But
these qualities, gained through experience, are as much a part of herself
as her hands. A thousand times in the past has the responsibility been
laid upon her of making selections touching shapes, colors, materials, or
types, till now her judgment is regarded as final. Her self-control has
become proverbial, but it is not the miracle that it seems, for it has
become grooved into a habit by much experience. She met all these lions in
her path at school and vanquished them all, with the aid of the teacher's
counsel and encouragement. She can perform heroisms now because she long
since contracted the habit of heroisms. And responsibility is most
becoming to her now because in the years past she learned how to wear it.
She has multiplied her powers and usefulness a hundred-fold by reason of
having learned to assume responsibility.
She has learned to lift her eyes and scan the far horizon and not be
afraid. With gentle, kindly eyes she can look into the faces of men and
women in all lands and not be abashed in their presence. She can soothe
the child to rest and prove herself a scourge to evil-doers, all within
the hour. She knows herself equal to the best, but not above the least.
She does not need to pose, for she knows her own power without ever
vaunting it. Her simplicity and sincerity are the fragrant bloom of her
sense of responsibility both to herself and her kind. She gives of herself
and her means as a gracious discharge of obligation to the less fortunate,
but never as charity.
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