Repository: UIHistories Project: Sophograph - 1889 [PAGE 23]

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lied a blameful act. Aurelius was a wise and good man. His rule wa ig< ous 1 propitioi to the improvement of his subjects. Now that the national distinction of classes h nearh ; assed awar find that nobility still exists, but are not what they were before the power of kings and nobles was displaced by the united power of all, when freedom and independence assumed their natural supremacy. The great statesmen, orators, and generals are the nobility of this age. They have gained high distinction by virtuous deeds and are deserving of the name. In all times there have always been many who have possessed all the noble ness of human nature, and yet have not been kings, or statesmen, or generals There may be nobility without kingship, or generalship, as there may be king ship, or generalship without nobility. Among all peoples, there has a' ays been a majority who have not conceived that the nobility of man is the en dowment of an all-wise creator who have not felt the high importance of their lives; and thus, have not performed the offices which they owe to mankind. s o m e men live only for the accumulation of wealth and the sensual pleas ures which it brings. They are not possessed with the belief, that the true force of riches is the ennobling of their own natures and those of their fellowmen. Such men have prospered, but their prosperity is the prosperity of evil They have had enjoyments but not the enjoyments of virtue. However vast the material wealth and the exaltations of sensualit;. they have not enjoyed the innate happiness of those that prosper in well doing. The wicked and the sinful are the victims of a still meaner deficiency of nature,—the disbelief that man was made a perfect being, and that his dut» to extend his perfection toward the fulfillment of an end known only to the Creator. They cannot believe that man has a high significance in the worl and cannot see the divine justification of it, in so much, that he is made a reasoning creature. They have not allowed the blessings which God plai 1 in the world for them, to descend upon their heads, and by so doing to ennobh f their live The felicities of truth and virtue shed upon his earth are tt many of its people amidst wrecks of sin and wicl dnes lik the gloi -iset rays shed upon unreceiving heavens and l< t forever in the dark, eternal depths ol space. The true noblemen of earth are those whose li\ bear the immortal m\ of truth and virtue. It matters not whether thev ai kin itesmen i generals, or men of the lowliest station in 1 They who are e od —who in their daily walks in their busim ind ami t the pie and m forts of their homes are ever benevolent and kind md who at r mindful that the highest duty of man is in \ II doing | a high en f truth and \ tue ; and in that lit the nobility of man