The Heritage and Promise

THE HERITAGE AND PROMISE BY JOHN HENRY EVANS, Author of One Hundred Years of Mormonism Part III // Continued Three things a leader must have: First of all, he must have personality. We do not know what this is. As nearly as we may come at the matter, it is a spiritual emana- tion. "Dost thou know me?" asks the distracted Lear, and Kent answers, "No, sir; but you have that in your countenance which I would fain call master." Personality is an altogether elusive thing. "The mere look of the man and the sound of his voice," says Lodge, "made all who saw and heard him feel that Webster must be the embodiment of wisdom, dignity, strength, divinely eloquent." "Garibaldi," we are told, "enjoyed the worship and cast the spell of a legendary hero. Mirabeau was possessed of a secret charm that opened to him the hearts of almost all the people. Cortez spoke, and the assembly, which had gathered in a spirit of mutiny, broke up with cheers and shouts of "To Mexico! To Mexico!" To overcome unanimous opposition he met with, De Lesseps had only to show him- self. He would speak briefly, and in the face of the charm he ex- erted his opponents became his friends. Said Vandamme of Na- poleon, "That devil of a man exercises a fascination on me that I cannot explain even to myself, and in such a degree, that, although I fear neither God nor devil, when I am in his presence I am ready to tremble like a child, and he could make me go through the eye of a needle, to throw myself into the fire." Joseph Smith exercised a powerful influence by his personality. The shake of his hand mag- netized. His voice silenced his opponents. Once, when he was chained and unarmed in the midst of murderous enemies, he cowed them into putting up their weapons and stopping their tongues. Brigham Young's presence was felt as soon as he entered a room, although those already there had no conscious knowledge of his entrance. Nor can we account for personality. Of small use is it to dig into the ancestry and early environment of a Lincoln in search of the thing that made him Lincoln. Any more than we can find that subtile something in the trees of our orchard which suck up from the same soil what goes in this tree to make a mellow apple and in that a luscious peach. The thing is utterly beyond us. Doubtless we may locate in Lincoln's ancestry and early home-life some of his qualities, good and bad, and others we could find if we knew more about both. But, after all, there would be an essential residue before which we would stand in utter bewilderment. The only plausible explanation that we have been able to find is that implied in the "Mormon" doctrine

1048 IMPROVEMENT ERA of the pre-existence of spirits, as stated in the Book of Abraham in such a quotation as that we have already given in this section. Even that, however, pushes the query another remove farther back, beyond which we cannot go. Can personality be cultivated? To a certain extent it can. "The power of personality," says Professor Gowan, "so mystifies the beholder that he yields though unable to tell why. This indicates the power is not due to rational appeal." And so he descends into the realms of the subconscious in search of qualities to cultivate. These he believes he has found in "physical prowess," by which he harks back to a good body; in "emotional control," which gives its possessor power of decision, so as not to be swept off his feet by things which make others lose their heads; in "intellectual ability," which makes lesser mentalities say, "I never noticed that;" and in "socialized nature," a thing which enabled "the uncouth General Jackson" to take on "courtly manners" when president. No doubt to the extent that these qualities constitute personality they can be improved. A second characteristic of great leaders is intellectual power. The Lord said, speaking of all the spirits in heaven, "I am more intel- ligent than they all." Therefore He is God. Men follow those who know more than they, not those who knew less. Not only so, but they follow men who know that they know. Take a group of persons in a hotel lobby, or on the street corner or in a parlor gather- ing, who begin talking on a subject on which they have but general information; let another person join the group who has special in- formation on the subject of conversation; then observe how quickly silence falls on the rest and how they yield, not perhaps their judgment, but their personality to his. This is but a tribute to superior knowledge. But intellectual power implies more than mere information. It means the power of seeing things that escape the ordinary mind. It means the ability to organize the matter perceived, to weave it into what the psychologists call concepts. It means the power to recall what is known at the time it is needed for use. It means the power to bring this mass of observations and concepts to bear upon various questions that arise and to weigh and judge them in the light re- flected by this information. It means, finally, an open-minded at- titude towards new material, since "the individual world is not fixed but in process, of changing, and a reshaping of old concepts to meet the demands of the new concepts. All these capabilities of the mind — observation, organzation, memory, judgment, open-mindedness — in- dicate intellectual power in the degree in which they are possessed. And all of them can of course be cultivated. A third characteristic of great leaders is character. In the last analysis, character is the manifestation of will, the exercise of choice. Says Emerson, "The education of the will is the object of our exist- ence." And John Stewart Mill declares that "a character is a com- pletely fashioned will." In life we are ever in the midst of persons,

THE HERITAGE AND PROMISE 1049 i things, ideas, influences — good and bad. Among these we are com- pelled to choose, and to abide by the result of our choice. "It is impossible," says Sharman, "to look into the conditions under which the battle of life is being fought, without perceiving how much really depends upon the extent to which the will-power is cultivated, strengthened, and made operative in right directions/' Will-power, too, is a complex of aspects. It implies concentra- tion. "I don't do more, but less, than other people," said Henry Ward Beecher, when he was asked how he accomplished more than other men. "They do all their work three times over: once in anticipation, once in actuality, once in rumination. I do mine in actuality alone." And then it implies a holding on till the goal is attained. It is surprising how few persons comparatively have the power to do this. A great singer once declared that the only difference between the great and the near-great in music is that the latter did not hold on long enough. Most men "dare to do only what others do. They do not step boldly from the crowd and act fearlessly." Will- power also implies resourcefulness in emergencies. "What would you do if you were besieged in a place entirely destitute of provisions?" was one of the questions put to the cadet, Napoleon. And the answer was, "If there were anything to eat in the enemy's camp, I should not be concerned." "Conscious power exists within the mind of everyone. Some- times its existence is unrealized, but it is there. It is there to be developed and brought forth, like the culture of that obstinate but beautiful flower, the orchid. To allow it to remain dormant is to place one's self in obscurity, to trample on one's ambition, to smother one's faculties. To develop it is to individualize all that is best with- in you, and give it to the world. It is by an absolute knowledge of yourself, the proper estimate of your own value." (To be continued in the October number) A Sonnet on the Station of Achievement Ambition came, a ball of blood-red fire; Faith, purely clothed, came in white; Hope, blessed, held her streaming light That I might see the throng in Heaven's choir, Who sweetly played their praises to the lyre; And Reason whispered, "What a goodly sight, They now but wait for Truth and Right." But I, somewhat impatient, cried, "I tire! Where is Success, the god Achievement's friend?" But Honor, to waylay my error, then Quick made answer, "Success is fairest when She and Truth are made as one to blend. Achievement's not a god, my son, Forlo! Behold it — Truth's guidon." Ogden, Utah. THERMA SCOVILLE.