Page:About people (IA aboutpeople00well).pdf/70

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ABOUT PEOPLE.

yourself. The solidarity of mankind demands that any personality should gird on the panoply of good manners; and it is because of the lack of this much praised but rare possession that individuals become so disagreeable, while the purposes for which they strive may be those which all hold.

The law of compromise ever adjusts the balance between individuality and solidarity; the first preventing any mean yielding to low ends or unworthy motives; the latter making perceptible the relationship of individuality to the highest possible standard of personal morality and devotion to noble ends.

From such a union of forces comes a far higher development than if individuality had remained aloof in shining isolation. The bud of purpose is deepened in color from its secrecy; self-assertion is maintained with firm but gentle touch; the constant accretion of self-control strengthens every fibre, though by processes that seem tedious to the young

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