William Walker Atkinson

How to Read Human Nature William Walker Atkinson

"HOW TO READ HUMAN NATURE. Do you know what ""character"" is? The word itself, in its derivation and original usage, means: ""a stamp, mark or sign, engraved or stamped."" As time passed the term was applied to the personal peculiarities of individuals, and was defined as: ""the personal qualities or attributes of a person; the distinguishing traits of a person."" Later the term was extended to mean: ""the part enacted by anyone in a play."" In the common usage of the term we seek to convey an idea in which each and all of the above stated meanings are combined. A man's character is the result of impressions made upon his own mind, or those of the race. It is also the sum of his personal qualities and attributes. It is also, in a sense, the part he plays in the great drama of life. Each man's character has its inner phase consisting of the accumulated impressions of the past which seek to manifest in the present. And, likewise, the character of each[Pg 30] man manifests in an outer phase of form, mark, and stamp of personality. There are no two characters precisely alike. There is an infinite possibility of combination of the elements that go to make up character. This is accordance with what appears to be a universal law of nature, for there are no two blades of grass exactly alike, nor two grains of sand bearing an exact resemblance to each other. Nature seems to seek after and to manifest variety of form and quality. But, still, just as we may classify all things, animate and inanimate, into general classes and then into subordinate ones-each genus and each species having its particular characteristics, qualities and attributes, so we may, and do, classify human character into general classes and then into particular subdivisions into which each individual is found to fit. This fact makes it possible for us to study Human Nature as a science."