But these are not the things which excite
earnest men. They run after fame, because they can never be quite
famous. They may become known to every person on their street, but
there is the street beyond. Or to every one in their town, but there
are other towns. Or if to every person on earth, there are still the
after ages. Entire fame cannot be had; and exactly on that account it
stirs every impulse of our nature in pursuit.
Now the aim at personal perfection is precisely of this sort. As
servants of righteousness we cannot accept any other precept than "Be
ye perfect as your Father which is in heaven is perfect." But we know
such perfection to be unattainable, Yet I sometimes doubt whether we
state the matter truly so. Would it not be juster to say that
perfection can always be attained, and that it is about the only thing
which can be? We might well say of all the infinite ideals that they
differ from the finite ones simply in this, that the finite can be
attained but once, and then are ended, while the infinite are
continually attained. At no moment of his life shall the merchant be
cut off from becoming richer, or the scholar from growing wiser, or
the public benefactor from acquiring further fame. These aims, then,
are always attainable; for in them what we think of as the goal is
not, as in other cases, a single point which, once reached, renders
the rest of life useless and listless.
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