Page:About people (IA aboutpeople00well).pdf/78
secret charm, children do not wince under parental entreaties to strive for it, and their elders eagerly claim it, as proof that they have manliness and power.
Duty is done, character is made. Both indicate performance, one is long growth, the other may be single seed-sowing. Doing duty makes character, and individual character becomes the underlying structure of nationality. The possession or the want of it, makes the difference between one man and another, between the voter who cares for his country, and him who gets a dollar for his ballot; between the men and women who strive for professional or public renown for the sake of social ambition, and those who, whether "praised or blamed, guard well the trust they neither shunned nor sought."
When character is regarded as an epitome of duty alone it becomes a mass of heavy, moving power, bent on the accomplishment of its ends, and, by virtue of its weight, bearing