Sources of Inspiration
The masterful thoughts of great minds are ours for the asking. A mans intent upon developing his self-confidence will read the biographies of such men as Caesar, Napoleon, Wellington, Milton, Goethe, Macaulay, Mozart, Wilberforce, Tennyson, Ruskin, Washington, Franklin, Webster, Lincoln, and Phillips Brooks. It develops a man’s self-confidence to study biography and to know what other men have done in the face of difficulty and discouragement.
When he reads what they have done, he has a burning desire to go and do likewise. Just as “we recognize in a work of genius our own rejected thoughts,” so we often see ourselves in the pages of a great book. Who could fail to be inspired by such a description of unaffected self-confidence as this of Washington:
“No nobler figure ever stood in the forefront of a nation’s life. Washington was grave and courteous in address: his manners were simple and unpretentious; his silence and the serene calmness of his temper spoke of a perfect self-mastery; but there was little in his outer bearing to reveal the grandeur of soul which lifts his figure, with all the simple majesty of an ancient statue, out of the smaller passions, the meaner impulses of the world around him. …
It was only as the weary fight went on that the colonists learned little by little the greatness of their leader–his clear judgment, his heroic endurance, his silence under difficulties, his calmness in the hour of danger or defeat, the patience with which he waited, the quickness and hardness with which he struck, the lofty and serene sense of duty that never swerved from its task through resentment or jealousy, that never through war or peace felt the touch of a mean ambition, that knew no aim save that of guarding the freedom of his fellow countrymen, and no personal longing save that of returning to his own fireside when their freedom was secured.”
It was Correggio who, after looking at the work of Michelangelo, exclaimed, “And I, too, am a painter!” By closely observing the lives of great men, we assume some of their great qualities. They embody the wisdom of their time, and pass it on to us as our heritage. “I am a part of every man I have met,” said a sympathetic writer, and one might as truthfully say, “I am part of all I have read.'’ Channing well says:
“It is chiefly through books that we enjoy intercourse with superior minds, and these invaluable means of communication are in the reach of all. In the best books great men talk to us, give us their most precious thoughts, and pour their souls into ours. God be thanked for books. They are the voices of the distant and the dead, and make us heirs of the spiritual life of past ages. Books are the true levelers. They give to all who will faithfully use them the society, the spiritual presence, of the best and greatest of our race. No matter how poor I am, no matter though the prosperous of my own time will not enter my obscure dwelling.
If the sacred writers will enter and take up their abode under my roof; if Milton will cross my threshold to sing to me of Paradise, and Shakespeare to open to me the worlds of imagination and the workings of the human heart, and Franklin to enrich me with his practical wisdom, I shall not pine for want of intellectual companionship, and I may become a cultivated man though excluded from what is called the best society in the place where I live.”
The student of self-confidence should choose his books as carefully as he does his personal friends. Books are our intimate companions, with the unusual privilege of setting them down or taking them up at will. It is not worth while to spend any time over a book that does not cause the reader to raise from it a better man.
“Youth is a prophesy, and old age a history…but great books never grow old and are ours to command and serve at will.”
What, then, shall a man read? First and supreme over all other books, the Bible. Here is history, biography, poetry, drama, and every form of literary art in its highest perfection. Where else will you find sublimity of thought embodied in such simplicity of language as this: “And God said let there be light, and there was light!” Dr. Hillis says: “Bead all other books, philosophy, poetry, history, fiction; but if you would refine the judgment, fertilize the reason, wing the imagination, attain unto the finest womanhood or the sturdiest manhood, read this Book, reverently and prayerfully, until its truths have dissolved like iron into the blood.”
The student of public speaking will read Quintilian’s “Institutes of Oratory, or the Education of an Orator,” supplementing it with Cicero on “Oratory and Orators,” and Cicero’s “Orations.” For self-culture he will read Plato’s “Republic,” and the “Dialogues” relating to Socrates. Demosthenes “On the Crown,” the greatest world’s oration by the greatest of all orators, should receive special attention. Shakespeare, Milton, Dante,
Wordsworth, Tennyson, and Longfellow will have a prominent place upon the wise man’s book-shelf. To shape his mind to strong and logical thinking, he will studiously read Locke “On the Conduct of the Understanding,” Berkeley’s “Principles of Human Knowledge,” Leibnitz’s “Discourse on Metaphysics,” Descartes’ “Discourse on Method,” and Lotze’s ” Microcosmus.”
The student of self-confidence will read stories of heroism and self-sacrifice. Scott’s novels, and Stevenson’s stirring stories of the sea, will arouse in him a desire to play a noble part in the drama of life. He should read only those books that move his finest impulses, fire his blood, and equip him for better and larger service.
Many men are not sufficiently familiar with the great books of the world to choose for themselves. For their benefit the following suggestive list is offered:
Great Dramatists: Job, AEschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, Aristophanes, Shakespeare, Moliere, Goethe, Sheridan, Schiller.
Great Essayists: Montaigne, Addison, Lamb, De Quincey, Carlyle, Macaulay, Newman, Emerson, Ruskin, Matthew Arnold.
Great Philosophers: Plato, Aristotle, Hobbes, Descartes, Spinoza, Leibnitz, Berkeley, Kant, Schopenhauer, Lotze.
Great Scientists: Galileo, Herschel, Newton, Agassiz, La Place, Darwin, Tyndall, Helmholtz, Huxley.
Great Lawyers: Demosthenes, Cicero, Blackstone, Erskine, Marshall, Mackintosh, Clay, Webster, Prentiss, Jeremiah Black.
Great Teachers: Quintilian, Aquinas, Erasmus, Bacon, Locke, Herbart, Frobel, Spencer.
Great Logicians and Political Economists : Montesquieu, Adam Smith, Bentham, Malthus, Hegel, Whateley, Hamilton, Mill, Jevons.
Great Statesmen: Pericles, Cassar, Burke, Washington, Jefferson, Bonaparte, Disraeli, Lincoln, Gladstone, Bismarck.
Great Theologians: Saint Paul, Saint Augustine, Luther, Calvin, Hooker, Edwards, Schleiermacher, Bushnell.
Great Historians: Herodotus, Thucydides, Livy, Polybius, Plutarch, Tacitus, Gibbon, Macaulay, Carlyle, Grote, Bancroft, Mommsen.
The advantages of judicious reading are many. Not only is the mind stored with precious thoughts and the imagination filled with exquisite pictures, but unconsciously a free and melodious English style is acquired. There should be daily reading aloud. It is of distinct advantage to learn the author’s words through the additional sense of hearing. It makes them more enduring, and the very act of expressing them aloud will often cause the reader very particularly to bring their meaning into full view. Reading aloud should be more widely cultivated than it is.
There is a charm in the spoken word that is not found in the cold printed page. Speech invests a writer’s words with new life and bids them live again. These great treasures, gathered up in the books of the world, mean much to men who know how to claim and use them. “In books,” writes Carlyle, “is the soul of the whole past time–the articulate audible voice of the past, when the body and material substance of it has altogether vanished like a dream.
Mighty fleets and armies, harbors and arsenals, vast cities, high-domed, many engined they are precious, great; but what do they become? Agamemnon, the many Agamemnon’s, and their Greece–all is gone now to some ruined fragments, dumb, mournful wrecks and blocks; but the books–_i.e., _the thoughts–of Greece! There Greece, to every thinker, still very literally lives–can be called up again into life! No magic Rome is stronger than a book–a thought, or collection of thoughts. All that mankind has done, thought, gained, or been, it is lying as in a magic preservation in the pages of books. They are the chosen possession of men.”
A source of inspiration to one who would cultivate self-confidence is that of mingling with self-confident men. We grow to be like those with whom we associate. Human society is the great leveler, taking man out of himself, and teaching him the power of sympathy and unselfishness. Man was not made to live alone, and it is only in some form of service to others that he attains unto the truest greatness.
Beecher called the study of man the highest of sciences, and his own marvelous wealth of illustrations and anecdotes was due largely to his habit of keeping close to the people. “I take great delight,” said he, “if ever I get a chance, in riding on the top of an omnibus with the driver, and talking with him. What do I gain by that? Why, my sympathy goes out for these men, and I recognize in them an element of brotherhood–that great human element which lies underneath all culture, which is more universal and more important than all special attributes, which is the great generic bond of humanity between man and man. If ever I saw one of these men in my Church, I could preach to him, and hit him under the fifth rib with an illustration, much better than if I had not been acquainted with him.”
The blush-persecuted, timid man is usually found to have lived too much by himself. He has had too much time for introspection. The result is that when he steps out into society he is ill at ease, and its very strangeness causes him embarrassment. Such men very often act awkwardly and unnaturally, not for lack of knowledge, but for lack of familiarity and practice. A gathering of people confuses him, and at the first opportunity he seeks refuge in solitude. Such men, diffident, self-conscious men, should force themselves out into the common society of others where they may learn some of the most inspiring lessons of life.
When you rise from reading a great book that has inspired you to better and greater things, then is the time to set down in writing your new-made resolutions and to put at least some’ part of them into immediate practice. Perhaps you have decided to seek a higher place among your fellow men? Then go out among them, prepared to render service. Be interested in their welfare, and give to them freely of your sympathy and cheerfulness. Cultivate a true-hearted and intelligent optimism toward everyone. Carry in your voice and manner a message of hope and good will, and give what you can without thought of receiving.
Possibly you have determined to employ your time to better advantage. Begin, then, to do so to-day. Have a definite program. Be economical of the little spare moments that are so easily frittered away. When a thing is to be done, do not merely survey it, or worry about it, but begin it at once and keep at it until it is done.
If you are interrupted, excuse yourself as soon as possible, and apply your time and energies with increased diligence. Work daily toward larger and more important things. Think of nothing as being too high or too great for your ambition. Resolve to waste no time. Outside of your regular calling, devote yourself earnestly to studies and recreations that up build, strengthen, and fit you for larger pursuits.
Perhaps you have resolved to develop more courage and independence. Stand up at once, lift your chest high and full into the attitude of the man you would be. Look the next person you meet straight in the eyes, and as you talk to him put earnestness and conviction into every word you utter. Think of yourself as a strong, energetic, cheerful, positive character, while all the time endeavoring to express these qualities in your face, voice, words, manner, walk, and daily life.