Searchlights on Health | Page 6

is in virtue of this quality that Shakespeare defines man as
a being "looking before and after." It forms the chief distinction
between man and the mere animal; and, indeed, there can be no true
manhood without it.
[Illustration: RESULT OF BAD COMPANY.]
2. ROOT OF ALL THE VIRTUES.--Self-control is at the root of all
the virtues. Let a man give the reins to his impulses and passions, and
from that moment he yields up his moral freedom. He is carried along
the current of life, and becomes the slave of his strongest desire for the
time being.
3. RESIST INSTINCTIVE IMPULSE.--To be morally free--to be more
than an animal--man must be able to resist instinctive impulse, and this
can only be done by exercise of self-control. Thus it is this power
which constitutes the real distinction between a physical and a moral
life, and that forms the primary basis of individual character.
4. A STRONG MAN RULETH HIS OWN SPIRIT.--In the Bible
praise is given, not to a strong man who "taketh a city," but to the
stronger man who "ruleth his own spirit." This stronger man is he who,
by discipline, exercises a constant control over his thoughts, his speech,
and his acts. Nine-tenths of the vicious desires that degrade society, and
which, when indulged, swell into the crimes that disgrace it, would
shrink into insignificance before the advance of valiant self-discipline,
self-respect, and self-control. By the watchful exercise of these virtues,
purity of heart and mind become habitual, and the character is built up
in chastity, virtue, and temperance.
5. THE BEST SUPPORT.--The best support of character will always
be found in habit, which, according as the will is directed rightly or
wrongly, as the case may be, will prove either a benignant ruler, or a

cruel despot. We may be its willing subject on the one hand, or its
servile slave on the other. It may help us on the road to good, or it may
hurry us on the road to ruin.
6. THE IDEAL MAN.--"In the supremacy of self-control," says
Herbert Spencer, "consists one of the perfections of the ideal man. Not
to be impulsive, not to be spurred hither and thither by each desire that
in turn comes upper-most, but to be self-restrained, self-balanced,
governed by the joint decision of the feelings in council assembled,
before whom every action shall have been fully debated, and calmly
determined--that it is which education, moral education at least, strives
to produce."
7. THE BEST REGULATED HOME.--The best regulated home is
always that in which the discipline is the most perfect, and yet where it
is the least felt. Moral discipline acts with the force of a law of nature.
Those subject to it yield themselves to it unconsciously; and though it
shapes and forms the whole character, until the life becomes
crystallized in habit, the influence thus exercised is for the most part
unseen and almost unfelt.
8. PRACTICE SELF-DENIAL.--If a man would get through life
honorably and peaceably, he must necessarily learn to practice
self-denial in small things as well as in great. Men have to bear as well
as to forbear. The temper has to be held in subjection to the judgment;
and the little demons of ill-humor, petulance, and sarcasm, kept
resolutely at a distance. If once they find an entrance to the mind, they
are apt to return, and to establish for themselves a permanent
occupation there.
9. POWER OF WORDS.--It is necessary to one's personal happiness,
to exercise control over one's words as well as acts: for there are words
that strike even harder than blows; and men may "speak daggers,"
though they use none. The stinging repartee that rises to the lips, and
which, if uttered, might cover an adversary with confusion, how
difficult it is to resist saying it! "Heaven, keep us," says Miss Bremer,
in her 'Home', "from the destroying power of words! There are words
that sever hearts more than sharp swords do; there are words the point

of which sting the heart through the course of a whole life."
10. CHARACTER EXHIBITS ITSELF.--Character exhibits itself in
self-control of speech as much as in anything else. The wise and
forbearant man will restrain his desire to say a smart or severe thing at
the expense of another's feeling; while the fool blurts out what he
thinks, and will sacrifice his friend rather than his joke. "The mouth of
a wise man," said Solomon, "is in his heart; the heart of a fool is in his
mouth."
11. BURNS.--No one knew the value of self-control better than the
poet Burns, and no one could teach it more eloquently to others, but
when it came to practice, Burns was as weak as the weakest. He could
not deny himself the pleasure