Essays Importance of Character & Newspaper, Cleanliness is Next to Godliness
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Importance of Character
A man’s character is what he really is. It is his real moral condition. It has been defined as ‘the distinctive mark of an individual’. It depends partly upon inborn qualities and partly on training in youth and the circumstances in which a person has been brought up.
It can be cultivated by forming good habits in childhood. “Sow an act and you reap a habit. Sow a habit and you reap a character”. If we sow good habits, we build up a good character.
We form good or bad habits not only in childhood but later on too. We all grow a little every day, either better or worse. It is, therefore, needs food that we watch ourselves day by day.
What goes to make up a good character? There are many qualities that go to make up the character. First comes truth. Lorde Averbury says, “But there is one quality it is essential without which a man is not a man without which no really great work was ever achieved-that is truth in the inward parts.”
Next comes justice. A man of good character should love to be out even-handed justice to all. But justice should be tempered with mercy. If it is our duty, to be frank, we ought to be sweet and courteous. Sincerity, honesty, generosity, and purity in speech thought and action- such virtues entitle a person to be called a man of good character.
The character is a very important factor in man’s life. Good character is more important than health wealth or happiness. “When the character, is lost everything is lost” is hundred per cent true. “Leaving aside the moral good that it does, as a mere question of getting on in the world, the character will do more for a man then cleverness.”
We ought to be however slow to judge others for none of us is wholly good wholly bad.
Importance of Newspaper
Mightiest of the mighty is the press. The chief function of a newspaper is to provide news from all over the world. It tells us the story of the world from hour to hour and day to day.
If one is without a newspaper, one feels as if one were cut off from the real affairs and current of life. It means something of interest and meaningful for an educated person.
The unmarried look over the matrimonial columns. A sportsman is interested in having a glance over the sports columns. Similarly, are interested in the businessmen and agents and picture goers in the respective columns of their choice.
The editors write articles in which they express their own opinions about the current affairs. They carry on propaganda in favour of their own country. The readers go through them. If they are convinced about the soundness of the views they become wedded to them.
Thus the editor can mould the opinion of the readers in whatever direction he likes. He has, therefore, a great responsibility to shoulder. The government of a country is in no way blind to what is being published in the newspapers. It sometimes takes stern action against the newspapers if they are preaching unwholesome ideas.
The newspapers can do a lot of good or harm to a country. By supporting certain policies of the government, it can make them a success or utter failure by going against them. Nowadays the press is sometimes directed to propagate selfish motives and even employed to deceive others.
We have so many papers in Urdu in English and vernaculars. Every province has a newspaper in its regional language. Most of the vernacular papers or commanding sales simply by inciting the public against the Government or one section of people against the other. This is very bad and must be restrained.
The newspaper is a batter source of propaganda and understanding a thing than the radio. In the newspaper, we can read the news over and over again and keep cutting if it pertains to some important event in life. This is not the case with radio where news once broadcast cannot be repeated.
Today the press controls public opinion and public opinion controls the government. The newspaper should be free from party attachment and should express everything impartially and independently. It is only in this way that the newspaper conserves the people well.
Cleanliness is Next to Godliness
It is essential that a person should try to keep his or her body and clothes clean. Cleanliness is necessary for health. Dirt is the mother of ill health and suffering. It causes all sorts of diseases.
Doctors are of opinion that the terrible plagues and epidemics that rage in Pakistan today are primarily caused by filthy and unsanitary conditions of life.
It is therefore clear that if we want to keep well, we must keep our body, our clothes and our house is clean. Besides we should try to keep the drains and gutters of our own locality in the sanitary condition and help to keep the public roads free from dust.
Cleanliness is necessary for self-respect. A man who is clean and tidy in his dress shown a great amount of respect than one who is dirtily clad and unwashed. It is a fact that decent people hesitate to be friendly with a man whose hands and face and hair are soiled, and the smell of dirt.
Cleanliness of the body leads to the cleanliness of the mind. He who tries to be clean in body and dress has a healthy effect on the mind. Besides cleanliness of mind is more important than that of the body. Sin is dirt. Goodness is cleanliness.
Every religion insists on the supreme need for the cleanliness of mind and body. In Islam "Cleanliness is half religion".
The supreme importance of cleanliness can be easily guessed from the well-known proverb, “cleanliness is next to godliness”.
