The Art of Manliness - Manvotionals - Brett McKay [87]
Your affectionate father,
R.E. LEE.
Self-Measuring Questions
Concerning the Characteristic of Integrity
FROM HOW TO CHOOSE THE RIGHT VOCATION, 1917
By Holmes W. Merton
Am I conscientious or careless in meeting my financial obligations? When pressed for sufficient money for current expenses, do I spend what money I may get on my own enjoyment or do I apply it in settlement of my accounts with the butcher, grocer and tailor?
Am I punctual, dependable, and strictly honest or am I dilatory, unreliable and unregardful of other people’s time, energies and belongings?
Do I believe in scrupulously “sticking to the truth?” Do I report conversations, incidents and things that I have read with fine respect for the truth—and, if I can not remember the facts distinctly, do I frankly admit it; or do I “embroider the facts as pleases my fancy or to win favor with my hearers?”
In my mind does “putting the best foot forward” mean taking one’s misfortunes as graciously as may be and making the most of limited means and opportunity or does it imply stretching the truth in self-justification or pushing one’s interest to the detriment of others?
Having made an agreement or appointment and, later, desiring to break it, do I do so in a straightforward manner or do I invent seemingly plausible excuses for breaking it?
Does an injury or injustice inflicted upon another arouse my indignation or do I mentally say, “It’s no concern of mine?”
When I have made a mistake or have misinterpreted the acts or motives of another, am I willing to acknowledge my error and desirous to make reparation if it be possible to do so?
Am I as faithful when working for an employer as when working solely for my own profit?
Can I fearlessly scrutinize my ulterior motives and my business dealings or do I sometimes salve my conscience with the sophistry “business is business?”
If I were an employer and had the power, would I feel justified in grinding my employees down to the lowest living wage?
Am I spontaneously frank and direct in my social and business relations or am I evasive, suave or hypocritical?
Do I possess an integral conscience or have I one section for Sundays and religion and another section for week-days and business?
“A faithful friend is the true image of the Deity.” —Napoleon Bonaparte
The Goatherd and the Wild Goats
AN AESOP’S FABLE
A goatherd, driving his flock from their pasture at eventide, found some wild goats mingled among them, and shut them up together with his own for the night. On the morrow it snowed very hard, so that he could not take the herd to their usual feeding places, but was obliged to keep them in the fold. He gave his own goats just sufficient food to keep them alive, but fed the strangers more abundantly, in the hope of enticing them to stay with him, and of making them his own. When the thaw set in, he led them all out to feed, and the wild goats scampered away as fast as they could to the mountains. The Goatherd taxed them with their ingratitude in leaving him, when during the storm he had taken more care of them than of his own herd. One of them turning about said to him: “That is the very reason why we are so cautious; for if you yesterday treated us better than the Goats you have had so long, it is plain also that if others came after us, you would in the same manner, prefer them to ourselves.”
Old friends cannot with impunity be sacrificed for new ones.
“I have been asked what I mean by ‘word of honor.’ I will tell you. Place me behind prison walls—walls of stone ever so high, ever so thick, reaching ever so far into the ground—there is a possibility that in some way or another I might be able to escape; but stand me on the floor and draw a chalk line around me and have me give my word of honor never to cross it. Can I get out of that circle?