Self-Control, XIII. The Dignity of Self-Reliance

SELF-CONTROL.*

BY WILLIAM GEORGE JORDAN,

VIII. — THE DIGNITY OF SELF-RELIANCE. Self-confidence, without self-reliance, is as useless as a cook- ing recipe — without food. Self-confidence sees the possibilities of the individual; self-reliance realizes them. Self-confidence sees the angel in the unhewn block of marble; self-reliance carves it out for himself. The man who is self-reliant says ever: "No one can realize my possibilities for me, but me; no one can make me good or evil but myself." He works out his own salvation, — financially, soci-

ally, mentally, physically and morally. Life is an individual problem that man must solve for himself. Nature accepts no vicarious sacrifice, no vicarions service. Nature never recog- nizes a proxy vote. She has nothing to do with middlemen, — she deals only with the individual. Nature is constantly seeking to show man that he is his own best friend, or his own worst enemy. Nature gives man the option on which he will be to himself. All the athletic exercises in the world are of no value to the individual unless he compel those bars and dumb-bells to yield to him, in strength and muscle, the power for which he, himself, pays in time and effort. He can never dovelop his muscles by sending his valet to a gymnasium. The medicine chests of the world are powerless, in all the united efforts, to help the individual until he reach out and take

for himself what is needed for his individual weakness.

*From Self-Control; its Kingship and Majesty. Copyright 1889 and 1905 by Fleming H Revell Company. e

All the religions of the world are but speculations in morals, mere theories of salvation, until the individual realize that he must save himself by relying on the law of truth, as he sees it, and living his life in harmony with it, as fully as he can. But religion is not a Pullman car, with soft-cushioned seats, where he has but to pay for his ticket, — and some one else does all the rest. In religion, as in all other great things, he is ever thrown back on his self-reliance. He should accept all helps, but, he — must live his own life. He should not feel that he is a mere pas- senger; he is the engineer, and the train is his life. We must rely on ourselves, live our own lives, or we merely drift through existence —losing all that is best, all that is greatest, all that is divine. All that others can do for us is to give us opportunity. We must ever be prepared for the opportunity when it comes, and to go after it and find it when it does not come, or that opportunity is to us, — nothing. Life is but a succession of opportunities. They are for good or evil, — as we make them. Many of the alchemists of old felt that they lacked but one element; if they could obtain that one, they believed they could transmute the baser metals into pure gold. It is so in character. There are individuals with rare mental gifts, and delicate spiritual discernment who fail uttterly in life because they lack the one element — self-reliance. This would unite all their ener- gies, and focus them into strength and power. The man who is not self-reliant is weak, hesitating and doubting in all that he does. He fears to take a decisive step, because he dreads failure, because he is waiting for some one to advise him, or because he dare not act in accordance with his best judgment. In his cowardice and his conceit he sees all his non- success due to others. He is "not appreciated," "not recog- nized," he is "kept down." "He feels that in some subtle way "society is conspiring against him." He grows almost vain as he thinks that no one has had such poverty, such sorrow, such come to him. affliction, such failure as have

The man who is self-reliant seeks ever to discover and con- quer the weakness within him that keeps him from the attainment of what he holds dearest; he seeks within himself the power to

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battle against all outside influences. He realizes that all the greatest men in history, in every phase of human effort, have been those who have had to fight against the odds of sick- ness, suffering, sorrow. To him defeat is no more than passing through a tunnel is to a traveler — he knows he must emerge again into the sunlight. The nation that is strongest is the one that is the most self- reliant, the one that contains within its boundaries all that its

people need. If, with its ports all blockaded it has not within itself the necessities of life and the elements of its continual pro- gress then, — it is weak, held by the enemy, and it is but a question of time till it must surrender. Its independence is in proportion to its self-reliance, to its power to sustain itself from within. What is true of nations is true of individuals. The history of nations is but the biography of individuals magnified, intensified,

multiplied, and projected on the screen of the past. History is the biography of a nation; biography is the history of an individ- ual. So it must be that the individual who is most strong in any trial, sorrow or need is he who can live from his inherent strength, who needs no scaffolding of commonplace sympathy to uphold him. He must ever be self-reliant. The wealth and prosperity of ancient Rome, relying on her slaves to do the real work of the nation, proved the nation's

downfall. The constant dependence on the captives of war to do the thousand details of life for them, killed self-reliance in the

nation and in the individual. Then, through weakened self-reliance and the increased opportunity for idle, luxurious ease that came with it, Rome, a nation of fighters,— became a nation of men more effeminate than women. As we depend on others to do those things we should do for ourselves, our self-reliance weak- ens and our powers and our control of them become continuously less.

Man to be great must be self-reliant. Though he may not be so in all things, he must be self-reliant in the one in which he would be great. This self-reliance is not the self-sufficiency of conceit. It is daring to stand alone. Be an oak, not a vine. Be ready to give support, but do not crave it; do not be dependent on it. To develop your true self-reliance, you must see from the

beginning that life is a battle you must fight for yourself, —you must be your own soldier. You cannot substitute, you cannot win a reprieve, you can never be placed on the retired list. The re- tired list of life is, — death. The world is busy with its own cares, sorrows and joys, and pays little heed to you. There is

but one great pass-word to success, — self-reliance. If you would learn to converse, put yourself into positions

where you must speak. If you would conquer your morbidness, mingle with the bright people around you, no matter how difficult it may be. If you desire the power that some one else possesses, do not envy his strength, and dissipate your energy by weakly wishing his force were yours. Emulate the process by which it became his, depend on your own self-reliance, pay the price for it, and equal power may be yours. The individual must look upon himself as an investment of untold possibilities if rightly devel- oped, —a mine whose resources can never be known but by going down into it and bringing out what is hidden. Man can develop his self-reliance by seeking constantly to surpass himself. We try too much to surpass others. If we seek ever to surpass ourselves, we are moving on a uniform line of progress, that gives a harmonious unifying to our growth in all its parts. Daniel Morrell, at one time president of the Cam- bria Rail works, that employed seven thousand men, and made a rail famed throughout the world, was asked the secret of the great success of the works. "We have no secret," he said, "but this, — we always try to beat our last batch of rails." Competi- tion is good, but it has its danger side. There is a tendency to sacrifice real worth to mere appearance, to have seeming rather than reality. But the true competition is the competition of the individual with himself, — his present seeking to excel his past. This means real growth from within. Self-reliance develops it, and it develops self-reliance. Let the individual feel thus as to his own progress and possibilities, and he can almost create his lifeas he will. Let him never fall down in despair at dangers and sorrows at a distance; they may be harmless, like Bunyan's stone lions, when he nears them. The man who is self-reliant does not live in the shadow of some one else's greatness; he thinks for himself; depends on him-