A man lowers his own
character by it. He takes the shape of what he is always looking
at; and, if he looks at base and low things, he becomes base and low
himself; just as slave-owners, all over the world, and in all time,
sooner and later, by living among slaves, learn to copy their own
slaves' vices; and, while they oppress and look down on their
fellow-man, become passionate and brutal, false and greedy, like the
poor wretches whom they oppress.
Better, better to be of a lowly spirit. Better to think of those
who are nobler than ourselves, even though by so doing we are
ashamed of ourselves all day long. What loftier thoughts can man
have? What higher and purer air can a man's soul breathe? Yes, my
friends; believe it, and be sure of it. The truly high-minded man
is not the proud man, who tries to get a little pitiful satisfaction
from finding his brother men, as he chooses to fancy, a little
weaker, a little more ignorant, a little more foolish, a little more
ridiculous, than his own weak, ignorant, foolish, and, perhaps,
ridiculous self. Not he; but the man who is always looking upwards
to goodness, to good men, and to the all-good God: filling his soul
with the sight of an excellence to which he thinks he can never
attain; and saying, with David, 'All my delight is in the saints
that dwell in the earth, and in those who excel in virtue.
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