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Page 21 text:
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THE HERMIAD 13 Nature is still another beautiful case in point. Nature is a liberal, now majestically silent, now roaring superbly. The universe is under a long-time contract. It will not do to be too reckless with mufliers. The great terror may be silence. - iris THE WAY OF AMBITION 1 Charlotte V. Kitchin-1 92 91 I HAT great compendium of knowledge, Webster's Unabridged, says ambition is a seeking for prefermentf' This is, necessarily, a general definition. It is impossible to give anything else in a dictionary be- cause there are so many types of ambition. If we know that ambition is a seeking for preferment, and if we have any common sense at all, we can easily decide for ourselves how it should be classified. What young lad does not wish to grow up in the exact image of his hero, probably, at present, Colonel Lindbergh, Babe Ruth or any number of others? What petty politician is not striving to reach the heights, either by fair means or foul? What professional man does not wish to reach one of the top rungs of the ladder? Even in smaller things, what player on a basketball squad does not wish to make the varsity team? What Senior has not a longing, deep down in his heart, to be in the Senior play or to take some part in the graduation exercises? Ambition is sometimes so great that it leads men and women from the straight and narrow, if I may be allowed to use this trite expression. They force the weaker ones out and steal a march on them so to speak. It proves Darwin's theory of the survival of the fittest, or a least the strongest. That is ambition of a sort but we must be willing to sacrifice sometimes, to do our Boy Scout Act. Don't you think that in the long run the man who can sacrifice once in a while has an easier conscience? I think so, and I also think he gains more in the end. In a recent moving picture one of the subtitles read, Ambition is but a shadow, love is a reality. Needless to say the speaker was very much in love and he did not stop to think that he was ambitious in that respect. A seeking for prefermentf' He was pleading his cause because that was exactly what he was doing, seeking for preferment in his lady's favor. Is there any love without ambition? Recall Sydney Carton in The Tale of Two Cities and how he Went to the guillotine to save Charles Darnay. Well, you say, I can see no great ambition there. No, but it is the greatest sacrifice a man can make and we can truly say of Sidney Carton, Greater love hath no man than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. ' Instead of giving their lives for their friends some men are so ambitious
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Page 22 text:
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i4 g THE HERMIAD that they take the life of one whom they have hitherto called friend. For instance, there is the case of Macbeth, who, prompted by Lady Macbeth, killed Duncan, King of Scotland. Why? Because he wished to be king, at any 'rate if he didn't wish to be Lady Macbeth, wished him to be, which in some cases amounts to the same thing. Contrast him with our own Abraham Lincoln. How different they are, Macbeth so weak, Lincoln so strong and yet so Weak. By saying Lincoln was weak I do not want you to misunderstand my meaning. He was not weak spirited or wishy-washyg far from that. When I say weak, I mean tender and compassionate. He could not see a bird suffering, much less take a man's life. Nevertheless this great man had his own life taken by the hands of an assassin. Lincoln was strong in doing what he considered right. Immediately after his election in 1860 he chose one of his opponents for an important place in his cabinet. He was not ambitious for personal glory either, but he was ambitious for his country. We know Lincoln as the Savior of the Union. You all probably have heard of A. Parkes Cadman. As a young man he came to the United States from England. He had completed as much of his education as he could get in schoolsg the rest he obtained from experience. This education was by no means easy to obtain for he was obliged to work. When he was nine years old he was working in a mine, hard labor for a man let alone a child. His father was a minister and Dr. Cadman has fol- lowed in his footsteps. We may take an apt quotation from the work that Dr. Cadman teaches, For whosoever exalteth himself shall be abased, and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted. No one could say that Dr. Cadman ever exalted himself yet by his ambition, which is to serve his fellow men no matter what the cost, he is exalted. It works the other way as well, for surely Julius Caesar was exalted, yet by himself, and he was murdered. Macbeth was not the only one who wished to reign, for John Milton tells us that in heaven, Satan, who was then an Archangel, gathered a host of rebel angels and tried to rule. As a result they found themselves thrust out. Nevertheless, Satan's ambition was fulfilled because he said, Here we reign secureg and, in my choice, To reign is worth ambition, though in Hell: Better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven. I hope I have made clear to you some of the types of ambition and the results. We would not be wise to follow in the footsteps of Macbeth, Julius Caesar, or Satan, but it would do us no harm to try and model ourselves somewhat on Abraham Lincoln, or Dr. Cadman, They are both persons to be admired. Theodore Roosevelt, for seven years president of the United States, spoke very truly when he said, The law of worthy life is fundamen- tally strife. It is only through labor, painful effort, by grim energy and resolute courage, that we move on to better things.
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