Identifier: youi00clev (find matches)
Title: You and I;
Year: 1886 (1880s)
Authors: Cleveland, Rose Elizabeth, 1846- (from old catalog)
Subjects: Etiquette Culture
Publisher: Detroit, Mich. (etc.) F. B. Dickerson & co.
Contributing Library: The Library of Congress
Digitizing Sponsor: The Library of Congress

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fthe ages. I have looked into my own life and into the lives
of others, and I declare to you, speaking with no human
authority, that perfection of character is the true end of life,
and the only attainment that can satisfy the soul.
Some one has remarked, that we are not able to say what a
thing is so forcibly as by saying what it is not. So, in defining
the word character, I say first of all that character is not
nature; and a confusion of the two terms will lead to mis-
chievous error. Thus, "Character," says Voltaire, is what
nature has engraven in us; can we then efface it ?
" Should anyone tell you that a mountain had changed its
place, you are at liberty to doubt it," says Mahomet; but if
anyone tells you that a man has changed his character, do not
believe it.
These expressions indicate the most dangerous form of that
Eastern fatalism which, in a drapery of theological phrase, is a
cherished part of many religious creeds, and. in the shape of
ready aphorism, is found on the lips of every nation.
Text Appearing After Image:

CHARACTER.

INDIVIDUAL CHARACTER. 329

" Che sara sara " (Whatever will be, will be), is the
Italian version.
" What fates impose, that men must needs abide," says
Shakespeare.
" What must be, shall be," says Seneca.
And Marcus Antoninus declares with all the lofty calm of a
philosopher: " Whatever may happen to thee, it was prepared
for thee from all eternity; and the implication of causes was
from eternity spinning the thread of thy being and of that
which is incident to it."
I know not how others may be affected by such utterances,
but to me they are like chains hung about my very soul.
It is not my purpose to enter into a discussion of predestina-
tion or of free-will. I can not measure exactly the extent to
which hereditary influences determine a persons character,
nor the scope of that " divinity that shapes our ends." I have
only a few earnest words, to counteract, if possible, the para-
lyzing effect of such devils maxims as I have quoted above.
It is of small consequence that a man believes in fatalism in
material matters, but in the moral world and in the manage-
ment of his own nature it is essential that he realize his power
and freedom.

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