THE SUCCESSFUL MAN.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIX, Issue 14984, 4 May 1912, Page 1 (Supplement)

THE SUCCESSFUL MAN.

1 . . . BY tohukga.

j Hb>" the Titanic sank she took down j with her many Men whom the world ; nought of as successful—captain and • officers who had picked the plums of marij time appointments, engineers who were , acknowledged masters in their calling, j joung men whohad worn sweet- brides, old men who possessed millions. Vet before we think of any "'man as successful we should define what we mean by success in life. Surely there has been of this no finer definition than, that of .Towett when he asserted his • belief that " Life is our I chance of the prize of finding love." _ l « the "World at large the owner of £50,000.000 is successful and the stfbker who toils .for £1 a week is a failure, the man who is appointed captain of a "leviathan wins and the. man who sinks a leviathan fails, the man who speaks with authority is to be envied and the man who moves obediently through life is to bo pitied though esteemed: and the world at large is visibly and obviously wrong. For the multi-millionaire may' be the loneliest and unhappiest of men, while the stoker may have won in his poveVty the love of friends, the love of women, the love of little children—and »who would compare the winning of love to the having of gold! Vet there is this much soundness in the world's judgment that those who are strong of body and mind have the best j chance of finding love as well as of plucking the fruit of worldly success.

If a man owned the whole world and had no one to love him ho might as well bo Robinson Crusoe on his island. Robinson, indeed, is the type of a wholly selfish wanderer into whose life love never comes. [ .He is troubled about his health and his ; food, about his soul and about his future ; j lie wants somebody to talk to and" someI body to help bint, but he never opens his arms in the dark for the absent one .whose spirit is there. ; Robinson never longs for the music of a woman's voice, for the clasp | \>f*a. friend's hand, for the smile that wel- | comes co7?!ing and the praise that lightens toil.' No spiritual Robinson Crusoe can : bo called <* successful man, not even though ; lie could write a cheque for a million, could boast himself the richest man in tho i world. . , ' ■ ■

The value of worldly success, the, true reward of physical energy ' and mental ability, is that they vastly increase the opportunities .which- open the door to love. The engineer:? of the Titanic stood at their posts till the end, keeping the pumps going and the lights burning in order that the ship might float to the last possible minute arid that- the lives of, others might- be saved. Not one of them escaped or tried to oscape. This was heroic, indeed,' but it was the heroism inherent in trained >iud. picked men, impossible to weaklings, inimitable by those who do not inherit strength and acquire self-control by long yeans of patient and responsible and successful service. -.It is inconceivable that men who could thus look Death in the. face, while steadfastly and silently "doing their work, had. found none to love them in all their lives. For the T hearts of ,women go out to the capable men and the friendship that passes the love of women is found by those who mutually admire character and . appreciate skill. * * ' * '' '

; It, is. popular nowadays to aasprne that Lore and goes 4 without cause, that 'affection is the result of purely fortuituop ciicumstance. Nothing is less true. We love those whom we conceive to be as we would wish to be— beyond all other possessions, as long as we are healthful, we place strength and energy, physical, mental and spiritual. The love of met her for child, in spite of all its wonderful instincts, is not essentially different. The ' strongest and most overpowering maternal lov<» of a woman goes to the manchild she has brought into the world and of whose gorgeous future she dreams while she nurses it. Pity will move a woman to shield and comfort a weakling child, but ever she hopes that, by her loving care, strength and health may come to it; never would she deny it health and strength if those priceless possessions were in her. gift. Even maternal love seeks strength—or the world would have become a desert-place long ago. Whichever way we turn the same truth confronts us-—the having of love is - the having of admiration and recognition, the having of true love is the mint-mark of excellence and superiority. The captain whose seamen love him is more than a navigator ; the general whose soldiers treasure his. sayings .is more than a tactician ; the captain of industry whose subordinates are glad at his greeting is more than employer ; the schoolmaster whose lads remember him a's their friend is a teacher indeed. It was the love of his sailors which made Nelson the greatest of' captains. the love of his countrymen which made Linqoln immortal among statesmen, the Jove of his companions which makes. Nan.sen the king of explorers. And when we know that Buller won the hearts of his men how can we deny that though he failed as a general and was discredited as a tactician as a man he was altogether successful. The world may sometimes' crown with laurels the cold, the calculating and the unscrupulous, but Humanity uplifts as heroes those who' love, and are loved by. their fellow-men.

J "Success is the finding of love," says | Jowett, and who will say otherwise? Why do men seek after wealth and fame even though it be only the wealth of a snug home, only the fame of a reputed skill in one's calling or of place among the regulator? of petty afiairs.' J> 1111 d 1 the voting go into the world of work, none more blindly than those whose eyes are fixed on a goal, for none of-them realise and none of them will ever realise that the things they seek are only the levels to the things of which they .never think. The wider their life, the higher their standing among their fellows, the greater their • chance of finding the prize of love. If they find it they are successful, and if they find it not they have failed even though they rise to rule a nation and amass more gold than they know how to spend. But although many who have won • worldly success have failed in their living those who have nothing admirable in their lives always and invariably fail. Without some (striving there is no strength, and without some strength there is no finding of love. For love is far more than mere companionship in good or ill-fortune. It is the outstretching of soul to soul, of spirit to spirit, of idealist to idealist. For woman, love is to the man whom she can esteem and depend upon ; for man, love is to the woman, whom he can reverence and adore; for both, love is inseparable from self-respect and self-devotion and from the glow of that tenderness which time cannot cool or distance minimise. Friendship and loyalty, each in their degree, are equally built upon, the true virtues and upon the great passions. Every form and phase of j love—that prize of which the winning | makes a successful man tis only possible | for those who lift themselves above the I selfish and sordid and ignoble necessities of living.