370 PLAIN FACTS FOR OLD AND YOUNG 



a wild beast, a lion or a tiger, tliey are immeasurably 

 inferior. And in liis highest development, man — civi- 

 lized, cultivated, Christianized, learned, generous, pious 

 — certainly stands at the head of all created things. 



Boys, do you love what is noble, what is pure, what 

 is grand, what is good? You may each, if you will, be- 

 come such yourselves. Let us consider for a moment — 



How a Noble Character Is Pormed.— Every 

 human being forms his own character. Various traits 

 and characteristics may be inherited from parents ; but 

 character is built up by each individual, and is good 

 or bad as we ourselves decide. As a modern philoso- 

 pher has said, ' ' Our thoughts and our conduct are our 

 own." A noble character is formed by the develoi> 

 ment of good qualities and the suppression of bad ones. 

 Real improvement is from within outward, and comes 

 from an individual's own efforts. A boy can form a 

 noble, elevated, lovable character by cultivating good 

 and pure thoughts, which will certainly actuate to only 

 good and pure actions. By constant effort, evil tend- 

 encies which have been inherited may be overcome; 

 good traits may be so developed as to overshadow the 

 evil of an unfortunate nature. Thus all may form 

 noble characters, no matter how adverse the circum- 

 stances under which they live, or the natural disadvan- 

 tages with which they have to contend. 



How a Noble Character Is Ruined.— A bad char- 

 acter is formed by the development of bad traits or 

 evil propensities. In other words, sin is the cause of 

 the demoralization of character, the debasing of the 

 mind, the loss of nobility, of which we see so much 

 around us in the world. Wlien one yields to tempta- 

 tions to wrong-doing, either such as come from one's 

 own evil nature, or from evil associates or surround- 



