d one's fellows--this is life's task. For
skill in getting on with men is the test of perfect manhood.

No other knowledge is comparable to this. It is something to know how
to sail a vast ship; it is important to understand the workings of a
Corliss engine; man does well to aspire to the mastery of iron and
wood, and the use of cotton and wool; most praiseworthy the ambition
to master arguments and ideas; but it is a thousand times more
important to understand men. To be able to analyze the underlying
motives; to attain skill in rebuking the worst impulses in men, and
skill in calling forth their best qualities; to distinguish between
selfishness and sincerity; to allay strife and promote peace; to
maintain equanimity midst all the swirl of passion; to meet those who
storm with perfect calm; to meet scowling men with firm gentleness; to
meet the harshness of pride with a modest bearing; to be
self-sufficing midst all the upheaval and selfishness of life--this is
to be a follower of Christ, and He is the only gentleman our world has
ever seen. Oh, for some university for teaching the art of right
living! Oh, for some college teaching the science of attaining the
personal ends of life without marring one's ideals! For life has only
one fine art--the art of getting along smoothly with ourselves and our
fellows.

Let us confess that man easily masters every other art and science.
His discoveries as to stars and stones and shrubs provoke ever fresh
surprise. His inventions, who can number? He easily masters winds and
rivers. He takes the sting out of the thunderbolt and makes it
harmless. Afterward with electric lamps he illumines towns. With
invisible sunbeams he paints instantaneous pictures of faces, palaces,
mountains, and landscapes. With the dark X-rays he photographs the
bone incased in flesh, the coins contained in the purse. With his
magnet the scientist throws a rope around the cathode rays and drags
them whithersoever he will. In the field the inventor uses an electric
hoe to kill the germs of the thistle and deadly nightshade. Strange
that he cannot invent an instrument for killing the germs of hatred
and envy in his own heart! The gardener easily masters the art of
cultivating roses and violets, but breaks down in trying to produce in
himself those beauteous growths called love, truth, justice--flowers,
these, that are rooted in heaven, but blossom here on earth.

An expert driver will hold the reins over si