VOL. 48, No. 4 HEAD OFFICE: MONTREAL, APRIL 1967

A Person of Quality

EVERYONE’S LIFE is spent in the pursuit of self-fulfilment, but not everyone reaches his objective. Theman or woman who succeeds is a person who hasrealized in time that satisfaction does not arise merelyfrom being good at something, but also from being acertain kind of person.

Such a person is not content to dedicate his life tosmall purposes. He has quality in his ambition. He doesnot strive to amass stuff to feed his vanity, but does hisbest to become somebody who is esteemed. He wishesto be, not merely to appear, the best, for this is themark of quality¯

The person of quality realizes that there is some-thing beyond success: it is excellence. One may besuccessful in the eyes of the world without touchingthe Golden Fleece of excellence, for excellence is in theperson and is not conferred by the greatness of theoffice he holds¯ It is typified in what the goddessAthene said of Ulysses, that in him "deed and wordnotably marched together to their deliberate end."

It is people of excellence who build greatly and last-ingly. Egypt had millions of people living on theworld’s most fertile soil and Athens had 200,000 livingon a rocky plain, yet the Egypt of that day is remem-bered for Cleopatra while Athens is imperishable inthe minds of men.

Our idea of excellence cannot be limited to this, that,or the other area of human activity. Excellence is athing in itself, embracing many kinds of achievementat many levels¯ There is excellence in abstract intellec-tual activity, in art, in music, in managerial functions,in craftsmanship at the work-bench, in technical skill,and in human relations.

Only by being a person of the highest quality that itis possible for him to become can a man attain happi-ness, because happiness lies in the active exercise ofhis vital powers along the lines of excellence in a lifeaffording scope for their development¯ He must, ofcourse, be competent, but excellence rises above that.

CharacterWe mass-produce almost everything in this country,

but we cannot mass-produce character, because that

is a matter of personal identity. It belongs to thosewho have found the part they are to play; who aredoing the work for which they are best endowed; whoare satisfied that they are filling a vital need; who aremeeting their obligations and standing up to their tasks.

Such people willingly learn whatever they need toknow to perform their role; they discipline their pass-ing impulses so as to keep them from getting in theway of proper performance, and they do their jobsbetter than is needed just to "get by".

Character is a positive thing. It is not protected in-nocence, but practised virtue; it is not fear of vice,but love of excellence.

Character takes no account of what you are thoughtto be, but what you are. You have your own laws andcourt to judge you, and these persuade you to be whatyou would like to seem. Character is having an innerlight and the courage to follow its dictates: asShakespeare put it:

¯.. to thine own self be true,And it must follow, as the night the day,Thou canst not then be false to any man.

People need something to believe in. Scientific dis-coveries may shake the world, but principles of be-haviour give it stability.

To have a set of principles is not at all to become astarry-eyed dreamer, but a person who knows simplyand convincingly what he is here for. There are certainthings one has to believe in, or civilization will die --permanent truths which, though they have their rootsin the far past, are important for the present.

Finally, in this array of the components of quality,consider great-mindedness. Here is the ornament ofall the other virtues. It makes them better, and itcannot exist without them. A person who has onceperceived, however temporarily and however fleeting-ly, what makes greatness of spirit, cannot be happy ifhe allows himself to be petty or self-centred, or to fallshort of the best that he has it in him to be.

CraftsmanshipThere are sound standards of craftsmanship in every

calling -- artists have to meet them, as do carpenters,lawyers, stenographers, operators of bulldozers,surgeons, business managers and stonemasons. Everyhonest calling, every walk of life, has its own elite, itsown aristocracy, based upon excellence of performance.

The person of quality will take delight in craftsman-ship, whether he be building a bird house or writinga novel or planning a business deal. He is impelledby his principles to do well habitually what it is hisjob to do. That means patient thoroughness.

This is not, as some avant-garde people would haveus believe, antipathetic to expressive individuality.Craftsmanship is a means toward competent expres-sion rather than a brake upon it. It does not imply asophisticated as opposed to an imaginative approach,nor slick work as opposed to clumsy work. It doesmean that there is attention to details, fundamentalintegrity in the work, and evidence that the workmanknew what he was doing and carefully brought his skillto bear on the task.

Motive and ambition

To seek quality in his work and his life a person musthave a substantial motive. One pities the man orwoman whose obsessive dream is not improvementtoward excellence but escape from actualities andresponsibilities. Such people must feel unwanted, un-used, and purposeless, and that is one of life’s greatestsufferings.

It is the anguish of empty and sterile lives, far morethan any economic condition or political injustice,that drives men and women to demonstrate anddemand instead of studying and earning.

The man of quality will wish to have his journeythrough life leave some traces. Captain James Cook,whose voyage of discovery carried him to Canada’sWest Coast in 1778, said: "I had ambition not onlyto go farther than any man had ever been before, but asfar as it was possible for a man to go." John Milton saidhe was prompted to "leave something so written toaftertimes as they should not willingly let it die."Charles Darwin wrote in his autobiography that hehad made up his mind to make a contribution to hissubject.

These men sought and found problems to be solved.They were positive. It isn’t enough to be against errorand ignorance: that leaves the impression that errorand ignorance are the active forces in the world whilewe are a formless mass opposing them. Instead ofdenouncing or denying what others bring forth as thetruth, great men offer their own truth.

A motive needs to be a sincere, deeply felt, urge tofind meaning in life -- relevance, significance and use-fulness. Without such a goal, life becomes drab andhumdrum. The man of quality lifts his head above thecrowd to see a horizon fitting his abilities. He teacheshis imagination to play with future possibilities, andbends his back to the immediate task that will contrib-ute toward their coming true. There is nothing paltry

about the man who is struggling, not to be great or tohobnob with the great, but to be greater than he is.

Some people are misled from their search forpersonal quality by scepticism. They encourage them-selves to say: "Why should I do any more work than isnecessary to get a pass mark or the going rate of pay ?"People are not roused to seek excellence by ease orpleasure or any other sugar-plum. Perhaps there aresome who are content to try for nothing more thanbeing units in an assembly line, but even they musthave moments of uneasiness in which they regret theopportunities they have spurned to become somethingbetter.

To push up from colourless mediocrity towardsuperiority is the way of the person of quality. Allsatisfying human life proceeds along this line of action-- from below up, from minus to plus. To be success-fully what we are, and to become what we are capableof becoming, is true ambition.

In choosing an aim, we should make sure that theultimate value of it will offset the inevitable discomfortand trouble that go along with the accomplishment ofanything worth while. Success has terms which mustbe met. It demands that we sacrifice secondary things,however delightful they may appear, and that we areprepared to get some splinters in our hands whileclimbing the ladder.

Sense of values

This, of course, requires that we develop a sense ofthe values of things. Every thoughtful person who hasreached the age of twenty or twenty-five will realizethat his mind has produced for him a certain set ofviews as to the conditions of life and the purpose of hisexistence. These should be reviewed from time to time,and revised upward in the light of experience.

A sense of values is a personal thing, not to bemeasured by a yardstick common to all humanity. Inapplying it to our special cases we learn to tell truthfrom falsehood, fact from opinion, the real from thephoney, and the beautiful from the tawdry. We developconsciousness, enabling us to discriminate the qualityof things. We learn that everything is worth what itspurchaser will pay for it, and we ask before making achoice: "What is the price ?".

This is a question of deep seriousness, and sometimesit demands courage in the asking and in the answering.Finding the point at which a value begins to totter isan authoritative guide as to how high you reallyrank it.

Look for the major characteristics, without beingmisled by the unlimited number of peripheral andsecondary features. If you are weighing the value toyou of a colour television set against that of a chrome-encrusted car, that is simple and there are few factors;but if you are measuring the value of an extendededucation against the immediate attractiveness of ajob, you can reach a reasonable decision only afterconsidering the conditions under which you wish to ,

live far in the future. What is the paramount thing?To elevate your thinking above the immediate andconsider what is best in the long run.

In making choices one needs to have a concern forexcellence and a devotion to standards. There is realpleasure in setting standards and then living up tothem. Even if there were no Grand Assize beforewhich at the end we shall be summoned to tell whatwe have done with our talents, there is always thelooking-glass in which we are our own judges.

Most people would benefit -- although it seems tobe an old-fashioned idea -- by having a little book inwhich they kept notes of their aspirations. MarcusAurelius Antoninus, Roman emperor for twenty years,kept one. After attaining almost the highest form ofhuman existence, the union of statesman and philoso-pher in one man, he left to us a book of meditations.It is a collection of maxims and exhortations writtenwhen he felt especially alone and needed bracing upto keep him on the road he had chosen.

Such a practice will help us to pass safely throughthe processes of surmise, guess, dim instincts, embryoconceptions, partial illumination, and hypothesis, intocertainty and conviction.

Things needed

Among the things needed by the person in search ofexcellence are these: a wide view, curiosity, courage,self-discipline, enthusiasm and energy.

Having a wide view does not only include seeingthings near and far in proper perspective, though thatis very important. It requires broad training infundamental principles. Specialization is vitally im-portant in the modern world, but it is unfortunatelytrue that for many individuals specialization is a deadend rather than an avenue to deeper and broaderunderstanding. The person seeking excellence willrealize that this need not be so, and he will respond tothe challenge to prevent its happening to him.

The key positions in all walks of life will go to thosewho are educated broadly, in a balanced way. Onlythey have the depth of judgment, the sense of pro-portion and the large-minded comprehension to handlebig affairs.

One needs the curiosity to look below the surface ofthings. It is curiosity that has led to every scientificadvance, and through it man has risen to the highlevel of philosophy and the meaning of things.

Curiosity is followed by research. You get hold of anidea and nurse it to life with persistent patience. Youseparate your key thoughts from a hundred and oneirrelevancies. You sift through a haystack and findthe pin, but you do not stop there. You look closelyenough to see the Lord’s Prayer inscribed on the headof it. That little extra piece of applied effort countsmightily in turning curiosity into something that isrewarding.

This process gives you faith in the validity of yourjudgment, which is the backbone of courage. What do

Commencement speakers mean when they repeat, yearafter year: "education is a life-long process"? Everyyouth already knows, as he walks down the platformsteps with his diploma in hand, that he must keepon learning.

What the speakers mean is something beyond keep-ing up with the techniques of one’s profession, businessor craft. They have in mind the attributes needed tosurvive errors, to keep marching on a road that seemsto be without end, to rise above disappointment anddistress, to lie awake at night staring at broken hopesand frustrated plans and at a future that seems whollydark -- and to get up in the morning and go abouttheir business with determination. All of these are partof education.

To pursue his course with success a man needs astrong sense of personal stability, and part of theprocess of maturing into excellence is that of sub-stituting inner discipline for outer. Tolstoy wrote inone of his letters: "There never has been, and cannotbe, a good life without self-control."

Nothing will protect us from external pressures andcompulsions so much as the control of ourselves, basedupon ideals formulated by ourselves. Much is said inpraise of endurance, and indeed much should be said,because being able to bear up manfully under stressand hardship is a great accomplishment. But self-control is different: it is not continued resistance butactual mastery. It enables us to say "yes" and "no" toother men, not prompted by blind obedience to a code,but with the assurance derived from a consciousevaluation of relevant alternatives.

Only an imaginary line separates those who long forexcellence and those who attain it, and enthusiasm isthe quality needed to carry one over the border. Thismeans having interest, zeal, and a strong feeling of thedesirability of success. Enthusiasm provides the perse-verance that overcomes impediments both real andimaginary.

One obstacle in the way of progress is resistance tochange. We must develop a sense of the pulse-beat ofthis changing life. We need to observe what’s goingon around us and filter it through a layer of commonsense so as to decide in what direction and to whatextent we have to alter course.

At the beginning of the century the only peopleneeding advanced education were those who weregoing in for medicine, the ministry, law, and thescholarly domain. Today, everyone needs all therelevant education he can absorb so as to be able tocope with the complexities of life and of his job.

Capability must be changed by application and workinto indubitable performance. As one of the earliestGreek poets said: "Before the gates of excellence thehigh gods have placed sweat." All executive work, allresearch, all intelligent work of every sort, is based ondirected diligence, on lively movement, on getting oneidea on the rails and springing another.

Sources of inspiration

There are several sources from which the personseeking quality in life draws inspiration: school, home,the church, and experience.

Intelligence needs information on which to workand the tools with which to work. Everywhere in theworld there is emphasis on education. The under-developed countries need elementary education urgent-ly, and in our own country every step forward inindustry and science raises the required standard ofhigher education.

Some wake up to the possibilities and needs in theirfinal high school year, or when they come up againstthe increased demands of freshman year in university:they are unfortunate people upon whom the realizationdoes not dawn until they have put aside their gradua-tion gowns and rubbed shoulders with the workadayworld.

Every child’s home should provide a stimulating andinstructive environment. Young people need to beexposed there to a context of values in which highperformance is encouraged. When a prominentbusiness man was complimented by a fellow-com-muter on the scholarships won by his two sons, andwas asked for the secret, he replied: "We just showthem that we expect it of them."

The child has an advantage when his parents qualifythemselves and exert themselves to make him familiarwith books, ideas and conversations -- these are theways and means of intellectual life- so that he feelsat home in the House of Intellect.

To succeed, parents need to pull themselves into themainstream of current knowledge. They may do soby reading, by attending lectures, by taking corres-pondence courses, or by forming community or neigh-bourhood study groups. Only so can they fulfil ade-quately their children’s need for an awareness ofintellectual values and educational goals.

Parents are assisted by the churches. All of the greatreligions have enunciated principles of conduct, andhave established congregations in which these prin-ciples are taught.

Practical experience is more harsh than school andhome. It is ruthless, but effective. We need not merelyto learn things by chance or under compulsion but todevelop the ability to extract the broadest meaningfrom our observation of the how and the why ofthings. One of the most valuable human rights avail-able to the person seeking excellence is the right tocorrect errors revealed by experience.

Canada’s obligationThis is a good time to scrutinize the virtues taken for

granted in our society. Do they need to be restated,revived and encouraged ?

William James told students of Stanford Universityin 1906: "The world.., is only beginning to see that

Authorized as second class mail by the Post OfficeDepartment, Ottawa, and for payment for postage in cash.

the wealth of a nation consists more than in anythingelse in the number of superior men that it harbors."

The obligation upon Canada is to honour thequalities in men and women which are most necessaryto the continued vitality of our country. A democratic,equalitarian society does not find it easy to applaudthe superior individual. It fears that by praising one itbelittles another, and that somehow seems to beundemocratic.

Every person of quality gives something of ad-vantage to his country, but before the country canappreciate these gifts it must learn this: a society onlyproduces great men in those fields in which it under-stands greatness. Quality and excellence must beinspired by people who expect high performance ofthemselves as well as others.

There are five million young people in Canada’sschools and universities. Among them are severalfuture prime ministers, a governor general or two,many provincial premiers, hundreds of members ofparliament--all the men and women who will begoverning Canada far into the 21st century. There arealso the industrialists, financiers, and business peoplewho will manage the country’s business. There are theprofessional people who will look after health, educa-tion, law and religion.

The best thingThe best thing to give an undergraduate at this time

is encouragement toward development of quality andinspiration in his search for it. The best wish we cangive the graduate is capacity for continued growth.

Inability to appreciate the need for personal devo-tion to the idea of excellence, either individually orthrough those we might stimulate toward it, may bringon that saddest state of intelligent beings: regret forwhat might have been, when it is too late to takeanother path. The question is relevant to every person:"What is my contribution toward quality going to be ?"

There is no need to become cast down if we do notat once attain the super-best. It is a good thing to strivefor excellence, but we must realize that the best pos-sible is not too bad.

Most of life is lived by batting averages, not byperfect scores. The research scientist does not expectthat every hypothesis he sets up will prove out. Thefinancier does not expect that every investment willreturn a maximum dividend. People live by makingplans and by putting forth efforts that are, so far asthey can see, in line with the results they want. Thenthey revise their plans and improve their performanceas experience dictates. We need fear only one failurein life: not to be true to the best quality we know.

There is a certain satisfaction in trying, even if wedo not succeed perfectly. As Robert Browning put itin "Rabbi Ben Ezra":

What I aspired to beAnd was not, comforts me.

PRINTED IN CANADA