The Art of Manliness - Manvotionals - Brett McKay [9]
“One cannot always be a hero, but one can always be a man.” —Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
The Song of the Manly Men
FROM THE SONG OF THE MANLY MEN AND OTHER VERSES, 1908
By Frank Hudson
Heard from the wild and the desert,
Echoing back from the sea,
Faint o’er the din of the city
Floats the song of the men that are free.
There’s a lilt in the strenuous chorus,
There’s joy in our labouring when
We hear o’er the babble of weaklings
The song of the manly men.
’Tis heard ’mid the ringing of anvils,
’Tis heard ’mid the clashing of steel,
When the hosts go down together,
And the shell-slashed legions reel.
’Tis heard from the mine and the furrow;
From prairie, and mountain, and glen;
Like the roll of the drums in the distance
Comes the song of the manly men.
The fool in his ignorant bondage
May sneer at their fashion and speech,
The fop and the feather-bed workman
Make mock of the lesson they teach.
The demagogues rant in the market
Of things high removed from their ken:
What are words—empty words—in the balance
With the deeds of the manly men?
They are vertebrate, keen, and courageous,
These toilers, who raise the refrain;
Their work swept away by disaster—
Undaunted, they build it again.
Yet ye fawn on your quacks and your idols,
Your dreamers and mountebanks—then,
When your country is suffering shipwreck,
You’ll fall back on the manly men.
The American Boy
FROM THE STRENUOUS LIFE: ESSAYS AND ADDRESSES, 1900
By Theodore Roosevelt
Of course what we have a right to expect of the American boy is that he shall turn out to be a good American man. Now, the chances are strong that he won’t be much of a man unless he is a good deal of a boy. He must not be a coward or a weakling, a bully, a shirk, or a prig. He must work hard and play hard. He must be clean-minded and clean-lived, and able to hold his own under all circumstances and against all comers. It is only on these conditions that he will grow into the kind of American man of whom America can be really proud.
The boy can best become a good man by being a good boy—not a goody-goody boy, but just a plain good boy. I do not mean that he must love only the negative virtues; I mean he must love the positive virtues also. “Good,” in the largest sense, should include whatever is fine, straightforward, clean, brave, and manly. The best boys I know—the best men I know—are good at their studies or their business, fearless and stalwart, hated and feared by all that is wicked and depraved, incapable of submitting to wrong-doing, and equally incapable of being aught but tender to the weak and helpless. A healthy-minded boy should feel hearty contempt for the coward, and even more hearty indignation for the boy who bullies girls or small boys, or tortures animals. One prime reason for abhorring cowards is because every good boy should have it in him to thrash the objectionable boy as the need arises.
Of course the effect that a thoroughly manly, thoroughly straight and upright boy can have upon the companions of his own age, and upon those who are younger, is incalculable. If he is not thoroughly manly, then they will not respect him, and his good qualities will count for but little; while, of course, if he is mean, cruel, or wicked, then his physical strength and force of mind merely make him so much the more objectionable a member of society. He cannot do good work if he is not strong and does not try with his whole heart and soul to count in any contest; and his strength will be a curse to himself and to every one else if he does not have thorough command over himself and over his own evil passions, and if he does not use his strength on the side of decency, justice, and fair dealing.
In short, in life, as in a football game, the principle to follow is: Hit the line hard; don’t foul and don’t shirk, but hit the line hard!
“A man must stand erect, not be kept erect by others.” —Marcus Aurelius
Character of the Happy Warrior
FROM POEMS, IN TWO VOLUMES, 1807
By William Wordsworth
Who is the