must learn what it takes to make true characters. It
is not the exhibit from the outside, it is what we are, as we are
judged from our actions, by the fruits we bring forth.

Character is the cultivated power; shun the examples of the world. How
many persons ever made a careful analysis of their own character or
labored to develop the good and suppress the evil? The first object of
life is character, but an object no less important is achievement.
Character is power, but power is of no use only when it is applied. A
cistern of water may contain a latent force enough to do the work of a
thousand men or overturn mountains, but only when its latent powers
are developed into the form of steam and applied to the arm of iron
for the accomplishment of a purpose is it of any good to the world. A
man of moral force must apply his power to become a blessing to
mankind. Character must go forth into the deed if it accomplishes that
whereunto it was sent. Public sentiment is beginning to measure a man,
not so much by his culture as what he can do with his culture. It
demands efficiency as well as scholastic acquirement. We must
understand that the demands are different now from what they were in
times gone by. A man must accomplish something if he expects to meet
the possibilities that await him and his race. I do not object to
education; I rather love education; but how must a man be educated?
His feet, his eyes, his hands, his head, must all be educated; and
when he is thus educated he is prepared to meet the emergencies that
await his race. As a race, thus educated, we can not be hindered from
taking position in life as American citizens. We often say that
everything is against us, and it seems so; but while this seems the
case we must be doing something individually and as a race. The
conditions of successful achievements are a correct idea of
intelligence, persistence and courageous labor. First we must have
purpose in life or, in other words, an object in view. A life that is
aimless is a sad spectacle, not so bad perhaps as a ruined life, but
not much more admirable. The Hindoos believe that the destiny of
mankind was lost in the personality by absorption in the Brahma, and
most persons are so aimless in life and so devoid of any higher or
nobler purpose that they lose their individuality in the great Brahma
of society. A man is an individual, not a mere unit in a mass; a
personality, not a mere member of a body politic. Did