The Gift of Influence

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1908 edition. Excerpt: ...of manners and rules which we must not transgress. It is no exaggeration to say that we live more by this code, by the customs and restraints of society, than by the holy law of God as a light to our feet and a lamp to our path. Much of this is good, and represents the accumulated gains of the past, a certain standard of living below which men are not expected to fall, a moral and even a Christian atmosphere which affects us all and which is responsible for much of the good that is in us. One only needs to live for a little in a Pagan community to realise how much we owe to the general Christian standard of our country, such as it is. At the same time we must see how insecure this is as a guard and guide to life. For one thing, it is bound to be largely an external thing. Society can only take account of what is evident, what is on the outside. It cannot consider motives much or even character, and can only consider actual events that obtrude themselves into notice. It has its standard of respectability and of decency and even of morals, but that standard is bound to be external. A man might have a corrupt heart and be filled with all evil passions, but it stands to reason that society cannot take him to task for that, unless it gets something on which it can lay a finger. Apart even from such deeper moral depths of character, there may be actual transgressions, but until they are discovered and proved, society must treat them as if they did not exist. A man might be a thief, not only in desire and heart, but in reality, but until he is found out he rubs shoulders with honest men everywhere as one of themselves. Society is not ashamed of him, and he need not be ashamed of himself. A man may break all the commandments, even the social...