Page:About people (IA aboutpeople00well).pdf/44

one depends upon the adjustment of mutual claims.

Individuality in its nobler form is more than mere assertion of one's rights, — it becomes the maintenance of a principle. For that one works, contends, endures, dies. Often from conscious or unconscious obstinacy, or from self-love, sometimes from real absorption in a cause without regard to self, is the individuality merged in what one wishes to accomplish. Napoleon, Palissy, Fulton, Carlyle, Emerson, an anti-tobacconist or a pro-suffragist, are all alike instances of individuality. Without it one cannot think of a reformer, or of a leader in politics, charities, or social life. That it is often disguised may but intensify its power, for individuality may or may not be marked by self-control and tact. Just so far as it possesses such virtues, does it lead to power. It can be either angular or curved. When the former, we gain Simeon Stylites, monks of La Trappe, fanatics, persecutors, disagreeable