“I certainly think it would, father.”
“Then bring this home to yourself. Is there no one thing in which you can excel Herbert Wellmore?”
“Yes, sir. I can solve a problem in half the time it takes him to do it in. But, then, he is always correct—and so gets as much as I do from the teacher, who does not seem to take into account my superior quickness.”
“In this, I need hardly point out to you, my son, the selfish principle that influences you. Instead of feeling grateful to your heavenly Father for having given you the ability to work out a difficult problem with half the labour it costs another, you are unhappy because this superior ability is not praised, and you, in consequence, held up to view as deserving of more commendation than Herbert; when, in fact, he is the one who should be praised for his steady perseverance in overcoming difficulties that are as nothing to you.”
“I believe I have permitted myself to indulge in wrong feelings,” Henry said, after remaining silent for a few moments. “But I think you have told me that emulation is not to be condemned.”
“It certainly is not, my son. I would have you, as now, emulous of superior acquirements; but, at the same time, aware, that in this emulation there would be no jealousy or unkind feelings. Be first in everything, if possible,—and yet willing to see others excel you,—remembering, that in so excelling they will have the power to be more useful to mankind; for the true power that resides in knowledge is the power of doing good.”