Page:About people (IA aboutpeople00well).pdf/202
halo surrounding the real person whose character still keeps its integrity.
Because, in the complexity of life, we forget that each should be a unit, working as best he can, that what he does and what he thinks and what he is, embraces all with which another is concerned, is it constantly asked, Who's who? The subtle influences of pure and high birth are never to be scorned, for they intrench their possessor within a stronghold which makes it easy for him to bear the assaults of fortune or the rudeness of men. The high-bred faces win our affection, the noble manner commands our obedience; but with refinement must go strength, else the first is insipid. No inheritance is ever a compensation for the want of self-activity. Humanity has as many insignia as there are noble individuals. A person who is only so much of himself, multiplied by imitation of others, minus somebody else, is a wearisome sum in human arithmetic. Truth and sympathy lie at the basis of all fine manner,