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Indian Scout Talks: A Guide for Boy Scouts and Camp Fire Girls, a non-fiction book by Charles Alexander Eastman |
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Chapter 26. Training For Service |
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_ CHAPTER XXVI. TRAINING FOR SERVICE One must have a trained mind, if only in order to reach the height of one’s physical possibilities, and all-round efficiency depends much upon the kind of training described in the foregoing talks. The “School of Savagery” is no haphazard thing, but a system of education which has been long in the building, and which produces results. Ingenuity, faithfulness, and self-reliance will accomplish wonderful things in civilized life as well as in wild life, but, to my mind, individuality and initiative are more successfully developed in the out-of-door man. Where the other man is regarded more than self, duty is sweeter and more inspiring, patriotism more sacred, and friendship is a true and eternal bond. The Indian is trained in the natural way, which means that he is kept in close contact with the natural world. Incidentally, he finds himself, and is conscious of his relation to all life. The spiritual world is real to him. The splendor of life stands out pre-eminently, while beyond all, and in all, dwells the Great Mystery, unsolved and unsolvable, except in those things which it is good for his own spirit to know. The good things of earth are not his to hold against his brothers, but they are his to use and enjoy together with his fellows, to whom it is his privilege to bring them. In seeking thus, he develops a wholesome, vigorous body and mind, to which all exertion seems play, rather than painful toil for possession’s sake. Happy, rollicking, boy man! Gallant, patriotic, public-spirited—in the Indian is the lusty youth of humanity. He is always ready to undertake the impossible, or to impoverish himself to please his friend. Most of all he values the opportunity of being a minute-man—a Scout! Every boy, from the very beginning of his training, is an embryo public servant. He puts into daily practice the lessons that in this way become part of himself. There are no salaries, no “tips,” no prizes to work for. He takes his pay in the recognition of the community and the consciousness of unselfish service. Let us have more of this spirit of the American Indian, the Boy Scout’s prototype, to leaven the brilliant selfishness of our modern civilization! [THE END] _ |
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