| Strength and Beauty |
Chapter 18 |
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We must all meet disappointment and experience defeat in some way and at some time or other. Life is full of contests in which many contend, but only one wins the prize. Both in the case of the winner and also of the loser there is a fine opportunity for noble, beautiful behavior. Sometimes the victorious contestant bears himself in such a way as to tarnish or sadly blot the honor he has won. He shows a spirit of vanity and self conceit, he is puffed up by his success, and he glories in his achievement. Thus the successful contestant, though wearing his laurels, may suffer a far worse defeat in himself than if he had failed in the competition. He has failed in manliness and in true nobility of spirit, and that is the saddest kind of failure one can suffer.
There is a Bible word which says that he who rules his own spirit is greater than he that taketh a city. Self mastery is the finest heroism and the highest achievement in life. The winner in the race adds yet greater honor to his successes when he bears himself worthily, without boasting, with quiet modesty and humility, with delicate regard to the feeling of those he has defeated.
On the other hand, the loser in the contest robs his defeat of all humiliation or dishonor when he meets it in a manly and generous way. Too often, however, the man who fails in the contest fails yet more seriously in the enduring of his defeat. He challenges the rightfulness of the decision. He speaks disparagingly of his successful competitor and of his performance. He intimates that undue influence was brought to bear upon the judges. Or he sulks, showing hurt feelings, as if he had been deeply wronged. In these or in other ways he suffers a second defeat far more humiliating and dishonoring than that by which he lost the prize he sought – a defeat of manliness, of character, which shows him sadly wanting in some of the finest qualities of life.
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