Some of our great writers portray the physique of their heroes and heroines so minutely that they start into life before our eyes. Height, size, complexion, conformation of features, to a gauntlet or ribbon, all are on the graphic page. But the excellent memoir recently published in England, gives us no account of the personnel of Fidelia Fiske. Judging from her portrait, she was about the middle size, finely formed features, rather delicate, loving eye, mild face, naturally diffident, yet cheerful, trustful, and hopeful.
She was a singularly gifted woman, and could accomplish with comparative ease what would be quite impracticable, or very difficult, to others. There was the quick comprehension, and the executive tact, which hardly ever made a failure, or put forth an inefficient effort. Every stroke and every touch from her always told in every undertaking. There was not the slightest bluster nor pretension about her. So quiet and unostentatious were her movements, that they would not have been observed, but for their marvellous results. If endowed with genius; it was unaccompanied by eccentricity or folly.
We need scarcely add that she was a noble specimen of true Christian womanhood. With the testimony of Dr. Kirk, the eminent Congregationalist minister of Boston, we close our pleasant task. “I wish to speak carefully; but I am sure I can say I never saw one who came nearer to Jesus in self-sacrifice. If ever there should be an extension of the eleventh chapter of Hebrews, I think the name of Fidelia Fiske would stand there. That is a list of those who either had remarkable faith, or who suffered for the truth. She was a martyr. She made the greatest sacrifice. She had given up her will; and when you have done that, the rest is easy. To burn at the stake for awhile, to be torn on the rack, to be devoured by wild beasts, is as nothing when you have torn out your own will, and laid it upon God’s altar.”
CHAPTER VIII.
Formation of Female Character.
“The foundation of all great character must be laid in a change wrought upon the heart by Divine influence. We say a change of the heart, because the qualities which we bring with us into the world can never be so improved and polished as to lead us to act in the manner which the Divine law requires. Some of the evil propensities of our nature may be checked, the force of some passions may be weakened, and that of others guided into a new direction; but in the change of which we speak, and which we affirm to be the foundation of all true character, these passions are extirpated altogether, and the virtues of patience, self-denial, and fortitude, are implanted in their room.”
James A. Wylie, LL.D.
VALUE AND INFLUENCE OF CHARACTER.
It would not be easy to name a question of more vital interest than the importance of character to the individual and the world. The subject is peculiarly interesting at present, when, as we apprehend, a new era is opening on society, in which character shall be more than ever necessary. By character we mean qualities of soul; as these are noble or ignoble, so is your character, and so shall be the influence of your life. When we see a young woman entering upon a career of sin, it is not the amount of wrong that alarms us most; it is the fact that she is forming a character which will pursue her through life, and urge her forward in her evil ways, till rushing headlong down the paths of vice, she falls at last into hopeless dishonour here and misery hereafter. When, on the other hand, we see a young woman giving herself to the cultivation of right dispositions and good principles,—when we see her consistently subjecting the inferior principles of her nature to reason, and her lusts and passions to her conscience, and all her powers to the control of religion and the fear of God,—it is not this or that particular good thing that pleases us most; it is the fact that she is forming a character which will become to her like a guardian angel, bearing her up in the rough places of life, and at last enabling her to dwell in the purer and happier atmosphere of heaven itself. To all, as individuals, as parents, as members of a family, and as members of society in general, there is something of solemn importance in the fact that none can stand neutral: all must take one of two courses of life,—the right or the wrong,—the good or the bad,—the true or the false.
The end of Providence, as a system of moral discipline, is the formation of character. The ultimate design of all the trials and disappointments and sorrows, the afflictions bodily and mental, personal and relative, to which all are subject, and from which none are exempt, is the restoration of that character which sin has destroyed. Heaven, as to its substance, consists in the perfection of character. Mental philosophy renders it a matter of certainty that the soul possesses an inherent capacity of receiving happiness or enduring misery to an extent at present wholly inconceivable. Generally speaking, the powers of your inner nature are asleep during life; but no sooner shall death have loosed the fetters that now confine them, than they will awake, never more to slumber or sleep: they will start up like the fiery whirlwind, and begin their sweep along their mighty orbit, rendering the path of the spirit one of eternal blackness and desolation; or they will then move on without let or hindrance in their path of light and joy, like the white-robed planet of the heavens around the great source of gravitation.
All those great revolutions by which the world has been extensively and permanently benefited have been brought about mainly by the influence of character. Genius has discovered the sciences and perfected the arts, and these have given us almost unlimited dominion over the world on which we dwell. So many and so substantial have been the benefits genius has conferred, that it may seem at first sight as if she had been the great benefactress of the world. But it is not difficult to show that the progress of art or science, unless their application be regulated by sound moral principle, is even dangerous to the world: they must be either a blessing or a curse, according as they are used or abused. From a variety of causes, the planting of Christianity in the world was the hardest task ever assigned to any of the human race. Alas! mere genius could have done little in that great work. Her vocation is to shine, and the promulgation of Christianity required suffering. The first Christians were not distinguished for their learning or eloquence, but they were endowed with power from on high to proclaim faithfully and courageously the great facts of which they had been the eye-witnesses. How manifest it is that we owe the spread of Christianity, not to talent, but to character. In the contest which resulted in the glorious Reformation, mere genius would soon have been foiled; heroic hardihood of soul, unbounded homage for truth, and unmeasured contempt for error, were necessary to burst the fetters of superstition. Talent could detect the errors of the Romish system, lash the vices of the clergy, and consign the Pope to ever-burning fires; but character was needed to accomplish the more difficult task of emancipating Europe. That character is superior to talent is evident from the maxim, now become trite, that example is better than precept. It is also more valuable than rank. You may be proud of your pedigree, and point with imperial gusto to the family crest; but remember that rank is an accident over which you have no control, and titles will be felt to be empty things when you lie pining on a bed of sickness. In the present state of the world, reputation may rank higher than character, but it should be borne in mind that the former is merely the symbol of the latter. Maintain your character, be not over-anxious about your reputation. Character is the woman—reputation is only what the woman is said to be.