The need of the hour is not gentlemen and ladies, but men and women.

The last twenty-five years, more than any other period in the history of the world, has brought into prominence the truth of the paragraph at the beginning of this chapter. An unknown Methodist preacher down in Dixie, fixing on his inspiration, or what the American people call grit, determined to call a spade a spade, dared to be himself, and the world knows the rest—he became the irrepressible Sam Jones.

Scores of others who have been more or less successful brought themselves before the general public by the same method, which is simply a reliance upon the higher self.

That which appears to be selfishness in its incipient stage, if unham-pered, will lead to selfhood. There is no way by which we can redeem man from his belief in his own weakness, except by encouraging in him a belief in his own strength.

The first being who presented this subject in tangible form and brought its truth to the masses was first ostracized, then persecuted, and then crucified.

There is a great difference between the meaning of the terms "selfishness" and "selfhood." A perfect understanding of each term, together with a comprehension of the relation between them, constitutes a knowledge of self.

Man, as we ordinarily find him, in infancy and childhood, is a natural investigator, and the first assertion made by the infant is self-assertion, which is a demand for more life, more happiness. It is an unconscious call for those things which bring to him the gratification of inherent needs. Gratify one, and another immediately follows. This is necessary to supply the law of growth, and as the infant thinks of no one but himself, we would call this first impulse selfishness. Yet the careful parent sees in the baby a grateful response, for each want satisfied. In fact, up to that time in the infant's life when the parent begins to refuse to gratify its wants, there has been no feeling between parent and child except pure and unalloyed love and contentment. If this attitude is not disturbed too harshly, the child will early learn to take pleasure in the enjoyment of others. This constitutes selfhood. The study of the little child becomes invaluable, if we will look at it just as it is. A great many parents have crushed out the selfhood in a child by training it up in the belief of its dependence wholly upon its parents. We present this illustration to convey more clearly the distinction between selfishness and selfhood.

Man is at times, by nature, either perfectly passive or perfectly positive. To be perfectly positive is to be continuously acting. To be perfectly passive is to be receptive. Little children show more self-reliance, as a usual thing, than matured men and women. Their love of adventure, which springs from the fact that they are natural investigators, leads them to attempt things that are impossible for them to accomplish; but if allowed to go on with his investigations, the child will usually accomplish what he attempts. This has been the case in the history of our greatest composers of music and most successful inventors.

When Benjamin West, who afterwards distinguished himself as an artist, first evinced that talent, his parents, who were devout Quakers, believed him to be possessed of an evil spirit. His genius was allowed to smoulder until it was recognized by a friend of the family, whose knowledge of art prompted him in calling the attention of the parents to the talent of their child. The same conditions existed with Handel, Beethoven, Mendelssohn, and thousands of others who became brilliant stars in the firmament of successful endeavor.

Dr. Adam Clark was considered by his parents a dull boy, and by his teachers a menial sluggard, until one day, while wearing a duncecap in the school-room, a visitor recognized in the boy something of sterling merit. Encouragingly patting the child on the head, this visitor, "an angel in disguise," inspired the boy by telling him that he had within him all the elements necessary to develop great scholarship and a useful manhood. Now his name is known as that of the greatest Bible commentator of this time. The chief fault with the teachers of all ages has consisted in pointing out the faults of mankind, without referring to the good with which man is endowed. The chief object of this book is to impress upon every reader a recognition of the good that is in him.