Precept and Practice – JULY 10 – Personality

It is a strange gift, this thing we call personality.   It is quite different from – though not opposed to charm; and is equally indefinable:  nor is it the same thing as intellect or ability.   But it is the attribute that gives to some the knack of filling a room when they come into it, and of emptying it when they go out;  of writing their names so indelibly upon everything they touch, that such things for ever after bear their sign-manual:  and of so impressing their individuality upon all those with whom they are brought into contact that they can never be even to the most slight acquaintance quite as if they had never been.   This subtle and far-reaching influence may be for good, and it may be for evil:  but the world is slow to learn that evil is not more infectious than good.  If we can catch a disease from certain persons, we can also catch health from others:  if some companions exhaust and depress, others equally exalt and vivify.   Therefore to be healthy-minded and healthy-bodied is a duty we owe to our neighbours quite as much as to ourselves:  it is what we are, even more than what we do, that really helps or hinders those around us.   Are we strong, vigorous, hopeful, joyous? – then we are disseminating strength and vigour, hope and joy wherever we go:  but if on the contrary we are depressed and timid, anxious and morbid, then we are infecting the moral atmosphere with insidious germs of fear and misery, doubt and despair. 

(Ellen Thornycroft Fowler – Kate of Kate Hall)

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From the Introduction to Precept and Practice

The kindly welcome given to my other little books, ‘Being and Doing’ and ‘Character and Conduct,’ must be my excuse for adding another collection of extracts to the number now in circulation.

The quotations are gathered from the books of many earnest thinkers, and deal with Life in all its length and breadth, with ourselves, our characters, our plain unvarnished faults and weaknesses, our often untoward circumstances, and with all that drags us down;-  with our purposes, our religion, our love and friendships, and with all that uplifts us;-  with our relation to others, our influence and responsibilities, and finally with those stages of our journey which bring us to the Road’s Last Turn and to the Silent Land.

CONSTANCE  M. WHISHAW