On Being Human | Page 5

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 mad 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