When Is a Man Educated
and luminous, with a sense of his own littleness in the scheme of
things, and yet have faith and courage.
When he knows how to make friends And keep them. And above all,
When he can keep friends with himself.
When he can look an honest man or a pure women straight in the eye.
When he loves flowers, can hunt birds without a gun and can feel
the stir of forgotten joy in the laughter of a little girl.
When he knows that hoeing corn is as honorable as playing golf.
When star-crowned trees and the glint of sunlight on flowing waters
subdue his soul, like the thought of one much loved and long dead.
When he can be happy and high-minded amid the meaner drudgeries of life.
When he can look into the very face of the most forlorn mortal and
see something besides sin. When he knows how to pray.
When he is a friend of all good causes and the champion of those
who fall.
When he can be happy alone. When he has «put away childish things»,
and yet has kept, through good and evil days an open mind and a
childlike heart.
When he has been true to himself, to his fellow man, and to his
God– glad to live, but not afraid to die.
Such a man is an educated soul, whether he be famous, or obscure,
rich or poor, high or low.
— Orison S. Marden
