He has been made
more human by schooling, by growing more self-possessed--less
violent, less tumultuous; holding himself in hand, and moving
always with a certain poise of spirit; not forever clapping his
hand to the hilt of his sword, but preferring, rather, to play
with a subtler skill upon the springs of action. This is our
conception of the truly human man: a man in whom there is a just
balance of faculties, a catholic sympathy--no brawler, no
fanatic, no pharisee; not too credulous in hope, not too
desperate in purpose; warm, but not hasty; ardent, and full of
definite power, but not running about to be pleased and deceived
by every new thing.
It is a genial image, of men we love--an image of men warm and
true of heart, direct and unhesitating in courage, generous,
magnanimous, faithful, steadfast, capable of a deep devotion and
self-forgetfulness. But the age changes, and with it must change
our ideals of human quality. Not that we would give up what we
have loved: we would add what a new life demands. In a new age
men must acquire a new capacity, must be men upon a new scale,
and with added qualities. We shall need a new Renaissance,
ushered in by a new "humanistic" movement, in which we shall add
our present minute, introspective study of ourselves, our jails,
our slums, our nervecenters, our shifts to live, almost as morbid
as medieval religion, a rediscovery of the round world, and of
man's place in it, now that its face has changed.
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