instinctively associate serenity with the highest types of power
among men, seeing in it the poise of knowledge and calm vision,
the supreme heat and mastery which is without splutter or noise
of any kind. The art of power in this sort is no doubt learned in
hours of reflection, by those who are not born with it. What
rebuke of aimless excitement there is to be got out of a little
reflection, when we have been inveighing against the corruption
and decadence of our own days, if only we have provided ourselves
with a little knowledge of the past wherewith to balance our
thought! As bad times as these, or any we shall see, have been
reformed, but not by protests. They have been made glorious
instead of shameful by the men who kept their heads and struck
with sure self-possession in the fight. The world is very human,
not a bit given to adopting virtues for the sakes of those who
merely bemoan its vices, and we are most effective when we are
most calmly in possession of our senses.

So far is serenity from being a thing of slackness or inaction
that it seems bred, rather, by an equable energy, a satisfying
activity. It may be found in the midst of that alert interest in
affairs which is, it may be, the distinguishing trait of
developed manhood. You distinguish man from the brute by his
intelligent curiosity, his play of mind beyond the narrow field
of instinct, his perception of cause and effect in matters to him
indifferent, his appreciation of motive and calculation of
results. He is interested in the world about him, and even in the
great universe of which it forms a part, not merely as a thing he
would use, satisfy his wants and grow great by, but as a field to
stretch his mind in, for love of journeyings and excursions in
the large realm of thought. Your full-bred human being loves a