Dare to Be Yourself
Samuel Smiles warns us against pursuing popularity for its own sake, saying that it is a kind of cowardice.
1859
Queen Victoria 1837-1901
Samuel Smiles warns us against pursuing popularity for its own sake, saying that it is a kind of cowardice.
1859
Queen Victoria 1837-1901
Samuel Smiles was uncharacteristically severe on those statesmen who court popularity by deceitful talk or by whipping up hatreds. By implication, however, he was equally severe on those who allow such rogues to do so simply because they will not, or dare not, think for themselves.
POPULARITY, as won in these days, is by no means a presumption in a man’s favour, but is quite as often a presumption against him. Where popularity is won by fawning upon the people, by withholding the truth from them, by writing and speaking down to the lowest tastes, and still worse by appeals to class-hatred, such a popularity must be simply contemptible in the sight of all honest men. Men of sterling character have the courage to speak the truth, even when it is unpopular.
Intellectual intrepidity is one of the vital conditions of independence and self-reliance of character. A man must have the courage to be himself, and not the shadow or the echo of another. He must exercise his own powers, think his own thoughts, and speak his own sentiments. He must elaborate his own opinions, and form his own convictions. It has been said that he who dare not form an opinion, must be a coward; he who will not, must be an idler; he who cannot, must be a fool.
1. What is the author aiming to achieve in writing this?
2. Note any words, devices or turns of phrase that strike you. How do they help the author communicate his ideas more effectively?
3. What impression does this passage make on you? How might you put that impression into words?
Based on The English Critic (1939) by NL Clay, drawing on The New Criticism: A Lecture Delivered at Columbia University, March 9, 1910, by J. E. Spingarn, Professor of Comparative Literature in Columbia University, USA.
Suggest answers to this question. See if you can limit one answer to exactly seven words.
According to Smiles, why might popularity not be in someone’s favour?
Because popularity is often won by dishonesty.
Express the ideas below in a single sentence, using different words as much as possible. Do not be satisfied with the first answer you think of; think of several, and choose the best.
A man is popular. That does not mean he is good.