WHAT IS CHARACTER ?
[To the Editor of THE ScEcrxroa.]
listened to a lecture recently, in which the speaker discussed the peculiarities of the various human types, national and individual. At the close of the discourse the lecturer was asked to define the term " Character." He paused for a moment, and then said that Character was not definable in terms outside itself, it being sui generic.
I made a mental note of my disagreement ; since I have always felt that everything, not excepting the very atom itself, is of a composite build, and therefore analysable. Might I submit a definition ? Character is organised Temperamerd. The difference is as between Gas and Light. Temperament is the physiological substrate, the raw material of character. How closely interwoven, genetically connected the two states are may be gathered from the fact that in speaking of the inner traits of certain people we use the term Temperament ; whereas of others that of Character, without intending to imply any moral discrimination. Thus, for instance, in referring to a Frenchman the term Temperament is more apt to be used ; while in reference to an Englishman that
of Character. The reason is that the English have their mental impulses more stably organised.
The truth is that we are not born with Character, but with Temperament. Witness the infant. Can it be said to possess Character ? It has Temperament. We bring with us at birth a bundle of tendencies, otherwise called impulses. The assemblage of these tendencies in their original irrational form constitute Temperament ; in their distilled, crystallised; rational form, Character. In other words : We start on the instinctual animal plane, and by successive steps gradually evolve into the conscious, self-determined, responsible state.
Were we to come into the world with a definite Character, there would be no point left in the process of life. Life is precisely meant for the formation of Character. In shaping our Character, and thus developing the indwelling spirit or essence of our being, we rise above the gaseous animal existence into the luminous sphere of Human Personality.—I am,
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