They changed my whole nature." [124] Character tells in all conditions of life.

The man of good character in a workshop will give the tone to his fellows, and elevate their entire aspirations.

Thus Franklin, while a workman in London, is said to have reformed the manners of an entire workshop.

So the man of bad character and debased energy will unconsciously lower and degrade his fellows.
Captain John Brown--the "marching-on Brown"-- once said to Emerson, that "for a settler in a new country, one good believing man is worth a hundred, nay, worth a thousand men without character." His example is so contagious, that all other men are directly and beneficially influenced by him, and he insensibly elevates and lifts them up to his own standard of energetic activity.
Communication with the good is invariably productive of good.

The good character is diffusive in his influence.