The men who will not be broken from a little
set of subjects, who talk earnestly, hotly, with a sort of
fierceness, of certain special schemes of conduct, and look
coldly upon everything else, render you infinitely uneasy, as if
there were in them a force abnormal and which rocked toward an
upset of the mind; but from the man whose interest swings from
thought to thought with the zest and poise and pleasure of the
old traveler, eager for what is new, glad to look again upon what
is old, you come away with faculties warmed and heartened--with
the feeling of having been comrade for a little with a genuine
human being. It is a large world and a round world, and men grow
human by seeing all its play of force and folly.
VI
Let no one suppose that efficiency is lost by such breadth and
catholicity of view. We deceive ourselves with instances, look at
sharp crises in the world's affairs, and imagine that intense and
narrow men have made history for us. Poise, balance, a nice and
equable exercise of force, are not, it is true, the things the
world ordinarily seeks for or most applauds in its heroes. It is
apt to esteem that man most human who has his qualities in a
certain exaggeration, whose courage is passionate, whose
generosity is without deliberation, whose just action is without
premeditation, whose spirit runs toward its favorite objects with
an infectious and reckless ardor, whose wisdom is no child of
slow prudence.
Pages:
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36