Personal Character

<p>Each man has a personal character—just as each actor in a play assumes a “character.” Each character, as the Aphorism states, is “a collection of mental states.” These mental states are manifest as traits, tendencies, temperament, nature, disposition, personality—what we know as “the nature of the person,” in fact. Different persons are attracted by different things, in

Dominant Desire; different degrees, and respond in different ways and in different

degrees. No two persons are exactly alike. Each person has his own nature, disposition and character. The dictionaries say

that Character is: “The personal qualities or attributes of a person.” Each character has its personal collection of feelings,

desires, wants, inclinations, likes and dislikes, habits of thought, capacity for thought, degree and character of will, etc. Each has its sub‑conscious collection of stored up impressions, memories, inherited traits, etc., as well as its conscious mental

faculties—in fact, nine‑tenths of the mental activities arise from this subconscious region. Each character has its collection

of seed‑thoughts which constitute its share of the race experience—the experiences of its ancestors. And each has its store of impressions and experiences which have modified it accordingly. The result of heredity, environment and experience

creates a personality and character according to which one acts and chooses. This character, at any particular moment, is

just what a man is at that particular moment. And as he is, so will he act and choose. He always acts and chooses by reason of what he is. On the personal plane, he cannot act differently. And what he is—his character at the moment—always has as

its motive power the sum or average of his desires and fears.</p>