BY SETTING GOOD EXAMPLE LESSON V

“We read in a Japanese story that once a man set out in pursuit of a rose, he sought it a long time, but nothing seemed to him to be that flower, which he knew only by hearsay, that praised its incomparable perfume and the beauty of its multiplex corolla.”

“He saw the admirable amaryllis, balancing on flexible stems their odoriferous chalices, whose tender tints were touched with brown spots, that seemed like the tears of night.”

“He had inhaled – quite surprised to find them without perfume – the breath of the proud peonies, which bloomed near by, looking like a sort of burning bush.”

“The fragrant stalactites of the acacias had breathed upon him their balmy odor.”

“He had paused before carnations, which, crimson in their green chalices, looked like the throats of warriors, bursting out of their armor.”

“The sumptuous mourning of the black lily also had attracted him; but none of these flowers were, nor could be, the rose, and he was almost in despair when he saw, quite near him, alight on a bush a butterfly of the dazzling colors, and a delightful aroma seemed to be diffused from it, while its wings quivered like the petals of a flower shaken in the wind.”

“Greatly moved,” the man approached it, saying: ‘No,’ said the butterfly, “I am not the rose, but I live near the rose; I love the refuge of her flowery arches and branches. I come to sleep in the hollows of her corollas, and sip the sweet perfume of her flowers.”

“That is the reason why I have become so thoroughly impregnated with her odor as to deceive you.”

This little fable may serve as a preface to anything one might say or write on the force of example.

Our most frequent associations are never indifferent to our mentality, and we always submit, voluntarily or unconsciously, to the ascendancy of those that surround us, unless we have sufficient influence over their minds to compel them to submit themselves to us.

Then the thought, projected into an enveloping center by a superior influence, is received by brains of weaker caliber, which register it mechanically in order to reproduce it on similar occasions.

Our popular modern philosophy has put this maxim into a proverb:

“Tell me who are your associates and I will tell you what your are.”

It is explained also by Du Potet in his “Magnetic Therapeutics…”

“There are certain persons,” says he, “who when near you, seem to draw something from you, to pump you, to absorb your force and your life; an species of vampire, without knowing it, they live at your expense.”

“When near them, in the sphere of their activity, one feels an uneasiness, a constraint which is caused by their pernicious actions and determines in us an indefinable feeling.”

“You are moved by a desire to escape and to go far away from them; but these people have quite the opposite tendency; they come nearer and nearer to you, press close to you, seem fairly to wish to join themselves to you, to draw from you that which is necessary to their lives.”

“Other persons, on the contrary, bear with them life and health.”

“Wherever they go, they seem to radiate joy and sunshine.”

“You observe that their conversation pleases and that people seek them out. One likes to touch their hands, to lean on their arm; something soothing which charms and magnetizes you, quite unconsciously, seems to emanate from them.”

“One easily adopts their point of view on things in general, and their opinions, without knowing why; and one sees them go away with sincere regret.”

In short, above all things regarding psychic influence, we must not forget that “the strongest reason is always the best.”

Unfortunately, the strongest is not always that which is worth the most; a regrettable contagion follows from the person who suffers the ascendancy of the other.

“Or again,” the old Shogun explained, “the reciprocal influence which individuals exercise on one another is the cause of many evils difficult to conjure.”

“That, if we may believe tradition, is the reason why the sages of old created so-called mutual admiration societies, to which only those of undisputed merit were admitted.”

“In the numerous reunions, whatever might be the apparent reason for them, a low mentality evinced itself, and the general quality of thought became inferior, to such a degree that the most elevated mind felt the difficulty of escaping the contagion of the surrounding mediocrity.”

“The only influence of an orator might be to transmute souls momentarily by substituting for mean and niggardly thoughts a current of broad, generous ideas, from which would spring an enthusiasm real but almost always ephemeral, for at the moment of realization particular interests, narrow views, and the fear of responsibility will give back to each one of his auditors the mind that belongs to him, which a profound study of the attainment of the highest and best alone could transform slowly and definitely.”

“However, certain such circles do exist which are composed of persons of absolutely pure aspirations, all communicant toward a noble end, in a collective thought, the waves of which are voluntarily directed toward a single accomplishment.”

From these reunions of the best minds emanates a current of influence the value of which is considerable, since emulation, the offspring of example, is found in these circles where, each one developing, in a sense, from the same principle, concentrates his faculties on the search for the best in all that is good.

“But it is very difficult to maintain these gatherings under the unique direction of the original generous spirit. To find men that will ignore questions of temporary supremacy and of particular interests, and that know how to repress petty antipathies and hatreds, possibly more or less justifiable, in order to open the heart to the creation of an ideal – this is almost to expect the impossible.”

“Is it, indeed, necessary to ask it?Is it well to suppress ambition in men’s hearts? Does not such a leveling tend to destroy the seed of individual responsibility, a cognizance of which leads to the most noble conquests?”

While admiring the scruples of the Shogun, we could only regret that happy time when the ancient sages gathered with no other object than to talk of beauty in the heart of nature, in wonderful gardens in the midst of vegetation luxuriant and restful, with the blue heavens as their sole canopy.

But our modern civilization has other necessities, which find expression in a care, sometimes exaggerated, regarding subjection to the order of the hour: “Time is money”; it is necessary, then, that the time of the reunions should be limited, and that the place be carefully chosen, large enough to contain the public, which rarely would wish to assemble out of doors, lest the fine weather might change into a driving rainstorm.

The terrible question of money almost always comes up; and since persons of lofty minds, protagonists of generous ideas, rarely devote themselves to the accumulation of gold, it is necessary to introduce into these reunions a sort of Mecaenas who, under the guise of one or of several capitalists, whose ideas and sentiments may be said to border on the commonplace, comes among a group composed of the purest elements to play the part of fruit of doubtful quality in a basket of sound fruit.

But it is of no use regretting things that cannot be changed; and it is wiser to listen to Yoritomo:

“I once knew a man who spent large sums in entertaining several Buddhist priests, who celebrated the cult by lighting an enormous quantity of lanterns, and by giving themselves up to various ruinous practices.”

“I said to this man: ‘It would be better to burn a single lamp before the statue of Buddha at his own home, and to invite all the priests who lead a useless existence in the temple to bear the people the good word and to set them a good example. ’”

“Put together all the money which every year you would give to this sterile cult of Buddhism, divide it into as many sums as you would distribute to each of your priests n ordering them to distribute among the poor in teaching them the blessing of the name of Buddha.”

“Thus, glorified by example, the cult that you desire to honor would spread itself the more, since kind and charitable words would inevitably be connected with it in the minds of the unfortunates whom it had helped.”

We may, even now, take account of the strength of Yoritomo’s principles in the observation that they are given as an example by another Japanese philosopher, Kabira Ekken, who lived in the seventeenth century, and of whom Kirschbach tells us in a study that is much quoted:

“’The ability of certain actors,” Yoritomo continued, “may be an influence, excellent or detestable, following the quality of the examples which they offer to the people.”

“On the stage, an actor who has the gift of filling his very soul with the personage he represents can, at his will, sow the seeds of joy or terror, of admiration or desire for the beautiful in the minds of the spectators.”

“That is the reason why we cannot too strongly reprehend such plays as show a narrow or vulgar mentality behind them.”

“It is very wrong to impress the multitude with reproductions of criminal or reprehensible actions.”

“While it is true that there are certain lower functions of our human nature that are common to every one, but which we mutually conceal, both from sight and by name, there are certain moral defects, certain ugly actions, a manifestation of which it would be very wrong to present to the eyes of the public.”

“The acts of generosity, of magnanimous impulses, and of heroic sacrifices – do not these offer a field wide enough so that it is not necessary to reproduce plays of sentiments and actions that are likely to be harmful?”

“The influence of example is considerable, and it is a culpable thing not to circumscribe it to the representation of noble actins worthy of being imitated.”

“It may be objected that in all plays in which a criminal is represented, the malefactor is always punished for his misdeeds, sometimes in a way so terrible that the example cannot fail to be of benefit as a warning to those that might be tempted to imitate him.”

“Among an audience capable of being influenced by these detestable examples, there are sure to be a few who will fancy themselves much cleverer than the criminal whose story is being acted before them, and these will say to themselves: ‘This crime was well-planned; and, if he was taken, it is because he was clumsy.”

“For many, these reflections are theoretical, and they have no desire to imitate him. But what matters then? The evil seed has been sown in them and, under the influence of an unworthy sentiment, hatred, calculation, or cupidity, it may develop into a fixed desire for dishonest conquest, of which the pictured crime was the origin.”

“For those who are already tainted, the influence of such representations as we are considering would be even more vicious; for them the stage would be a practical school of vice, combined with astuteness and safeguarded from punishment by a thousand means which the actions of the players may suggest.”

“One may say the same thing of books, though they are more dangerous for the erudite than for persons whose knowledge is more limited.”

Alas! The Shogun knew nothing about compulsory education, for of the thousands of cheap books, which propagate the taste for trying one’s luck in the convincing tone of showing one how to make a fortune.

But it would be wrong to include the spirit of a book, which deplores all progress, which we praise highly. We should, however, emphasize very clearly the fact that too wide an education is often a two-edged weapon.

The best way to utilize one’s education is to read attentively, “The Influence of Example.”

Readings made in common should be on a subject at once lofty and interesting; but the result on the auditors when they are alone may be indifferent or beneficial, according to the mental qualities of the reader.

He should, above all things, be inspired with the principal contents of the preceding chapters, particularly those on the influence of the eye and thought-transference.

If the play of glances is necessarily limited to the reader, who is compelled to lower his eyes upon his book, eh must not forget, in moments when he may be relaxing his gaze form the page, still to dominate his audience with his regard.

At the same time, the ideas he expresses should be backed by so powerful a thought from him that the “thought-waves” shall determine the mental current, which says Turnbull, “act with the force of a loadstone and of electricity.”

Let us not forget also that personal influence radiates more certainly when it manifests itself under the form of altruism, charity, and kindness.

“Is it not a frequent thing,” said the old Japanese, “to see a crowd hesitate, divided between a feeling of recrimination and one of approbation, and then suddenly turn toward conciliation, because one among them, on whom the situation and the influence of others had its effect, has openly declared himself on that side?”

“One of the greatest obstacles to the doing of good actions,” he added, “is the timidity based on the fear of responsibility, which haunts mediocre minds.”

“It is toward these that he who would wield the power of domination should turn his attention. It is sufficient to impose on these timorous souls the resolution to perform the task that they themselves desire to see accomplished, and to set them the example of his achievement.”

“Their vacillating will strengthen itself by the moral support which they will be certain to feel, and their anxiety about the opinion of others will be soothed by the example of those whom they recognize as their superiors, and whose superiority they are glad to acknowledge.”

“Example is the excuse behind which hasten to hide those whose ill-regulated thoughts can cooperate in defensive discernment.”

“It is these, then, whose minds are strengthened by renewed practices of wise reflection, used in the service of psychic qualities, creators of domination, who should watch carefully over their own acts, so that their example may be, for the persons over whom they have an influence, a source of improvement and constant elevation.”