THE CHANGELESSNESS OF CHARACTER.
WE hear a good deal nowadays about changes in character, about dual personality, the mental results of accident and illness, and of moral metamorphoses of all kinds. No doubt many of these phenomena cannot be denied. On the other hand, they are of such rare occurrence that the discussion of them is more or less academic. The most permanent element in life is, after all, the element of character. Indeed, it is the only thing upon which, among the changes and chances of life, we can count at all:—
" The earth (great mother of us all), That only seems unmoved and permanent, And unto Mutability not thrall, Yet is she changed in part and eke in geuerall."
In nine hundred and ninety-nine cases out of a thousand, men and women do not change, except outwardly, The man we knew ten years ago and know now is the man we shall know ten years hence if we are both alive. He may make a fortune or he may lose one. He may succeed or he may fail. His wealth or his poverty may take him into a new society or into new surroundings, it may give him a new manner, but it will not make him a new man. We may send him away because be is a scamp to some- where where scampishness does not obtrusively show. But men are not made saints by climate or by the absence of civilised restraints; neither are they made sinners, though their natural tendencies sometimes find fuller scope in a freer world. A man may grow stronger or feebler in health as the years go by, he must grow older, he may grow wiser, but in character he is most unlikely to change. We do not deny that the experience of life has some effect upon the propor- tions of character. Circumstances may develop a man's will at the expense of his judgment, or his power of discrimina- tion to the detriment of his power of decision. Trouble may sharpen his sympathies or luck increase a natural buoyancy. But these changes are, so to speak, functional; they are not organic. There are always possibilities of improvement and deterioration, but these take place almost always along strictly prescribed lines, and tend to accentuate rather than to obliterate the natural characteristics. The impulsive man will not become cautions, or the cautions man rash, though education may do something to make both of them more reasonable. Itlooks sometimes as though there were not tears enough in the world to quench the hopes of the naturally hopeful, or happiness enough to inspirit those who are naturally depressed. After each separate satisfaction the discontented man "falls back," as Dr. Johnson said, "into the habit of wishing," and after each rebuff of fortune the cheerful fellow resumes his habit of thankfulness.
The only thing which seems really to modify character is a serious change of conviction, and even that change, unless assisted by religions emotion, has seldom any very marked effect. While they are still young, men often entirely alter their political opinions, but as a rule they turn to those views which best befit their character, having received the discarded set at second hand and without serious considera- tion from their parents. The man who was early taught that the world exists to supply a certain section of society with comfort, amusement, and an outlet for their energies, and to consider the good of the many only so far as is expedient in the interests of the few, and who attained to years of discretion before he questioned his creed, may become—in accordance with his character—a philanthropist and a democrat. On the other hand, a man who at twenty, or even at twenty- five, believed that all questions, both moral and social, could be settled by conuting beads, may become—again in accordance with his character—a firm believer in the govern- ment of the wise. The effects of upbringing last longer with some than with others. We can well imagine that the experience of a war might turn a youth at the Uni- versity from a peace-at-any-price Little Englander into a Jingo Imperialist. The same war upon another under- graduate might have an exactly opposite effect. Their characters would not be changed, but a great event would have brought each man to himself, and forced him to shake off his inherited prejudices, or should we say pre- judgments P Nevertheless, the exception exists. A man who at the height of his powers deliberately changes his mind goes through a terrible mental ordeal, one which leaves its mark upon every part of his being ; but, as a rule, the change owes little to circumstances. Sudden ieve- lations and sudden disillusionments do occur, and then, as it were, the continuity of character is broken, and we do not know for good or evil what will happen next; but those common joys and sorrows to which flesh is heir have no such revolutionary effect. Sometimes when our friends have had some great blow or some great stroke of fortune we feel almost afraid to see them. We have a vague fear that they will be different; but almost always we say to ourselves, as we think over the dreaded moment, that they were "just like themselves."
If we discuss women as apart from men, it is almost more true of them than of their husbands and brothers that they are as they were made. How often does a frivolous woman become serious, or a hard one kind, or vice ver0 ? Did any one ever know a candid woman who became deceitful, or a schemer who became simple P If we know her only slightly, we may mistake the light heart of youth for frivolity, or a discontented spirit for a thoughtful disposition, or take tact for subtlety or subtlety for tact; and so we may think as the years go on that a radical change has taken place in her character. But ask her family or her intimate friends. They have fallen into no such error. Again, among women opinions may be said to be almost invariably the out- come of character, always admitting that those who have, as Pope said, "no character at all" are yet as a rule well supplied with ready-made opinions. The woman who thinks will always think the same. Not that women are less charitable than men. The best women are far more so. Perhaps no man is as well able as some women to hold absolutely to a given view while appreciating fully the mind and the motives of some one who bolds the direct opposite. There are cases where a woman's want of logic assists her judgment in a marked degree. The exceptional woman may force herself to it, but she has not as a rule any great desire to look into the evidence on the oppo- site side. Who has P Certain men belonging to the intellectual class to whom continuous and ordered thinking has given the courage to risk a conviction, and in whom mental gallantry is the splendid flower of mental discipline. No one else. It is said that it is always a woman who makes a home, and we think it is partly because women supply at every turn the element
of permanence we all for. They may not be open-minded, but, in spite of the poets, they are constant. After all, what amount of evidence can produce the certainty which is often produced by knowledge of character? How often do we stake our all upon the fact that So-and-so is " safe " and will keep our secret, or honest and will not take our money, or honour- able and will not repeat our careless words. If it were not so, if ohanges in character were really common, civilised life would be impossible. To look at the lighter side of the picture, what amusement could life afford to quiet, respect- able people whe desire smiles and not excitement if it were common for all the actors whom they from their corner can see upon the stage of life to play out of their roles? Life would not be a drama at all. It would be a horrible medley of half-seen acts and broken dialogue. It is the strict limitation which the changelessness of character puts upon the muta- bility of things which makes life both dear and entertaining, which mitigates the terrible sense of chance and instability that occasionally makes the heart of the strongest man stand still with terror, and supplies to men and women that never- ending source of recreation and enjoyment which we call "human interest.'
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