The Majesty of Calmness.

THE great test of individual character is not struggle but attainment; not failure but success; not adversity but prosperity. When Nature wants to put a man through the third degree, she places near him his laurel wreaths of victory; she megaphones to him the world’s plaudits of success; she parades stacks of newspaper clippings and magazine articles with his portraits; she clinks his money-bags in his ears, and she tells him confidentially of the world-changing power of his influence. She smiles on him kindly and murmurs, “Poor fellow, is he able to stand it?” Then she sends him for his test through — the dark valley of prosperity. Few pass through it immune; few acquire no perversion of mind, few escape fractures of ideals or new dents in character. But when one, through it all, remains just as good and simple and lovable as when he began the trip, remains kindly, strong, sympathetic, sincere, and unspoiled, Nature is glad indeed to admit she has found—a real man, a big man, a great man. The Power of Purpose by William George Jordan (1909)

William George Jordan (1864–1928) was an American editor and essayist.

Jordan was editor for several magazines during his lifetime, including the Ladies Home Journal and TheSaturday Evening Post, and he was author of a number of books. He lectured on education, and it was his suggestion that the governors of the states organize which led to their first meeting in Washington in 1908.

Jordan wrote a number of personal improvement and self-help books in the early 1900s, one of the most popular being The Majesty of Calmness.(He mentions Michel Chevreul in Chapter 6)

He published his first book, The Kingship of Self-Control, in 1898 and his last in 1926, two years before his death.

Some of his other works include:

• Mental Training, 1894
• The Kingship of Self-Control, 1898
• The Majesty of Calmness, 1900 ₁
• The Power of Truth, 1902 ₂
• Self-Control, Its Kingship and Majesty, 1905, The Kingship of Self-Control and The Majesty of Calmness published as a single book.
• The House of Governors, 1907
• The Crown of Individuality, 1909
• The Power of Purpose, 1910, subset of The Crown of Individuality.
• Little Problems of Married Life, 1910
• The Trusteeship of Life, 1921
• The Vision of High Ideals, 1926. This books consists of the last three chapters from The Trusteeship of Life

¹ The book begins with this opening paragraph ...

Calmness is the rarest quality in human life. It is the poise of a great nature, in harmony with itself and its ideals. It is the moral atmosphere of a life self-centred, self-reliant, and self-controlled. Calmness is singleness of purpose, absolute confidence, and conscious power, – ready to be focused in an instant to meet any crisis. LibriVox recording @ http://librivox.org/the-majesty-of-calmness-by-william-george-jordan/

²The rights to The Power of Truth were purchased by Heber J. Grant, president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, in conjunction with the Deseret Book Company around 1933. Grant had come across the book while in England sometime between 1903 and 1906. He purchased more than four thousand copies from the English publisher and before leaving England ordered another thousand. He also distributed more than seven thousand copies of just the first chapter. In a letter to Jordan dated October 5, 1907, Grant said: "I know of no book of the same size, that has made a more profound impression upon my mind, and whose teachings I consider of greater value."

There are two great things that education should do for the individual—It should train his senses, and teach him to think. Education, as we know it today, does not truly do either; it gives the individual only a vast accumulation of facts, unclassified, undigested, and seen in no true relations. Like seeds kept in a box, they may be retained, but they do not grow. For years the mind is filled with facts that the mind is not trained to digest. To the physical body food is of value only when it is digested, so it is in the mind, with mental food; but if digestion were made continuous, perfect, and ever equal to the supply of food, overfeeding either in mind or body would be impossible. But in the education of today the digestion is not equal to the feeding.

The greatest educational need of the individual is a trained mind—a mind that is ready on the instant—not the next day. With most persons the intellectual brilliancy, the proper thing to say, comes as an after-thought. An after-thought is but a beautiful possibility designed to fit a lost opportunity. It is no more helpful to a man than a flattering epitaph on his tombstone. With most persons this wit is like a night telegram,—it is not delivered until the next morning. Man expects his hand to be instantly ready to perform any motion of which it is capable; but he is resigned if his mind does not act quickly. He says that readiness is born with people; it cannot be acquired. If man’s heart, lungs, or stomach are weak, he consults specialists, and never gives up until he obtains relief. But if he cannot remember names or faces; if he is subject to that intellectual remorse known as after-thought; if he has no eye for color, or taste for music; if he has no command of language; if there is lack of power in any respect in his mind, he is perfectly resigned, and says, “I am as God made me, and so I must remain.” When man fails he always does this. He says, “I am as God made me;” but when he succeeds, he proudly proclaims himself a “self-made man.” It is not necessary to submit to anv mental weakness. Training will do even more for the mind than for the body. Mental Training-A Remedy for “Education” by William George Jordan (1894)

Dual living means the harmonizing of two lives in unity. It requires conscious consecrated effort towards attainment. In this period of becoming used to each other, of learning, experiment, compromise, and adjustment mistakes are inevitable. This spring-time should be taken seriously — but not too seriously. Little inharmonies are dangerous not in themselves but in the bitter memories and misunderstanding they may leave in their trails LITTLE PROBLEMS OF MARRIED LIFE by WILLIAM GEORGE JORDAN (1910)