An Impecunious Portrayer Won Napoleon's Heart

Emperor Napoleon of France was a patron of art and paid immense honor to scholars and artists. Whenever such people would come to his court, they would receive considerable respect and honor. Napoleon's ministers would also follow these rules meticulously. Once Napoleon's court was held, and he was meeting people from various streams of art. Amongst them was a portrait painter who was extremely poor. Napoleon did not take much notice of him. When he entered the court, seeing his dirty clothes Napoleon and his ministers gave him no importance and ordered him to sit apart.

After a while, the portraitist was called on to show his talent, and he made an excellent portrait. Seeing his exquisite portraiture Napoleon got so impressed that he walked to that man and shook hands with him. Giving, him adequate honor Napoleon came to see him out. The portrait painter got marveled at this change of behavior. He asked Napoleon, "When I came in your court, everyone looked down upon me. No one gave me any respect and ordered me to sit away from everyone else, and now you have come to see me out. May I know the reason for this?" Napoleon said, "The respect displayed at someone's arrival primarily depends on that person's physical appearance and apparels, but the respect given at the time of departure is due to that persons virtues and talents."

Moral: Clothing can provide you only physical attractiveness. The true accomplishments are knowledge and talent. Therefore, person's final estimation should be based on qualifications and conduct.

Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar Taught Civility With Incivility

Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar was an extremely simple, humble and a civilised human being. Everyone had immense reverence for him. There is an incident of the time when Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar was a teacher in a Sanskrit college. Once he went to the President College to meet the English Professor Mr. Caire. When Vidyasagar entered in Professor Caire's cabin then instead of welcoming Vidyasagar, Caire kept sitting on his chair with his legs on the table. Vidyasagar found it extremely repulsive, but he brooked that insult and returned after the requisite discussion.

A few days later Caire came to Vidyasagar's college for some work. When Vidyasagar saw Caire he put his feet with slippers on the table and kept sitting on the chair. He didn't even ask Caire to sit down. Caire gave a written complaint to the secretary of education council Dr Muat about Vidyasagar's behavior. Both Dr Muat and Caire went to Vidyasagar to question him about his misbehavior. Vidyasagar replied, "We Indians learn the European manners from the British. When I went to meet Professor Caire he was sitting in this manner, I assumed it as a European etiquette and followed it. I did not intend to offend him." Hearing this Caire felt ashamed and he apologized to Vidyasagar.

Moral: Many a times in order to teach civility to the uncultured we have to follow the path of "Tit for tat" which is as beneficial as bitter medicine.

Dr Rajendra Prasad's Gentle Behaviour Embarrassed A Young Man

India's first President Dr Rajendra Prasad was an extremely intelligent, quiet and a composed man. He always kept himself away from unnecessary anger and excitement. Whenever his associates would do anything wrong he would correct them affectionately. Once upon a time Dr Rajendra Prasad was going from Patna to his village. At that time, the only way of reaching the village was through crossing the river by boat or steamer as buses and trains were not easily accessible. Rajendra Prasad sat down with other passengers in the steamer in its ease. After a while, a young man got up and walked inside the cabin and began to smoke.

Since, Dr. Rajendra Prasad kept away from all these addictions; therefore he began having trouble with the smoke of the cigarette. He began to cough loudly. He tolerated the smoke for a while, but when he started choking he went to the young man and asked quietly, "Young man, is this your cigarette?" The young man puffed loudly and with his nose in the air said, "Do you think it is yours?" Then Dr Prasad said, "If the cigarette is yours then its smoke is also yours then why are you throwing it on others?" Listening to this, the young man felt embarrassed and throwing away his cigarette he apologized to him.

Moral: Wooly-minded cannot be shown the right direction through pressure rather they should be dealt with affectionate reasoning and logic.