--- title: Improvement Era description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930. authors: - Jordan, William George collections: - periodicals tags: - magazine - improvement-era periodical: Improvement Era volume: 12 number: 7 published: 1909-05 publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations publisher_place: Salt Lake City language: en type: magazine reference: 'William George Jordan, "Self-Control—XII. The Power of Personal Influence," *Improvement Era* 12, no. 7 (May 1909): 542–544.' source: url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera1207unse transcription: Transcribed from the Internet Archive scan of each issue (the item for each issue is named in the issue's own source); unnumbered advertising leaves are omitted, printed page numbers are kept as page markers. identifier: improvementera1207unse start_page: 542 end_page: 544 rights: status: public-domain basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1909-05) source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera1207unse publication_year: 1909 note: The Internet Archive item metadata carries a blanket "© Copyright by Intellectual Reserve, Inc." notice. The library owner judged it inapplicable because this issue was published in 1909, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright. --- # Self-Control—XII. The Power of Personal Influence . SELF-CONTROL.* BY WILLIAM GEORGE JORDAN XII.— THE POWER OF PERSONAL INFLUENCE. The only responsibility that a man cannot evade in this life is the one he thinks of least, — his personal influence. Man's con- scious influence, when he is on dress- parade, when he is posing to impress those around him — is woefully small. But his unconscious influence, the silent, subtle radiation of his personality, the effect of his words and acts, the trifles he never considers, — is tremend- ous. Every moment of life he is changing to a degree the life of the whole world. Every man has an atmosphere which is affecting every other. So silent and unconsciously is this influence working that man may forget that it exists. All the forces of Nature, — heat, light, electricity and gravi- tation — are silent and invisible. We never see them; we only know that they exist by seeing the effects they produce. In all Nature the wonders of the "seen" are dwarfed into insigniti- ance when compared with the majesty and glory of the "unseen." The great sun itself does not supply enough heat and light to sus- tain animal and vegetable life on the earth. We are dependent for nearly half of our light and heat upon the stars, and the greater part of the supply of this life-giving energy comes from invisible stars, millions of miles from the earth. In a thousand ways Na- ture constantly seeks to lead men to a keener and deeper realization of the power and the wonder of the invisible. Into the hands of every individual is given a marvelous power * From Self- Control; its Kingship and Majesty. Copyright 1889 avi 1905 by Fleming H. Revell Company. SELF-CONTROL. 543 for good or for evil, — the silent, unconscious, unseen influence of his life. This is simply the constant radiation ofwhat a man really is, not what he pretends to be. Every man. by his mere living is radiating sympathy or sorrow, or morbidness or cynicism, or happiness or hope, or any of a hundred other qualities. Life is a state of constant radiation and absorption; to exist is to radiate; to exist is to be the recipient of radiations. There are men and women whose presence seems to radiate sunshine, cheer and optimism. You feel calmed and rested and restored in a moment to a new and stronger faith in humanity. There are others who focus in an instant all your latent distrust, morbidness and rebellion against life. Without knowing why, you chafe and fret in their presence. You lose your bearings on life and its problems. Your moral compass is disturbed and unsatis. factory. It is made untrue in an instant, as the magnetic needle of a ship is deflected when it passes near great mountains of iron ore. There are men who float down the stream of life like ice- bergs;— cold, reserved, unapproachable and self-contained. In their presence you involuntarily draw your wraps closer around you, as you wonder who left the door open. These refrigerated human beings have a most depressing influence on all those who fallunder the spell of their radiated chilliness. But there are other natures, warm, helpful, genial, who are like the Gulf Stream following their own course, flowing undaunted and undismayed in the ocean of colder waters. Their presence brings warmth, and life and the glow of sunshine, the joyous stimulating breath of spring. There are men who are like malarious swamps— poisonous, depressing and weakening by their very presence. They make heavy, oppressive and gloomy the atmosphere of their own homes; the sound of the children's play is stilled, the ripples of laughter are frozen by their presence. They go through life as if each day were a new big funeral, and they were always chief mourners. There are other men who seem like the ocean; they are constantly bracing, stimulating, giving new draughts of tonic life and strength by their very presence. There are men who are insincere in heart, and that insincerity 1 5 1 IMPRO VEMENT ERA. is They have a wondrous interest in radiated by their presence. — your welfare, when they need you. They put on a "property" smile so suddenly, when it serves their purpose, that it seems the smile must be connected with some electric button concealed in their clothes. Their voice has a simulated cordiality that long training may have made almost natural. But they never play their part absolutely true, the mask will slip down sometimes, their cleverness cannot teach their eyes the look of sterling hon- esty, they may deceive some people, but they cannot deceive all. There is a subtle power of revelation which makes us say: "Well, I cannot explain how it is, but I know that man is not honest." Man cannot escape for one moment from this radiation of his character, this constantly weakening or strengthening of others. He cannot evade the responsibility by saying it is an unconscious influence. He can select the qualities that he will permit to be radiated. He can cultivate sweetness, calmness, trust, generosity, truth, justice, loyalty, nobility, — make them vitally active in his character, — and by these qualities he will constantly affect the world. Discouragement often comes to honest souls trying to live the best they can, in the thought that they are doing so little good in the world. Trifles unnoted by us may be links in the chain of some great purpose. In 1797, William Godwin wrote The Enquirer, a collection of revolutionary essays on morals and politics. This book influenced Thomas Malthus to write his Essay on Population, published in 1798. Malthus's book suggested to Charles Darwin a point of view upon which he devoted many years of his life, resulting, in 1859, in the publication of the Origin of Species, — the most influential book of the nineteenth century, a book that has revolutionized all science. These were but three links of influence extending over sixty years. It might be possible to trace this genealogy of influence back from Godwin, through generation and generation, to the word or act of some shepherd in early Britain, watching his flock upon the hills, living his quiet life, and dying with the thought that he had done nothing to help the world. Men and women have duties to others, — and duties to them- selves. In justice to ourselves we should refuse to live in an atmosphere that keeps us from living our best. If the fault be in