists1 nor our history from theorists4 ,their human nature is subtly transmuted into something less broad and catholic and of the general world4 ,neither do we want our political economy from tradesmen nor our statesmanship from mere politicians1 but from those who see more and care for more than these men see or care for4 ,,ii ,once--it is a thought which troubles us--once it was a simple enough matter to be a human being1 but now it is deeply difficult2 because life was once simple1 but is now complex1 confused1 multifarious4 ,haste1 anxiety1 preoccupation1 the need to specialize and make machines of ourselves1 have transformed the once simple world1 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 habitable4 ,we have seen our modern life accumulate1 hot and restless1 in great cities--and we cannot say that the change is not natural3 we see in it1 on the contrary1 the fulfillment of an inevitable law of change1 which is no doubt a law of growth1 and not of decay4 ,and yet we look upon the portentous thing with a great distaste1 and doubt with what altered passions we shall come out of it4 ,the huge1 rushing1 aggregate life of a great city--the crushing crowds in the streets1 where friends seldom meet and there are few greetings2 the thunderous noise of trade and industry that speaks of nothing but gain and competition1 and a consuming fever that checks the natural courses of the kindly blood2 no leisure anywhere1 no quiet1 no restful ease1 no wise repose--all this shocks us4 ,it is inhumane4 ,it does not seem human4 ,how much more likely does it appear that we shall find men sane and human about a country fireside1 upon the streets of quiet villages1 where all are neighbors1 where groups of friends gather easily1 and a constant sympathy makes the very air seem native6 ,why should not the city seem infinitely more human than the hamlet8 ,why should not human traits the more abound where human beings teem millions strong8 ,because the city curtails man of his wholeness1 specializes him1 quickens some powers1 stunts others1 gives him a sharp edge1 and a temper like that of steel1 makes him unfit for nothing so much as to sit still4 ,men have indeed written like human beings in the midst of great cities1 but not often when they have shared the city's characteristic life1 its struggle for place and for gain4 ,there are not many places that belong to a city's life to which you can 8invite your soul40 ,its haste1 its preoccupations1 its anxieties1 its rushing noise as of men driven1 its ringing cries1 distract you4 ,it offers no quiet for reflection2 it permits no retirement to any who share its life4 ,it is a place of little tasks1 of narrowed functions1 of aggregate and not of individual strength4 ,the great machine dominates its little parts1 and its ,society is as much of a machine as its business4 8,this tract which the river of ,time #b ,now flows through with us1 is the plain4 ,gone is the calm of its earlier shore4 ,border'd by cities1 and hoarse ,with a thousand cries is its stream4 ,and we on its breast1 our minds ,are confused as the cries which we hear1 ,changing and shot as the sights which we see4 8,and we say that repose has fled ,forever the course of the river of ,time ,that cities will crowd to its edge ,in a blacker1 incessanter line2 ,that the din will be more on its banks1 ,denser the trade on its stream1 ,flatter the plain where it flows1 ,fiercer the sun overhead1 ,that never will those on its breast ,see an enobling sight1 ,drink of the feeling of quiet again4 8,but what was before us we know not1 ,and we know not what shall succeed4 8,haply1 the river of ,time-- ,as it grows1 as the towns on its marge ,fling their wavering lights ,on a wider1 statelier stream-- ,may acquire1 if not the calm ,of its early mountainous shore1 ,yet a solemn peace of its own4 8,and the width of the waters1 the hush ,of the gray expanse where he floats1 ,freshening its current and spotted with foam ,as it draws to the ,ocean1 may strike ,peace to the soul of the man on its breast-- ,as the pale waste widens around him1 ,as the banks fade dimmer away1 ,as the stars come out1 and the night-wind ,brings up the stream ,murmurs and scents of the infinite sea40 ,we cannot easily see the large measure and abiding purpose of the novel age in which we stand young and confused4 ,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-possession4 ,it shall not be a night-wind1 but an air that shall blow out of the widening east and with the coming of the light1 and shall bring us1 with the morning1 8murmurs and scents of the infinite sea40 ,who can doubt that man has grown more and more human with each step of that slow process which has brought him knowledge1 self-restraint1 the arts of intercourse1 and the revelations of real joy8 ,man has more and more lived with his fellow-men1 and it is society that has humanized him--the development of society into an infinitely various school of discipline and ordered skill4 ,he has been made more human by schooling1 by growing more self-possessed--less violent1 less tumultuous2 holding himself in hand1 and moving always with a certain poise of spirit2 not forever clapping his hand to the hilt of his sword1 but preferring1 rather1 to play with a subtler skill upon the springs of action4 ,this is our conception of the truly human man3 a man in whom there is a just balance of faculties1 a catholic sympathy--no brawler1 no fanatic1 no pharisee2 not too credulous in hope1 not too desperate in purpose2 warm1 but not hasty2 ardent1 and full of definite power1 but not running about to be pleased and deceived by every new thing4 ,it is a genial image of men we love--an image of men warm and true of heart1 direct and unhesitating in courage1 generous1 magnanimous1 faithful1 steadfast1 capable of a deep devotion and self-forgetfulness4 ,but the age changes1 and with it must change our ideals of human quality4 ,not that we would give up what we have loved3 we would add what a new life demands4 ,in a new age men must acquire a new capacity1 must be men upon a new scale1 and with added qualities4 ,we shall need a new ,renaissance1 ushered in by a new 8humanistic0 movement1 in which we shall add our present minute1 introspective study of ourselves1 our jails1 our slums1 our nerve centers1 our shifts to live1 almost as morbid as medieval religion1 a rediscovery of the round world1 and of man's place in it1 now that its face has changed4 ,we study the world1 but not yet with intent to school our hearts and tastes1 broaden our natures1 and know our fellow-men as comrades rather than as phenomena2 with purpose1 rather1 to build up bodies of critical doctrine and provide ourselves with theses4 ,that1 surely1 is not the truly humanizing way in which to take the air of the world4 ,man is much more than a 8rational being10 and lives more by sympathies and impressions than by conclusions4 ,it darkens his eyes and dries up the wells of his humanity to be forever in search of doctrine4 ,we need wholesome1 experiencing natures1 ,i dare affirm1 much more than we need sound reasoning4 ,,iii ,take life in the large view1 and we are most reasonable when we seek that which is most wholesome and tonic for our natures as a whole2 and we know1 when we put aside pedantry1 that the great middle object in life--the object that lies between religion on one hand1 and food and clothing on the other1 establishing our average levels of achievement--the excellent golden mean1 is1 not to be learned1 but to be human beings in all the wide and genial meaning of the term4 ,does the age hinder8 ,do its many interests distract us when we would plan our discipline1 determine our duty1 clarify our ideals8 ,it is the more necessary that we should ask ourselves what it is that is demanded of us1 if we would fit our qualities to meet the new tests4 ,let us remind ourselves that to be human is1 for one thing1 to speak and act with a certain note of genuineness1 a quality mixed of spontaneity and intelligence4 ,this is necessary for wholesome life in any age1 but particularly amidst confused affairs and shifting standards4 ,genuineness is not mere simplicity1 for that may lack vitality1 and genuineness does not4 ,we expect what we call genuine to have pith and strength of fiber4 ,genuineness is a quality which we sometimes mean to include when we speak of individuality4 ,individuality is lost the moment you submit to passing modes or fashions1 the creations of an artificial society2 and so is genuineness4 ,no man is genuine who is forever trying to pattern his life after the lives of other people--unless1 indeed1 he be a genuine dolt4 ,but individuality is by no means the same as genuineness2 for individuality may be associated with the most extreme and even ridiculous eccentricity1 while genuineness we conceive to be always wholesome1 balanced1 and touched with dignity4 ,it is a quality that goes with good sense and self-respect4 ,it is a sort of robust moral sanity1 mixed of elements both moral and intellectual4 ,it is found in natures too strong to be mere trimmers and conformers1 too well poised and thoughtful to fling off into intemperate protest and revolt4 ,laughter is genuine which has in it neither the shrill1 hysterical note of mere excitement nor the hard1 metallic twang of the cynic's sneer--which rings in the honest voice of gracious good humor1 which is innocent and unsatirical4 ,speech is genuine which is without silliness1 affectation1 or pretense4 ,that character is genuine which seems built by nature rather than by convention1 which is stuff of independence and of good courage4 ,nothing spurious1 bastard1 begotten out of true wedlock of the mind2 nothing adulterated and seeming to be what it is not2 nothing unreal1 can ever get place among the nobility of things genuine1 natural1 of pure stock and unmistakable lineage4 ,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 herd1 and show his innate powers cultivated and yet unspoiled--sound1 unmixed1 free from imitation2 showing that individualization without extravagance which is genuineness4 ,but how8 ,by what means is this self-liberation to be effected--this emancipation from affectation and the bondage of being like other people8 ,is it open to us to choose to be genuine8 ,i see nothing insuperable in the way1 except for those who are hopelessly lacking in a sense of humor4 ,it depends upon the range and scale of your observation whether you can strike the balance of genuineness or not4 ,if you live in a small and petty world1 you will be subject to its standards2 but if you live in a large world1 you will see that standards are innumerable--some old1 some new1 some made by the noble-minded and made to last1 some made by the weak-minded and destined to perish1 some lasting from age to age1 some only from day to day--and that a choice must be made among them4 ,it is then that your sense of humor will assist you4 ,you are1 you will perceive1 upon a long journey1 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 way4 ,you will distinguish the essentials from the accidents1 and deem the accidents something meant for your amusement4 ,the strongest natures do not need to wait for these slow lessons of observation1 to be got by conning life3 their sheer vigor makes it impossible for them to conform to fashion or care for times and seasons4 ,but the rest of us must cultivate knowledge of the world in the large1 get our offing1 reaching a comparative point of view1 before we can become with steady confidence our own masters and pilots4 ,the art of being human begins with the practice of being genuine1 and following standards of conduct which the world has tested4 ,if your life is not various and you cannot know the best people1 who set the standards of sincerity1 your reading at least can be various1 and you may look at your little circle through the best books1 under the guidance of writers who have known life and loved the truth4 ,,iv ,and then genuineness will bring serenity--which ,i take to be another mark of the right development of the true human being1 certainly in an age passionate and confused as this in which we live4 ,of course serenity does not always go with genuineness4 ,we must say of ,dr4 ,johnson that he was genuine1 and yet we know that the stormy tyrant of the ,turk's ,head ,tavern was not serene4 ,carlyle was genuine 7though that is not quite the first adjective we should choose to describe him71 but of serenity he allowed cooks and cocks and every modern and every ancient sham to deprive him4 ,serenity is a product1 no doubt1 of two very different things1 namely1 vision and digestion4 ,not the eye only1 but the courses of the blood must be clear1 if we would find serenity4 ,our word 8serene0 contains a picture4 ,its image is of the calm evening when the stars are out and the still night comes on2 when the dew is on the grass and the wind does not stir2 when the day's work is over1 and the evening meal1 and thought falls clear in the quiet hour4 ,it is the hour of reflection--and it is human to reflect4 ,who shall contrive to be human without this evening hour1 which drives turmoil out1 and gives the soul its seasons of self-recollection8 ,serenity is not a thing to beget inaction4 ,it only checks excitement and uncalculating haste4 ,it does not exclude ardor or the heat of battle3 it keeps ardor from extravagance1 prevents the battle from becoming a mere aimless mle4 ,the great captains of the world have been men who were calm in the moment of crisis2 who were calm1 too1 in the long planning which preceded crisis2 who went into battle with a serenity infinitely ominous for those whom they attack4 ,we instinctively associate serenity with the highest types of power among men1 seeing in it the poise of knowledge and calm vision1 the supreme heat and mastery which is without splutter or noise of any kind4 ,the art of power in this sort is no doubt learned in hours of reflection1 by those who are not born with it4 ,what rebuke of aimless excitement there is to be got out of a little reflection1 when we have been inveighing against the corruption and decadence of our own days1 if only we have provided ourselves with a little knowledge of the past wherewith to balance our thought6 ,as bad times as these1 or any we shall see1 have been reformed1 but not by protests4 ,they have been made glorious instead of shameful by the men who kept their heads and struck with sure self-possession in the fight4 ,the world is very human1 not a bit given to adopting virtues for the sakes of those who merely bemoan its vices1 and we are most effective when we are most calmly in possession of our senses4 ,so far is serenity from being a thing of slackness or inaction that it seems bred1 rather1 by an equable energy1 a satisfying activity4 ,it may be found in the midst of that alert interest in affairs which is1 it may be1 the distinguishing trait of developed manhood4 ,you distinguish man from the brute by his intelligent curiosity1 his play of mind beyond the narrow field of instinct1 his perception of cause and effect in matters to him indifferent1 his appreciation of motive and calculation of results4 ,he is interested in the world about him1 and even in the great universe of which it forms a part1 not merely as a thing he would use1 satisfy his wants and grow great by1 but as a field to stretch his mind in1 for love of journeyings and excursions in the large realm of thought4 ,your full-bred human being loves a run afield with his understanding4 ,with what images does he not surround himself and store his mind6 ,with what fondness does he con travelers' tales and credit poets' fancies6 ,with what patience does he follow science and pore upon old records1 and with what eagerness does he ask the news of the day6 ,no great part of what he learns immediately touches his own life or the course of his own affairs3 he is not pursuing a business1 but satisfying as he can an insatiable mind4 ,no doubt the highest form of this noble curiosity is that which leads us1 without self-interest1 to look abroad upon all the field of man's life at home and in society1 seeking more excellent forms of government1 more righteous ways of labor1 more elevating forms of art1 and which makes the greater among us statesmen1 reformers1 philanthropists1 artists1 critics1 men of letters4 ,it is certainly human to mind your neighbor's business as well as your own4 ,gossips are only sociologists upon a mean and petty scale4 ,the art of being human lifts to be a better level than that of gossip2 it leaves mere chatter behind1 as too reminiscent of a lower stage of existence1 and is compassed by those whose outlook is wide enough to serve for guidance and a choosing of ways4 ,v ,luckily we are not the first human beings4 ,we have come into a great heritage of interesting things1 collected and piled all about us by the curiosity of past generations4 ,and so our interest is selective4 ,our education consists in learning intelligent choice4 ,our energies do not clash or compete3 each is free to take his own path to knowledge4 ,each has that choice1 which is man's alone1 of the life he shall live1 and finds out first or last that the art in living is not only to be genuine and one's own master1 but also to learn mastery in perception and preference4 ,your true woodsman needs not to follow the dusty highway through the forest nor search for any path1 but goes straight from glade to glade as if upon an open way1 having some privy understanding with the taller trees1 some compass in his senses4 ,so there is the subtle craft in finding ways for the mind1 too4 ,keep but your eyes alert and your ears quick1 as you move among men and among books1 and you shall find yourself possessed at last of a new sense1 the sense of the pathfinder4 ,have you never marked the eyes of a man who has seen the world he has lived in3 the eyes of the sea-captain1 who has watched his life through the changes of the heavens2 the eyes of the huntsman1 nature's gossip and familiar2 the eyes of the man of affairs1 accustomed to command in moments of exigency8 ,you are at once aware that they are eyes which can see4 ,there is something in them that you do not find in other eyes1 and you have read the life of the man when you have divined what it is4 ,let the thing serve as a figure4 ,so ought alert interest in the world of men and thought to serve each one of us that we shall have the quick perceiving vision1 taking meanings at a glance1 reading suggestions as if they were expositions4 ,you shall not otherwise get full value of your humanity4 ,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 various8 ,will you not take the usury of the past1 if it may be had for the taking8 ,here is the world humanity has made3 will you take full citizenship in it1 or will you live in it as dull1 as slow to receive1 as unenfranchised1 as the idlers for whom civilization has no uses1 or the deadened toilers1 men or beasts1 whose labor shuts the door on choice8 ,that man seems to me a little less than human who lives as if our life in the world were but just begun1 thinking only of the things of sense1 reckoning nothing of the infinite thronging and assemblage of affairs the great stage over1 or of the old wisdom that has ruled the world4 ,that is1 if he have the choice4 ,great masses of our fellow-men are shut out from choosing1 by reason of absorbing toil1 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 workshop4 ,we know that there is a drudgery which is inhuman1 let it but encompass the whole life1 with only heavy sleep between task and task4 ,we know that those who are so bound can have no freedom to be men1 that their very spirits are in bondage4 ,it is part of our philanthropy--it should be part of our statesmanship--to ease the burden as we can1 and enfranchise those who spend and are spent for the sustenance of the race4 ,but what shall we say of those who are free and yet choose littleness and bondage1 or of those who1 though they might see the whole face of society1 nevertheless choose to spend all a life's space poring upon some single vice or blemish8 ,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 ones1 and runs atilt against windmills1 while everywhere colossal shams and abuses go unexposed1 unrebuked4 ,is it because we are better at being common scolds than at being wise advisers that we prefer little reforms to big ones8 ,are we to allow the poor personal habits of other people to absorb and quite use up all our fine indignation8 ,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 race4 ,i1 for one1 sometimes sigh for the generation of 8leading people0 and of good people who shall see things steadily and see them whole2 who shall show a handsome justness and a large sanity of view1 an opportune tolerance for details1 that happen to be awry1 in order that they may spend their energy1 not without self-possession1 in some generous mission which shall make right principles shine upon the people's life4 ,they would bring with them an age of large moralities1 a spacious time1 a day of vision4 ,knowledge has come into the world in vain if it is not to emancipate those who may have it from narrowness1 censoriousness1 fussiness1 an intemperate zeal for petty things4 ,it would be a most pleasant1 a truly humane world1 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 keep4 ,not many splenetic books1 not many intemperate1 not many bigoted1 have kept men's confidence2 and the mind that is impatient1 or intolerant1 or hoodwinked1 or shut in to a petty view shall have no part in carrying men forward to a true humanity1 shall never stand as examples of the true humankind4 ,what is truly human has always upon it the broad light of what is genial1 fit to support life1 cordial1 and of a catholic spirit of helpfulness4 ,your true human being has eyes and keeps his balance in the world2 deems nothing uninteresting that comes from life2 clarifies his vision and gives health to his eyes by using them upon things near and things far4 ,the brute beast has but a single neighborhood1 a single1 narrow round of existence2 the gain of being human accrues in the choice of change and variety and of experience far and wide1 with all the world for stage--a stage set and appointed by this very art of choice--all future generations for witnesses and audience4 ,when you talk with a man who has in his nature and acquirements that freedom from constraint which goes with the full franchise of humanity1 he turns easily with topic to topic2 does not fall silent or dull when you leave some single field of thought such as unwise men make a prison of4 ,the men who will not be broken from a little set of subjects1 who talk earnestly1 hotly1 with a sort of fierceness1 of certain special schemes of conduct1 and look coldly upon everything else1 render you infinitely uneasy1 as if there were in them a force abnormal and which rocked toward an upset of the mind2 but from the man whose interest swings from thought to thought with the zest and poise and pleasure of the old traveler1 eager for what is new1 glad to look again upon what is old1 you come away with faculties warmed and heartened--with the feeling of having been comrade for a little with a genuine human being4 ,it is a large world and a round world1 and men grow human by seeing all its play of force and folly4 ,,vi ,let no one suppose that efficiency is lost by such breadth and catholicity of view4 ,we deceive ourselves with instances1 look at sharp crises in the world's affairs1 and imagine that intense and narrow men have made history for us4 ,poise1 balance1 a nice and equable exercise of force1 are not1 it is true1 the things the world ordinarily seeks for or most applauds in its heroes4 ,it is apt to esteem that man most human who has his qualities in a certain exaggeration1 whose courage is passionate1 whose generosity is without deliberation1 whose just action is without premeditation1 whose spirit runs toward its favorite objects with an infectious and reckless ardor1 whose wisdom is no child of slow prudence4 ,we love ,achilles more than ,diomedes1 and ,ulysses not at all4 ,but these are standards left over from a ruder state of society3 we should have passed by this time the ,homeric stage of mind--should have heroes suited to our age4 ,nay1 we have erected different standards1 and do make a different choice1 when we see in any man fulfillment of our real ideals4 ,let a modern instance serve as test4 ,could any man hesitate to say that ,abraham ,lincoln was more human than ,william ,lloyd ,garrison8 ,does not every one know that it was the practical ,free-,soilers who made emancipation possible1 and not the hot1 impracticable ,abolitionists2 that the country was infinitely more moved by ,lincoln's temperate sagacity than by any man's enthusiasm1 instinctively trusted the man who saw the whole situation and kept his balance1 instinctively held off from those who refused to see more than one thing8 ,we know how serviceable the intense and headlong agitator was in bringing to their feet men fit for action2 but we feel uneasy while he lives1 and vouchsafe him our full sympathy only when he is dead4 ,we know that the genial forces of nature which work daily1 equably1 and without violence are infinitely more serviceable1 infinitely more admirable1 than the rude violence of the storm1 however necessary or excellent the purification it may have wrought4 ,should we seek to name the most human man among those who led the nation to its struggle with slavery1 and yet was no statesmen1 we should1 of course1 name ,lowell4 ,we know that his humor went further than any man's passion toward setting tolerant men atingle with the new impulses of the day4 ,we naturally hold back from those who are intemperate and can never stop to smile1 and are deeply reassured to see a twinkle in a reformer's eye4 ,we are glad to see earnest men laugh4 ,it breaks the strain4 ,if it be wholesome laughter1 it dispels all suspicion of spite1 and is like the gleam of light upon running water1 lifting sullen shadows1 suggesting clear depths4 ,surely it is this soundness of nature1 this broad and genial quality1 this full-blooded1 full-orbed sanity of spirit1 which gives the men we love that wide-eyed sympathy which gives hope and power to humanity1 which gives range to every good quality and is so excellent a credential of genuine manhood4 ,let your life and your thought be narrow1 and your sympathy will shrink to a like scale4 ,it is a quality which follows the seeing mind afield1 which waits on experience4 ,it is not a mere sentiment4 ,it goes not with pity so much as with a penetrative understanding of other men's lives and hopes and temptations4 ,ignorance of these things makes it worthless4 ,its best tutors are observations and experience1 and these serve only those who keep clear eyes and a wide field of vision4 ,it is exercise and discipline upon such a scale1 too1 which strengthen1 which for ordinary men come near to creating1 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 force4 ,this new day in which we live cries a challenge to us4 ,steam and electricity have reduced nations to neighborhoods2 have made travel pastime1 and news a thing for everybody4 ,cheap printing has made knowledge a vulgar commodity4 ,our eyes look1 almost without choice1 upon the very world itself1 and the word 8human0 is filled with new meaning4 ,our ideals broaden to suit the wide day in which we live4 ,we crave1 not cloistered virtue--it is impossible any longer to keep the cloister--but a robust spirit that shall take the air in the great world1 know men in all their kinds1 choose its way amid the bustle with all self-possession1 with wise genuineness1 in calmness1 and yet with the quick eye of interest and the quick pulse of power4 ,it is again a day for ,shakespeare's spirit--a day more various1 more ardent1 more provoking to valor and every large design1 even than 8the spacious times of great ,elizabeth10 when all the world seemed new2 and if we cannot find another bard1 come out of a new ,warwickshire1 to hold once more the mirror up to nature1 it will not be because the stage is not set for him4 ,the time is such an one as he might rejoice to look upon2 and if we would serve it as it should be served1 we should seek to be human after his wide-eyed sort4 ,the serenity of power2 the naturalness that is nature's poise and mark of genuineness2 the unsleeping interest in all affairs1 all fancies1 all things believed or done2 the catholic understanding1 tolerance1 enjoyment1 of all classes and conditions of men2 the conceiving imagination1 the planning purpose1 the creating thought1 the wholesome1 laughing humor1 the quiet insight1 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 men8 ,and shall not these rounded and perfect powers serve us as our ideal of what it is to be a finished human being8 ,we live for our own age--an age like ,shakespeare's1 when an old world is passing away1 a new world coming in--an age of new speculation and every new adventure of the mind2 a full stage1 an intricate plot1 a universal play of passion1 an outcome no man can foresee4 ,it is to this world1 this sweep of action1 that our understandings must be stretched and fitted2 it is in this age we must show our human quality4 ,we must measure ourselves by the task1 accept the pace set for us1 make shift to know what we are about4 ,how free and liberal should be the scale of our sympathy1 how catholic our understanding of the world in which we live1 how poised and masterful our action in the midst of so great affairs6 ,we should school our ears to know the voices that are genuine1 our thought to take the truth when it is spoken1 our spirits to feel the zest of the day4 ,it is within our choice to be with mean company or with great1 to consort with the wise or with the foolish1 now that the great world has spoken to us in the literature of all tongues and voices4 ,the best selected human nature will tell in the making of the future1 and the art of being human is the art of freedom and of force4 #a ,from 8,lines composed a few miles above ,tintern ,abbey10 by ,william ,wordsworth4--,j4,m4 #b ,from 8,the ,future10 by ,matthew ,arnold4--,j4,m4 ,,the ,,end