p. 425, para. 1 | Untitled article

Untitled article

Pacific Press Publishing Co. · New York · July 14, 1898

THE first step in the formation of a proper character is independence. The national character began with the Declaration of Independence; and that was a result of the individual independence which ruled in the breasts of its signers. Independence means simply cutting loose from unnecessary supports. It was not intended that you should lean mentally upon some one else, any more than that you should lean upon some one for physical support. The child learns early to stand alone, and then to walk alone; and to the mind is due the like degree of development. Some people never get beyond the creeping period, mentally, and must depend all their lives upon others for mental support; but this is a terrible misfortune. The mind, no less than the body, was endowed by the Creator with the capacity for independent action; and it is an important moment in the life of an individual when he stands for the first time—mentally—alone; even more so than when he first stands alone or takes his first step unsupported, physically.