Not many splenetic books, not many intemperate, not many
bigoted, have kept men's confidence; and the mind that is
impatient, or intolerant, or hoodwinked, or shut in to a petty
view shall have no part in carrying men forward to a true
humanity, shall never stand as examples of the true humankind.
What is truly human has always upon it the broad light of what is
genial, fit to support life, cordial, and of a catholic spirit of
helpfulness. Your true human being has eyes and keeps his balance
in the world; deems nothing uninteresting that comes from life;
clarifies his vision and gives health to his eyes by using them
upon things near and things far. The brute beast has but a single
neighborhood, a single, narrow round of existence; the gain of
being human accrues in the choice of change and variety and of
experience far and wide, with all the world for stage--a stage
set and appointed by this very art of choice--all future
generations for witnesses and audience. When you talk with a man
who has in his nature and acquirements that freedom from
constraint which goes with the full franchise of humanity, he
turns easily with topic to topic; does not fall silent or dull
when you leave some single field of thought such as unwise men
make a prison of.
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