• rl 1 m H ■ H ■ ■ ■ ■ KB ■ ImB Bra (ilass \ j \ .„■ Book »Y>5.5' Character y^ A MORAL TEXT -BOOK For the Use of Parents and Teachers in Training Youth in tl\e Principles of Conduct and AID TO SELF- CULTURE "For verily I say unto you, That many prophets and righteous men have desired to see those things which you see/ and have not seen them; and to hear those things which you hear, and have not heard them." "We have come too late, by several thousand years, to say any- thing new in morality." JACKSONVILLE, FLORIDA HENRY' VARNUM AUTHOR AND PUBLISHER THE LIBRARY OF CON^fttSS. Twc Copies Receivac APR n 1903 ^ Copyright Entry &Mr. I, if--!? c2> CLASS O- X)^c. No. S" 2) *) X O COPY B. Copyright, 1903, by Henry Varnum S. F. Hall & Sons, Printers and Binders, Jacksonville, Fla. Linotype composition by The Tribune, Tampa, Fla. INTRODUCTION. I earnestly desire that any person who may read this book, the product of my idle hours and limited opportunities, will not hesitate to make me acquainted with their honest opinion and assist me to rectify such mistakes as it may contain. A friend once remarked to me that she could not send her children to a public school on account of those "factory children." Why should those factory children not be fit companions for any other children? It is because many parents, particularly of the laboring class, make no effort to give their children any sort of moral training. Even among the more educated classes some teach rigorously the principle of truth, but never think of honesty; some assiduously inculcate honesty, but fail to teach civility; and thus it happens that children fre- quently acquire a contempt for the morals of their comrades which are not taught them, and even come to look at their own parents' requirements as harsh and unreasonable, because other children's parents do not teach the same. It occurred to me that a text-book so arranged that universally accepted tenets of moral behavior could be used as we now use other school books, would be of great service to many parents, teachers and scholars themselves. The magnitude of the work appalled me, but I finally determined to make an effort to supply what, in my opinion, would contribute to a purer moral atmosphere, and save the youth of today from losing sight, while young, of the beacons which the eyes of age can hardly discern. My material has been gathered from such books as I have been able to obtain and read during my spare hours. I believe, however, that I have got the best thoughts of the best men that ever lived, though in a very haphazard way. vi Introduction All social laws are the accumulated result of the wisdom and experience of many generations, and I have attempted to give nothing in this volume that has not acquired universal approval. The object in no instance is originality, but plain practicality and usefulness, and most any parent or teacher, or the student himself, can find abundant argument to clothe the simple axioms with beauty and fascination. I have found a number of volumes purporting to give that instruction necessary to steer the ambitious youth on a virtuous and prosperous course across life's uncertain seas ; but in every instance these books (some beautifully and admirably compiled by tender and sym- pathetic hearts, some mediocre but honest, and some hasty and narrow), were the work of mature under- standing and appealed to trained intellects and dis- ciplined minds, and were inadequate to the work of youthful development. This is the first work, so far as I am advised, that attempts to fill the sphere of a moral text-book for use in training the youngest scholars as well as the more mature, and whatever short-comings it may have, if it lead to something better, though itself a failure, I shall consider my task well done. *¥* Introduction That man will be a benefactor of his race who shall teach us how to manage rightly the first years of a child's education. — James A. Garfield. Perhaps by and by some benefactor of his kind may estab- lish a college of manners, where youths and maidens shall be taught to honor their mothers and grandmothers, to consider their maiden aunts and decrepit poor relations, where lessons shall be given in the treatment of inferiors, where they shall receive diplomas and medals for gentle courtesy and beautiful behavior. — The Christian Register. The time will come when there will be institutions for deter- mining the natural bent of the boy or girl; where men of large experience and close observation will study the natural inclina- tion of the youth, help him to find where his greatest strength lies, and how to use it to the best advantage. — Orison Sweet Marden. An eager, intelligent child can learn so abstract and senseless a game as English spelling; not only learn it, but learn an undy- ing sense of pride in good spelling, shame at bad spelling, and scorn for those who cannot spell. How much more readily could the child be taught the concrete and practical science of conduct; learn the virtues of his day and generation, not only in glib and fluent recitation but in daily practice; and learn also and as easily the natural pride of one who stands well in his class, and the natural contempt for the booby in ethics. — Charlotte Perkins Stetson. Socrates believed in the unity of virtue and averred that it was teachable as a matter of science. He was of the opinion that the only valuable philosophy is that which teaches us our moral duties and religious hopes. — Anon. While it is impossible in a world made up of widely differing individuals, to formulate a set of rules by which each could be shown the surest and swiftest to secure success in life, still it is possible to call attention to certain qualities of mind and character whose possession has come to be universally looked upon as essential to those who may aspire to struggle into the front rank of the world's workers. — Anon. Who can estimate the influence of a* single boy or girl upon the character of a school? Any teacher will tell you that many a school has been pulled up grade, or run down by just such imperious characters. — Orison Sweet Marden. It is quite impossible for any mental chemist to say of what elements, and in what proportions, any given character is com- pounded; and a brief and serious consideration of these difficul- ties will, I think, lead anyone to understand that it is impossible at present to found a true science of character, or to make any ultimate analysis of it. — A. T. Schofield. ARRANGEMENT. The subjects in this book are arranged with the purpose of having" those come first which should be first taught the young child, and leaving the subjects which can be better understood by a maturer intellect for the latter part of the book. It is needless to say, that without the experience of teaching or studying, it is impossible to determine accurately the proper classi- fication of these subjects; but on the whole, I think, whatever differences of opinion may arise, that my arrangement will be found very useful. This particularly so, as these classifications are used as a means and not an end, and that hundreds of subjects are treated under them merely as a cover. These subjects will be found classified in the index. The "Books" are intended to represent a year of a child's life, and the "Parts" are intended to correspond with months. It is not recommended, however, to follow this idea in teaching the book, but the arrangement will always be useful in using it. At first the parent or teacher will have to teach the ideas contained herein, but as soon as the child can read intelligently, he can study the book unassisted ; but explanations and examples will always be useful. The book should not be laid aside until every principle of moral conduct is thoroughly understood. It will be impossible for any boy or girl who studies this book understanding^ to become a bad man* or woman, although they may not become great. CONTENTS. Book No. i. Part i God Page I " 2 Praise God 2 " 3 Serve God 3 Book No. 2. Part 1 Childhood 4 " 2 Parents 6 " 3 Love 8 " 4 Obedience 10 " 5 Duty 12 " 6 Courtesy 14 Book No. 3. Part 1 Little Things 16 2 Do Your Best 18 3 Thoughtfulness 20 4 Selfishness 22 5 Promptness 24 6 Procrastination 26 Book No. 4. Part 1 Character 28 2 Virtue 30 3 Prudence 32 4 Justice 34 5 Courage 36 6 Temperance 38 7 Purity 40 8 Passions 42 9 Thought 44 10 Habit 46 11 Association 48 12 Individuality 50 x Contents Book No. 5. Part 1 Manhood 52 2 Truth 54 3 Honesty 56 4 Self 58 5 Self-Control 60 6 Self-Respect 62 7 Self-Reliance 64 8 Honor 66 9 Integrity 68 10 Sincerity 70 1 1 Strength 72 12 Discipline 74 Book No. 6. Part 1 Manner 76 2 Society 78 3 Gentleman 80 4 Lady 82 5 Politeness 84 6 Culture 86 7 Kindness 88 8 Dignity 90 9 Dress 92 10 Simplicity 94 11 Cheerfulness 96 12 Modesty 98 Book No. 7. Part 1 Charity 100 " 2 Advice 102 " 3 Reform 104 " 4 Goodwill 106 " 5 Mercy 108 " 6 Forgiveness no " 7 Criticism 112 " 8 Generosity 114 " 9 Reciprocity 116 " 10 Sacrifices 118 " n Sympathy 120 " 12 Silence 122 Contents xi Book No. 8. Part i Disposition 124 " 2 Optimism 126 " 3 Contentment.. .. 128 " 4 Actions 130 " 5 Conscience 132 " 6 Patriotism 134 " 7 Gratitude 136 " 8 Election 138 " 9 Goodness 140 " 10 Patience 142 "n Philosophy 144 " 12 Perfection 146 Book No. 9. Part 1 Weakness 148 " 2 Ignorance 150 " 3 Poverty 152 " 4 Worry 154 " 5 Timidity 156 " 6 Indifference 158 " 7 Fault Finding 160 " 8 Greed 162 " 9 Pride 164 " 10 Crime 166 " 11 Deceit 168 " 12 Jealousy 170 Book No. 10. Part 1 Happiness 172 2 Health 174 3 Money 176 4 Better Than Money 178 5 Friendship 180 6 Heredity 182 7 Life 184 8 Blessings 186 9 Beauty 188 10 Rest 190 11 Reaction 192 12 Liberty 194 xh Contents Book No. ii. Part i Education 196 " 2 Mind and Body 198 " 3 Common Sense 200 " 4 Knowledge 202 " 5 Wisdom . . . . • 204 " 6 Experience 206 " 7 Genius 208 " 8 Nature 210 " 9 Improvement 212 " 10 History 214 " 11 Necessity 216 " 12 Influence 218 Book No. 12. Part 1 Self-Culture 220 " 2 Example 222 " 3 Imitation 224 " 4 Observation 226 " 5 Reason 228 " 6 Books 230 " 7 Reflection 232 " 8 Memory 234 " 9 Study 236 " 10 Opinion 238 " 11 Tact 240 " 12 Home 242 Book No. 13. Part 1 Ambition 244 " 2 Aspiration 246 " 3 Admiration 248 " 4 Ideals 250 " 5 High Aim . . 252 " 6 Judgment 254 " 7 Foresight 256 " 8 Enthusiasm 258 " 9 Confidence 260 " 10 Faith 262 " 11 Hope 264 " 12 Resolution. 266 Contents xiii Book No. 14. Part 1 Preparation 268 " 2 Start Right 270 " 3 Purpose 272 " 4 Single Purpose 274 " 5 Appropriateness 276 " 6 Time 278 " 7 Application 280 " 8 Details 282 " 9 Determination 284 " 10 Will 286 "11 Endeavor 288 " 12 The Present 290 Book No. 15. Part 1 Method 292 2 Originality 294 3 Decision 296 4 Devotion 298 5 Industry 300 6 Concentration 302 7 Thoroughness 304 8 Energy 306 9 Perseverance 308 10 Economy 310 11 Pluck 312 12 Crowding 314 Book No. 16. Part 1 Labor 316 2 Opportunity 318 3 Usefulness 320 4 Vocation 322 5 Business 324 6 Surroundings 326 7 Competition 328 8 Talent 330 9 Merit 332 10 Deserts 334 11 Success 336 12 Luck 338 Contents Book No. 17. Part 1 Misfortune 340 2 Failure 342 3 Sorrow 344 4 Difficulty 346 5 Disappointment 348 6 Discouragement 350 7 Appearance 352 8 Uncertainty 354 9 Temptation 356 10 Excess 358 11 Idleness 360 12 Debt 362 Book No. 18. Part 1 Man 364 2 Woman 366 3 Marriage 368 4 Family 370 5 Classes and Masses 372 6 Prosperity 374 7 Reputation 376 8 Leadership 378 9 Greatness 380 10 Fame 382 11 Immorality 384 12 Religion 386 CHARACTER A MORAL TEXT-BOOK Book t. Part 1. God. Thou art, O God, the life and light Of all this wondrous world we see; Its glow by day, its smile by night, Are but reflections caught from Thee: Where'er we turn, Thy glories shine, And all things fair and bright are Thine. — Moore. Every child should be reared from the cradle in the firm belief that it is made in the image of the Creator, and with God- like attributes: that it was intended for success, not failure; for happiness, not unhappiness; for harmony, not discord. i. God is the Infinite and Eternal Energy, from which all things proceed ; the power present in every activity, physical, mental and spiritual. 2. The forces and energies of nature bear indubita- ble testimony to the existence of mind, not only outside themselves, but in themselves and through themselves. 3. God is not visible to man, but His presence is abundantly manifested to the reason of man. 4. God is the first cause of all things. 5. Infinite goodness, truth and beauty are the attributes of God and contributed by Him to things. 6. God is above all creatures and all things. 7. God made and rules the universe. 8. The earth is God's and the fullness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein. 9. God's work is perfect; all His ways are judg- ment; He is God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is He. 10. God is not the God of the dead but of the living. 11. God is character. To love God is to love a good character and to strive to attain it. CHARACTER: A MORAL TEXT-BOOK. Book I. Part 2. Praise God. Father of spirits! Thine all secrets be. I bless Thee for the light Thou has revealed, And that Thou hidest. Part of me I see, And part of me Thy wisdom hath concealed, Till the new life divulge it. — Owen Meredith. 1. Let not the blessings you receive daily from God make you not to value or not to praise Him, because they are common. 2. You shall worship the Lord your God and Him only shall you worship. 3. Believe in the God who has written in your heart the law of duty, the law of progress, the law of sacrifice for others. 4. All places of worship are invitations to the praise of God, and should be treated with great defer- ence, whether you enter and partake in the ceremonies or not. 5. Never avoid but always encourage religious ceremonies of all kinds, whether you belong to the order or sect which directs them or not. Church-going, and association in religious meetings of all kinds, in a respectful manner, has a most salutary effect upon building a sensitive moral character. 6. Give thanks unto the Lord ; for He is good ; for His mercy endures forever. 7. Any act that alleviates or mitigates the sorrows or sufferings of any living creature is an act of praise to God and a benefit to you as well. 8. To kindly treat the aged, to wait on their com- fort, and to respectfully listen to their words, is a noble way to praise God. 9. Care of and kindness to dumb animals and the cultivation of flowers for their beauty and perfume, may be considered as acts of praise to the maker of them. 10. The seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God : in it you shall not do any work. 11. He who loves God loves his neighbor — poor or rich — and cannot fail to be just, true and merciful. CHARACTER: A MORAL TEXT-BOOK. Book I. Part 3. Serve God. Father of life and light! Thou God Supreme! O teach me what is good! teach me thyself! Save me from folly, vanity and vice, From every low pursuit! and feed my soul With knowledge, conscious peace and virtue pure; Sacred, substantial, never-fading bliss.: — Thompson. 1. The God who is regarded as the authority of the moral law is not worshipped because He is unknow- able, but because His commandments, which are obviously knowable, are true ; because those who neglect Hiscommandments will bring down upon themselves and others the curses of the moral laws of nature, while those who obey them will change the curses into blessings. 2. Your best should be given to Him who gives His best to you. 3. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might. 4. You shall keep His statutes, and His command- ments, that it may go well with you, and with your children after you, and that you may prolong your days upon the earth, which the Lord your God has given you. 5. Keep God's commandments because you love Him, not because you hope for His rewards or fear His punishments. 6. Be you imitators of God, as beloved children, and walk in love as Christ even loved you. 7. God is pure, and to be pure in thought, word and deed, to abhor the moment when you were not pure, is to serve Him who is purity and life. 8. God is the authority of conduct. Obedience to God is morality, disobedience immorality. 9. The sanctioned disregard of the moral laws and rules of educated society by any one, at any time, and in any place, is no excuse for your participation when you know they are wrong ; and you are not only not to enter upon them, but it is your duty to try to prevent them. CHARACTER: A MORAL TEXT-BOOK. Book II. Part 1. Childhood. They are idols of hearts and of households; They are angels of God in disguise; His sunlight still sleeps in their tresses, His glory still gleams in their eyes. — Chas. M. Dickenson. 1. The child comes laughing down the stream of life. Life seems to him a joyous, playful thing. Yet hourly, momentarily, he is marking out the course in which his future is apt to flow. 2. Children have a real character, and an essential being of themselves. 3. A child should be happy; he must, in every way, be made happy ; everything ought to be done to conduce to his happiness, to give him joy, gladness and pleasure. 4. The child has a right to ask questions and to be fairly answered ; not to be snubbed as if he were guilty of an impertinence, nor ignored as though his desire for information were of no consequence, nor mis- led as if it did not signify whether true or false impres- sions were made upon his mind. 5. As the character is biased in early life, so it generally remains, gradually assuming its permanent form as manhood is reached. 6. For the child .the most important era of life is when he begins to color and mould himself by compan- ionship with others. 7. The mind of childhood is like wax to receive, but like marble to hold every impression made upon it, be it for good or for evil. 8. The child cannot help imitating what it sees. Everything to him is a model — of manner, of gesture, of speech, of habit, of character. 9. Childhood is a mirror, which reflects in after life the images first presented to it. The first thing con- tinues forever with the child. The first joy, the first sorrow, the first success, the first achievement, the first misadventure, paint the foreground of his life. io. Those impulses to conduct which last the long- est and are rooted the deepest, always have their origin near birth. It is then that the germs of virtues or vices, of feelings or sentiments, are first implanted which determine the character for life. ii. The child's character is the nucleus of the man's; all after education is merely what is added; the form of the crystal remains the same. 12. The least and most imperceptible impressions received in infancy have consequences very important, and of a long duration. 13. The folly of the child becomes the vice of the youth, and then the crime of the man. 14. Auspicious is the day in which the child is made to accept the truth that the measures of character are justice, love, purity, truth and hope. 15. There is no higher office than that of a teacher of youth, as there is nothing on earth so precious as the mind, soul and character of a child. 16. Children are wonderful imitators, so that it is comparatively easy to lead them early into good ways. 17. All persons are more apt to learn through the eye than the ear; and whatever is seen makes a far deeper impression than anything that is merely read or heard. This is especially the case in early youth, when the eye is the chief inlet of knowledge. 18. Precocity is not a sign of ability and should not be unduly encouraged. 19. Kindness, politeness, constant love, and all due consideration, the child should have ; but justice is as important as affection. 20. Fairness, not severity nor constant concessions, is what a child appreciates. If you behave fairly to the child, giving to him the healthy reaction of common justice, you help him to live easily and rightly in the world before him. 21. Not what the child wishes, nor what the mother wishes, is the standard of measurement, but what is really beneficial to the child. CHARACTER: A MORAL TEXT-BOOK. Book II. Part 2. Parents. By degrees The human blossom blows: and every day, Soft as it rolls along, shows some new charm, The Father's lustre, and the Mother's bloom. The infant reason grows apace, and calls For the kind hand of an assiduous care. Delightful task! to rear the tender Thought, To teach the young idea how to shoot, To pour the fresh Instruction o'er the mind, To breathe the enlivening Spirit, and to fix The generous purpose in the glowing heart. — Thompson. 1. Every child should represent a higher step in social growth than its parents, and every parent should reverently recognize this. For a time the parent has the advantage. He has knowledge, skill, and power; and in the order of nature he is set to nourish to the younger generation till it supplant him. 2. The work of parenthood is not only to guard and nourish the young, but to develop the qualities needed in the mature. 3. You have the power, by example and story, of filling the child with inspiring ideals, so as to give direc- tion to its will, and energy of growth to its character. 4. You can control the child's environment, so that suggestions of good — physical, mental, and moral — and not evil, are ever unconsciously sowing themselves in its brain. 5. No education or influence, however powerful it may be, can overcome, in after life, the effect of the bias given to the character of children by the daily example of their parents, which is absorbed imperceptibly into the inmost soul, and lasts forever. 6. The child at length imbibes ideas; under proper influence he learns to obey, to control himself, to be kind to others, to be dutiful and happy. He has a will of his own; but whether it will be well or ill directed depends very much upon parental influences. 7. To surround a growing creature with artificial difficulties, to fail to understand or allow for the natural difficulties of his age, and then punish with arbitrary- retribution the behavior which is sure to appear, this is not the kind of discipline which makes wise, strong, self-governing citizens. , 8. It is the parents' duty to furnish proper food, to insure proper rest, and to allow and encourage proper exercise. This is wanted to promote right brain growth. The brain should not be overstimulated and developed at the expense of the other organs. 9. The more carefully and wisely children are taught and trained by their parents, the less they and others need suffer afterwards. 10. A parent who sends his son into the world uneducated and without skill in any art or science, does a great injury to mankind as well as to his own family; for he defrauds the community of a useful citizen and bequeaths to it a nuisance. 11. Parents have it in their power to train their children to abhor that which is evil and to cleave to that which is good. 12. Children seldom rise higher than the fountain- head of the mother's character. 13. A mother needs a symmetrical character of firmness and gentleness combined, with the deep con- sciousness that she must train her children not for herself alone, but to be a blessing to themselves and a blessing to the world. 14. It is because the mother, far more than the father, influences the action and conduct of the child, that her good example is of so much greater importance in the home. She is the example and model constantly before the children's eyes, whom they unconsciously observe and imitate. 15. The mothers of the world are responsible for the children of the world. The bad habits of other children affect theirs — their ignorance, their ill man- ners, their sins. Children suffer individually from bad social conditions, but cannot be saved individually. CHARACTER: A MORAL TEXT-BOOK. Book II. Part 3. Love. Ah, how skillful grows the hand That obeyeth Love's command! It is the heart, and not the brain, That to the highest doth attain. And he who followeth Love's behest Far excelleth all the rest. — Longfellow. 1. Jesus said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. 2. Love is God in human nature, enlightening, refining, purifying. In the life designed by God for man, law and love blend into a perfect character, repro- ducing the Divine Personality, so far as the limitations of a human being permit. 3. Of all great things in the world there is none greater than love, and he who loves most is most like God. 4. There is nothing on earth worthy of being com- pared to love. No other thing can give, by itself, unalloyed happiness. 5. Love strengthens character and surrounds it with bulwarks. 6. Love is the one word that sums up all the duties that you owe to all forms of living beings. 7. Love is the universal principle of good. It is glorified in human intelligence. It is the only remedy for the woes of the human race. 8. The love of kindred or family ties — the affec- tions, constitute not only one of the dearest bonds on earth, but the basis also, or germ of universal benev- olence. 9. Love sees the glory in the grass, the sunshine in the flowers. It encourages happy thoughts, and lives in an atmosphere of cheerfulness. It costs nothing and yet is invaluable ; for it blesses its possessor, and grows up in abundant happiness in the bosoms of others. Even its sorrows are linked with pleasures, and its very tears are sweet. io. To love and to be loved is the greatest happi- ness of existence. ii. You cannot be envious, avaricious, hard- hearted; you cannot be gross, sensual, unclean, if you love. Love is the death of all bitter and unholy moods of the soul, because love lifts you out of yourself and teaches you to live in another. 12. By loving whatever is lovable in those around you, love will flow back from them to vou, and life will become a pleasure instead of a pain. 13. Love has no commandment; she does all things of herself spontaneously — hastens and delays not. It is enough to her that it is only shown her; she needs no driving. 14. The love which is the outcome of esteem and admiration has an elevating and purifying effect on the character. 15. Love is the grand remedy for all the ills of the mind. It is the great solvent for anger, hatred, jealousy, and all the bitter animosities. 16. Love will creep when it cannot walk ; will accomplish that, by imperceptible methods, which force could never achieve. 17. There is that in the human heart which responds to the voice of gentle, pitying love, when all other agencies have lost their power. 18. Love lasts through life, and adapts itself to every age and circumstance; in childhood for father and mother, in manhood for wife, in age for children, and throughout life for brothers, sisters, relatives and friends. 19. Love turns duty into delight. 20. Love should give wings to the feet of service, and strength to the arms of labor. 21. Try love's way because it begets truth and honesty in your heart and makes you fearless in your dealings with others. 22. Love has power to give in a moment what toil can scarcely give in an age. 10 CHARACTER: A MORAL TEXT-BOOK. Book II. Part 4. Obedience. If you're told to do a thing, And mean to do it, really, Never let it be by halves, Do it fully, freely! Do not make a poor excuse, Waiting, weak, unsteady; All obedience worth the name Must be prompt and ready. — Anon. 1. The principle and habit of obedience, of submis- sion to authority, should be wrought into the inmost nature, from infancy. 2. Obedience must be the primary law of the family. 3. A little child of five can be as implicitly obedient as a youth of eighteen. The difference between the two lies not in the principle, but in the nature of the work demanded. 4. That little feet should run on other people's errands, and little hands should always be ready to be obliging is necessary, not only to their own culture, but to the machinery of their homes, in order that all may run smoothly. 5. To teach the child to obey and to yield its will to the will of the parent, is the first step towards building a great character. 6. It is not the code of conduct, however good, with its rewards or threats, that secures true obedience ; it is the personal living influence, wakening love and enthusiasm. 7. The true pupil yields his master a whole- hearted and unhesitating submission. 8. It is much easier to obey than to govern. 9. Obedience for reward must always stand lower than when it is the delightful expression of love. 10. All the good of which humanity is capable, is comprised in obedience. 11. Obedience is the foundation of moral character. 12. Obedience to duty, at all costs and risks, is the very essence of the highest civilized life. II 13. The duty of making your child obey springs from something beyond and above your own happiness and the smooth running of your home life. The habit of implicit and unquestioning obedience to parental author- ity is the foundation of good citizenship. 14. Because the child does not know what is best for it, it is bound to obey. Obedience is the first of filial duties. 15. To learn obeying is the fundamental art of governing. 16. As children grow up they will understand better and better the reasons why they are obliged to do thus and so. But, whether they understand or not, they must obey the moral law as it comes to them from the lips of their parents. 17. Those who learn the laws which govern men and things and obey them, are the really great and suc- cessful men in the world. 18. Obedience *s binding upon a man as long as he lives. 19. Willing and cheerful obedience, rendered in early life, and the lessons of submission and privation then learned, fit man for the life-struggle which awaits him in the world. 20. Docility, subservience, a quick surrender of purpose, a wavering, untrained judgment — these are the qualities developed by unnecessarily required obedience. 21. Defective obedience is always the result of a defective life. You must learn to obey your own con- science as well as the rightful authority of others. 22. Rogues differ little. Each begins as a disobe- dient son. , 23. Disobedience is the root of all sin and misery. 24. There is nothing more ruinous to children than to allow them to be disobedient ; in fact, it is a cruelty and sin to permit them to be so. 25. The doctrines and precepts of morality which guide the practice of the good citizen must be obeyed by every human being. 12 CHARACTER: A MORAL TEXT-BOOK. Book IE. Part 5. Duty. The sweetest lives are those to duty wed, Whose deeds, both great and small, Are close knit strands of an unbroken thread, "Where love ennobles all. — Mrs. Browning. 1. The abiding sense of duty is the very crown of character. It is the upholding law of man in his highest attitudes. Without it the individual totters and falls before the first puff of adversity or temptation ; whereas, inspired by it, the weakest becomes strong and full of courage. 2. Duty is the cement which binds the whole moral edifice together; without which, all power, goodness, intellect, truth, happiness, love itself, can have no perma- nence. 3. Life is of little value unless it be consecrated to duty. 4. Duty is based upon a sense of justice — justice inspired by love, which is the most perfect form of goodness. 5. Duty rounds the whole of life, from your entrance into it until your exit from it — duty to superiors, duty to inferiors, and duty to equals. Duty to man and duty to God. 6. Duty is the end and aim of the highest life ; the truest pleasure of all is that derived from the conscious- ness of its fulfillment. 7. When you are not too anxious about happiness, but devote yourself to the strict and unsparing perform- ance of duty, then happiness comes of itself. 8. Duty will lead you to your place in the world, and to your life work, if you will let it do so. 9. Doing your duty embodies the highest ideal of life and character. There may be nothing heroic about it ; but the common lot of man is not heroic. 10. Duty is closely allied to truthfulness of char- acter; and the dutiful man is, above all things, truthful in his actions. He says and he does the right thing in the right way, and at the right time. 13 11. Whoever strives to do his duty faithfully, is fulfilling the purpose for which he was created, and building up in himself the principles of manly character. 12. Duties are universally defined by the bonds of relation. 13. Regular, prescribed exercises have the first claim on your time, and should never be thrust aside by incidental things. 14. If a duty is binding and important, there should be no hesitation. 15. What it is your duty to do, you must do because it is right, not because anyone can demand it of you. 16. Whatever comes in the way of a plain duty ought to be set aside. 17. You have each of you to do your duty in that sphere of life in which you have been placed. 18. Every person has duties towards those around him. 19. The sense of duty gives you the power of overcoming difficulties, of resisting temptations, of doing that for which you strive, of becoming honest, kind and true. 20. The sense of duty smooths your path through life. It helps you to know, to learn, and to obey. 21. Duty, in its purest form, is so constraining that you never think, in performing it, of yourself at all. 2,2,. Every time you perform a duty unselfishly, it yields you a little bit of happiness ; but it will never give itself up, except to the hand that performs the duty. 23. While, duty, for the most part, applies to the conduct of affairs in common life, by the average of men, it is also a sustaining power to men of the very highest standard of character. 24. You have not fulfilled every duty until you have fulfilled the duty of being pleasant. 25. Duty is not a sentiment, but a principle pervad- ing life ; it exhibits itself in conduct and in acts, which are mainly determined by your conscience and free-will. 14 CHARACTER: A MORAL TEXT-BOOK. Book II. Part 6. Courtesy. There's nothing ill can dwell in such a temple: If the ill spirit have so fair a house, Good things will strive to dwell with 't. — Shakespeare. 1. While it is comparatively easy to be courteous toward strangers or toward people of distinction, it should be remembered that it is at home, in the family, and among kindred, that an every-day politeness of man- ner is really most to be prized. There it confers sub- stantial benefits and brings the sweetest returns. 2. The lessons of courtesy, tact, and good breeding are easily learned, and politeness soon becomes a second nature. Anybody can be charming who cares to be so. It is a matter of attention and pains. 3. Civilities are the garments of character. 4. The true spirit of civility is very closely allied to that of good morals. 5. Every child should be trained to courteous self- possession and a kindly regard for the rights of others. 6. In homes where true courtesy prevails, it seems to meet you on the threshold. You feel the kindly wel- come on entering. 7. The trend of the home training shows itself early in a child's life, and often by single small acts it is made evident that the principles of courtesy are incul- cated. 8. The truth of what you are escapes like fragrance from high civility and the soul of courtesy, and on the other hand marks as lowbred some who pride themselves on all the elegances of conduct. 9. Courtesy is the mark of good training, and while it is only the exterior part, you must bear in mind that the world judges you to a great extent by appearances. 10. There are many little trivial acts of courtesy which show more about your character than many vague phrases. These are easy to acquire, and their effect will last long. i5 ii. Courtesy to women is always and everywhere imperative. 12. Do not delay courtesy through modesty. If it will make you or any of God's creatures happier by doing it, do it. 13. A courteous man always predisposes people in his favor ; he creates everywhere an agreeable impres- sion; he makes people willing to serve and anxious to keep him. 14. A fine courtesy is a fortune in itself. The good mannered can go without riches, for they have passports everywhere. 15. Courtesy is a real ornament, the most beautiful dress that man or woman can wear, and worth more as a means of winning favor than the finest clothes and jewels ever worn. 16. Courtesy is to a man what beauty is to a woman. It creates an instantaneous impression in his behalf, while the opposite quality excites as quick a prejudice against him. 17. Courtesy is the only way to deal with the courteous, and the best way to deal with the rude. 18. While courtesy is not the most important acquirement, it has a great deal to do with your reputa- tion and success. 19. In all affairs of life, courtesies of a small and trivial character are the ones which strike deepest to the grateful heart. 20. Courtesy, as a mere business quality, is worth its weight in gold. 21. Little courtesies are sometimes very great — great in their happy results. 22. It behooves a man in every station and under every possible circumstance, to be as agreeable as possi- ble to every one he meets. 23. Into the minutest details of daily life, into your hours of prosperity and adversity alike, in seasons of calm weather and in hours of storm and stress, enters the need of being agreeable. 24. It is a sign of a meagre and half-developed nature to be too economical and sparing of thanks. i6 CHARACTER: A MORAL TEXT-BOOK. Book III. Part I. Little Things. A little bit of patience often makes the sunshine come, And a little bit of love makes a very happy home; A little bit of hope makes a rainy day look guy, And a little bit of charity makes glad a weary way. — Anon. 1. Character is made up of small duties faithfully performed — of self-denials, of self-sacrifices, of kindly- acts of love and duty. 2. The opportunity to do one of the little things that make life beautiful comes nearly every day and almost every waking hour. If you make the apparently trifling events of life beautiful and good, then your whole existence will be full of harmony and sweetness. 3. Trifles lighter than straws are levers in the upbuilding of character. 4. Keep your room, your person, and everything you have anything to do with as neat as possible. Neatness is the greatest little thing in the human char- acter. 5. No act or accident of your life is insignificant; the most trifling may be the germ of your destiny. 6. The struggle upward is only by the little here and the little there faithfully accomplished. It is only by recognizing each new task as a means of growth that you shall presently arrive at the place where you wish to be. 7. Take trouble to render little services, great services may never be asked of you. 8. The most trivial tasks can be accomplished in a noble, gentle, regal spirit, which overrides and puts aside all petty, paltry feelings, and which elevates all little things. 9. Do little things now, so shall big things come to you by and by asking to be done. 10. Great things come naturally to him who has done small things well. 11. Do not wait for great things; for while you wait, the door to little ones may close. i7 12. It is the aggregation of little things which makes the great ones. 13. You can all do little things, and do them well, if you will. 14. It is the little acts of kindness, the little cour- tesies, the disposition to be accommodating, to be help- ful, to be sympathetic, to be unselfish, to be careful not to wound the feelings, to be charitable to the weaknesses of others, to be considerate — these are the little things which, added up at night, are found to be the secret of a happy day. 15. It is the little disputes, little fault-findings, little insinuations, little reflections, sharp criticisms, fretfulness and impatience, little unkindnesses, slurs, little discourtesies, bad temper, that create most of the discord and unhappiness in the family. 16. Little deceptions and hypocracies are the very beginnings of depravity of a monstrous growth, that develops itself in later years in the form of thefts, fraud, murder and higher crimes. 17. If you tolerate sin in what you think to be little things, you will soon indulge it in greater matters. 18. The bad thing about a little sin is that it will not stay little. 19. Some little weakness, some self-indulgence, a quick temper, want of decision, are little things, you say, when placed beside great abilities, but they have wrecked many a career. 20. Some little weakness, as lack of courtesy, want of decision, a bad temper, may nullify the labor of years. 21. Trifles light as air sometimes suggest to the thinking mind ideas which revolutionize the world. 22. Many great men have testified that their whole lives have been influenced by some single remark made to them in their boyhood. 23. It is but the littleness of man that sees no greatness in trifles. 24. One of the prime causes of failure is the ignor- ing of small things in detail; the insignificant matters as they are styled. 25. To a truly great mind there are no little things. i8 CHARACTER: A MORAL TEXT-BOOK. Book III. Part 2. Do Your Best. There are loyal hearts, there are spirits brave, There are souls that are pure and true! Then give to the world the best you have, And the best will come back to you. — Madeline S. Bridges. 1. It is your duty to make the most of your talents and opportunities ; and, instead of discouraging yourself by comparisons and impossibilities, to believe all things imaginary possible, as indeed, almost all things are, to a spirit bravely and firmly resolved to do his best. 2. No reward is comparable to the inward assur- ance that you have done your best. 3. The exercise of the highest faculties of the mind is not only stimulating but creates the highest character. 4. Intelligent earnestness is essential, and ulti- mately wins, but it calls for the very best effort of which you are capable. 5. Work for others as if you were working for yourself, and endeavoring to carve out your own fortune. 6. It is very important that you fill your place in an acceptable manner, and with credit to yourself. 7. You ought not to be satisfied with anything that can be improved. 8. Strive to excel in whatever you undertake and to win in open competition. 9. The most brilliant lives have often been those of men of ordinary gifts, who, exerting to the utmost such power as was given them, accomplished more than hun- dreds of men who were much more bountifully supplied with mental qualifications. 10. The greatest thing a man can do is to make the most possible out of the stuff that has been given to him. This is success and there is no other. 11. Every occasion is great enough to demand your best work, your highest efforts. 12. Unless you put the best of yourself into what you do, your character will deteriorate. 19 13. He who does his best, whatever his lot may be, is on the sure road to advancement. 14. Being and doing your best is preparation for higher being and doing. 15. Life finds its noblest spring of excellence in the hidden impulse to do your best. 16. The ideal for any young man ought not to be that he who does not do the best of any fails, but that he who does not do the best he can, fails. 17. There is an inherent love in the human mind for wholeness, a demand that man shall come up to the highest standard ; and there is an inherent protest or contempt for preventable deficiency. 18. The man or woman who half does things does not realize that they not only spoil the work but their character and happiness also. 19. Slipshod work always means a slipshod man or woman, and is dishonest. 20. Nobody has confidence in the man who half does things. 21. There is a splendid wealth of aspiration in youth, a pure and haughty desire for the very highest. 22. A young man should do what he does well. If he does one thing well, he is surely a successful man. 23. Everyone has naturally the power of excelling in some one thing, and will surely do so, if faithful to himself. 24. God helps those who help themselves. 25. The world wants the very best thing. It wants your best. 26. No man fails who does his best. 27. Learn something and learn it well. 28. Make the most and best of yourself. 29. Whatsoever you find to do, do it with all your might. 30. Striving to be good, is a direct road toward goodness. 31. Make every occasion a great occasion, for you cannot tell when Fate will take your measure for a higher place. 20 CHARACTER: A MORAL TEXT-BOOK. Book HI. Part 3. Thoughtfulness. Who does the best his circumstance allows, Does well, acts nobly. — Young-. 1. Thoughtfulness on the part of a child does great honor to its parents. 2. You cannot too early cultivate presence of mind — that phase of thoughtfulness that is instantly ready, under all circumstances and in all emergencies, to do and say the very best thing conditions will permit. 3. Self-possession is one of the marks of the truly cultured; it denotes the possession of many other virtues. 4. It is better to do what your parents will want you to do before they command you to do it. Be thoughtful and anticipate their commands. Try to think what they will want you to do next, and do it be- fore they tell you. 5. Do not wait for your mother or father to tell you not to do certain things. Find out what their wishes are and follow them. 6. No pleasanter sight is there, than a family of young folks who are quick to perform little acts of atten- tion toward their elders. 7. Consideration is the soil in which wisdom may be expected to grow, and strength be given to every upspringing plant of duty. 8. All things are soon prepared in a well-ordered house. 9. An action well planned is half done. 10. The first years of man must make provision for the last. 11. Fight hard against hasty temper. A fit of passion may give you cause to mourn all the days of your life. 12. Think first and deeply, and speak last and concisely. 13. Acknowledge a mistake as soon as you discover you have made one. 14. A sound discretion is not so much indicated by never making a mistake as by never repeating it. 21 15. Guard your weak point. 16. The perfect lady and gentleman are always polite in public places, considerate of the comfort and wishes of others, and unobtrusive in their behavior. 17. Sweeter than the perfume of roses is a reputa- tion for a kind, charitable, unselfish nature ; a ready dis- position to do to others any good turn in your power. 18. Never waste that which you do not need, but give it to the poor, even though you have to go to some trouble to do so. 19. There is no difference in quality between sins of omission and sins of commission. 20. Be advised to be always on your guard and never give occasion for offense. 21. True courtesy is kind. It exhibits itself in the disposition to contribute to the happiness of others, and thoughtfulness in refraining from all that may annoy them. 22. Always keep your wits about you and you will not be trampled on. 23. Be thoughtful of three things — temper, tongue and conduct. 24. Begin early to cultivate a habit of thoughtful- ness and consideration for others, especially for those whom you are commanded to honor. 25. The thoughtful man is the most useful man. 26. The thoughtful man is very charitable to those who differ from him and is never dogmatic in his utter- ances. 2.7. A thoughtful man knows it is possible for him to be mistaken and respects the opinions of others. 28. The most vigorous thinkers are those who have been taught early to make practical use of their knowl- edge. 29. You cannot expect to be happy if you do not lead pure and useful lives. 30. Learn to deny yourself and prefer others. 31. Take trouble to say kindly things if you can perform no greater service. 32. Do not expect impossibilities, but simply the possible for which proper efforts have been made. 22 CHARACTER: A MORAL TEXT-BOOK. Book III. Part 4. Selfishness. A little kingdom I possess, Where thoughts and feelings dwell, And very hard I find the task Of governing it well; For passion tempts and troubles me, A wayward will misleads, And selfishness its shadow casts On all my words and deeds. — Alice Cary. 1. In the close quarters of the family, where all are interdependent and the temper of one may make the prevailing atmosphere of the household joyous or sad for days together, it is incumbent to cultivate amiable dispositions and habits of unselfishness. 2. Selfishness, if uncurbed, leads to unprovoked and the meanest kind of falsehood. 3. Selfishness in childhood displays itself most prominently in appropriating to itself things which it knows rightfully belong to others and in a refusal to allow other children to take a desirable part in games and diversions. 4. It is far better to yield than to quarrel, and he who yields is the real conqueror. He conquers others. An unselfish child has more friends, and really gets more favors, than a selfish child. 5. No matter what your situation and prospects are ; no matter if you are perfectly independent and heir to millions, you will certainly become a worthless char- acter if you do not aim at something higher than your own selfish enjoyment ; if you do not devote yourself to some useful and honorable calling. 6. You can not be truly rich if you are selfish. 7. Money, power and influence, when controlled by selfishness, become a curse that debases the mind and corrupts the heart. 8. You can not have friends unless you give thought and pains to pleasing them. This is why the selfish are friendless. 9. The wisest men have taken care to uproot selfishness from their breasts. 23 io. Human selfishness is universal and has to be met and curbed with resolution. ii. It is not for yourself alone that you work and strive. It is for others as well as yourself. There are moral laws, domestic affections, home government and guidance, which stand on a higher level and are based on nobler considerations than mere selfish pleasures. 12. Self-partiality hides from you those very faults in yourself which you see and condemn in others. 13. To do good to those who do not appreciate it, to serve those who will never even know by whom the service was rendered, are marks of true unselfishness. 14. Among the minor trials of life none more per- sistently forces itself upon notice than a disregard for the rights of others. 15. Beware of a growing covetousness, for cov- etousness, is of all sins, one of the most insidious. 16. The covetous person lives as if the world was made altogether for him, and not he for the world; to take in everything and part with nothing. 17. The man who is always scheming and planning to get the better of somebody else will unconsciously blight and wither up the qualities which, if nurtured, would bring into fruitage the principles of true man- hood. 18. The mind that is being constantly trained in shrewdness, sharpness, sagacity, cunning ; that is ever on the alert to take advantage of a competitor's weakness — the training which teaches a youth to use those who have fallen as stepping stones to his own elevation, is a process of education which develops only the brute qual- ities and dwarfs or wholly destroys manhood. 19. The truly unselfish person is interested in others, whether or not they are in themselves attractive. 20. Unselfishness seeks no human recognition. 21. Selfishness is the worst kind of littleness. 22. A certain amount of selfishness is natural to* childhood ; acts indicating unusual selfishness call for correction. 24 CHARACTER: A MORAL TEXT-BOOK. Book III. Part 5. Promptness. True worth is in being, not seeming — In doing, each day that goes by, Some little good, not in the dreaming Of great things to do by and by. — Alice Cary. 1. Whatever business you have, do it the first moment you can ; never by halves, but finish it without interruption, if possible. 2. Take time to deliberate and advise, but lose no time in executing your resolutions. 3. Do not live a single hour of your life without doing exactly what is to be done in it, and going straight through it from beginning to end. 4. Work, play, study — whatever it is, take hold at once, and finish it squarely; then to the next thing, without letting any moments drop between. 5. A habit of prompt choice, of not allowing the mind to wander and balance between conflicting motives, is a most important one, and cannot be too carefully cul- tivated. 6. Want of promptitude in action, is a defect of character, which is found to stand very much in the way of individual progress. 7. Many of the little duties of life are hard to per- form if allowed to accumulate, but dispatched promptly pass by unnoticed and unfelt. 8. Take hold of the very first thing that comes to hand, and you will find the rest all fall into file, and follow after, like a company of well-drilled soldiers. 9. Tomorrow-men never do anything. It is the today-men, the now-men, who accomplish the great things in the world. 10. Prompt, vigorous action robs a dreaded task of half its terrors. 11. The habit forming period of life is the dangerous period. Accustom yourself early to the habit of doing everything as soon as circumstances will permit. 12. When you have a disagreeable, perplexing thing to do, do not put off the doing. Anticipation will clothe 25 it with new difficulties, and fear of what, after all, may- be more imaginary than real, will steal from you your peace of mind, and perhaps destroy your strength and ability to do the thing required. 13. Boys fail to satisfy the demands made upon them more through lack of punctuality than by any other reason. 14. Let the thing commanded by a superior authority be done simply because it is commanded, and let it be done with punctuality. 15. Thousands of dismissals, rebuffs, discourage- ments and failures at the beginning of a career could be avoided by making a cardinal point of being always on hand, in proper places, during every moment when sub- ject to duty. 16. If you have been in the habit of half-doing things, of putting everything off until the last moment, resolve now, from this hour, that you will compel your- self to do whatever you undertake promptly and efficiently. 17. Promptness is the mother of confidence and gives credt. 18. In life as in business, dispatch is better than discourse ; and the shortest answer of all is doing. 19. The individual who is tardy in meeting an appointment will never be respected or successful in life, 20. Take advantage of opportunities and utilize them to the best of your ability. 21. Golden opportunities present themselves almost every day to all, if they would only use them. 22. Do not brood over the past or dream of the future ; but seize the instant and get your lesson from the hour. 23. Promptness is one of the practical virtues of civilization. 24. Without promptness no success is possible. 25. Promptness takes the drudgery out of an occu- pation. 26. To think and ideate promptly is to live that much longer. 26 CHARACTER: A MORAL TEXT-BOOK. Book Ml. Part 6. Procrastination. Procrastination is the thief of time: Tear after year it steals, till all are fled, And to the mercies of a moment leaves The vast concerns of an eternal scene. — Young-. 1. Everything in human character goes to wreck under the reign of procrastination, while prompt action gives to all things a corresponding and proportional life and energy. 2. Indecision becomes a disease and procrastination is its forerunner. 3. Procrastination stealthily snatches precious mo- ments daily from every thoughtless life. 4. Procrastination makes you tardy at school, and just a little late in everything you do, until you have lost your reputation for promptness and injured your char- acter. 5. Tomorrow, the chance which was golden today, will be within the realm of the impossible. 6. There should be no loitering in the morning because you can retrieve your losses in the evening. 7. The energy wasted in postponing until tomorrow a duty of today, would often do the work. 8. It is waste of time to dread the disagreeable. It must be faced promptly and duty manfully met. 9. If the habit of entering on what is not carried out and completed, be allowed in early life, the evil increases as long as you live. 10. It is generally the idle who complain they can- not find time to do that which they fancy they wish. 11. A person may cause evil to others not only by his action but by his inaction, and in either case he is justly accountable to them for the injury. 12. Those who chase that fantom deceiver, tomor- row, never arrive anywhere, never come to anything but failure. 13. Many men have been cajoled and led to ruin by that fascinating word tomorrow. 27 14- One reason you have to stay so long in the school of adversity is that you spend so much time crying over your lessons, instead of learning them. 15. It is the essence of character to take the initia- tive. In the affairs of the world a boy that has to be told, to be drawn out and pushed ahead, gets left behind. 16. You should early learn that, in business and morals, he who hesitates is lost. 17. If children's curiosity leads them to ask ques- tions which they should not know, it is better to tell them plainly that it is a thing that they should not know than to put them off with a false excuse. 18. One frequent cause of delay and slow work is dawdling over details until they have been developed far beyond the main subject. 19. Do what you know is right and what you know you ought to do, even when you do not feel like doing it. Keep up this rigid discipline day after dav and week after week, and you will soon learn the art of all arts — perfect self-mastery. 20. To you belongs your fair share of manful toil and human duty ; and it cannot be shirked without loss to yourself, as well as to the community to which you belong. 21. While you are considering where to begin, it is often too late to act. 22. If time be of all things the most precious, wast- ing time must be the greatest prodigality. 23. Procastination never does anything until tomor- row. 24. Drifting, wherever else it may carry you, is sure to lead to procrastination. 25. Lost time is never found again, and what you call time enough always proves little enough. 26. Unless you determine to achieve those things which are absolutely indispensable to success, and sacri- fice all the little trifles which are ever nibbling away at your precious moments, you will accomplish nothing worthy of a great life. 28 CHARACTER: A MORAL TEXT-BOOK. Book IV. Part 1. Character. We, like the leaf, the summit, or the wave, Reflect the light our common nature gave, But every sunbeam, falling from her throne, Wears, on our hearts, some coloring of our own. — Oliver Wendell Holmes. 1. As there is nothing in the world great but man, there is nothing truly great in man but character. 2. No one can eventually fill the positions in the community that he ought to fill, and which he hopes to fill, unless his character is spotless. 3. The cultivation of all parts of the moral and intellectual nature is requisite to form the man or woman of healthy and well-balanced character. 4. The grandest character is where no one quality overshadows the rest, but each is rounded into the other, and none is wanting. 5. Character is property. It is the noblest of pos- sessions. It is an estate in the general good-will and respect of men ; and they who invest in it — though they may not become rich in worldly goods — will find their reward in esteem and reputation fairly and honorably won. 6. Your character cannot be essentially injured except by your own acts. 7. It is natural for all classes to believe in and follow character, for character is power. 8. Character is power — is influence ; it makes friends, creates funds, draws patronage and support, and opens a sure and easy way to wealth, honor, and happi- ness. 9. Character grows, for the most part, insidiously. Now and then it gets notable impulses which you can mark, but commonly it grows imperceptibly, like your bodies. 10. There is one indestructible material which noth- ing in the way of adversity or discouragement can over- come, and that is character. n. It is very important for everybody, and especially for the young, to be very careful as to the 29 impressions he cherishes, the examples he imitates, and the habits he forms. These are important elements which go to constitute character, and if they are of an improper nature, the result will be ruinous. 12. Though your character is formed by circum- stances, your own desires can do much to shape those circumstances. 13. You cannot dream yourself into a character; you must hammer and forge yourself one. 14. Your mind is given you, but your character you make. 15. Every thought which enters the mind, every word you utter, every deed you perform, makes its impression upon the inmost fiber of your being, and the resultant of these impressions is character. 16. Character exhibits itself in conduct, guided and inspired by principle, integrity, and practical wisdom. In its highest form, it is the individual will acting ener- getically under the influence of religion, morality, and reason. It chooses its way considerately, and pursues it steadfastly; esteeming duty above reputation, and the approval of conscience more than the world's praise. 17. Every circumstance, however trivial, that in any way affects the mind, leaves its mark. Infinitely small they may be, imperceptible in themselves, but the sum of all these marks is precisely what is called char- acter, which is thus in itself a history of the entire pre- vious life of the individual. Character is therefore con- tinually growing, continually in a state of change. 18. Character in a woman, as in a man, will always be found the best safeguard of virtue. 19. It is from the inborn dictates of conscience, and the inspired principle of duty, that the finest growths of character have arisen. 20. Principles lived up to are what make char- acter. 21. Just as a man prizes his character, so is he. 22. Nothing can be so important to any man as the formation and possession of a good character. 23. A good character is a precious thing, and the work of making it is the noblest labor on earth. 3Q CHARACTER: A MORAL TEXT-BOOK. Book IV. Part 2. Virtue. Virtue, our present peace, our future prize; Man's imprecarious, natural estate, Improvable at will, in virtue lies; Its tenure sure; its income is divine. — Young. i. When virtue has become a daily habit you be- come possessed of an individual character, prepared for fulfilling, in a great measure, the end for which you were created. 2. You are not only justified, but bound in duty, to aim at reaching the highest standard of character : not to become the richest in means, but in spirit; not the greatest in worldly position, but in true honor; not the most intellectual, but the most virtuous ; not the most powerful, but the most truthful, upright and honest. 3. The virtues of a man ought to be measured, not by his extraordinary actions, but by his everyday con- duct. 4. Laws of moral conduct are not dependent upon any person's caprice, whim, or fancy, but are the conse- quence of the great facts of the nature of man living in society. 5. The path of virtue is closed to no one, it lies open to all ; it admits and invites all ; it requires no quali- fications of family, or property ; it is satisfied with a mere man. 6. Virtue consists in doing your duty in the sev- eral relations you sustain, in respect to yourself, to your fellow-men, and to God. 7. Gravity, generosity of soul, sincerity, earnest- ness, and kindness, constitute perfect virtue. 8. Virtue is not mere innocence in abstaining from harm ; but it is also the exertion of your faculties in doing good. 9. Cloistered virtues do not count for much. 10. Virtue has resources buried in itself, which you know not till the invading hour calls them from their retreats. 3i ii. Good company and good conversation are the sinews of virtue. 12. The advantage to be derived from virtue is so evident, that the wicked practice it from interested mo- tives. 13. You cannot purchase your virtue too dear, for it is the only thing whose value must ever increase with the price it has cost you. 14. Do not consider any vice as trivial, and there- fore practice it ; do not consider any virtue as unimport- ant, and therefore neglect it. 15. Sincerely to aspire after virtue is to gain her, and zealously to labor after her wages is to receive them. Those who seek her early will find her before it is late ; her reward also is with her, and she will come quickly. 16. In moral application a virtue is a quality in mankind whereby they are most advantaged, and where- by they gain the highest good. 17. Virtue alone is true nobility. 18. When poverty is your inheritance, virtue must be your capital. 19. A man may be virtuous, though not wealthy; and fortune, which prevents his being rich, cannot pre- vent his being happy. 20. Men are equal ; it is not birth, it is virtue alone that makes them differ. 21. Let love permeate everything and all the other virtues will grow out of it, as flowers spring from the soil. 22. The virtue of prosperity is temperance, the vir- tue of adversity is fortitude, which in morals is the more heroical virtue. 23. Courage, truth, justice, self-control, kindness, honesty, cheerfulness, courtesy — these are public duties quite irrelevant to any religious doctrine, and they should be taught to children on sound natural grounds, and are as easily provable as the simplest examples in arith- metic. 24. The highest success is not living-making, money-making, nor fame-making, but character-making. 32 CHARACTER: A MORAL TEXT-BOOK. Book IV. Part 3. Prudence. A valiant man Ought not to undergo, or tempt a danger, But worthily, and by selected ways. He undertakes with reason, not by chance. — Ben Johnson. i. The immediate and unhesitating choice of that which is beneficial and harmless, in preference to that which is pleasant and hurtful, if exercised in childhood, will result in after life in an unhesitating choice between that which makes you good, and great, and rich, and happy, instead of that which makes you bad, and small, and poor, and miserable. 2. Prudence is practical wisdom, and comes of the cultivated judgment. It has reference in all things to fitness, and to propriety: judging wisely of the right thing to be done, and the right way to do it. It calcu- lates the means, order, time, and method of doing. Pru- dence learns from experience, quickened by knowledge. 3. Prudence should be learned at as early an age as possible. It is one of the most valuable traits a child can acquire, and if manifested early and cultivated, will prove a never-ending source of profit to its possessor. 4. Prudence grows very slowly, and seldom flowers freely before manhood. 5. Prudence, if not always a proof of virtue, is a staunch protector of it. 6. Prudence promotes your safety, by teaching you to use all reasonable precautions against positive evils. 7. Those who are not careful about their words, and even their thoughts, will soon grow careless con- cerning their more notable actions. 8. Make sure that what is to be done ought to be done, and do not do what you may regret. 9. Prudence is wisdom applied in practice. 10. The only way of being prepared for the sudden accidents of life is to think seriously upon such subjects whenever presented. 33 ii. A wise man takes a step at a time; he estab- lishes one foot before he takes up the other ; an old place should not be forsaken recklessly. 12. Prudence in woman should be an instinct, not a virtue. 13. To excel others is a proof of talent, but to know when to conceal that superiority is a greater proof of prudence. 14. Your wit makes clear things doubtful ; but it is your prudence that makes doubtful things clear. 15. Where there is no prudence there is no virtue. 16. Prudence governs the wise. 17. Children are wonderfully sagacious in detecting their natural friends and enemies. 18. In private watch your thoughts; in your family watch your temper ; in society watch your tongue. 19. The greatest parts, without discretion, may be fatal to their owner. 20. Discretion of speech is more than eloquence. 21. The world needs discretion as well as zeal; although the latter generally usurps all the honors and glories, the former does a great deal the more good. 22. Any sign of want of principle should make you draw back at once from intimacy or even acquaintance. 23. It is better to prevent a calamity beforehand than to mend it afterward. 24. Think much, speak little, and write with care. 25. He who is most slow in making a promise is the most faithful in its performance. . 26. To save in youth is to live comfortably in old age. 27. People who spend all they earn are ever hang- ing on the brink of destitution. It is impossible that they can be free and independent. To be thriftless is enough to deprive you of all manly spirit and vigor. 28. It is the nature of every creature to pursue the good and avoid the evil ; and hold every man an enemy, even though a brother, son or father, that takes away the one and brings the other. 29. Unwarrantable haste is the direct road to er- ror. 34 CHARACTER: A MORAL TEXT-BOOK. Book IV. Part 4. Justice. Of every noble action, the intent Is to give worth reward — vice punishment. — Beaumont and Fletcher. i. The sense of right from wrong is .innate, and every human being is conscious of every wrong deed he commits, though his moral nature may be so blunted that he feels no hesitation in doing it. 2. The scales of justice hang in every heart. 3. Justice stands for strength in character. It is the framework of manhood. 4. The sense of justice develops very early, and may be used as a basis for a large range of conduct. 5. The recognition of the rights of others is justice, and comes easily to the child. 6. You must be in love with truth and right; with truth for its own sake, and with right for its own sake ; must have the welfare of others at heart ; otherwise con- duct will often be guided by considerations that are not ultimately moral and ethical, and all lines of conduct that are based upon motives which are not just and true will ultimately fail, and cannot lead to success, either for you or for others. 7. When the sense of justice is outraged, be the cause ever so trivial, a feeling of distrust is generated, and an incipient hatred against the person who may have provoked the unjust decision. 8. You must have no partiality, but give to every one his due ; each according to his deserts, and not ac- cording to your own particular feelings. 9. On every occasion your decisions are to be reg- ulated, not by the person, but by the cause. 10. Impartiality is the life of justice, as justice is of all good government. 11. A reputation for impartiality is of great value. 12. Justice never looks to see who is in the scales before she strikes the balance. King or beggar, it is all the same. 35 13. When you pronounce judgment show justice although it be for or against one who is near of kin, or yourself. 14. One law and one manner shall be for you and for the stranger that sojourns with you. 15. Everything is right that tends to the happiness of mankind, and everything is wrong that increases the sum of human misery. 16. It is important, above everything else, that you be right, and do right, whether your motives and actions are properly understood or not. 17. Base all your actions upon a principle of right; preserve your integrity of character; and, in doing this, never reckon the cost. 18. Right and justice cannot be suppressed. 19. Command that which is just and forbid that which is unjust. 20. If you wish your efforts to succeed it is indis- pensable that all your acts conform to the laws of right and justice, succeeding not only in conquering your ene- mies, but in conquering your own evil passions. 21. The greatest man is he who chooses right with the most invincible determination. 22. Nothing is settled until it is settled right. 23. Without justice there can be neither love, con- fidence, nor respect, on which all true domestic rule is founded. 24. Justice commands you to have mercy on all men, to consult for the interests of mankind, to give everyone his due, not to commit sacrilege, and not to covet the goods of others. 25. Might does not make right. 26. Observe justice when you appear as witnesses before God, and let not hatred towards any one induce you to do wrong, but act justly. 27. Whenever it is possible, a wrong act should be undone by a right one. 28. The grand secret of never failing manner and culture is to have an intention of always doing right. 29. He that is unjust in least, is also unjust in much. 36 CHARACTER: A MORAL TEXT-BOOK. Book IV. Part 5. Courage. The brave man is not he who feels no fear, For that were stupid and irrational; But he, whose noble soul its fear subdues, And bravely dares the danger nature shrinks from. — Joanna Baillie. 1. True courage is a combination of moral and phy- sical qualities, so blended as to secure the noblest char- acter. 2. Physical courage, which despises all danger, will make a man brave in one way; and moral courage, which despises all opinion, will make a man brave in another. The former would seem the more necessary for the camp, the latter for the council ; but to constitute a great man, both are necessary. 3. It is moral courage which characterizes the high- est order of manhood and womanhood — the courage to seek and speak the truth ; the courage to be just ; the courage to be honest; the courage to resist temptation; the courage to do your duty. 4. It is moral heroism that should be especially commended. This belongs to the noblest type of man- hood. 5. Fear falls upon the earth and prays, courage stands erect and thinks. Fear retreats, courage ad- vances. Fear is barbarism, courage is civilization. 6. It takes courage to do your duty in silence and obscurity, while others prosper and grow famous al- though neglecting sacred obligations. 7. Courage is as necessary as integrity in the per- formance of duty. 8. If men and women do not possess the virtue of courage, they have no security whatever for the preserva- tion of any other. 9. The greater part of the courage that is needed in the world is not of a heroic kind. Courage may be dislplayed in every day life as well as on historic fields of action. 10. The courage of woman is not the less true be- cause it is for the most part passive. It is not encour- 37 aged by the cheers of the world, for it is mostly exhibit- ed in the recesses of private life. 11. That moral heroism is often greatest of which the world says least, and which is exercised in the humb- lest spheres, and in circles the most unnoticed. 12. The spirit of courage will transform the whole temper of your life. 13. A pure conscience, a clear, intelligent mind, and a strong body, are necessary to the highest form of cour- ageous manhood. 14. The courage that goes on and never doubts suc- cess, is the courage worth having. 15. Manly courage is dignified and graceful. 16. The true test of courage is, in all circumstances, to dare to do right. 17. The utmost tenderness and gentleness are con- sistent with courage. 18. Courage without wisdom is mere boldness, and there is a bad boldness that defeats itself. 19. The man who fully understands the dangers he confronts, and goes boldly forward to meet them, is the true hero, the ideal soldier. 20. A really brave man never exposes himself need- lessly to danger, and if unhappily entrapped in a quarrel, he will always refuse to fight until compelled in self-de- fense. 21. A brave man will suffer insult and indignity, permit himself to be called hard names and to be mis- represented, rather than allow hatred and murder to en- terinVheart, or do that which in his calmer moments he would abhor. 22. A good cause makes a courageous heart. 23. People believe in the youth who has courage, who dares to take a stand for himself, even at the risk of his reputation, who dares to hazard something in order to succeed. 24. Conquer your place in the world, for all things serve a brave soul. 25. Men who have dared have moved the world, often before reaching the prime of life. 26. Heroic deeds are contagious, and noble lives have a far-reaching influence. 38 CHARACTER: A MORAL TEXT-BOOK. Book IV. Part 6. Temperance. Temp'rate in every place — abroad, at home, Thence will applause, and hence will profit come; And health from either — he in time prepares For sickness, age, and their attendant cares. — Crabbe. 1. From the earliest records and traditions of the existence of mankind you will find that those people who have been industrious, economical, prudent, and temper- ate, have been prosperous, happy, and strong. 2. Practice strict temperance ; and, in all your transactions, remember the final account. 3. Eat not to dullness ; drink not to elevation. 4. Intemperance can do you as much harm exer- cised in over-work or excessive play, as by over-indulging the appetite. 5. Passion is intemperance ; so is caprice. 6. The great danger to the body is on the side of self-indulgence. 7. Liberal, not lavish, is nature's hand. 8. Virtue, or wise action, lies in the mean between the two extremes of too little and too much. 9. All have appetites and passions common to hu- manity. These should be your servants, the driving- wheels of your higher nature, — but never your masters. 10. Nothing reflects greater lustre upon a man than a severe temperance, and a restraint of himself for vicious pleasures. 11. Those are the strongest men, not who the most wantonly indulge, but who the most carefully curb their activities. 12. A good man not only forbears those gratifica- tions which are forbidden by reason and religion, but even restrains himself in unforbidden instances. 13. No one can live a gormandizing, sordid, or licen- tious life, and still wear a countenance hallowed and sanc- tified with a halo of peace and joy. 14. Temperance gives nature her full play and en- ables her to exert herself in all her force and vigor. 39 15. He that is moderate in his wishes, from reason and choice, and not resigned from sourness, distaste, or disappointment, doubles all the pleasures of his life. 16. It is continued temperance which sustains the body for the longest period of time, and which most sure- ly preserves it free from sickness. 17. Be sober and temperate and you will be healthy. 18. Instead of trying to do all that can be done in a very short time, you should lay your plans, and make your calculations to live long, and for many years be im- proving and ripening for usefulness. 19. To live long it is neccessary to live temperately. 20. The cost of enjoyment in age is abstemious- ness in youth. 21. It is the part of a wise man to keep himself to- day for tomorrow. 22. He that buys what he does not want will soon want what he cannot buy. 23. Society suffers far more from waste of money than from want of money. 24. You can have comfort without being untidy, beauty without extravagance. 25. He that is extravagant will quickly become poor, and poverty will enforce dependence and invite cor- ruption. 26. Comfort and independence abide with those who can postpone their desires. 2J. The less you desire the happier you shall be. 28. An infallible way to make a child miserable is to satisfy all his wants. 29. So apportion your wants that your means may exceed them. 30. The temperate man is not mastered by his moods ; he will not be driven or enticed into excess ; his steadfast will conquers despondency, and is not unbal- anced by transient exhilarations, for ecstasy is as fatal as despair. 31. Avoid extremes; forbear resenting injuries so much as you think they deserve. 32. Let no other man's vice be your evil. 40 CHARACTER: A MORAL TEXT-BOOK. Book IV. Part 7. Purity. No life Can be pure in its purpose and strong in its strife, And all life not be purer and stronger thereby. — Owen Meredith. i. An absolute surrender, consecration and devo- tion of self to all that is better and purer and truer, is the secret of character building. 2. To be pure in heart, to possess a warm and broad sympathy, is to be worthy of the highest attain- ments in life — and to place yourself in a fair way to get them. 3. From a pure heart proceeds the fruit of a good life. 4. Purity and chasteness of language tend to pre- serve purity and chasteness of thought and of taste ; they repel licentious imaginings ; they delight in the unsullied and the untainted, and all their tendencies are on the side of virtue. 5. Your moral character must be not only pure but unspotted. The least speck or blemish upon it is fatal. 6. There is no doubt that a persistent virtuous life does weaken the hold of the lower appetites and pas- sions. 7. There is never an hour when the man of tried virtue and steady sobriety of habits is not more in demand in all the real business of life than his dissolute neighbor, however gay and fascinating. 8. The influence of your pure associates will be wafted to you through the days to come, and you will be better men and women for having known them. 9. Woman has the right to demand that man live as chaste a life as she does or take the consequences. 10. It would be loosening the foundations of virtue to countenance the notion that, because of a difference of sex, men were at liberty to set morality at defiance, and do that with impunity which, if done by a woman, would stain her character for life. 41 ii. A pure womanhood must be accompanied by a pure manhood. The same moral law applies to both. 12. To maintain a high standard of purity in society, the culture of both sexes must be in harmony, and keep equal pace. 13. Man is no purer or better than woman requires him to be. 14. If a young woman deport herself correctly she will never receive an insult. 15. Respect the purity of childhood, and let the presence of youth be a reason for restraint in open sin. 16. By exercising a watchfulness over the thoughts, purity of heart and mind becomes habitual, and the char- acter is built up in chastity, virtue, and temperance. 17. Hold in esteem those qualities of moral purity and integrity without which life is but a scene of folly and misery. 18. To dread no eye, and to suspect no tongue, is the great prerogative of innocence : an exemption granted only invariable virtue. Guilt has always its horrors and solicitudes ; and, to make it yet more shame- ful and detestable, it is doomed often to stand in awe of those to whom nothing could give influence or weight, but their power of betraying. 19. It is not possible to rear a kindly nature, sensi- tive to evil, pure in mind and heart, amidst coarseness, discomfort and impurity. 20. If you make a fortune let every dollar of it be clean. 21. Unto the pure all things are pure: but unto them that are defiled and unbelieving is nothing pure. 22. So long as you are innocent fear nothing. 23. Purity always ripens to discretion. 24. A heart unspottea is not easily daunted. 25. Tolerate no uncleanliness in body, clothes or habitation. 26. The coarse, brutal instincts, when developed, stifle all the finer sentiments of the mind. They dull the ideal, and crush out the gentler and finer qualities which unite the human with the divine. 42 CHARACTER: A MORAL TEXT-BOOK. Book IV. Part 8. Passion. The ruling passion, be it what it will, The ruling passion conquers reason still. — Pope. 1. When passion is on the throne, reason is out of doors. 2. The fumes of passion do as really intoxicate and confound the judging and discerning faculties as the fumes of drink discompose and stupefy the brain of a man overcharged with it. 3. Passion swells by gratification. 4. Your passions are your infirmities. 5. Of all passions fear is the most accursed. 6. Anger is pure waste of vitality; is always fool- ish and always disgraceful, except in rare cases, when it is kindled by seeing wrong done to another; but even then, noble rage seldom mends the matter. 7. There is no other passion that so much trans- ports men from their right judgment as anger. 8. Anger, indignation, resentment, wrath, ire, rage and fury, are all more frequently more hurtful to the person exhibiting them than to the one toward whom they are displayed. 9. Do not speak while you feel the impulse of anger, for you will be almost certain to say too much — to say more than your cooler judgment will approve — and to speak in a way that you will regret. 10. A single angry word has lost many a friend. 11. Anger begins with folly and ends with repent- ance. 12. He is a fool who cannot be angry, but he is a wise man who will not. 13. Anger, like too much wine, hides you from yourself, but exposes you to others. 14. A strong temper is not necessarily a bad tem- per. But the stronger the temper, the greater is the need of self-discipline and self-control. 15. Guard your temper, especially in seasons of ill-health, irritation and trouble. 43 16. On no part of the character has education more influence than on temper, the due regulation of which is an object of great importance to the enjoyment of life. 17. Temper is subject to reason and conscience. 18. Instances are very rare in which people of irascible temper live to extreme old age. 19. It has been said that men succeed in life quite as much by their temper as by their talents. 20. Temper has ruined many a man. 21. Temper should be absolutely controlled in public and in private life. There is nothing else that will cause such a waste of the vital tissues as anger. 22. Temper, if ungoverned, governs the whole man. 23. A great deal of unhappiness results from the quickness of people to take offense when none is intended. Such a living is a strain on both parties, the offended and the offender alike. 24. On every occasion that leads to vexation apply this principle : It is not a misfortune, but to bear it nobly is good fortune. 25. The best way of avenging yourself is not to become like the wrong-doer. 26. There is a better way of settling quarrels than by resentment and retaliation. 27. It is difficult for a quarrel to continue long without opposing agents. 28. Rage is essentially vulgar, and never vulgarer than when it proceeds from mortified pride, disappointed ambition, or thwarted wilfulness. 29. While it injures your reputation to be harsh and unforgiving, a far greater injury still is inflicted upon the inward life, for with the spirit of revenge and malice rankling in the breast, there can be no such thing as happiness. 30. There are times and occasions when the expres- sion of indignation is not only justifiable but necessary. 31. Reprove in kindness, not in anger, if you would gain the great end of reproof. 44 CHARACTER: A MORAL TEXT-BOOK. Book IV. Part 9. Thought. A pointing hand along life's way, A dear companion through the day; A friend who willingly takes flight When sweet oblivion shrouds the night; A guard, a guide, by all men sought, For all that is, is born of thought.— Anon. 1. A man's character is formed by the nature of his thoughts. 2. Thought is the crucible in which the golden ore of knowledge is melted and refined. It is the digestive apparatus of the intellectual organism, converting the mental food you consume into the flesh and blood of intellectual attainments. Without it, all knowledge is absolutely worthless. 3. Character develops by the pressure of moral opinions and current thoughts. One single hint or new idea may actually influence an entire character. 4. Thinking leads to knowledge. You may see and hear, and read and learn, as much as you please ; you will never know any of it, except that which you have thought over, and which by thinking over you have made the property of your mind. 5. If you think well, you shall speak well and act well. 6. All great achievements have been the result, not so much of knowledge, as of thought. 7. Thought governs action, and he who governs thought is master of destiny. 8. The imagination must be kept pure or the gate is opened to the enemy. Thoughts are the seeds of acts. 9. Life takes its hues in a great degree from the color of your own mind. 10. Be careful to nurse every holy thought or desire that rises within you. Give attention to every holy appetite. 11. In order that your thoughts may be what you would have them, you must carefully select your mental food. 45 12. A man puts his soul to school, his thoughts are his teachers, or rather they are the school books in which his soul reads. 13. All useful and beautiful thoughts are the issue of labor, of study, of observation, of research, of diligent elaboration. 14. Healthy thoughts are as essential to healthy bodies as pure thoughts to a clean life. 15. Thoughts are the flowers from which you must distill the essential flavoring of life. 16. It is the repression of good thoughts which makes bad men and women. 17. Keep your heads and hearts full of good thoughts, that bad thoughts may find no room to enter. 18. Evil thoughts, though hidden, color the actions when intended to be good, cause distrust, and often do as much damage as though put into execution. 19. Evil thoughts are worse enemies than lions and tigers, for you can keep out of the way of wild beasts, but bad thoughts win their way everywhere. 20. When the mind is not healthily employed, it seeks unhealthy employment ; it is never idle. 21. He who stores his mind with what is trivial, vulgar or base, will find it impossible to think of that which is noble or sublime. 2.2. You cannot take a bad thought into your mind without putting yourself in danger. 23. No evil thought can dwell and breed in the human heart unless its presence is tolerated and encour- aged. 24. A good man out of the good treasures of his heart brings forth that which is good ; and an evil man out of the evil treasures of his heart brings forth that which is evil ; for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. 25. Teach children that they lead these two lives : the life without, and the life within ; and that the inside must be as pure in the sight of God as the outside is in the sight of men. 26. A thought commences with an impression, strengthens to an idea, grows to a purpose, and culmi- nates in action. 46 CHARACTER: A MORAL TEXT-BOOK. Book IV. Part 10. Habit. All habit gathers, by unseen degrees, As brooks make rivers, rivers run to seas. — Dry den. 1. The best support of character will always be found in habit, which, according as the will is directed rightly or wrongly, as the case may be, will prove either a benignant ruler or a cruel despot. 2. Repeated acts, one following another, at length become consolidated in habit, determine the action of the human being for good or for evil, and, in a word, form the character. 3. Man becomes a slave to his constantly repeated acts. In spite of the protests of his weakened will the trained nerves continue to repeat the acts even when the doer abhors them. What he at first chooses at last compels. 4. Habit is a cable ; you weave a thread every day, and at last you cannot break it. 5. Habit determines almost infallibly what a man shall do in any given situation; it determines with pos- itive certainty what his first unthinking impulse shall be. 6. Character is merely the effect of your habits, and if your daily habits are not the very best of which you are capable, then your character cannot be strong and noble. 7. Infinite good comes from good habits, which must result from the common influence of example, intercourse, knowlege, and actual experience — morality taught by good morals. 8. A habit may be either good or bad according to whether you rule it or it rules you. 9. The first instruction for youth consists in hab- its, not in reasonings ; in examples rather than in direct lessons. 10. The education of a young man or a young woman is, in a few words, embraced in the power of habit. 47 11. The propensities of habit are as teachable as anything else, and are very essential to happiness. 12. Many a youth has been hampered because of peculiarities which he has allowed to creep into his per- sonality of manner, which, if realized by himself, might easily have been pruned and trained, had he only been taught the secret of habit forming. 13. The habits formed in boyhood characterize the man. 14. The chains of habit are generally too small to be felt until they are too strong to be broken. 15. If evil thoughts and habits once get lodged in your heart and life, it will cost a terrible struggle to free yourself from their control. 16. Habits, good or bad, that have been lost sight of for years, will spring into a new life to aid or injure you at some critical moment. 17. Precision, and the practice of the utmost cour- tesy of manner, induce habits which become perma- nent. 18. It is a beautiful arrangement in the mental and moral economy of your nature, that that which is performed as a duty, may, by frequent repetitions, become a habit ; and the habit of stern virtue may hang around your neck like a wreath of flowers. 19. Habit and training make the difference between the gentleman and the boor ; and habit is made up of the ten thousand little acts, small expressions and trivial affairs which eventually become autocratic, and result in sweetness of demeanor or in the awkward and clumsy appearance of the untrained and ill-taught person. 20. To create and maintain that vigor of mind which is able to contest the empire of habit, may be regarded as one of the chief ends of moral discipline. 21. Habit is induced by environment and ideals, or what is around and before you, the choice of both being largely under your control. 22. That which most easily becomes a habit is the exercise of the will. 23. Deep in the very nature of animate existence is that principle of facility and inclination, acquired by repetition, called habit. 4 8 CHARACTER: A MORAL TEXT-BOOK. Book IV. Part 11. Association. In companions That do converse and waste the time together, Whose souls do bear an equal yoke of love, There must needs be a like proportion Of lineaments, of manners, and of spirit. — Shakespeare. 1. Companionship is education, good or bad. It develops manhood, high or low; it lifts the soul upward or drags it downward ; it ministers to virtue or to vice. 2. Let your company be always, where possible, better than yourself; and when you have the misfortune to move amongst your inferiors, bear in mind this seriously, that if you do not seize the apt occasion to draw them up to your level — which requires wisdom as well as love — they will certainly not be slow to drag you down to theirs. 3. There are few situations in life where you may not have some power of choosing your companions ; and remember that moral contagion, like the infectious power of physical disease, borrows half its strength from the weakness of the subject with which it comes in contact. 4. Morality and vice are both acquired through association and observation. 5. Companionship with the wise and energetic never fails to have a most valuable influence on the formation of character — increasing your resources, elevating your aims, and enabling you to exercise greater dexterity and ability in your own affairs, as well as more effective helpfulness of others. 6. The whole of your life depends upon the people with whom you live familiarly. 7. It is impossible that association with those about you should not produce a powerful influence in the formation of your character. 8. More of that which may most properly be called culture, wisdom or unwisdom, morality or immorality, refinement or vulgarity, chastity or unchastity, is 49 absorbed from habitual associates, than in any other way or in all other ways put together. 9. All go to school to one another, and you are constantly learning from your companions. You catch their peculiarities and ways. You get into their habits of thought and action. You set them up as your ideals, and what they are, you try to become. 10. The good is as easily and deeply absorbed as the bad ; evil companionship does no more for your down-pulling than good companionship does for your upbuilding. 11. If you cannot always avoid the contagion of low company, you may at all events ban yourself from voluntarily marching into it. 12. You will never forget your companionships nor will you ever be free from the influence and example of your associates. 13. Not many companions does a young man or a y young woman need, but such as they do have should be the best. 14. Girls, be very careful to choose well your male friends. 15. Nothing is of greater importance than the companionship permitted to young girls. 16. Do not think that you can associate habitually with the impure and at the same time preserve your purity. 17. There is no reason why young men should not be just as virtuous as young women, and if the loss of their society and love be the price they are forced to pay for vice, they would not pay it. 18. A man in morals, manners and character, is known by the company he keeps. 19. The best company is that which is the most improving and entertaining. If you can neither receive nor bestow benefit, leave that company at once. 20. It is easier to sink to the level of evil compan- ions than to raise them : encourage them to better ways, but avoid contamination. 21. No matter how sly, how secret, no matter if your associations have been in the dark, their images will sooner or later appear in your face and conduct. 5o CHARACTER: A MORAL TEXT-BOOK. Book IV. Part 12. Individuality. How happy is he born and taught, That serveth not another's will; Whose armor is his honest thought, And simple truth his utmost skill. — Wotton. 1. Every man is bound to develop his individuality, to endeavor to find the right way of life, and to walk in it. You have the will to do so : the power to be yourself and not the echo of somebody else, nor the reflection of lower conditions, nor the spirit of current conventions. 2. Individuality must be upheld; for without indi- viduality there can be no liberty. Individuality is everywhere to be spared and respected, as the root of everything good. 3. Individuality is the same thing with develop- ment, and it is only the cultivation of individuality which produces, or can produce, well-developed human beings. 4. In proportion to the development of your indi- viduality, you become more valuable to yourself, and are therefore capable of being more valuable to others. 5. By the influence of early impressions, the force of example, and the power of habit, the character becomes slowly and imperceptibly, but at length decid- edly formed ; the individual acquires those traits and qualities by which he is distinguished, and which bear directly upon his happiness and welfare. 6. It is energetic individualism which produces the most powerful effect upon the life and actions of others, and really constitutes the best practical education. 7. As human progress is made by individual effort, it behooves all persons to labor and study for them- selves, regardless of what this or that man says. 8. While the mind should be filled with literature, history, science and art, the main object of knowledge should be directed to the individual purpose in life, and everything made tributary to this purpose. 9. Although the force of example will always exercise great influence upon the formation of character, the self-originating and sustaining force of your own 5i spirit must be the main stay. This alone can hold up the life, and give individual independence and energy. 10. The highest aim of life is to offer that contribu- tion which you, as an individual, are peculiarly fitted to make toward the attainment of the public ends of man- kind. When living only for yourself, absorbed in your private pleasures and pains, you are a creature of little worth ; but when you become the organ of humanity, you acquire a lasting worth, and your individuality pos- sesses an inviolable sanctity. ii. The man who dares to think for himself and act independently, does a service to his race. 12. As the world always makes way for the man with a will, so it always listens to an independent thinker. 13. He only is independent in action who has been earnest and thorough in preparation and self-culture. 14. The spirit of independence is not merely a jealousy of your own particular rights, but a respect for the rights of others. 15. Each man has his special duty to perform, his special work to do. If he does it not, he himself suffers, and others suffers through him. 16. Every man stamps his own value upon himself, and you are great or little according to your own will. 17. Personality has more than any other single element to do with success or failure in your under- takings. 18. You must rule out from all your thoughts of moral law the notion that you have more rights than other persons have, or that you have fewer duties. 19. You are not so important a person as you think, and the sooner you learn this, the better it will be for all concerned. 20. The same characteristics that are prominent in the boy will show themselves in the man. 21. Whether you know the moral law or not, you suffer bad consequences from not living in compliance with its demands, or you prosper because you are acting in accordance with it. 52 CHARACTER: A MORAL TEXT-BOOK. Book V. Part 1. Manhood. A glorious company, the flower of men, To serve a model for the mighty world, And be the fair beginning of a time. — Tennyson. 1. When the elements of character are brought into action by determinate will, and influenced by high pur- pose, man enters on and courageously perseveres in the path of duty. At whatever cost of worldly interest, he may be said to approach the summit of his being. He then exhibits character in its most intrepid form, and embodies the highest idea of manliness. 2. The first requisite of all education and discipline should be manliness. 3. He who regards manhood and character as the supreme objects of life may not be rich in money, but he is rich in a truer and better sense; for manhood is above all riches and overtops all titles, and character is greater than any career. 4. Strong in purpose and strong in action ; strong within and strong without ; strong against foes that are seen and strong against foes that are unseen ; all the way up and all the way down ; all the way around and all the way through ; first, last, and always — strong. It needs neither title nor crown to argue the imperial majesty of such manhood. 5. True manhood is imperial. It does not need the rite of coronation, for it is crowned already. Its majesty is supreme in all lands, all ages, all worlds. 6. Back of attainments and achievements, deep down beneath graces and gifts, back of cunning hand and eloquent tongue and sagacious thought — lies the make-up of the man, the character; and the make-up of manhood determines its measures. 7. The best things in manhood are not those reserved for the elect few, but level to the reach of all. 8. Manhood is as strong as it is gentle, and as gentle as it is strong. 9. Manhood and strength are synonymous, for strength is the glory of manhood. 53 io. In material wealth and the splendors of an ornate civilization, the world is rich enough ; but the need abides for simple, unadorned, unpurchasable, incor- ruptible, royal manhood. 11. The great thing is to be a man; to have a high purpose, a noble aim, to be dead in earnest, to yearn for the good and the true. 12. Everywhere, and under almost all circumstan- ces, however externally adverse, the true man may grow. 13. Always be conscious that you are a man, and that you are expected to live up to the best that is in you. 14. Manhood's truest glory lies in contending with and overcoming that which is hard. 15. Through discipline, education and experience, the child is developed in hardy mental, moral and physical manhood. 16. Truthfulness is the manliest of virtues and the very basis of all true manhood. 17. The worst of youthful indiscretions are, not that they destroy health so much as that they sully man- hood. 18. Service will decide the dignity and determine the worth of manhood. 19. True manhood will not lose its individuality in a crowd, but has always the courage of its convictions, and is not afraid to say no though all the world say yes. 20. Firmness and decision, after due thought and inquiry, are inseparable from any conception of manli- ness. 21. When a man is upright and pure and generous, he is also intelligent and skillful and strong and brave, 22. It matters not how much money a man may have, if he is possessed of a good character, respect- abilty, and the sterling qualities of manhood. 23. The measure of manhood is the degree of skill attained in the art of carrying yourself so as to pour forth on all men the inspirations of love and hope, and to evoke good even from the meanest and wickedest of mankind. 54 CHARACTER: A MORAL TEXT-BOOK. Book V. Part 2. Truth. Truth crushed to earth shall rise again; The eternal years of God are hers; But Error, wounded, writhes with pain, And dies among his worshipers. — William Cullen Bryant. 1. Truth alone may not constitute a great man, but it is the most important element of a great character. It gives security to those who employ you and those who serve under you. 2. Truth is a virtue without which force is enfeebled, justice corrupted, honesty becomes dissimula- tion, patience intolerable, chastity a dissembler, liberty lost, and pity superfluous. 3. Truth is the foundation of all knowledge, and the cement of all societies. 4. Truth is the light of the earth, the pedestal of justice, and the basis of good policy. 5. Truth — the open, bold, honest truth — is always safest, for anyone, in any and all circumstances. 6. Truth is the essence of principle, integrity, and independence. It is the primary need of man. 7. Truth is the quality, more than any other, that commands the esteem and respect, and secures the con- fidence of others. 8. Truth is necessary to permanency. 9. Truth exhibits itself in action. 10. Truthfulness is at the foundation of all per- sonal excellences. 11. Truth is simple, requiring neither study nor art. 12. Truth and reality stand for the same thing. Reality is truth out of the mind, and truth is reality in the mind. 13. Truth, latent in the mind, is hidden wisdom and invisible treasure. 14. Truth can easily defend itself against all the ingenuity and cunning wisdom of men, and against the treacherous plots of all the world. 55 15. Inward truthfulness is a self-regarding duty; social truthfulness is a form of justice. The words you speak to your neighbor are used by him as building- stones in the architecture of his daily conduct. You have no right to defeat the purposes of his life, to weaken the dwelling he is erecting, by supplying him with worthless building material. 16. Invite the operation of searching truths, for their keen edge will destroy nothing but that which would destroy you. 17. The greatest friend of truth is time ; her great- est enemy is prejudice; and her constant companion is humility. 18. Falsehood loses you the love and kindness of others; it inflicts injuries upon others; it severs you from the friendship of your associates ; it takes from you your self-respect; and it leads to bigger falsehoods and even crimes. 19. There can be no excuse for lying; neither is there anything equally despicable and dangerous as a liar, no man being safe who associates with him. 20. No consideration can justify the sacrifice of truth, which ought to be sovereign in all the relations of life. 21. No one likes or trusts a person who tells lies. No one wants him for a friend. 22. All flimsy, shallow, and superficial work, in fact is a lie, of which a man ought to be ashamed. 23. There is nothing about which people generally are so sensitive as a doubt of their veracity. 24. The firmest and noblest ground upon which people can live is truth ; the real with the real ; a ground on which nothing is assumed. 25. You must indicate what is true if you mean to speak or write naturally, forcibly and delicately. 26. Remember to tell the truth. If you do nothing naughty you will not be afraid to tell it, and if you do something wrong it makes it much worse to tell a lie about it. 27. No pleasure is comparable to standing on the vantage ground of truth. 56 CHARACTER: A MORAL TEXT-BOOK. Book V. Part 3. Honesty. Man is his own star, and that soul that can Be honest is the only perfect man. — John Fletcher. 1. An honest man is the noblest work of God. 2. Honesty is uprightness, trustworthiness, and fidelity. It is sincerity of intention, candor of speech, and dutifulness of conduct. It is the absence of hypoc- racy, empty pretense, and that disgusting affectation which tries to pass for more than it is worth. 3. Simple honesty of purpose goes a long way in life, if founded on a just estimate of yourself and a steady obedience to the rule you know and feel to be right. It holds you straight, gives you strength and sustenance, and forms a mainspring of vigorous action. 4. Let your honesty be a law of your being, hon- ored for its own sake, not for expediency, else seeming advantage may outweigh resolution. 5. Be honest in your inmost thoughts ; not as to money alone, but as to all things — your time, attention, interest, and universal consciousness. 6. Honesty in thought, expression and deed, is essential to any success worth the name. 7. The mass of men are undoubtedly honest. If it were not so the business of the world would stand still. 8. All honest men want work, and all honest men should be provided with employment. 9. Honesty ought to result from some higher sen- timent than a desire for your own welfare. 10. No man is bound to be rich or great — no, nor to be wise ; but every man is bound to be honest. 11. It pays any one to be honest in all walks of life. 12. Honesty is the plainest and humblest manifes- tation of the principle of truth. 13. Character, while respecting the personality of others, preserves its own individuality and independ- ence ; and has the courage to be morally honest, though 57 it may be unpopular ; trusting tranquilly to time and experience for recognition. 14. Model your career upon a basis of absolute, undeviating honesty and you will not have to seek long for a place of trust. 15. You must be absolutely honest with yourself. 16. An honest man's word is as good as his bond. 17. There is a dishonesty which does not stoop to steal, but which pretends to a faithful service while actually shirking work waiting to be done. 18. All bad work is lying. It is thoroughly dis- honest. You pay for having work done well ; if it is done badly and dishonestly, you are robbed. 19. Many a man has ruined his financial future by what he thought were insignificant lapses from honesty. 20. An act must be either honest or dishonest without any qualification. 21. There is only one grade of honesty. 22. Never engage in any business unless you can be honest in it ; if it will not give a fair living without fraud, leave it, as you would the gate of death. 23. An honest man will continue to be so, though surrounded on all sides by rogues. 24. You ought not only to restore that which is unduly gotten, or unawares let slip by others, but to seek out how you may do right. You steal the thing you find, that you labor not to restore. 25. The man who is honest as a mere matter of policy is, of course, not to be trusted, for he is liable at any time to think that his interests require him to be dishonest, and then there is nothing to hold him to the truth. 26. You cannot be upright amid the various temp- tations of life unless you are honest for the right's sake. -27. Be frank and honest. Let your friends know that you can be depended on. 28. An honest man has in his bosom a treasure of more real value than the wealth of nations. 29. The law of frankness is the law of honesty, that is at once the foundation of character and crowns the structure with strength and beauty. 58 CHARACTER: A MORAL TEXT-BOOK. Book V. Part 4. Self. Whate'er the passion, knowledge, fame, or pelf, Not one will change his neighbor with himself. The learn' d is happy nature to explore, The fool is happy that he knows no more; The rich is happy in the plenty given, The poor contents him with the care of heaven. — Pope. i. Most important of all are the duties that you owe to yourself. These may be classed under three heads — physical, mental, and moral. 2. You should look at yourself, as it were, in a mir- ror, where you can compare your own frailties with a perfect manhood. 3. Nothing else is so important to man as the study and knowledge of himself. 4. Destiny is not about you, but within — yourself must make yourself. 5. After being just to yourself, your highest duty is the consideration of others. In this consideration, woman should have the first place. 6. The kind of world you carry about in yourself is the important thing, and the world outside takes all its grace, color and value from that. 7. No matter where you go, no matter who your ancestors were, what school or college you have attend- ed, or who helps you, your best opportunity is in your- self. The help you get from others is something outside of you, while it is what you are, what you do yourself, that counts. 8. The best sort of character cannot be formed without effort. There needs the exercise of constant self- watchfulness, self-discipline, and self-control. There may be much faltering, stumbling, and temporary defeat, difficulties and temptations manifold to be battled with and overcome ; but if the spirit be strong, and the heart be upright, you need not despair of ultimate success. 9. A due amount of self-knowledge is necessary for those who would be anything or do anything in the world. 59 io. Everyone is the artificer of his own fortune. n. Everyone must learn life for himself. 12. Hold yourself responsible for a higher stand- ard than anybody else expects of you. 13. You will find nothing in the world which you do not first find in yourself. 14. Self-reverence, self-knowledge, self-control, these alone lead life to sovereign power. 15. Keep your personal standard high. 16. Be a friend to yourself and others will. 17. The greatest evils are found within you, and from yourself also you must look for your greatest good. 18. A man should never despise himself, for bril- liant success never attends on the man who is contemn- ed by himself. 19. Man in his weakness is the creature of cir- cumstances. Whether he be victim or victor depends largely on himself. 20. Every defect in your life not only comes from a cause, but as a rule from some cause within yourself. 21. When things go wrong, look for the blame in yourself ; in most cases you will look at exactly the right place. 22. To yourself be true ; and it must follow, as the night the day, you can not then be false to any man. 23. Success or failure, in a great measure, hinges on the knowledge you have of yourself. 24. People seldom improve when they have no oth- er model but themselves to copy. 25. Self-regard easily becomes self-love and self- adulation, and thus the most serious of ills. But the fact remains that each individual should understand his strength and his weakness, become thoroughly acquaint- ed with himself. 26. No one can disgrace you but yourself. 27. He who estimates his money the highest values himself the least. 28. Self-respect and self-esteem are good qualities, but not self-righteousness, self-congratulation, self-de- preciation, or self-approbation. 6o CHARACTER: A MORAL TEXT-BOOK. Book V. Part 5. Self-Control. And free is he, and only he, Who, from his tyrant passions free, By fortune undismayed, Has power within himself to be By self obeyed. — Anon. 1. In the supremacy of self-control, consists one of the perfections of the ideal man. Not to be impulsive — not to be spurred hither and thither by each desire that in turn comes uppermost — but to be self-restrained, self- balanced, governed by the joint decision of the feelings in council assembled, before whom every action shall have been fully debated and calmly determined — that it is which education, moral education at least, strives to produce. 2. To acquire the art of properly commanding your- self in all circumstances — especially in the most trying emergencies, and at a moment of danger, when not a minute, perhaps not a second, should be lost — is as diffi- cult as it is important. 3. To be morally free you must be able to resist in- stinctive impulse, and this can only be done by the exer- cise of self-control. It is this power which constitutes the real distinction between a physical and a moral life, and that forms the primary basis of individual character. 4. To conquer yourself and to rise above the temp- tations of greed and passion, is as great a success as any man ever attained. 5. Real glory springs from the conquest of your- self; and without that the conqueror is but the veriest slave. 6. Self-control is only courage under another name. It may almost be regarded as the primary essence of character. 7. It is not enough to have great qualities, you should also have the management of them. 8. In the supremacy of self-control consists one of the perfections of the ideal man. 6i 9. He who would succeed must hold all his faculties under perfect control ; they must be disciplined, drilled, until they obey the will. 10. The man who controls himself may hope to control other men. 11. There is many a man whose tongue might gov- ern multitudes if he could only govern his tongue. 12. A self-controlled mind is a free mind, and free- dom is power. 13. He who has mastered himself will be stronger than his passions, superior to circumstances, higher than his calling, greater than his speech. 14. No one can call himself educated until every voluntary muscle obeys his will. 15. The most disagreeable persons are those who cannot or will not control themselves. 16. When you can say no, not only to things that are wrong and sinful, but also to things pleasant, which would hinder and clog your grand duties and your chief work, you shall understand more fully what life is worth and how to make the most of it. 17. You need to gain the habit of self-command in all circumstances, and this is best acquired by daily practice in the continually recurring small matters of life. 18. To feel the thrill which comes from the con- sciousness of complete self-mastery; this is life raised to its highest standard. 19. There is no danger that may not be averted, no sin that may not be overcome, by him who has the moral courage to begin striving and the moral strength to keep striving till he is master of himself. 20. Men without the virtue of self-denial are not only subject to their own selfish desires, but they are usually in bondage to others who are like-minded with themselves. 21. Never allow yourself to be convinced that you are not complete master of yourself. 22. No one will pay any serious attention to a man who cannot govern himself. 62 CHARACTER: A MORAL TEXT-BOOK. Book V. Part 6. Self- Respect. He that respects himself is safe from others; He wears a coat of mail that none can pierce. — Longfellow. i. If self-respect be highly esteemed and highly enthroned in your life, and if you shun any occasion of offense to it, you will not depart far from the path of rectitude. It is vastly more important to respect your- self, to be able to look upon your own soul without blushing — or rather to have your soul look upon you — than it is to be respected by other men. When self-re- spect goes then manliness disappears with it. 2. As men respect themselves, so will they usually respect the personality of others. And this is a prime factor in gaining the best results in everyday life. 3. To attain the most thorough self-respect, you must give your earnest attention to being, instead of striving to keep up appearances, by simply seeming. 4. If a man possesses the consciousness of what he is, he will soon learn what he ought to be ; let him have a theoretical respect for himself, and a practical will soon follow. 5. Self-respect is the root of most of the virtues, especially of cleanliness, chastity, reverence, sobriety and honesty. But it is not enough for you to possess these characteristics, unless you fully realize the fact, and feel a personal interest in retaining them. 6. Self-respect is the noblest garment with which a man may clothe himself — the most elevating feeling with which the mind can be inspired. 7. Independent, manly self-respect is a guard that keeps out much evil. 8. With self-respect should go self-doubt, self-crit- icism, and humility. These are the proper complements and preserve the balance. 9. The high-minded youth who would keep his self- respect, needs to remember particularly, that he is not to abstain from wrong because it may possibly injure him- self or others eventually, but he is to abhor the unclean 63 and questionable deed because it is absolutely certain to blur, to vitiate, and, if persistently repeated, to destroy the moral vision. 10. If you wish people to respect you, respect your- self. ii. You must have that self-respect that lifts you above meanness, and makes you independent of slights and snubs. 12. You may have a stalwart self-respect that will be a lifting power from within ; will create a power of resistance to temptation from without, and lay the foun- dation for the qualities of character and industry that are essential to true success. 13. The man who cannot respect himself, who is guilty of violating the sacred divinity within him, can never even regard himself as successful. He may take a little satisfaction in the thought that the world thinks him so, and that thousands covet the luxuries which he enjoys, but there is a self-condemnation which is con- stantly dragging at his heart, and robbing life of its su- preme satisfaction. 14. He that respects not is not respected. 15. No man can possibly improve in any company, for which he has not respect enough to be under some degree of restraint. 16. Self-respect is based upon the same principle as respect for others. 17. The man of character is reverential. The pos- session of this quality marks the noblest and highest type of manhood and womanhood. Reverence for things con- secrated by the homage of generations — for high objects, and noble aims — for the great men of former times, and the high-minded workers among your contemporaries. 18. Reverence is alike indispensable to the happi- ness of individuals, of families and of nations. Without it there can be no trust, no faith, no confidence, either in man or God — neither social peace nor social progress. 19. The surest way to spoil a boy is not to instill into his soul from the time he is an infant, a true rev- erence for woman, a regard for her virtue as sacred as the love he bears his mother. 6 4 CHARACTER: A MORAL TEXT-BOOK. Book V. Part 7. Self- Reliance. Thy spirit, Independence, let me share; Lord of the iron heart and eagle eye, Thy steps I follow with my bosom bare, Nor heed the storm that howls along the sky. — Smollett. 1. Man to be great must be self-reliant. Though he may not be self-reliant in all things, he must be self- reliant in the one in which he would be great. This self- reliance is not the self-sufficiency of conceit. It is daring to stand alone. 2. The man who is self-reliant seeks ever to discov- er and conquer the weakness within him that keeps him from the attainment of what he holds dearest; he seeks within himself the power to battle against all outside in- fluences. 3. Self-reliance is a grand element of character. 4. Among the mental qualifications which help on to success in life, there is none which is of more import- ance than self-reliance. 5. Self-reliance means other men looking to you; the want of it, your looking to other men. 6. Those men have won most who have relied on themselves. 7. Those who rely most on themselves for the accomplishment of any aim are the ones who do the best work. 8. The man who is not self-reliant is weak, hesitat- ing and doubting in all he does. He fears to take a de- cisive step, because he dreads failure, because he is wait- ing for some one to advise him, or because he dare not act in accordance with his own best judgment. 9. Discontent is the want of self-reliance ; it is in- firmity of will. 10. Carry out your plans and ideas yourself. 11. If you want a thing done well do it yourself. 12. Depend upon your own exertions and abilities, and they will reward your confidence. 13. Self-help has accomplished about all the great things of the world. 65 14. Self-help is the root of all genuine growth in the individual, and constitutes the true source of vigor and strength. 15. Individual men must exert themselves and help themselves, otherwise they never can be effectually help- ed by others. 16. Self-confidence sees the possibilities of the in- dividual ; self-reliance realizes them. 17. Too much guidance and restraint hinder the formation of habits of self-help. 18. Many things which are necessary to life, to pro- gress, and to comfort, you can do for yourself better than any one else can do them for you. 19. He who begins with crutches generally ends with them. Help from within always strengthens, but help from without, as a rule, enfeebles. 20. The man or woman who is helped seldom be- comes a complete success. 21. Fight your own battles. Ask no favors of any one and you will succeed a thousand times better than one who is always beseeching some one's influence and patronage. 22. Every one of you is in duty bound, as well as supremely privileged, to make the most of yourself. As soon as this is done, so far as it can be in the schools, you should set about earning bread and serving your fellows. 23. Every man and woman in good health ought to earn enough to support themselves. 24. A man must learn to stand upright upon his own feet, to respect himself, to be independent of charity and accident. It is on this basis only that any super- structure of intellectual cultivation worth having can possibly be built. 25. Believe in yourself. You may succeed when others do not believe in you, but never when you do not believe in yourself. 26. When you depend upon yourself, you know that it is only on your merit that you will succeed. Then you discover your latent powers, awake to your manhood, and are on your mettle to do your utmost. 66 CHARACTER: A MORAL TEXT-BOOK. Book V. Part 8. Honor. Honor and fame from no condition rise; Act well your part, there all the honor lies. — Pope. 1. It is the possession of established and unwaver- ing principles that makes a man a firm character. These principles relate to right and wrong, and to everything about which the judgment has to balance probabilities. 2. Principles are the same in small affairs as in great ones, the violation of the first will lead to the viola- tion of the other. 3. You must educate yourself into those feelings which teach you to consult the welfare and comfort of others, and to bow yourself to the restraint of honor. 4. All wise men have viewed life as a contest in which the brave and confident come off with honor, and the timid and foolish with loss and perhaps dishonor. 5. The battle of life is, in most cases, fought up- hill ; and to win it without a struggle were perhaps to win it without honor. 6. The man of honor is his own severest critic. What he might pardon to the weakness or peculiar temp- tations of others he cannot pardon in himself. He is es- pecially severe in regard to what he does or is tempted to do in secret. 7. He is the noblest man who puts the highest esti- mate upon others. 8. A good name is one of the few honors which all men alike desire. 9. If you lose your honor you lose yourself. 10. There is no success without honor. 11. A truly honorable man is very sensitive to all matters which appear to cast discredit on his integrity or veracity. 12. The shortest and surest way to live with honor in the world, is to be in reality what you would appear to be. 13. The young man who starts out with an armor of honor and a lance of courtesy is well equipped for 6; life's battles. It may be that he will not win the success which comes from trampling on others, but he does not care for that kind of success. 14. A man should care more for his word than for his life. 15. What happens to your private character may not, at times, be important ; but it is important that you assert the dignity of humanity to the last breath. 16. To learn to love all kinds of nobleness gives in- sight into the true significance of things, and gives a standard to settle their relative importance. 17. The inviolable bond of a promise, the sacred obligation of an oath, the respect due parents, the rever- ence for old age, the strictest obedience to the laws, and above all, the love of country — the noble flame of patriot- ism — should be early and assiduously inculcated. 18. A man is of consequence in the world when it is known that he can be relied on — that when he says he knows a thing, he does know it — that when he says he will do a thing, he can do it and does do it. Thus reli- ableness becomes a passport to the general esteem and confidence of mankind. 19. A noble heart will disdain to subsist, like a drone, upon other's labors ; but it will rather outdo its private obligations to other men's care and toil, by con- siderate service to others. 20. The demand is for men, high-minded, staunch- hearted men, that dare to stand for the right and work with a purpose unmoved by popular clamor. 21. You can learn to live nobly only by acting nobly on every occasion that presents itself. 22. Moral principles are social and universal. They form, in a manner, the party of humankind against vice and disorder, its common enemy. 23. You should act honorably as a matter of honor, — but it pays also from a financial standpoint. 24. The only chivalry worth having is that which is the readiest to pay deference to the old, protect the feeble, and serve womankind, regardless of rank or age. 68 CHARACTER: A MORAL TEXT-BOOK. Book V. Part 9. Integrity. Lie not; but let thy heart be true to God, Thy mouth to it; thy actions to both. Cowards tell lies. Dare to be true, nothing- can need a lie; A fault which needs it most Grows two thereby. — Herbert. 1. Integrity first, integrity last. That must be your corner-stone if you are building up a character that will stand against every temptation, every snare, every al- lurement, and give you a spotless reputation, and the best things of life that money cannot buy. 2. There is no safety for a young man in the early period of life, without strict and unbending integrity in word and deed. 3. Let nothing tempt you to cross the sacred line of perfect integrity; neither the smallness of the trans- action, intention to repay shortly, the example or bidding of others, the temptations of pleasure, or even the pres- sure of the keenest necessity. 4. Without absolute integrity a man may make money for awhile and appear to be successful, but he is, at best, a clever fool ; for his policy is one which is sure to be disastrous to him in the long run and bring him failure in the end. 5. Nothing more completely baffles one who is full of trick and duplicity than straightforward and simple integrity in action by another. 6. Integrity is never worth so much as when you have parted with your all to keep it. 7. The importance of strict punctuality and integ- rity cannot be overestimated. 8. Fidelity to the work in hand, and a genuine feel- ing of responsibility will eventually bring most of you into the right niches at the proper time. 9. He that is faithful in little is faithful in much. 10. Unless men can serve faithfully, they will not rule others wisely. 11. Fidelity in little things is one of the surest tests of character. 6p 12. Keep faith with yourself. When you have said in your heart that you will or that you will not do a thing, live up to your pledge. If you will not keep your word to yourself, with whom will you keep it? 13. The veriest beggar in the street is dishonored by a broken promise. 14. An unfaithful servant is worthless to God and man. 15. Industry and perseverance, coupled with fidel- ity, can do anything, but without them nothing can be done. 16. Elicit the confidence of others by fair dealing. 17. Better be poor and despised by others, than to have plenty and fall below the mark of self-respect, be- cause conscious of having betrayed your trust and prov- en recreant to obligations. 18. There is nothing more to be esteemed than manly firmness. 19. If you stand firm in your hour of trial, this firmness gives security to the mind, which always feels satisfaction in acting conformably to duty. 20. There is nothing like a steadfast man, one in whom you can have confidence, one who is found at his post, who arrives punctually, and can be trusted when you rely on him. 21. Steadfastness is a noble quality, but, unguided by knowledge, it becomes obstinacy. 22. Good conduct consists in regulating your life according to good principles ; and a willingness to abide by rules is the first, the indispensable condition of moral growth. 23. Men who can be relied on are always in de- mand. 24. Rectitude is only the confirmed habit of doing what is right. 25. Men of genuine excellence, in every station of life — men of industry, of integrity, of high principle, of sterling honesty of purpose — command the spontaneous homage of mankind. 26. Every brave man is a man of his word. 7° CHARACTER: A MORAL TEXT-BOOK. Book V. Part 10. Sincerity. Be these juggling fiends no more believ'd, That palter with us in a double sense; That keep the word of promise to our ear, And break it to our hope. — Shakespeare. 1. Sincerity is to speak as you think, to do as you pretend, make good what you promise, and really do what you would seem and appear to do. 2. The man who is sincere in the expressing of himself, in whatever line it may be, becomes a factor in the world. 3. The only conclusive evidence of a man's sin- cerity is that he gives himself for a principle. 4. The man who is sincere in everything that he does is the one whom men employ at good wages, and who is the maker of his own fortune. 5. Candor impresses with the idea of sincerity, but must be tempered with discretion. 6. Consistency lends to sincerity her greatest charm. 7. You cannot, in any given case, by any sudden and single effort, will to be true, if the habit of your life has been insincerity. 8. Sincerity is the highest quality of good manners. 9. The lesson that man has learned through time, is that duality of character is not good. 10. If you have any taint of the blood which you discover inclines you toward guile, insincerity and un- truthfulness, fortify yourself by the reflection that insin- cerity is a losing practice. 11. Nature forever puts a premium on reality. 12. The higher the character or rank, the less the pretense, because there is less to pretend to. 13. It is the men of conviction who give a sort of personal impact to opinions and convert ideas into elo- quence. 14. Earnestness of belief holds your attention as if there v/ere some authority in the very enthusiasm of a man, quite aside from his intellectual equipment. 7i 15. The earnest spirit finds its way to the hearts of others. 1 6. Whoever strives to do his duty faithfully is fulfilling the purpose for which he was created, and build- ing up in himself the principles of a manly character. 17. A profound conviction raises a man above the feeling of ridicule. 18. When working for others sink yourself out of sight, seek their interest. 19. The very effort to advance — to arrive at a high- er standard of character than you have reached — is in- spiring and invigorating; and even though you may fall short of it, you cannot fail to be improved by every hon- est effort made in an upward direction. 20. A good intention clothes itself with power. 21. A great mind disdains to hold anything by courtesy, and therefore never usurps what a lawful claim- ant may take away. 22. Your condition and character may, and should, continually change and improve ; but the public sample at any time should never absolutely misrepresent, though it may often accentuate its true qualities. 23. Give up no principle unless you are convinced of its absurdity or bad consequences. 24. One of the first steps to be taken, if you will have a character that will stand by you in prosperity and adversity, in life and in death, is to fortify your mind with fixed principles. 25. There is a kind of anger in a man that is not sinful, but essential to his moral perfection — the senti- ment of righteous indignation against wrong, which is quite different from resentment at a personal insult or injury, being not selfish or cruel, but noble, generous, and one of the principal supports of righteousness in human society. 26. When the true man, bent on good, holds by his purpose, he places but small value on the rewards or praises of the world ; his own approving conscience, and the "well done" which awaits him is his best reward. 27. You should be honest and outspoken at all times. 72 CHARACTER: A MORAL TEXT-BOOK. Book V. Part 11. Strength. What is strength, without a double share Of wisdom? Vast, unwieldly, burdensome; Proudly secure, yet liable to fall By weakest subtleties; not made to rule, But to subserve where wisdom bears command. — Milton. 1. Strength of character consists of two things, — power of will and power of self-restraint. It requires two things, therefore, for its existence, — strong feelings and strong command over them. 2. The strong man is he who never allows the low- er elements of his nature to usurp the place of the higher ; who makes servants of his passions, and governs him- self with reference to his physical and mental welfare. 3. The strong man is he who, by discipline, exer- cises a constant control over his thoughts, his speech and his acts. 4. That man is strongest who owes most to him- self. 5. To love power is natural to the strong. 6. Strength and responsibility go together. 7. The glory of a young man is in his strength. Weakness of any kind minimizes, belittles, cripples him. 8. The strength of youth is its unlimited hopeful- ness. 9. Strength is wealth. It is ability to help. It creates the obligation to use. It must be coined and put into circulation. The law of strength is exercise, its glory is to right wrong and protect weakness. 10. Nothing is sweeter than the tenderness of a strong man. 11. If there are those of such exalted virtue that it seems well-nigh impossible for them to go wrong, it is because of their strength. 12. The sense of power is the highest and best of pleasures, when the belief on which it is founded is a true belief, and has been fairly earned by investigation. 73 13. Mental strength is as necessary for the develop- ment of woman's character as of man's. It gives her capacity to deal with the affairs of life, the presence of mind which enables her to act with vigor and effect in moments of emergency. 14. A woman's strength is in her sweetness. 15. It is necessary for all, that they should mingle strength with • affection ; that they should be manly as well as tender, and be trained to help as well as be helped. 16. He is strongest who draws men to himself, who creates his company; this is through having a positive quality — moral courage and physical prowess. 17. To a strong man achievement is the only applause of value — the making of his point. 18. Strength can conquer circumstances. 19. You must measure the strength of a man by the power of the feelings he subdues, not by the power of those which subdue him. Hence composure is very often the highest result of strength. 20. He who possesses truthfulness, integrity, and goodness, united with strength of purpose, carries with him a power which is irresistible. He is strong to do good, strong to resist evil, and strong to bear up under difficulty and misfortune. 21. He who, with strong passions, remains chaste; he who, keenly sensitive, with manly power of indigna- tion in him, can be provoked, and yet restrain himself and forgive — these are strong men, the spiritual heroes. 22. To the brave head and strong hand, the capa- cious lungs and vigorous frame, fall, and always fall, the heavy burdens ; and where the heavy burdens fall the great prizes fall, too. 23. The weakness of submissive gentleness is true power. 24. Self-confidence and self-respect give a sense of power which nothing else can bestow. 25. Half the giant's strength is in the conviction that he is a giant. The strength of a muscle is enhanced a hundred fold by the will power. 74 CHARACTER: A MORAL TEXT-BOOK. Book V. Part 12. Discipline. We rise by the things that are under our feet; By what we have mastered of good or gain; By the pride deposed and the passion slain, And the vanquished ills that we hourly meet. — Anon. 1. Discipline is a part of life; and if met early, and accepted, all life becomes easier. The discipline which the real world gives is based on inexorable law, not on personal whim. 2. Not a day passes without its discipline, whether for good or for evil. There is no act, however trivial, but has its train of consequences. 3. The discipline which is the main end of educa- tion, is simply control acquired over your mental facul- ties ; without this discipline no man is a strong and accurate thinker. 4. The discipline of labor, frugality, self-denial, and self-control, which money-making gives, are worth a thousand times more than money. 5. Precepts and instructions are useful as far as they go, but without the discipline of real life, they remain in the nature of theory only. 6. It is every man's duty to discipline and guide himself according to his responsibilities, and the facul- ties with which he has been endowed. 7. The most self-reliant, self-governing man is always under discipline ; and the more perfect the dis- cipline, the higher will be his moral condition. 8. Speaking generally, the training and discipline that are most suitable for one sex in early life, are also the most suitable for the other; and the education and culture that fill the mind of the man, will prove equally wholesome for the woman. 9. Life is a discipline and you are in the school to learn. 10. The best discipline is always combined with freedom, mildness, sympathy, and affection. 11. Good discipline will greatly promote habits of integrity and openness. 75 12. Upon moral discipline depend the cultivation of the sense of self-respect, the education of the habit of obedience, the development of the idea of duty. 13. Business success depends, in no small degree, on that regulation of temper and careful self-discipline, which gives a wise man not only a command over him- self, but over others. 14. It is a great thing to have brains, but it is vastly better to be able and willing to command your brains confidently under all circumstances. 15. What every man needs, no matter what he is doing, is the best trained and developed mind it is pos- sible for him to have. 16. Get the best training you can. Nothing is too good for you, and no detail of knowledge unworthy of attention, so long as it is in your line. 17. The prime inquiry should be, where can train- ing buttress natural ability, so as to prevent natural weakness from neutralizing its efficiency. 18. The highest training fits best for the perform- ance of every task. 19. The main thing in training the young, is to develop to its utmost the genius that is the natural super- iority of each individual. 20. A great point to be aimed at, is to get the work- ing quality well trained. When that is done, the race will be found comparatively easy. 21. The education received at school is but a begin- ning, and is valuable mainly inasmuch as it trains the mind and habituates it to continuous application and study. 22. Even heredity, strong as it is, yields to con- stant, gentle and relentless training. 23. Training the hand and eye to do work well, leads individuals to form correct habits in other respects, and a good workman is, in most cases, a good citizen. 24. The training of any man, even the wisest, cannot fail to be powerfully influenced by the moral sur- roundings of his early years. 7 6 CHARACTER: A MORAL TEXT-BOOK. Book VI. Part 1. Manner. Manners are not idle, but the fruit Of noble nature and of loyal mind. — Tennyson. 1. Law and religion control behavior in its essen- tials; manner controls it in its details — regulating those daily actions which are too numerous and too unimpor- tant to be officially directed. 2. Good manner consists in pure thinking, pure speaking and pure acting. 3. Good manner is not a mere matter of form. It is essential that there be some standard of deportment, but the garment of formal politeness is easily assumed, and may conceal depravity. True politeness, the kind that cannot be counterfeited, finds its source in a good heart ; sincerity is its chief element. 4. Etiquette is the corner-stone of society. With- out some knowledge of it, no man or woman is fairly equipped for the daily round of business or social intercourse. It is a ladder by which the lowest and least conspicuous of men may reach a place from which to command the attention and respect of the mightiest. It is a passport recognized the world over. 5. The true spirit of good manners is very closely allied to that of good morals. 6. If manner is a product of a kind heart, it will please, though it be destitute of graceful polish. 7. Manner conveys high lessons and inspiring tok- ens of character. 8. Bad manner often neutralizes even honesty, industry, and the greatest energy; while agreeable man- ner wins in spite of other defects. 9. Bad manner is simply the result of neglect in early training. 10. It is by manner only that you can please, and consequently rise. 11. Manner is the ornament of action; and there is a way of speaking a kind word, or doing a kind thing, which greatly enhances its value. 77 12. Graceful manner is the outward form of refine- ment in the mind, and good affection in the heart. 13. As childhood advances to manhood, the transi- tion from bad manners to bad morals is almost imper- ceptible. 14. Fine manner, springing from a loving heart, makes the homeliest person beautiful and dowers the least intellectual with an irresistible fascination. 15. There is nothing, however minute, in manner, however insignificant in appearance, that does not demand some portion of attention from a well-bred man or woman. 16. Good manner is neither more nor less than good behavior, consisting of courtesy and kindness ; benevo- lence being the preponderating element in all kinds of mutually beneficial and pleasant intercourse among human beings. 17. Manner often places within easy reach what money cannot buy, and politeness has won more victo- ries than armies. 18. Manner may not be put on and off at pleasure, like clothing; manner is a part of the essentials of life, and belongs to the character. 19. The acquirement of good manner is not difficult, and only requires ordinary care, tact, and sagacity. 20. Eccentricity should be avoided. 21. To avoid wounding the feelings of another is the key to almost every problem of manner that can be proposed. 22. Good manner plays a most important part in the world of business. If a man has no manners he should at once begin to cultivate them, by selecting good society and by reading. Too much politeness is as bad as too little : there is a happy medium. 23. Manner is for everyday use, for the counting room as for the drawing room. 24. The most fascinating person is always the one of most winning manner, not the one of greatest physical beauty. 78 CHARACTER: A MORAL TEXT-BOOK. Book VI. Part 2. Society. Man in society is like a flower Blown in its natural bed; 'tis there alone His faculties expanded in full bloom Shine out: there only reach their proper use. — Cowper. 1. Men are subordinate members of the structure called society which, good or bad, on the one hand takes things good or bad from the individual conduct of man ; and on the other confers, by its own good or bad condi- tion, benefit or injury upon the individuals that go to constitute it. It works both ways. 2. The best part of human civilization is derived from social contact ; hence courtesy, self-respect, mutual toleration, and self-sacrifice for the good of others. 3. From the home, be it pure or impure, issue the principles and maxims that govern society. 4. To succeed you have got to conform to the cus- toms and the recognized methods of society. 5. The desire of pleasing is the basis of social con- nection. 6. Fine minds do more to make good society than fine clothes. 7. Gold cannot vie with virtue, and social position does not create manhood. 8. The moral cement of all society is virtue ; it unites and preserves, while vice separates and destroys. 9. Men of character are the conscience of the society to which they belong. 10. Generosity and tact are necessary to make good society. 11. The only way in which it is possible to acquire the habits of good society, is to live in no other. 12. A lack of the knowledge of the rules, usages and ceremonies of good society is a serious drawback to every individual whatever his sphere in life may be. 13. If you make yourself worthy of refined and intelligent society, you shall not be rejected from it; and in such society you shall acquire by example all that you have failed to learn from precept. 79 14. The deficiencies of early years need not keep you back from a position of eminence in society, if you will but strive for it. 15. Not only does the moral character, but the mental strength of man, find its safeguard and support in the moral purity and mental cultivation of woman, but the more completely the powers of both are developed, the more harmonious and well-ordered will society be — the more safe and certain its elevation and advancement. 16. In polite society great deference is paid to wo- man, and certain seemingly arbitrary requirements are made in her favor. 17. While the world lasts fashion will continue to hold perpetual sway, and influence to a certain extent the customs of society and mark the characters of men. 18. The highest end of social relations is a self-con- scious, self-determining man, thinking the true, willing the right, loving the good. These relations constitute the organism out of which alone he can be born into symmetrical, well-rounded life. 19. Moral laws are social products. They are not empirical, but fundamental, eternal, and essential. They inhere in the constitution of man. But it is only through relation that man comes to the recognition of them, as binding for conduct. 20. Each circle and section, each rank and class, has its respective customs and observances, to which conformity is required at the risk of being tabooed. 21. A young man is a social person. He enjoys be- ing with other people. 22. By making the rules of etiquette habitual as children, you remove all awkwardness and restraint from your manner when you are old enough to go into society. 23. Man was intended by nature as a creature of society, receiving and conferring benefits by association. 24. Society judges a man by his bearing, whether it is modest or assertive. By his manner, whether it is quiet, courteous and thoughtful. By his language, whether it is clean and refined, and by the company he keeps. 8o CHARACTER: A MORAL TEXT-BOOK. Book VI. Part 3. Gentleman. But nature, with a matchless hand, sends forth her nobly born, And laughs the paltry attributes of wealth and rank to scorn; She moulds with care a spirit rare, half human, half divine, And cries exulting, "Who can make a gentleman like mine?" — Eliza Cook. 1. A gentleman's first characteristic is that firm- ness of structure in the body which renders it capable of the most delicate sensation, and of structure in the mind which renders it capable of the most delicate sym- pathies. 2. A perfect gentleman instinctively knows just what to do under all circumstances, and need be bound by no written code of manner. 3. In whatever society or in whatever part of the world a gentleman may happen to be, he always com- plies externally with the spirit and usages of the place. 4. A gentleman is one who has reflected deeply on all the obligations which belong to his station, and who has applied himself ardently to fulfill them. 5. A gentleman employs in the regulation of his own conduct the strictest standard of propriety, and in his expectations of that of others is most lenient. 6. It takes four things to make a gentleman. You must be a gentleman in your principles, a gentleman in your tastes, a gentleman in your manner, and a gentleman in your person. 7. A gentleman will not only scorn to tempt any woman to sin, but he will seek to protect and defend all women from harm. 8. A gentleman holds himself to the same rule of honorable conduct that he expects and demands of wo- man. 9. A gentleman is respectful to his superiors, cour- teous to his equals, kind to his inferiors, and wishes all well. 10. He who wishes to be a gentleman must asso- ciate only with those whose tastes and habits are gen- tlemanly and whose language is refined. 11. A true gentleman will never forget that if he 8i is bound to exercise courtesy and kindness in his inter- course with the world, he is doubly bound to do so in his intercourse with those who depend on him for advice, protection and example. 12. A true gentleman is entirely free from every kind of pretense. He avoids homage instead of exacting it. 13. Do not imagine that you will easily acquire those qualities which will constitute you a gentleman. 14. Education begins the gentleman, but reading, good company and reflection must finish him. 15. A gentleman gives his company credit for re- finement of mind and entire purity of association. 16. A gentleman is always anxious to please and always willing to be pleased. 17. A gentleman is cautious in accepting a quarrel, but more cautious in giving cause for it. 18. A gentleman never violates decency, and re- spects the prejudices of honesty. 19. A gentleman's constant efforts are never to wound the feelings of another, and he is well aware that prejudice can excite feeling quite as strongly as truth. 20. Inordinate ambition, narrowness, smallness, stinginess, greediness, selfishness, must all be eliminat- ed from an inventory of the true gentleman. 21. A gentleman lends to virtue the forms of cour- tesy, and borrows from her the substance of sincerity. 22. There is nothing so admirable among men any- where and everywhere, as the display of gentlemanly qualities, and nothing more deplorable than their lack. 23. A sort of moral magnetism, a tact acquired by frequent and long association with others — alone give those qualities which keep you always from error, and entitle you to the name of a thorough gentleman. 24. High birth and good breeding are the privileg- es of the few ; but the habits and manners of a gentleman may be acquired by all. 25. From a right source can come no higher praise of a man than that he is a gentleman. 26. A gentleman forms his opinions boldly and ex- presses them gracefully. He values his own esteem too highly to be guilty of dishonor. 82 CHARACTER: A MORAL TEXT-BOOK. Book VI. Part 4. Lady. The reason firm, the temperate will, Endurance, foresight, strength, and skill — A perfect woman, nobly planned, To warn, to comfort, and command. — Wordsworth. 1. Lady and chastity are synonymous. 2. A virtuous woman is the most beautiful thing on earth, and one who is not is the vilest. 3. Strength, honor, wisdom, goodness and virtue, are a lady's requisites. 4. A girl neatly and properly dressed, who speaks well and acts politely and kindly, is a lady. 5. Fine dresses do not make a lady. 6. A woman whose general style of dress is chaste, elegant and appropriate, is generally, in disposition and mind, an object to love and admire. 7. Every lady should remember that to dress well is a duty which she owes to society; but to make it her idol is to commit something worse than a folly. Fashion is made for woman, not woman for fashion. 8. A lady can always be told by her voice and laugh — neither of which will be loud or coarse, but low and nicely modulated. 9. The least want of refinement in conversation or deportment lowers a woman forever. 10. A woman strong and womanly in all her ways, in whom the heart of a husband can safely trust — this is the perfect lady. 11. A high degree of intellectual refinement in the female is the surest pledge society can have for the im- provement of the male. 12. A woman's character is more easily affected by apparent contact with the worthless and dissipated than a man's. 13. A lady can always, by her own carriage and be- havior, protect her good name. 14. A lady is never guilty of an indelicate act. 15. Calumny will never attack the name of a woman who always conducts her acts like a lady. 83 16. Instill into young girls the principle that, above and before all, they are women — women whose character is of their own making, and whose lot is in their own hands. 17. A lady goes about her business in a quiet way and in her preoccupation is secure from all the annoy- ance to which a person of less perfect breeding might be subjected. 18. The true girl has to be sought for. She does not parade herself as show goods. She is not fashion- able. Generally, she is not rich. But, oh, what a heart she has when you find her! so large and pure and wo- manly. 19. The ideal woman is religious — has the wise, sweet, old-fashioned' notions about right and wrong. 20. Women observe all the delicacies of propriety in manner, and all the shades of impropriety, much bet- ter than men. 21. It is not enough that a gentlewoman should be clever, or well-educated, or well-born. To take her due place in society she must be acquainted with the minut- est rules of society. 22. To be womanly is the greatest charm of wo- man. 23. A woman must be truly refined to incite chival- ry in the heart of man. 24. Never approve a mean action, nor speak an unrefined word ; let all your conduct be such as an honor- able and right minded man may look for in his wife and the mother of his children. 25. There exists a strong bond between intelligence and beauty. Intelligence is said to be the beauty of ugliness, but it is also the most vital and lasting charm of the beautiful woman. 26. Without cultivated intelligence the most beau- tiful woman were little better than a well-dressed doll. 27. To exhibit an amiable exterior is essentially requisite in a young lady, for it indicates cleanliness, sweetness, a love of order and propriety, and all those virtues which are attractive to her associates. 28. Girls have much in their power with regard to boys ; to give them a true and high opinion of women. 84 CHARACTER: A MORAL TEXT-BOOK. Book VI. Part 5. Politeness. How sweet and gracious, even in common speech, Is that fine sense which men call Courtesy; Wholesome as air and genial as the light, Welcome in every clim e as breath of flowers — It transmutes aliens into trusting friends, And gives its owner passport round the globe. — Jas. T. Fields. i. True politeness is the outward sign of the heart's most generous impulses. It is the quality which distin- guishes a gentleman from a boor. 2. The best way to become a man of politeness, is to begin with the heart, to act on the principle of making every one as happy as is in your power, because you would have all others do so to you. No one can act on this principle for any length of time without possessing all the essentials of politeness. 3. Cleanliness is the first mark of politeness ; it is agreeable to others, and is a very pleasant sensation to yourself. 4. It is not sufficient that you are amiable and ele- gant in your deportment to strangers and to your ac- quaintances ; you must be undeviatingly so to your most intimate friends, to nearest relations, to father, mother, brothers, sisters, husband, and wife. 5. Politeness and good breeding are absolutely ne- cessary to adorn any or all other good qualities. With- out them, no knowledge, no perfection whatever, is seen in its best light. 6. Mere intercourse with the world, to some extent, gives a habit and taste for those modest and obliging observances which constitute true politeness. 7. Those who know you and care for you may ex- cuse your shortcomings, but the world at large knows you only as it sees you. Therefore, on the least word or action, depends your fate at its hands. 8. In the relaxation of home life there is more or less freedom from the formality that marks your inter- course with strangers and outsiders. But there should be none the less of real and genuine courtesy. 85 9. Some persons appear to be born polite. Others have to learn to be polite. A good deal is in the blood, and a good deal is in the breeding. 10. No accomplishment will atone for the want of genuine politeness. 11. You must feel polite before you can show po- liteness. Then it comes natural to you. 12. True politeness is the outward visible sign of those inward spiritual graces called modesty, unselfish- ness, and generosity. 13. The inbred politeness which springs from right- mindedness and kindly feelings is of no exclusive rank or station. 14. One who is wise will never violate the proprie- ties of well-bred people. 15. True politeness is perfect ease and freedom. It simply consists in treating others just as you love to be treated yourself. 16. Good sense and good nature suggest civility in general, but in good breeding there are a thousand little delicacies which are established only by custom. 17. Civility is to a man what beauty is to a woman — it creates an instantaneous impression in his behalf. 18. Propriety of deportment is the valuable result of a knowledge of yourself and respect for the rights of others ; it is a feeling of the sacrifices which are imposed on self-esteem by your own social relations, a sacred requirement of harmony and affection. 19. To be agreeable is to sacrifice selfish inclina- tion, to crucify exclusiveness, to be neither brutal nor brusque, but to make this one life which is given you as perfect and beautiful as you can. 20. The obligation to be hospitable is a sacred one, emphasized by every moral code known to the world. 21. The indispensable requisites to being a charm- ing and agreeable person are tact, unselfishness and sym- pathy. 2.2.. Politeness and good breeding are absolutely necessary to make you welcome and agreeable in con- versation and common life. 86 CHARACTER: A MORAL TEXT-BOOK. Book VI. Part 6. Culture. If thou couldst in vision see thyself the man God meant, Thou never more wouldst be the man thou art, content. — Anon. 1. High culture is sound culture, and may exist without much knowledge of, or particular respect for, mere conventional superficialities. 2. A person whose impulses and desires are his own — are the expression of his own nature, as it has been developed and modified by his own culture — is said to have character. 3. Whatever strengthens and clarifies the mind, whatever broadens the horizon of the vision, or intensi- fies your interest in higher things, is a source of culture. Culture is not the result of any study or combination of studies. It is concerned with your attitude toward na- ture and humanity, and there is no single gate through which all may pass to attain it. 4. The chief object of culture is, not merely to fill the mind with other men's thoughts, and to be the pass- ive recipient of their impressions, but to enlarge your individual intelligence, and render you a more useful and efficient worker in the sphere of life to which you may be called. 5. The higher the culture and the more educated the surroundings, the less the temptation to commit any act against society. 6. Culture is the result of training the mind in the best and most refined manner. 7. Toilsome culture is the price of great success, and the slow growth of a great character is one of its special necessities. 8. Culture and refinement are the products of long waiting and reflection. They come slowly and surely. If forced they are merely sham reflections of the genuine article. 9. Culture comes from the constant choice of the best within your reach. 87 io. Cultivate all that is warm and genial — not the cold and repulsive, the hard and morose. n. The longest lived men and women have, as a rule, been those who have attained great mental and moral development. 12. He who would live to a good old age, who would carry youth and freshness, symmetry and beauty of mind and body into ripe years, must have a cultured heart, an educated mind, and a well kept body. 13. Great thoughts and grand sentiments refine the face and manner, lift man above his surroundings and preserve him from the debility common to age. 14. Scholarship without good breeding puts your faults in bolder relief. 15. Culture must be wedded to a high purpose, or it will only marbleize the life. 16. Your conversation can never be worth listening to unless you cultivate your mind. 17. If good breeding and graceful refinement are ever most proper, they are always so. 18. The wider your acquaintance and the greater your experience with mankind, the more you learn to ap- preciate the clean-cut and delicate instincts that indicate the truly refined nature. 19. A calm and resolute bearing, a polished speech, an embellishment of trifles and the art of hiding all un- comfortable feelings are essential to gentility. 20. The unwritten code of gentility is constantly changing in some minor particulars, but its principles are immutable, and he who would become a gentleman must by some means make himself familiar with them. 21. From time immemorial music has been suppos- ed to exert a peculiarly refining and elevating influence on mankind. ^. Beauty of person will ever be found a dead let- ter unless it be animated with beauty of mind. 23. A man's good breeding is the best security against other people's ill manners. 24. There is scarcely anything of more importance to a child of either sex than good breeding. 25. The formation of taste may be upward or down- ward and is a process rather than an act. 88 CHARACTER: A MORAL TEXT-BOOK. Book VI. Part 7. Kindness. These are the heroes men today adore, These are the valiant ones above all story; This is the pathway to the modern glory, Which down the years with added power shall pour. —J. H. West. 1. Kindness is love shining in the face, speaking through the lips, and acting itself out in the daily life. It is not a mere impulse of goodness and generosity, spasmodic and intermittent, depending on the feeling of the moment, and changing with the ever-changing sur- face of the sensibility. It is a thoughtful goodness, a calculating benevolence, the result of deliberate choice. It is based on principle, not mere feeling, and it is man- ifested whether you feel like it or not. 2. Kindness is a bond that binds all mankind into one great family of brothers and sisters. 3. Kindness in the form of politeness and common courtesy makes the relations of men and women outside their own homes a source of pleasure and happiness, help- ing on every other good thing. 4. A kind word, or a kind look, will act on those on whom coercion has been tried in vain. While sym- pathy invites to love and obedience, harshness provokes aversion and resistance. 5. The cheapest of all things is kindness, its exer- cise requiring the least possible trouble and self-sacrifice. 6. The boy who is kind to animals and helpless things has in him one of the characteristics of greatness, and if he does not become great, he will certainly never become ignoble. 7. True kindness cherishes and actively promotes all reasonable instrumentalities for doing practical good. 8. If you are unkind your unkindness may be a stumbling block that will occasion some one else great misfortune. 9. Kindness does not consist in gifts, but in gentle- ness and generosity of spirit. 10. Kindness draws out the better part of every na- ture — disarming resistance, dissipating angry passions, 8 9 and melting the hardest heart. It overcomes evil and strengthens good. ii. Everyone can carry the deeds of kindness into everyday life and make themselves better and everyone around them happier by the influence of a consistent, lovely, unselfish life. 12. Gentleness is the absence of roughness and boisterousness ; it is mildness. It does not lose its tem- per and rage, it does not deal in threats and coarse abuse. 13. Gentleness is the absence of violence ; it is suav- ity of manner and sweetness of spirit. It melts rather than crushes, draws rather than drives, woos rather than compels. 14. Gentleness is the absence of sternness ; it is love. It takes the thunder out of the voice, and the frown from the face, and coldness from the heart, and harshness from the hand. 15. Gentleness has never in any case produced re- sistance or rebellion ; has never made people worse, but in all cases .made them better. 16. Power itself has not one-half the might of gen- tleness. 17. Many an otherwise good child has been driven to wicked thoughts and deeds, by harsh or unkind words, when kind words would have acted as an incentive to do only what was right and best. 18. A kind heart is a fountain of gladness, making everything in its vicinity to freshen into smiles. 19. Kind words are balm to the soul. They oil the entire machinery of life and keep it in good running order. 20. It is kind treatment that the weary world most needs. 21. Witty sayings are as easily lost as pearls slip- ping from a broken string, but a word of kindness is sel- dom spoken in vain. 22. Loving kindness is greater than laws, and the charities of life are more than all ceremonies. 23. The softest words make the deepest impression. 90 CHARACTER: A MORAL TEXT-BOOK. Book VI. Part 8. Dignity. From lowest place when virtuous things proceed, The place is dignified by the doer's deed: When great additions swell, and virtues none, It is a dropsied honor. — Shakespeare. i. The real dignity of a man lies not in what he has, but what he is. 2. Maintain dignity without the appearance of pride ; manner is something to everybody, and every- thing with some. 3. Grand and dignified expressions must be looked for from those, and those alone, whose thoughts are ever employed on glorious and noble objects. 4. True dignity is never gained by place, and never lost when honors are withdrawn. 5. The dignity of a really great nature refuses itself to the insistent demands of all untempered ambitions. 6. In addressing a person be sure to give him his proper title, as most people are jealous of their dignity. 7. There is but one way of looking at fate, whether blessings or afflictions, to behave with dignity under both. 8. To be idle and useless is neither an honor nor a privilege ; and though persons of small natures may be content merely to consume — men of average endowment, of manly aspirations, and of honest purpose, will feel such a condition to be incompatible with real honor and true dignity. 9. There are not different kinds of dignity for dif- ferent orders of men, but one and the same for all. 10. Restraint gives dignity and force. 11. To wrangle with your inferiors compromises dignity, to insult them is coarse. 12. Learn to enjoy yourself, to know the wealth that is in your own power — wisdom and goodness ; learn to assert the sovereignty and dignity of your soul. 13. Dignity does not consist in hollowness and in light-handedness, but in substantiality and in strength. 9i 14. Good breeding carries along" with it a dignity that is respected by the most petulant. Ill breeding in- vites and authorizes the familiarity of the most timid. 15. Learn to bend a little and not stand too much on your dignity. 16. An assumed air of importance will produce an underestimate of your real worth. 17. If you have an idea, express it ; if you are ardent, high-souled, show it ; if you have character, pronounce it. 18. A man should never be ashamed to own that he has been in the wrong, which is but saying, in other words, that he is wiser to-day than he was yesterday. 19. Attend to that which concerns you; that which concerns you not, let alone. 20. A man should be careful never to tell tales of himself to his own disadvantage. 21. A noble manhood or womanhood will lift any legitimate calling into respectability. 22. Never feel above your business. All legitimate occupations are respectable. 23. What no gentleman should say no gentleman need answer. 24. It is not wrong to be conscious of your own talents and ability. 25. Never be defeated by defeat or careless from success. 26. Avoid trifling conversation. 27. Have nobility of character ; take and enjoy what you have. 28. Keep cool and you command everybody. 29. Deliberate with caution, but act with decision ; and yield with gracefulness, or oppose with firmness. 30. You must learn to stand upright on your own feet, to respect yourself, to be independent of charity or accident. It is on this basis only that any superstruc- ture of intellectual cultivation worth having can possibly be built. 31. A gentleman is dignified but not haughty. 92 CHARACTER: A MORAL TEXT-BOOK. Book VI. Part 9. Dress. Costly thy habit as thy purse can buy, But not expressed in fancy; rich, not gaudy; For the apparel oft proclaims the man. — Shakespeare. i. Clothes are one of the accepted standards by which men are judged, the world over. They form the chief standard of first impressions ; for this reason alone, it would be difficult to overestimate their importance. Nothing else about you reflects so much your personal characteristics. 2. Always dress as neatly as possible. The expen- siveness of your apparel is not of so much importance but its freshness and cleanness are indispensable. 3. Carefulness of dress ranks with politeness of manner. 4. It is every woman's duty to make herself as beau- tiful as possible ; and no less the duty of every man to make himself pleasing in appearance. 5. Neither virtue nor ability will make you appear like a gentlewoman if your dress is slovenly and im- proper. 6. The well-dressed man is the one whose clothes do not make him the object of comment, either because they are showy or shabby. 7. The men who disregard the customs of dress are, as a rule, the men who have no regard for honesty, or virtue, or character. 8. There is little excuse for any man, who so de- sires, not being well dressed. Every cent a man puts into his clothes, so long as he stays within the limit of his income, is money well invested. 9. The well dressed man is not always he who wears expensive clothes. To be neat and clean is more than half. 10. To dress well requires something more than a full purse and pretty figure. It needs taste, good sense, and refinement. 11. Dress is even more prominent than manner. 93 12. Dress does not make character but it often pro- claims it. 13. Dress is a pretty sure index of the man or woman, and it has a great deal to do with personal ap- pearance, and therefore with success or failure in your undertakings. 14. To be well dressed does not necessarily mean to be fashionably dressed. 15. Everyone should dress in a style suitable to his business, and should be proud to wear the insignia of his trade or profession. 16. There is an appropriateness in dressing to suit the place you occupy. 17. Dress may almost be classed as one of the fine arts. It is certainly one of those arts, the cultivation of which is indispensable to any person moving in good society. 18. The most important consideration in the mat- ter of dress is yourself. Good clothes are a part of the cement with which you build your self-respect. A lack of care of outward appearances nearly always begets a lack of care as to inward conditions. 19. In early life dress helps to form the character, in later life it expresses it. 20. Upon the minor details of the toilet depend, in a great degree, the health, as well as the beauty, of the individual. 21. Among all classes of people, good clothes com- mand respect. 22. Fashion has always held sway and always will. It is right that it should and that you should pay proper respect to it. 23. A thoroughly agreeable man or woman is al- ways dressed appropriately for the function in which he or she shares, or for the business in hand. 24. It is economy for every young man to dress well ; it is a recommendation to good society ; it is a stepping-stone to a higher position. It pays to dress well. 25. Character, which cannot be concealed, pro- claims itself emphatically in your dress. 26. Dress, like wealth, is a power. 94 CHARACTER: A MORAL TEXT-BOOK. Book VI. Part 10. Simplicity. His words are bonds, his oaths are oracles; His love sincere, his thoughts immaculate; His tears pure messengers sent from his heart; His heart as far from fraud as heaven from earth. — Shakespeare. 1. Simplicity is the elimination of the non-essential in all things. It reduces life to its minimum of real needs ; raises it to its maximum of power. 2. Simplicity means the survival — not of the fittest, but of the best. In morals it kills the weeds of vice and weakness so that the flowers of virtue and strength may have room to grow. 3. Make simplicity the keynote of your life and you will be great, no matter though your life be humble and your influence seem but little. 4. Simplicity in act is the outward expression of simplicity in thought. Men who carry on their shoul- ders the fate of a nation are quiet, modest, unassuming. They are often made gentle, calm and simple by the dis- cipline of their responsibilities. They have no room in their minds for the pettiness of personal vanity. 5. Simplicity is the characteristic that is the most difficult to simulate. 6. Nature is simple ; her grandeur lies in her sim- plicity. 7. Nature in all her revelations, seeks to teach man the greatness of simplicity. Health is but the living of a physical life in harmony with a few simple, clearly denned laws. Simple food, simple exercise, simple pre- cautions will work wonders. 8. Simplicity is opposed to complexity. The easiest way to accomplish everything is usually the simplest, and the most powerful forces of mind and matter are mostly found to be those in which there is the least com- plexity. 9. Simplicity and sublimity are next of kin. 10. Simplicity is never to be associated with weak- ness and ignorance. 95 ii. No character can be simple unless it is based on truth — unless it is lived in harmony with your con- science and ideals. 12. Simplicity of character is the natural result of profound thought. 13. Simplicity is one of the first laws of greatness, and another like unto it is humility. 14. Simple methods are the best, in business as in most affairs of life. 15. Simplicity cuts off waste and intensifies con- centration. It converts flickering torches into search- lights. 16. Simplicity is the pure white light of a life lived from within. It is destroyed by any attempt to live in harmony with public opinion. 17. Deprive yourself of nothing that is necessary to your comfort, but live in honorable simplicity and frugality. 18. Simplicity in a character is like the needle of a compass — it knows only one point, its north, its ideal. 19. To true simplicity, to perceive a truth is to begin to live it ; to see a duty is to begin to do it. 20. Nothing great can ever enter into the mind of a man of simplicity and remain merely a theory. 21. The art of expressing your thoughts in a clear, simple manner, is one of the first to be attained if you want to mix in good society. 22. Cultivate simplicity in all things in your life. 23. Be comprehensive and simple in all you say and write. 24. The more habitual your virtues the less con- scious you are of them ; when they really become a part of your character, they almost sink out of sight. 25. All great truths are simple. 26. It is a charming quality of character, to be nat- ural in manner, frank, and free from affectation. 2J. The greater part of life is lived in the lowly valley among plain people, who look at things from the average angle, and do not relish the unusual and the high-flown. 9 6 CHARACTER: A MORAL TEXT-BOOK. Book VI. Part 11. Cheerfulness. Cheerful looks make every dish a feast, And 'tis that crowns a welcome. — Massinger. 1. Cheerfulness gives elasticity to the spirit; spec- tres fly before it ; difficulties cause no despair, for they are encountered with hope, and the mind acquires that happy disposition to improve the opportunities which lead to success. 2. Cheerfulness makes the mind clear, gives tone to thought, adds grace and beauty to the countenance. 3. Without cheerfulness there can be no healthy action, physical, mental, or moral, for it is the normal atmosphere of your being. 4. Cheerfulness depends upon having beliefs, belief in friendship, belief in all that helps to make living beau- tiful. 5. Cheerfulness is helpful every day and every minute. It is not necessary not to feel deep emotion and sorrow to exercise it, but it implies a power to rise from depressing influences and to exercise reason and courage in overcoming them. 6. The world will be to each one of you very much what you make it. The cheerful are its real possessors, for the world belongs to those who enjoy it. 7. Many a time a cheerful home and smiling face do more to make good men and women, than all the learning and eloquence that can be used. 8. The person who carries a smiling countenance, keeping his troubles to himself, ever finds a welcome. He makes a host of friends, and impresses others with the belief that he must be successful in order to be so cheerful. This fact inspires confidence, and he conse- quently makes his way in the world where another, with more brains but less buoyancy, fails. 9. A habit of cheerfulness, enabling you to trans- mute apparent misfortunes into real blessings, is a for- tune when just crossing the threshold of active life. 97 io. While cheerfulness of disposition is a great source of enjoyment in life, it is also a great safeguard of character. It furnishes the best soil for the growth of goodness and virtue. It gives lightness of heart and elasticity of spirit. It is the companion of charity, the nurse of patience, the mother of wisdom. It is also the best of moral and mental tonics. 11. The cheerful are the busy. A busy life cannot well be otherwise than cheerful. 12. Of all virtues cheerfulness is the most profit- able. While other virtues defer the day of recompense, cheerfulness pays down. 13. Over and above every other social trait stands cheerfulness. 14. Cheerfulness is an excellent wearing quality. It has been called the bright weather of the heart. It enables nature to recruit its strength ; whereas worry and discontent debilitate it, involving constant wear and tear. 15. The presence of the cheerful in spirit acts like a beam of sunshine to the social circle. It warms and brightens. It softens and subdues. The quality is a happy one in every condition of life. 16. Amiability is not only power; it is mental pro- gression, and health and happiness and long life to your- self and to your friends and family. 17. One surly glance casts a gloom over the house- hold, while a smile, like a gleam of sunshine, may light up the darkest and weariest hours. 18. Laughter is contagious, often the presence of one jovial spirit will affect a whole company. Invalids are always helped by a call from a smiling, hopeful friend. 19. Humor is a saving grace of the mind, which prevents humanity from going to extremes. 20. Although cheerfulness of disposition is very much a matter of inborn temperament, it is also capable of being trained and cultivated like any other habit. 21. Cheerfulness is one of the essentials of domestic life. It should be cultivated with constant assiduity. Without it, fretfulness, peevishness, anxiety and col- lision are almost inevitable. 9 8 CHARACTER: A MORAL TEXT-BOOK. Book VI. Part 12. Modesty. Lowliness is the base of every virtue: And he who goes the lowest, builds the safest. — Bailey. 1. Modesty in general, which is a tacit allowance of imperfection, is itself considered as an amiable quality, and certainly heightens every other that is so. 2. True modesty is quite compatible with a due estimate of your own worth, and does not demand the denial of merit. 3. Modesty seldom resides in the breast that is not enriched with nobler virtues. 4. Modesty is becoming, but does not require you to have no opinion or choice. 5. Honor is due to those whose skill and persever- ance have carried them up, from step to step of the social ladder, if they remain becomingly modest and unaf- fected. 6. Too much modesty sinks to a weakness. 7. Modesty and dignity are consistent with one another ; they are complementary aspects of one and the same moral quality. 8. Modesty, to rest upon any fixed, stable founda- tion, must rest upon an accurate knowledge of yourself. 9. As modesty is the richest ornament of a woman, the want of it is her greatest deformity. 10. The modest man has everything to gain, and the arrogant man everything to lose, for modesty has always to deal with generosity and arrogance with envy. 11. Men and women who in any way injure their delicacy and modesty, by insensible degrees proceed to overt sin. 12. All the world feels kindly toward a modest young man. He is hope and courage personified. He dares everything. 13. Safety lies in diffidence and modesty, not in venturing and bravado. 99 14- Modesty is never to be allowed as a good qual- ity, but a weakness, if it suppresses virtue and hides it from the world, when you have at the same time a mind to exert yourself. 15. Humility leads to the highest distinction, because it leads to self-improvement. Study your own character ; endeavor to learn and supply your own defi- ciencies. 16. Humility is a virtue, but stooping too low to accomplish too little is a mistake. 17. True humility neither rates self too high nor too low, but at the real worth. 18. The object of humility is not show but service. You stoop, not that men may walk over you, but that you may serve them. 19. The valley of humiliation has many lovely spots where the heartsease blooms and fragrant airs blow. 20. The man who thinks himself inferior to his fellows deserves to be, and generally is. 21. The world knows when shame and disgrace have pulled down the chaste banner of virtue and raised their own flag there. Every guest of the heart leaves his autograph upon the character. 22. Riches without meekness and thankfulness do not make any man happy ; but riches with them remove many fears and cares. 23. Every young man who has tasted of the cup of wisdom is a modest man. He does not boast of his strength ; he realizes that he needs every form of help he can secure ; he knows that there are restraints that are helpful, for there are mistakes both of omission and commission, and he puts himself in the way of influences that will hold him up in the time of trial. 24. The truthful man is modest and makes no parade of himself and his deeds. 25. The truly benevolent are modest and retiring, and shrink from all display and ostentation. 26. Modest humility is beauty's crown. 27. A modest countenance and pleasing figure, habited in an inexpensive attire, win more attention than awkwardness and effrontery, clad in the richest satins and costliest gems. LofC. 100 CHARACTER: A MORAL TEXT-BOOK. Book VII. Part 1. Charity. Don't look for the flaws as you go through life, And even when you find them It's wise and kind to be somewhat blind, And look for the virtue behind them. — Ella Wheeler Wilcox. 1. Charity is made the constant companion and perfection of all virtue ; and well it is for that virtue where it most enters and longest stays. 2. Charity does not alone consist in almsgiving, but there is a charity in bright looks, and in opening the eyes of the mentally blind ; and the noblest charity of all consists in coming to the aid of those who are deep in the slough of moral despond, and in raising the sinful and sorrowing. 3. Work done for the elevation and improvement of the human race is the grandest charity. 4. The aim of all charity should be to make those who are dependent on it independent of it. From this point of view all mere alms-giving, all that so-called charity which only serves to make the dependent classes more dependent, stands condemned. 5. It is proper that alms should come out of a little purse as well as out of a great sack ; but when there is a plenty surely charity is a duty, not a courtesy ; it is a tribute imposed by God upon you, and you are not a good subject if you refuse to pay it. 6. It is more blessed to give than to receive. 7. The weariness of getting is easily overcome by the luxury of giving. 8. In giving charity remember that the sentiment that prompts it is often of more value and more accept- able than the gift itself. 9. The nearer you approach to charity the nearer you come to perfection, and the more likely are your imperfections to be overlooked and forgotten. 10. Seeing how rain and sunshine are freely given to the evil and unthankful, you learn to measure your giving, not by men's deserts, but by their needs. 11. True charity gives to the poor; it is always IOI slow to condemn another, and puts a favorable construc- tion on human faults and errors. 12. The world must be ruled by kind and earnest guardianship, in which the irregularities of fortune are in part made up by the spontaneous charity of those who were better born. 13. Charity will teach you to enter into the prob- lems of others, often unlike your own ; to put yourself in their places, to consider how you would act in their cir- cumstances; to fight their battles for them; and by this means your moral experience will be enlarged, and from being one, you become, as it were, many men. 14. Helping others to help themselves is worth more than gifts of money. 15. Give according to your means and be glad that you are in a position to do good. 16. When everybody else denounces a man, Char- ity says : Wait, there is good in that man somewhere. 17. Hospitality to the better sort and charity to the poor are two virtues that are never exercised so well as when they accompany each other. 18. Be charitable and remember you have no use for wealth after you are dead. 19. No one can exact charity. Its characteristic mark is supposed to be that it is freely given. 20. Be charitable in thought as well as in deed. 21. He that has pity on the poor lends to the Lord, and that which he has given will be repaid to him again. 22. As cruelty melts before kindness, so the evil passions meet their antidote in sweet charity. 23. Never forget the poor and distressed among you. 24. The mantle of charity ought to be thrown around the faults of your fellow-beings. 25. The greatest of all charities is in enabling the poor to earn a livelihood. 26. Alleviate all that needs alleviation as far as lies in your power. 27. It is always a delicate matter to make a gift to any one so as not to hurt self-respect and thus injure character. 102 CHARACTER: A MORAL TEXT-BOOK. Book VII. Part 2. Advice. Apt words have power to suage The tumors of a troubled mind; And are as balm to festr'd wounds. — Milton. i. Advice has its value and those who are never urged to overcome their faults and failings are not so likely to do it as those who are advised to thus gain a moral victory over themselves. 2. They are fools who despise good advice. Take good advice when it comes to you and seek it when it does not come. The best advisers are your parents. Tell them your plans, your hopes, your trials, your temp- tations. 3. To ask for advice is a benefit, whether you follow the advice or not. Through talking a subject over with another, you get fresh side-lights into it, new avenues open up, and the whole question becomes larger and richer. 4. Beautiful are the admonitions of those whose lives accord with their teachings. 5. Do not take the advice of admiring friends alone, who will be sure to tell you that you can do anything and do it well, without a preliminary course of prepara- tion. 6. An entirely new direction may be given to the life of a young man by a happy suggestion, a timely hint, or the kindly advice of an honest friend. 7. Advice is seldom welcome. Those who need it most like it least. 8. Every man, however wise, requires the advice of some sagacious friend, in the affairs of life. 9. Advice is a duty you owe even the stranger, if you believe he errs, but the greatest delicacy must be exercised in giving it. 10. Carefully consider the advice of a friend and still more carefully that of an enemy. 11. Advice given through sincere motives should be kindly received though it may really be offensive. 103 12. Advice is usually given through pure motives, and it is well to consider all so given, though it is not prudent to always act on it. 13. Advice is usually the result of the personal experience of those who offer it, and circumstances attending those experiences should be considered before acting on it. 14. When advice is a matter of business interest, it is wholly unlike gratuitous advice, which, if you would be loved and esteemed, you would better keep strictly to yourself. 15. If you mind your own business sincerely and constantly, you will know better when and of whom and in what manner to seek advice, and when you receive it you will value it at its true worth. 16. Few persons have sufficient wisdom to prefer censure, which is useful, to praise, which deceives. 17. The young man who is in earnest will not have to be advised how to succeed. 18. Much good and well-intended advice and admo- nition go astray because given at the wrong time. 19. Agreeable advice is seldom useful advice. 20. They that will not be counselled cannot be helped. 21. Where no counsel is, the people fall: but in the multitude of counsellors there is safety. 22. Speak not but that which may benefit others or yourself. 23. Hearken to good advice and something may be done for you. 24. A good maxim is never out of season. 25. Pay no attention to criticism, but seek the chas- tening advice of friends. Do not be offended if your friends say unpleasant things to you. 26. Nobody is more dreaded than the person who forces advice on his friends, and who persists in dictating a course of proceeding to those who do not in the least wish it. 27. The giver of advice need not expect to be included in the list of agreeable people. 28. Go to the ant, consider her ways, and be wise. io4 CHARACTER: A MORAL TEXT-BOOK. Book VII. Part 3. Reform. Nor deem the irrevocable past As wholly wasted, wholly vain, If, rising: on its wreck, at last, To something nobler we attain. — Longrfellow. i. There is no more enviable gift than the energy to sway others to good ; to diffuse around you an atmos- phere of cheerfulness, piety, truthfulness, generosity, magnanimity. It is not a matter of great talent; not entirely a matter of great energy; but rather of earnest- ness and honesty, and of that quiet, constant energy which is like soft rain gently penetrating the soil. 2. The whole world needs awakening. Speak out and your speech will be welcome, wherever and on whatever particular subject of reform you choose to make yourself heard. Lift up your voice for that which is honest, lovely, and of good report, in words of kind earnestness, saying something because you believe in what you say, saying it with the genuine, unstinted elo- quence which comes right from the heart. 3. All reforms must have an initiative, and the indispensable prerequisite is to get people to think. 4. Even the gentlest natures are powerful to influ- ence the character of others for good. 5. They who would reform themselves must begin with the smaller matters of life. 6. You should try your best to correct the faults of others, while at the same time you are careful not to imitate them. 7. The best moral antidote lies not in warnings, however particular, but in the positive nurture of char- acter, which is the real source of strength in the hour of temptation. 8. It is a duty to reform every abuse, of whatever kind, that lies in your power. 9. It is your province, above everything, to instruct men in virtue and truth. 10. Never impose your own standard of morals on others. You can appeal to theirs, and try to find them out, but to impose yours on them is to take away their moral freedom. ii. All efforts made to benefit and elevate mankind must appeal to the individual peculiarities of each per- son, and be suitable for his special environment and the impressions that have been fixed on his mind. 12. Man-mending is character building. 13. Men cannot be raised in masses — they must be dealt with as units ; for it is only by the elevation of individuals that the elevation of the masses can be effec- tually secured. 14. When you combat error with any other weapon than argument, you err more than those whom you attack. 15. You are sometimes astonished to find that you are looking at things with other eyes than you used yes- terday. 16. If at first you make a mistake do not continue to go down. 17. The law should try to reform more than to punish. 18. Arbitrary and severe punishment does not pro- portionately decrease crime ; crime has causes which may be removed ; and the individual needs to be treated beforehand preventively, rather than afterward, retri- butively. 19. The main object of prison discipline is to reform the moral condition of the criminal, and to lead him back to the bosom of the society against which he has sinned. This, as a matter of justice, is due the criminal, who is often made so by the circumstances in which he has been brought up, by his w r ant of training, and by the unequal laws which society enacts. 20. He indeed is getting the most out of life who does most to elevate mankind. 21. It is not hard to stop just at the parting of the ways ; but when you have gone down the wrong road, there is no fixed halting place and the course is then ever downward, from bad to worse, until the worst is reached. It then becomes terribly hard for you to retrace your steps. 22. Persuasion, not force, wins men to truth. io6 CHARACTER: A MORAL TEXT-BOOK. Book VII. Part 4. Good-Will. Believe not each aspersing word, as many people do, But still believe that story false which ought not to be true. — Sheridan. 1. With good will in your heart, you avoid friction and conflict, and can do your work with half the energy and force. Try it, because it gives you enthusiasm, momentum, courage, and spirit in everything you say or do. 2. Everybody loves the sunny soul. His very face is a passport everywhere. All doors fly open to him. He disarms prejudice and envy, for he bears good-will to everybody. He is as welcome in every household as the sunshine. 3. No quality will get you more friends than a sincere admiration of the qualities of others. It indicates generosity of nature, frankness, cordiality, and a cheerful recognition of merit. 4. Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and forgive them that despitefully use you, and persecute you. 5. Everybody likes the man who does more than he promises. 6. Amiability means harmony in the home, in society, everywhere ; and harmony is health, is longevity, is happiness. 7. He that is cautious of insulting the weakest and not above obliging the lowest, will have attained such habits of forbearance and of complacency as will secure him the good-will of all that are beneath him, and teach him how to avoid the enmity of all that are above him. 8. Try love's way because love begets love. It draws the whole world around you and puts you in com- munication with the best it has, while hatred drives men away from you. 9. Good thoughts are blessed guests, and should be heartily welcomed, well nourished and much sought after. 10. If you say anything about a neighbor or friend, or even a stranger, say no ill. 107 ii. Never judge one another, but attribute a good motive when possible. 12. Grow wider, broader in your thoughts and ways of looking at things ; outgrow and eliminate all petty, suspicious, picayunish ways of regarding matters and people. 13. Learn to take people at their best, not their worst ; to look for the divine, not the human, in them ; the beautiful, not the ugly ; the bright, not the dark ; the straight, not the crooked side. 14. If you do not possess a living and strong will that leads the way to good, you will either become a plaything of sensual desires or pass a life of shameless indolence. 15. You ought to do at once and without delay whatever you owe to your neighbors ; to make them wait for what is due them is the essence of injustice. 16. A man of true feeling is naturally indignant at baseness of any sort, even in cases where he may be under no obligation to speak out. 17. Anything that turns your thoughts to your fellow-men, that makes the heart to receive them, is good and proper, for you should think of others as often as of yourself. 18. Kindliness of disposition, expressed in gracious- ness of conduct, contributes in a large degree to the advancement of the person who fosters it. 19. A noble nature carries sunshine with it wher- ever it goes; a sunshine which means pity for the poor, sympathy for the suffering, help for the unfortunate, and benignity towards all. 20. In all emotion there is a right and wrong. Behind every wrong deed there is a wrong feeling. The bad act is merely the visible sign of the bad emotion. 21. Unless the direction of the character be right, the strong will may be merely a power for mischief. 22. The respect of your fellow-men is in itself a source of happiness and a moral prop, and besides, the greatest help in achieving the legitimate purposes of life. He who has the confidence of others has wings to bear him along. io8 CHARACTER: A MORAL TEXT-BOOK. Book VII. Part 5. Mercy. The quality of mercy is not strained; It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven Upon the place beneath: it is twice bless'd; It blesseth him that gives, and him that takes. — Shakespeare. 1. Mercy is one of the nobler attributes of your nature. The man who can look with a lenient eye upon the errors of his fellow-creatures ; who, seeing they have done wrong, is willing to make allowances, and to urge them to return to the paths of rectitude and of duty, is indeed a Christian in the true, the real, the ennobling sense. 2. Mercy is that quality of disposition which leads you to treat an offender better than he deserves. 3. Sweet mercy is nobility's true badge. 4. By mercy and truth iniquity is purged. 5. A manly man loves mercy. It is more than pity and compassion for the deserving. It is kindness to the unthinking and evil. 6. It is not natural for a sinful man to have a merciful disposition. 7. Mercy is tenderness, forbearance, and forgive- ness. It is thinking, toiling, suffering for others. It is love in exercise. 8. Mercy must have a kind heart and a helping hand for those who never have been worthy, and prob- ably never will be. 9. The love of mercy is not met by the perfunctory discharge of it. 10. The dumb animals that can only voice their love with the patient service they render day by day, and speak their gratitude with their eyes, need a friend. Man has the sovereignty of the world. Then he is to protect, not only those of his own kind, but every crea- ture of his kingdom — the birds in the air, the herds on the hillside, and the flocks in the valley. 11. It may be taken for granted that almost every man needs a word of good cheer. 109 12. Do not think every man is bad because one proves to be a rascal. 13. There is no more noble hearted being than the individual who goes about encouraging and consoling, who has a good word on all occasions, and who endeav- ors, not only to render his own pathway as bright and as cheerful as possible, but to inspire confidence, hope and courage in the minds and hearts of others. 14. You should be sensitive to the wants and sor- rows around you. 15. Many a poor fellow has gone down from way- wardness to disgrace, from disgrace to debauch, and from debauch to infamy, because society was heartless and unhelping. 16. Feeling is your grandest accomplishment. It is the crown and glory of character. 17. The man or woman who can regard with in- difference the sufferings of dumb animals is likely to be callous to human suffering also. 18. Blessed are the merciful for they shall obtain mercy. 19. When the gates of society are shut, the gates of mercy are not shut. 20. Impose not a task upon any one beyond his ability. 21. Men are to be estimated by what they accom- plish — not what they are unable to do. 22. Forgiving from the heart is loving mercy and delighting in it. 23. Efforts should be made to win the erring from their first misdeeds, to forgive them for the past, and cheer them on to better conduct for the future. 24. It is as necessary to learn how to express kindly feelings in a gracious way as to possess them. 25. The poor and unfortunate are your opportuni- ty, your character builders, the great schoolmasters of your moral growth. 26. It is presumed that each one has trouble enough of his own to bear without being burdened with the sorrows of others. 27. It is easy enough to do good if the doing is natural and without thought of self-glorification. no CHARACTER: A MORAL TEXT-BOOK. Book VII. Part 6. Forgiveness. In men whom men condemn as ill, I find so much of goodness still; In men whom men pronounce divine, I find so much of sin and blot I hesitate to draw the line Between the two where God has not. — Joaquin Miller. 1. Forgiveness is refraining from malice and re- venge, but it is not necessary to restore confidence and place yourself again at the mercy of the wrong doer. This may be done after consideration and is the preroga- tive of judgment. 2. He that cannot forgive others breaks the bridge over which he must pass himself ; for every man has need to be forgiven. 3. Humanity is never so beautiful as when praying for forgiveness, or else forgiving another. 4. You shall best fortify your patience under in- juries by remembering how much you yourself have to be forgiven. 5. Forgiveness is the greatest virtue in him who has suffered the greatest wrong. 6. The brave only know how to forgive ; it is the most refined and generous pitch of virtue at which human nature can arrive. 7. It is but simple truth to say that forgiveness is a trait that belongs to every noble character. 8. All are more or less liable to temptation — the temptation of feeling, of passion, of prejudice, of ambi- tion, and of interest, and if, having yielded in any one case, the door of penitence and forgiveness should be closed against you, your lot would be embittered through life. 9. Forgiveness should be exercised for your own peace of mind if for no other reason. 10. The malignity that never forgets nor forgives is found only in base and ignoble natures, whose aims are selfish, and whose means are indirect, cowardly and treacherous. Ill 11. It is only against the man who willfully and deliberately chooses the wrong- course that the door of forgiveness is closed. For every other there is always an opportunity of retreading his steps — of abandoning evil and seeking right. 12. You will always be liable to errors of judgment. In short, you will need to be forgiven. You will be most excellent subjects for charity. You should be willing to grant fair play to everybody; you should not expect to receive more than you are disposed to give. 13. Who would not revolt at the idea of having the door of forgiveness closed against him — of being doomed to suffer, no matter how deep his contrition or how severe his penalty of regret, remorse and punishment? 14. None of you have, perhaps, the sweetest tem- pers, but if you have, the way to prove it is by forgive- ing those who have not. 15. In the little affairs of everyday life, and in the home, is there need of showing the spirit of forgiveness. 16. It often happens that a simple explanation will give an entirely new view to conduct that was first thought to be very reprehensible. For this reason it is important that you should meet all enmity in a charita- ble spirit and should be ready to forgive. 17. You need not be blind to another's failings, but they may, at least, be borne with good-natured forbear- ance. 18. A penitent should be welcomed again to the fold of virtue. 19. If there is any one virtue which is worthy of an earnest culture in every human mind — if there is any one thing more needed than any other, it is the spirit of forgiveness. 20. A woman can forgive almost anything in a man but weakness and cowardice. These she refuses to over- look — and rightly, too. 21. You should forgive many things in others, but nothing in yourself. 22. It is more easy to forgive the weak who have injured you than the powerful whom you have injured. 23. The art of forgetting is a blessed art, but the art of overlooking is quite as important. 112 CHARACTER: A MORAL TEXT-BOOK. Book VII. Part 7. Criticism. What looks to thy dim eyes a stain. In God's pure light may only be A scar brought from some well-won field, Where thou wouldst only faint and yield. — Adelaide A. Proctor. 1. All criticism worthy of the name is the ripe fruit of combined intellectual insight and long expe- rience. 2. A good critic, like a good judge, should be gov- erned purely by the law and the evidence. 3. Criticism should be based on the desire to dis- cover truth, and an earnest care to be consistent in thought and fact. A sound self-critic is sure to pro- gress. 4. It is the function of true criticism to hold up the highest standard and make all work toward the ideal achievement. 5. In your criticism of others you should be mirrors reflecting beauties and excellences as faithfully as blem- ishes and deformities. 6. Candor is the brightest gem of criticism. 7. The man who tries to succeed must expect to be criticised. 8. Do not criticise the man who is accomplishing something. 9. The dread of sweeping criticism makes cowards of all and prevents honest expression of convictions. 10. Children have more need of models than of critics. 11. Healthful criticism should always be invited and tolerated; but there is a right and a wrong time to apply it. 12. It is better to think all you say than to say all you think. 13. It is very ungentlemanly to be found criticis- ing young ladies. 14. The world is a whispering gallery which re- turns the echo of your own voice. What you say of others is said of you. H3 15. The man who takes the widest view is always the one who makes the most moderate statements, and the strongest characters are generally the simplest in speech. 16. To dare to be yourself, whatever other people think, is right. To be superior to censure or praise is an ideal which has come down from the ancients. 17. You are not to too nicely scrutinize motives, as long as action is irreproachable. 18. You should not be too hasty in bestowing eith- er your praise or your censure on mankind, since you shall often find such a mixture of good and evil in the same character that it may require a very accurate judg- ment and a very elaborate inquiry to determine on which side the balance turns. 19. Judge yourself with the judgment of sincerity and you will judge others with the judgment of charity. 20. It is not by his faults but by his excellences that you must measure a man. 21. To judge a man wisely you must view him from all sides. He must be seen not only in prosperity, but in adversity. 22. You cannot measure a man by his failures. You must know what use he makes of them. 23. Do not pass a hasty judgment on men's mo- tives. They may be cherishing noble aspirations even while the world condemns. 24. It is far easier to see the foibles of others than to overlook or avoid them. 25. Ridiculing another for doing something is a good way for you to advertise your own failures. 26. Do not rely on the criticism of friends if you ever expect to develop your talents. 2.7. Never charge a bad motive if a good one is conceivable. 28. Place yourself in the other man's place. 29. One of the most common faults is to judge and condemn on light evidence. 30. It is dangerous alike to give or withhold as- sent; therefore you ought to investigate strictly the truth rather than allow an erroneous impression to per- vert your judgment. H4 CHARACTER: A MORAL TEXT-BOOK. Book VII. Part 8. Generosity. Great minds, like heaven, are pleased in doing- good, Though the ungrateful subjects of their favors Are barren in return. — Rowe. 1. Unless generosity of spirit prevails among men there never can be upon earth an ideal life. 2. Generosity is charity for your equals and those who may be pure in heart and bountiful in goods. It is a willingness to be of service to anybody without re- gard to their needs, but does not necessarily imply sac- rifice. 3. When a man is blessed with prosperity he should acquire a relish for the joys of generosity. 4. If -you are frank and generous, the world will treat you kindly; if on the contrary, you are suspicious, men learn to be cold and cautious to you. 5. Never resist impulses of generosity; they will make you cheerful and healthy. They will give color to your cheeks and make you young in spirit when you are old in years. 6. The principles of good breeding are all found in generosity. 7. Be generous when urged by motives of human- 8. Generosity often follows the possession of rich- es, but riches are slow in coming to the generous. 9. Generosity of heart and a genial good will to- wards all are absolutely essential to him who would pos- sess fine manners. 10. The just and generous spirit softens hatred and hard-heartedness. 11. The generous heart should scorn a pleasure which gives others pain. 12. The privilege of generosity is one of the great- est perquisities which attach to abundance of any sort. 13. Courage is generosity of the highest order, for the brave are prodigal of the most precious things. H5 14. It needs as much generosity to take as to give. 15. Unless a man is generous he is seldom just. 16. Generosity and tenderness are honored and trusted; grinding heartlessness has risks greater than its gains, and is used only by the desperate. 17. By taking revenge you are but even with your enemy ; but in passing over it, you are superior. 18. Everyone stands in need of toleration, of for- giveness, and of forbearance. 19. It is necessary for the good of humanity that the interests of the one be subservient to the interests of the many, but it does not follow that an indiscriminate surrender of your own personal interests always bene- fits society. On the contrary, a steady insistence on the rights of the individual is essential to the integrity of the social structure and its right workings. 20. Every man has his peculiarities of manner and character, as he has peculiarities of form and feature; you must have forbearance in dealing with them, as you expect them to have forbearance in dealing with you. 21. Be forbearant towards those who differ from you, provided they observe patiently, think honestly, and utter their convictions freely and truthfully. 22. The wise and forbearant man will restrain his desire to say a smart or severe thing at the expense of another's feelings. 23. With tact, and tenderness, and patience, it may be given you to help to remove what may be flaws in a fine character; and in any case it is foolish to forget the great virtues of your friend in fretful irritation at a few blemishes. 24. Nothing is so odious as that insensibility which wraps a man up in himself and his own concerns, and prevents his being moved with the joys or the sorrows of another. 25. Most of the good that is done to the poor, the outcast and the criminal, is done by personal contact. n6 CHARACTER: A MORAL TEXT-BOOK. Book VII. Part 9. Reciprocity. Be noble! and the nobleness that lies In other men, sleeping, but never dead, Will rise in majesty to meet thine own. — James Russell Lowell. 1. Each is to assist the other; the strong the weak, the rich the poor, the learned the ignorant ; and to re- verse the order those who have least are no less to assist those who have most. 2. Man does not live for himself alone. He lives for the good of others as well as himself. 3. Communication enriches, reticence impoverishes. Communion is strength, solitude is weakness. 4. A gentleman expects from none what he is not willing to yield to all. 5. Pay respect to all, but most to those who pay you the most, provided it is sincere and timely. 6. No human being ever perfectly understands an- other. 7. While friendship is a very sweet and beautiful thing, its essence is reciprocity. 8. Men are joined together by common experience. 9. No individual can develop into the largest man- hood or womanhood alone. 10. Do to others as you would that they should do to you. 11. Comradeship is one of the finest facts and one of the strongest forces in life. A mere strong man, how- ever capable, and however singly successful, is of little account to himself. 12. Men of the noblest dispositions think them- selves happiest when others share their happiness with them. 13. No man has come to true greatness who has not felt in some degree that his life belongs to his race, and that what God gives him, He gives him for mankind. 14. Men have an inherent disposition to refer all that they say and do to the thoughts and feelings of others. ii7 15. Civilities always merit acknowledgement. 16. No individual in the universe stands alone; he is a component part of a system of mutual dependencies ; and by his several acts he either increases or diminishes the sum of human good. 17. The educated youth will recognize that others do not exist merely for his benefit; he will see that the highest good for each lies in mutual reciprocity. An education which does not achieve these results, which does not bring sweetness and light, harmony and power into the life, is no education at all. 18. You have no right to choose your occupation from a selfish standpoint. When you cheat others you are cheating yourself. 19. In the evolution of your powers do not think of yourself alone. If you succeed, let it be that you may share your talents with others ; if you acquire, let it be that others may enjoy the glow of your prosperity. 20. Man is made for co-operation. Savages unite only in war. Civilized people unite in work. The evo- lution of association is the evolution of civilization. 21. Men co-operate with each other for the mutual sustenance of all. 22. Co-operation fails only when men are not hon- est. 23. Two are better far than one for all purposes; they not only accomplish twice the work, but they fre- quently multiply it many times by their co-operation. 24. All improvements in the productive power of labor, including division of employment, depend upon co-operation. 25. It is one of the beautiful compensations of life, that no man can sincerely try to help another without helping himself. 26. When succeeding best for yourself you are suc- ceeding best for others. 27. Neighborliness is not only a virtue, but an en- joyment. It is also one of the most effectual ways of influencing others for good. 28. All that makes existence valuable to any one depends on the enforcement of restraints upon the ac- tions of other people. n8 CHARACTER: A MORAL TEXT-BOOK. Book VII. Part 10. Sacrifice. Fail — yet rejoice; because no less The failure which makes thy distress May teach another full success. — Anon. i. There is a law in the universe that things must be sacrificed before they can show what is in them and what they are good for; nothing can be gained, nothing can be done without cost. 2. From the blacksmith's muscle to the million- aire's stocks there is a law inherent in strength of every kind that it must be used. If you should try to hoard and keep it, it will canker and rust, and will become a curse and a snare. 3. The beginning of mental or moral progress or reform is always renunciation and sacrifice. 4. You must sacrifice yourself if you would make the most of yourself. 5. The atmosphere of duty is the atmosphere of self-sacrifice, and he who breathes it must get above self- glorification and self-seeking. 6. There are many ready to make great sacrifices, who neglect those little acts of kindness which make many other lives brighter and happier. 7. There are times when the individual must act for the people in ways that will mean sacrifice and loss to him of the gravest character. 8. Another may need much courage to encounter, without sinning, things which have no power to entice you, and by making sacrifices for another's sake you help remove the obstacles from his way. 9. The sacrifice of individual life is impressive and noble if the object for which it is made is worthy. 10. It is the part of wisdom to sacrifice the less to the greater good. 11. The character of a man does not depend on whether his efforts are immediately followed by failure or success. The martyr is not a failure if the truth for ii9 which he suffered acquires a fresh lustre through his sacrifice. 12. There must always be an outlay. There is no escaping the cost. Sacrifice is a great secret of success. 13. Nothing brings any good fruit except what is earned by either the work of the hands or by self-denial. Sacrifices must be ever going on if you would obtain any comfort or happiness. 14. There never did and never will exist anything permanently noble and excellent in a character which was a stranger to the exercise of resolute self-denial. 15. Teach self-denial and make its practice pleasur- able, and you create for the world a destiny more sub- lime than ever issued from the brain of the wildest dreamer. 16. The road to distinction must be paved with years of self-denial and hard work. 17. Reasonable self-denial is a thousand fold better for a boy than to have his every wish gratified. 18. They are the greatest who toil and suffer and practice self-denial for its own sake. 19. The best men and women have never been self- seekers. They have given themselves to others without regard to glory or fame. They have found their best reward in the self-consciousness of duty performed. 20. It belongs to noble souls to yield when there is good occasion for yielding. 21. The names of the men who have suffered in the cause of religion, of science, and of truth, are the men, of all others, whose memories are held in the great- est esteem and reverence by mankind. 12. It is not the man who gives his money that is the true benefactor of his kind, but the man who gives himself. 23. Most anybody can do a thing he feels like do- ing, but it takes a true man t© do a thing when he does not feel like doing it. 24. Self-sacrificing devotion in the service of those who need your help, is the loftiest element of high breed- ing. 120 CHARACTER: A MORAL TEXT-BOOK. Book VII. Part 11. Sympathy. It is the secret sympathy, The silver link, the silken tie, Which heart to heart, and mind to mind, In body and in soul can bind. — Walter Scott. 1. Sympathy is one of the great secrets of a happy and successful life. It overcomes evil and strengthens good. It disarms resistance, melts the hardest heart, and develops the better part of human nature. 2. Sympathy glorifies humanity. Its synonym is love. It goes forth to meet the wants and necessities of the sorrow-stricken and oppressed. 3. The world is ruled by sympathy — by the nat- ural instincts of love and compassion. 4. Sympathy is founded on love. It is but another word for disinterestedness and affection. You assume another's state of mind; you go out of yourself and inhabit another's personality. 5. Sympathy is not a quality merely needed in adversity. It is needed as much when the sun shines. It is sometimes easier to weep with those who weep than to rejoice with those who rejoice. 6. It is by sympathy that you enter into the con- cerns of others ; that you are moved as they are moved and cannot be indifferent spectators of almost anything which men can do and suffer. 7. What sustains a man is an atmosphere of sym- pathy and love — the thought that he has been remem- bered, that his brother has given him what he could. 8. You often do more good by your sympathy than by your labors, and render the world a more lasting ser- vice by absence of jealousy and recognition of merit, than you could ever render by the straining efforts of personal ambition. 9. There can be no love without sympathy; there can be no friendship without sympathy. 10. Cherish sympathy. By attention and exercise 121 it may be improved in every man. It prepares the mind for receiving the impressions of virtue ; and without it there can be no true politeness. ii. Sympathy quite as often leads astray as aright; unless it is tutored and regulated by moral principles, it is a danger against which you ought to be on your guard almost as much as against selfishness. 12. Humor is one of the most human of qualities, linking itself so closely with sympathy and pathos, you seldom find them separated. The fountains of laughter and of tears lie very close together. 13. Sympathy, when allowed to take a wider range, assumes the larger form of public philanthropy. It influ- ences man in the endeavor to elevate his fellow creat- ures from a state of poverty and distress, to improve the condition of the masses of the people, and to diffuse the results of civilization far and wide among mankind. 14. While reason maintains its empire over the mind there is no heart so callous or obdurate that the voice of sympathy and kindness may not reach it. 15. Through the sympathetic feelings you become aware of the pains and joys of others, and thus of the consequences of the benefits you confer or the evil you inflict. They tell you that others suffer or are glad and supply the information on which you may act. 16. In all misfortunes the greatest consolation is a sympathizing friend. 17. Wherever there is cruelty, or ignorance, or mis- ery, sympathy stretches forth its hand to console and alleviate. 18. As a man's sympathetic knowledge of the world increases ; that is, as he knows more of the world, and learns to recognize in it the elements of progress, and feels in himself a growing desire to assist, he becomes a better man. 19. If you exclude sympathy and wrap yourself in a cold chain-armor of selfishness, you exclude yourself from many of the greatest and purest joys of life. 122 CHARACTER: A MORAL TEXT-BOOK. Book VII. Part 12. Silence. A thousand glorious actions, that might claim Triumphant laurels, and immortal fame, Confus'd in crowds of glorious actions lie, And troops of heroes undistinguished die. — Addison. 1. The face is such an index of character that the very growth of the latter can be traced on the former. The most common vices that are shown on the face are pride, sensuality, fear, cruelty, and bad temper. There is no beautifier of the face like a beautiful spirit. 2. A man who lives right and is right, has more power in his silence than another has by his words. 3. A man of character has no ears for slander, never takes an unfair advantage, and interprets every- thing for the best. 4. A quiet tongue shows a wise head. 5. All the forces in nature that are the most pow- erful are the quietest. 6. If there is any person whom you dislike, that is the one of whom you should never speak. 7. There is probably nothing else by which so many people offend as by the tongue. 8. There is often a power in silence which no speech can equal. 9. Silence is your most effective weapon. 10. Better a thousand times stand dumb than to eloquently speak in the disparagement of others. 11. To think twice before you speak once is an excellent rule. First thoughts are frequently rash and necessarily incomplete. 12. Half the trouble in life would be saved if peo- ple would remember that silence is golden, when they are irritated or annoyed. 13. Silence is sometimes the severest criticism. 14. To persevere in your duty and be silent, is the best answer to calumny. 123 15. Noise is weakness. Bluster is inferiority rising into consciousness. 16. Not that which goes into the mouth denies a man ; but that which comes out of the mouth, this denies a man. 17. The first virtue is to restrain the tongue. He approaches nearest to God who knows how to be silent, even though he is in the right. 18. Remember that, valuable as is the gift of speech, silence is often more valuable. 19. Character exhibits itself in self-control of speech as much as in anything else. 20. If you talk much, you are likely to say things which, though you may forget them as soon as they are spoken, will be remembered against you. 21. Intend to communicate the essential facts to those who are capable of making rational use of them ; but it is frequently necessary to withhold the truth when the truth would unnecessarily do harm. 22. He who is suspected for any reason, true or false, strikes against invisible barriers at every step. Nothing is so sensitive as character — a mere breath may tarnish it. It is therefore the gravest kind of injury to your neighbors to disseminate damaging rumors, to throw out dark hints and suggestions with respect to them, or to impugn their motives. 23. A good word is an easy obligation ; but not to speak ill, requires only your silence, which costs nothing. 24. It is necessary to your personal happiness, to exercise control over your words as well as acts; for there are words that strike even harder than blows ; and men may speak daggers though they use none. 25. Be swift to hear but cautious how you repeat it. 26. People will like you all the more the less you have to say, and the more you listen, or seem to listen, to what they say. 124 CHARACTER: A MORAL TEXT-BOOK. Book VIM. Part 1. Disposition. Our purses shall be proud, our garments poor: For 'tis the mind that makes the body rich; And as the sun breaks through the darkest clouds, So honor peereth in the meanest habit. — Shakespeare. 1. A good disposition is more valuable than gold; for the latter is the gift of fortune, but the former is the dower of nature. 2. The disposition of every human being depends on their innate constitution and their early surround- ings; the comfort or discomfort of the homes in which they have been brought up ; their inherited character- istics and the examples, good or bad, to which they have been exposed through life. 3. Youth, pre-eminently, is the forming, fixing period, the spring season of disposition and habit; and it is during this season, more than any other, that the character assumes its perfect shape and color, and the young are wont to take their course for time and eternity. 4. It is the kindly dispositioned men who are the active men of the world, while the selfish and the skep- tical, who have no love but for themselves, are the idlers. 5. One cheerful, bright, and contented disposition in a household will uplift the tone of all the rest. 6. Cleanliness in person, in speech, and in work, is always the accompaniment of a sweet disposition. 7. A man may be feeble in organization, but, blessed with a happy disposition, his soul may be great, active, noble and sovereign. 8. Encourage the disposition of looking at the bright side of things, instead of the darkest, and while you see the cloud, do not shut your eyes to the silver lining. 9. A cheerful, serene spirit is the source of all that is noble and good. Whatever is accomplished of 125 the greatest and the noblest sort flows from such a dis- position. Petty, gloomy souls that only mourn the past and dread the future, are not capable of seizing on the holiest moments of life. 10. It is a happy thing that life is not all trouble and difficulty. You will have your bright days, and you will have a good many of them, if your disposition is bright and sunny. ii. Refrigerated dispositions have a most depress- ing influence on all those who fall under the spell of their radiated chilliness. 12. It is a happy possession, this patient, forgiving, charitable disposition, that makes the brightest day still brighter by its own delightful cheer. 13. Beautiful is the cheerful and the buoyant dis- position. Life to such is all bright and beautiful. Every new scene has a charm, every fresh incident an interest. A kind word is ever on the lips, a gentle thought is ever in the heart, a pleasant smile is ever on the countenance. 14. A pleasant disposition will make the whole surroundings ring with cheerfulness. 15. If light is in a man, he shines; if darkness, he shades; if his heart glows with love, he warms; if frozen with selfishness, he chills ; if corrupt, he poisons ; if pure-hearted, he cleanses. 16. It is not what you do, but the spirit in which you perform your work, which has the most important influence on your character. 17. A propensity to hope and joy is true riches ; one to fear and sorrow, real poverty. 18. When men act, and think, and speak, and feel, out of a generous, merciful, peaceful, kindly spirit, then their highest level is attained, human nature comes to its finest flower, and the fullest fruitage of life is sure. 19. Efforts to be permanently useful, must be uni- formly joyous ; a disposition all sunshine, graceful from very gladness, beautiful because bright. 126 CHARACTER: A MORAL TEXT-BOOK. Book VIII. Part 2. Optimism. Let's find the sunny side of men, Or be believers in it; A light there is in every soul That takes the pains to win it. O, there's a slumbering- good in all, And we, perchance, may wake it; Our hands contain the magic wand, — This life is what we make it. — Anon. i. The optimist sees an upward look in the ten- dency of the world, and sees that the aspiration of man- kind is toward the higher and better, not toward the lower and worse. 2. A really successful man must be optimistic; he must thoroughly believe in the good, the beautiful, and the true. 3. The art of optimism lies in laying all emphasis, not on what has happened, or is to happen, but on some end and aim which runs through all your experience, and gives to your activity a worthy goal, and to yourself abundant exercise and growth. 4. The serene optimist is one whose mind has dwelt so long on the sunny side of life that he has acquired a habit of cheerfulness. 5. Live an active life, intent on the progress you can make and the work you can accomplish, and you will acquire the art of optimism, and be happy for ever- more. 6. If you attack life strenuously, seeing in hate the challenge to a love strong enough to conquer it; and in pain a sting to a joy intense enough to endure it ; and in moral evil a call to battle against it, and the promise of victory over it; then you shall find the world a glorious place to live and die in. 7. In present evil the optimist sees prospective good ; in pain, he recognizes the effort of nature to restore health; in trials, he finds correction and disci- pline ; and in sorrow and suffering he gathers courage, knowledge and the best practical wisdom. 127 8. Every optimist belongs to the assets of his race ; every pessimist is a dead loss. 9. The morality of optimism lies in its energising touch. It gives you courage, it sweetens toil and makes every effort seem light compared to the goal lying beyond. 10. There is sound logic underlying the philosophy of optimism ; nothing can be accomplished without hope, which is the foundation of success and inseparable from the optimistic view. 11. Optimists are so happily constituted that they find good in everything. There is no calamity so great but they can educe comfort or consolation from it — no sky so black but they can discover a gleam of sunshine issuing through it: and if the sun be not visible to their eyes, they at least comfort themselves with the thought that it is there, though veiled from them for some good reason. 12. The world you live in is a world of mingled good and evil. Whether it is chiefly good or bad depends on how you take it. If you are happy it is largely to your own credit. If you are miserable it is chiefly your fault. 13. As a rule everything happens for the best. 14. Hopefulness, a sanguine turn of mind, a ten- dency to look on the bright side, are of the greatest value in character. 15. There is always before or around you that which should cheer the heart with warmth and gladness. 16. Always, everywhere, to yourself and to every- one else, insist upon it that the present is far from being as bad as it might be, and that there is a better time coming. 17. A habit of looking for the best of everything, and of saying kindly instead of unkindly things about others, strengthens the character, elevates the ideals, and tends to produce happiness. 18. Educate the will power so that it will focus the thoughts upon the bright side of things, and upon objects which elevate the soul, and thus form a habit of happiness and goodness which will make you rich. 128 CHARACTER: A MORAL TEXT-BOOK. Book VIII. Part 3. Contentment. Why thus longing, thus forever sighing, For the far-off, unattained and dim, While the beautiful, all around thee lying Offers up its low, perpetual hymn. — Harriet Winslow. i. Contentment is not a dead indifference, a stupid slumber, or forced submission to the inevitable. It is an active thing. It is willing, cheerful, grateful satis- faction with present circumstances, with life as it is, with the existing state of things, believing that it is or- dered or permitted in infinite wisdom and love, and is the best, all things considered, and therefore does not call for murmuring or peevish complaint. 2. The foundation of content must be laid in a man's own mind, and he who has so little knowledge of human nature as to seek happiness by changing any- thing but his own disposition will waste his life in fruitless efforts, and multiply the griefs which he pro- poses to remove. 3. He that is content with comfort rather than luxury, who prefers great principles to a great bank ac- count, who considers enough better than a feast, who prefers a competence to a colossal fortune, is he who is not only among the happiest people, but among those who have been the real benefactors of the race. 4. If you are cheerful and contented, all nature smiles with you ; the air seems more balmy, the sky more clear, the ground has a brighter green, the trees have a richer foliage, the flowers a more fragrant smell, the birds sing more sweetly, and the sun, moon and stars all appear more beautiful. 5. Be content in your situation. Nothing will sooner render you disagreeable, or sooner destroy your own peace, than a discontented spirit. 6. A man may aspire and yet be quite content until it is time to rise. 7. He is richest who is content with the least, for content is the wealth of nature. 129 8. The state of content in which men live depends but little on their intellectuality. 9. It is not the contentment of stupid indifference and soulless despair that men covet, but that of indus- trious fidelity and faithful activity. Poverty is not nec- essarily a virtue ; wealth is not necessarily a crime. 10. As the feeling of happiness and content in- creases day by day, you become a better man. 11. To be content with what you possess is the greatest and most secure of riches. 12. Be content but not satisfied, is a wise injunc- tion. Follow always your ideal — the highest and truest thought of yourself, and you will never go far astray. 13. It is a great mistake to suppose that great pos- sessions are necessary to make a man content. 14. Contentment is largely independent of external circumstances or possessions, and is perhaps found in the lowly places more frequently than in the high places of the earth. 15. Anything short of a cheerful acquiescence in the existing state of things cannot be accounted con- tentment. 16. Industry is the mother of content. 17. If a man, no matter what his position, is not situated so that he can obtain the first-fruits of his labor, he has a perfect right to be discontented. 18. Always be content with that which happens ; for what God chooses is better than what you choose. 19. While contentment is not a lazy indifference, it is equally removed from stoicism. 20. You must believe that the universe is wisely ordered, and that every man must conform to the order which he cannot change ; that whatever God has done is good ; that all mankind are your brothers ; and that you must love and cherish them, and try to make them better, even those who would do you harm. 21. Endeavor to be content in that state of life which it has pleased God to call you. 130 CHARACTER: A MORAL TEXT-BOOK. Book VIM. Part 4. Action. We live in deeds, not years; in thoughts, not breaths; In feelings, not in figures on a dial. We should count time by heart-throbs. He most lives Who thinks most, feels the noblest, acts the best. — Philip James Bailey. 1. You need not try all kinds of actions to find out which are hurtful and which are helpful to yourself and others, but you should be teachable and willing to learn what things have already been found good to do, and what have been found to be bad. 2. The actions of your passing life are facts visi- ble, plain, undeniable. You engrave them on the minds of all observers. 3. Your acts are the only things that are in your power. They not only form the sum of your habits, but of your character. 4. Real worth requires no interpreter; its every- day deeds form its blazonry. 5. Men are judged, not by their intentions, but by the result of their actions. 6. The prominent importance of right action and constant need of some general standard to appeal to, strongly impresses the human mind in its very earliest stage of development. 7. Action is the main line of growth. Conditions press on all life, and life is modified through its own action under given conditions, and the relative wisdom and success of different acts depend on the brain power of the organism. 8. Action has its finest and most enduring fruit in character. 9. There is a uniformity of connection between character and actions — a man's character is inferred from his past actions. 10. One wrong deed will overshadow all the soft pretensions of a lifetime. 11. An impulse will sometimes show more of your real character than what you do after deliberation. I3i 12. Your good lies in the active not in the passive nature ; in the will, not in the flesh, nor in anything else which the will is unable to control. 13. The principle of action is too powerful for any circumstance to resist. It clears the way, and elevates itself above every object, above fortune and misfortune, good and evil. 14. The gamut of the emotions is run by subtle signs — the glance of an eye, the turn of a head, the curl of a lip. This language expresses more in a gesture than many words can express. It speaks the truth where the tongue might utter falsehood. It is the play of expres- sion that no mask can wholly cover. 15. It is not because men's desires are strong that they act ill ; it is because their consciences are weak. 16. The individual is most modified by what he does, not by what is done to him. 17. It is not enough to speak the truth ; your whole behavior should be sincere, upright, fair, and without artifice. 18. Better far the silent tongue but the eloquent deed. 19. It is not enough to tell others what they are to do, but to exhibit the actual example of doing. 20. Deeds show what you are, words only what you should be. 21. Your wisdom appears in your own actions; for every man is the son of his own work. 22. No action can take place in accordance with the character without modifying the character itself. 23. You must yourself be and do, and not rest sat- isfied merely with reading and meditating over what other men have been and done. 24. Men of public spirit differ rather in their cir- cumstances than their work ; and the man who does all he can, in a low station, is more a hero than he who omits any worthy action he is able to accomplish in a great one. 25. Always do that which you believe to be right. 132 CHARACTER: A MORAL TEXT-BOOK. Book VIII. Part 5. Conscience. Yet still there whispers the small voice within, Ueard through gain's silence, and o'er glory's din: Whatever creed be taught or land be trod, Man's conscience is the oracle of God. — Byron. i. Conscience is the sense through which God can and does directly speak to the soul of man, and through which His will can be impressed on the heart. It is en- dowed with the power of distinguishing broadly be- tween right and wrong; but artificially it may be per- verted to any extent. 2. Conscience is the moral governor of the heart — the governor of right action, of right thought, of right faith, of right life — and only through its dominating in- fluence can the noble and upright character be fully de- veloped and made to shine on others. 3. Conscience is not merely a sense of good and evil, but it is a strong instinct to accept the good and re- fuse the evil. 4. The end of right moral culture is to habituate yourself to decide against the passions, desires and emo- tions, whenever they oppose the conscience. 5. The voice of conscience speaks in duty done ; and without its regulating and controlling influence, the brightest and greatest intellect may be merely as a light that leads astray. 6. The motives of conscience, as connected with repentance and the feelings of duty, are the most im- portant differences which separate man from the animal. 7. The man of character is conscientious. He puts his conscience into his work, into his words, into his ev- ery action. 8. A good conscience is able to bear very much and is very cheerful in adversity. An evil conscience is always fearful and unquiet. 9. All virtues come from the innate monitor con- science. From this first principle all rules of behavior are drawn. 133 io. Conscience is always your friend. It may up- braid and denounce, it may torture with pangs of regret, and torment with remorse, but everywhere and always, conscience is your friend. It is the foe to sin. ii. Conscience is the helper by which you get the mastery over your own failings. 12. That which you need most to fear, as you set your hand to sin, is your conscience, the witness who sits as a spy in your own soul, and who will some day accuse you to yourself, and do it with such power that you will accuse yourself to others. 13. Conscience must be your chief guide. That be- ing satisfied you can defy the world. 14. Conscience is the voice of man ingrained into your heart, commanding you to work for man and not alone for self. 15. Conscience — the sense of right and wrong — springs out of the habit of judging things from the point of view of all and not of one. 16. The function of conscience is the preservation of society in the struggle for existence. 17. Conscience is permanent and universal. It is the very essence of individual character. It gives you self-control— the power of resisting temptations and de- fying them. 18. Every one must conquer himself, and you may do so, if you take conscience for your guide and general. 19. Follow the dictates of your conscience, and walk, though alone, in the paths of duty. 20. In some cases fidelity to the dictates of con- science awakens contempt on the part of others ; but it is better to suffer, rather than sacrifice your sense of honor. 21. A just man is one in whom conscience is sovereign. Justice suffers when conscience is silenced. Frauds, injustice, malfeasance in office, and betrayal of trust, stalk abroad when conscience is fettered. 22. Conscience, unless forcibly stopped, always magisterially asserts itself. 134 CHARACTER: A MORAL TEXT-BOOK. Book VIII. Part 6. Patriotism. Tour own proud land's heroic soil Shall be your fittest grave, She claims from war its richest spoil, — The ashes of her brave. — O'Hara. i. Patriotism is the noblest sentiment that enters the human heart. 2. Your country is not a certain area of land, of mountain, rivers and woods, but it is principle ; and pat- riotism is loyalty to that principle. 3. People who love their country are jealous of its honor, of its liberty and its welfare. 4. Three things to fight for: Honor, Country, and Home. 5. You should perfect yourself in military train- ing and be ever ready to answer your country's call. 6. One of the highest duties of every citizen is to defend his own liberty, and his country's flag and honor. 7. True patriotism is based on honesty, truthful- ness, generosity, self-sacrifice, and genuine love of free- dom. 8. There are times when patriotism rises to the height of sublimity, and the man who dares and suf- fers is earth's grandest hero. 9. He is a patriot of a noble type who adds to the citizenship of his state the qualities of true manhood. 10. The simplest patriotism is the hardest to prac- tice. 11. A knowledge of universal history is an admir- able check on spurious patriotism. It is not by under- rating others, but by duly estimating and appreciating their achievements, that you will find yourself challeng- ed to bring forth what is best in yourself. 12. Patriotism is a very different thing from par- tisanship. 13. Patriotism may be defined as doing the right thing in public affairs for right's sake, at the right time. 135 14. A traitor is a man who, in peace or in war, fails to support the best interests of his country. 15. Consecrate your life to the perpetuation of your country, and resolve that when the reins of government shall fall to you, as in the course of a few short years they must, that you will, by earnest application today, endeavor to fit and prepare yourself for the duties of the morrow. 16. Take part in all patriotic celebrations and nev- er lose an opportunity to promote the public welfare. 17. Without local attachment there can be no genuine patriotism. 18. The influences which cultivate a true love of country and inspire the spirit of bravery, are of a purely moral character, and can be traced back, in most cases, to home attachments and influences. 19. The first impulse of patriotism and morality is germinated, nourished, and largely if not entirely de- veloped in the family circle. 20. Just in proportion as home, the mother of pat- riotism, is made home-like and happy, will its attach- ments grow and become, not only the strongest barriers to the encroachments of vice, but a sentiment, when fully expanded, that will be one of the strongest ties to fatherland. 21. It is a splendid and healthily stimulative thing to stir the sensations of patriotism, of generosity, of sacrifice, of noble love. 22. Government, in the long run, is usually no bet- ter than the people governed. 23. The foundation of political happiness is confi- dence in the integrity of man. 24. Moral responsibilities and obligations attach to great fortunes, which owe the country much for their protection. 25. Military bravery is one of the most mysterious of human qualities. 26. It is the fashion of all nations to idealize their soldiers into men who become heroic through love of country and faith in the justice of their cause. 136 CHARACTER: A MORAL, TEXT-BOOK. Book VIM. Part 7. Gratitude. The heart grows richer that its lot is poor, — God blesses want with larger sympathies, — Love enters gladliest at the humble door, And makes the cot a palace with his eyes. — James Russell Lowell. i. There is not a more pleasing exercise of the mind than gratitude. It is accompanied with such an inward satisfaction that the duty is sufficiently rewarded by the performance. 2. Gratitude is not, like the practice of many vir- tues, difficult and painful, but attended with so much pleasure, that were there no positive command which enjoined it, nor any recompense laid up for it hereafter, a generous mind would indulge in it for the natural grat- ification that accompanies it. 3. To be thankful is not only pleasant to the one who has bestowed the gift; it is a sweet satisfaction to the one who is grateful. This disposition is among those virtues the exercise of which has been ordained for your inward satisfaction and peace. 4. The sense of gratitude, the feeling that it should be cherished and expressed, is common to all persons ; it is born with you and it may truly be said is one of the finest elements of character. 5. Gratitude is usually displayed by a return of the kindness received. But the kindness you receive from your parents is such that you can never repay it. It is of the nature of a debt which you can never hope fully to cancel. 6. Do not overlook any expression of affection from your friends. Do not shut your eyes to the kindly actions of others, but be prompt to acknowledge all friendly sentiments that are expressed for you. 7. No right-minded man can be satisfied with be- ing fed, clad, and maintained by the labors of others, without making some suitable return to the society that upholds him. 137 8. Men do not exact or expect much recognition by way of gratitude ; they are accustomed to bestow rather than receive, yet a certain amount of praise and thanks is always welcome to the diligent and faithful. 9. The benefactor should immediately forget what he has given ; the beneficiary should always remember what he has received. Gratitude is based on the sense of moral fellowship with others. The gifts received and returned are mere tokens of this noble relationship. 10. Let no one be deterred from the exercise of charity, because in his progress through life he has en- countered many an instance of black ingratitude. Let not the innocent suffer for the guilty. 11. The ungrateful man is a disgrace to humanity. He is entitled to neither sympathy nor respect. He not only injures himself, but he excites distrust as to man- kind at large, and checks the hand of generosity when about to act in the most liberal spirit. 12. A proud man is seldom a grateful man, for he never thinks he gets as much as he deserves. 13. Ungratefulness is the very poison of manhood. 14. Ingratitude is a sign of weakness. A strong character is never ungrateful. 15. Ingratitude is a crime so shameful that the man has not yet been found who would acknowledge himself guilty of it. 16. It is true that kind actions are not always re- ceived with gratitude, but this ought never to turn aside the sympathetic helper. This is one of the difficulties to be overcome in your conflict with life. 17. A crust of bread from one heart brings a song, from another a thousand acres of ripening grain can produce no thanksgiving. There is no measure for gratitude. 18. Good and friendly conduct may meet with an unworthy and ungrateful return ; but the absence of gratitude on the part of the receiver cannot destroy the self-approbation which recompenses the giver. 138 CHARACTER: A MORAL TEXT-BOOK. Book VIII. Part 8. Election. Our lives are songs: God writes the words, And we set them to music at leisure; And the song is sad, or the song is glad, As we choose to fashion the measure. — Gibbons. i. You can make of life what you will. You can give as much value to it, for yourself and others, as you have power given you. When circumstances are not against you, you have entire control over your moral and spiritual nature. 2. To nearly all is given the prerogative of deter- mining their relative position in the scale of existence. They may decide if they will control circumstances, or permit circumstances to control them. Upon the result of this choice hinges their future good. 3. Although the moral character depends in a great degree on temperament and on physical health, as well as domestic and early training and the example of com- panions, it is also in the power of each individual to regulate, to restrain, and to discipline it by watchful and persevering self-control. 4. The best way to direct education of character, with a view to growth, is to put yourself under the pow- er of good influences, ideals and habits ; character can- not actually be directly educated, but you can direct the forces that act on it. 5. Character grows like the body, mainly by food and exercise. Its food is the ideas presented to the mind, its exercise lies in directing life through the var- ious circumstances around. Development is not a power or force in the body like growth, but purely the result of use and exercise. 6. Your choice is always determined by a conflict in which you always follow the strongest motive. 7. It lies with you whether you shall have the re- spect and the confidence of the community in which you live. If you fail to inspire it, or if, having acquired it 139 forfeit it, in that lies your punishment, and for it you alone are responsible. 8. Your character is made up of your choices and refusals. 9. The will is free to choose between the right course and the wrong one, but the choice is nothing un- less followed by immediate and decisive action. 10. As a general statement it is true that a young man's career is absolutely in his own keeping, and he is thus the master of his own destiny. 11. Your life is essentially what you make it. 12. It is in your own power to be worthy or worth- less. 13. You are not the creature, so much as you are the creator, of circumstances; by the exercise of your free-will you can direct your actions so that they shall be productive of good rather than ill. 14. Though your character is formed by circum- stances, your own desires can do much to shape those circumstances ; and what is really inspiring and ennobl- ing in the doctrine of free will, is the conviction that you have real power over the formation of your own character; you will, by influencing some of your cir- cumstances, be able to modify your future habits or ca- pacity of willing. 15. You may make the best of life or you may make the worst of it ; it depends very much on yourself whether you extract joy or misery from it. 16. You may make yourself what you will within the limitations nature has set about you. 17. You have the choice of following good or fol- lowing evil. It depends on yourself — on your awakened conscience and enlightened will. 18. Every man is the architect of his own fortune. 19. A good or bad fortune rests with each individ- ual. 20. A burden which you choose is not felt. 21. Into your life will come a time when, con- sciously or unconsciously, you will decide whether you will drift through it, or steer through it with a definite aim in view. 140 CHARACTER: A MORAL TEXT-BOOK. Book VIM. Part 9. Goodness. How'er it be, it seems to me, 'Tis only noble to be good. Kind hearts are more than coronets, And simple faith than Norman blood. — Tennyson. 1. True manliness can only exist when the good is sought for its own sake, either as a recognized law of pure duty or from the feeling of the constraining bonds of virtue. This alone reacts on the human char- acter. 2. Rightness of heart and not of mere conduct, is the essential characteristic of goodness. 3. You are responsible for all the good within the scope of your abilities. 4. Good actions give strength and inspire good actions in others. They prove treasures guarded for the doer's need. 5. Great is the power of goodness to charm and command. The man inspired by it is the king of men, drawing all hearts after him. 6. The luxury of doing good surpasses every other personal enjoyment. 7. He who stands forth clothed with the real weight of goodness can neither be feeble in life, nor forgotten in death. 8. There is a distinctive difference between good and evil and there is no excuse for not being able to distinguish it. 9. All good habits should be assiduously cultivated while young and they will never be forgotten. 10. You will find good when you look for it with a good heart. 11. Goodness is regenerating, purifying. It is God- liness, divinity in man. 12. Goodness is an impulse, inherent in man as well as badness. One is quite as genuine as the other. 13. It is not enough to have good qualities; see that they are not neutralized by some prominent bad one. 141 14- No one is born without the capacity for good. 15. The heart should be cultivated in the right manner until the acts of the individual spontaneously flow in the right direction. 16. Every human being has a rudimentary moral sense, and the adjustment of his conduct to the moral relations which he naturally feels should exist between himself and his environment, forms his character. 17. Only those without virtue themselves disbe- lieve in its existence in others. 18. Evil habits are best overcome, not by mere resistance, but by the vigorous formation of the opposite virtuous habit. 19. Good things are more powerful than bad. 20. Greatness is seldom hereditary, but goodness lasts through the ages. 21. There is a saintly light around goodness that neither intellect, nor natural tenderness, nor the most enlightened sentiments, can create. 22. A good deed is never lost; he who sows cour- tesy reaps friendship, and he who plants kindness gath- ers love. 23. A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good things ; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart brings forth evil things. 24. Without the apparently minor gift of good tem- per, the most splendid endowments may be comparative- ly valueless to their possessor. 25. Good nature is the very air of a good mind; the sign of a large and generous soul, and the peculiar soil in which virtue prospers. 26. A display of the easiest virtues will generally bring you more popularity than the exhibition of the greatest talents without them. 27. You shall not commit adultery; you shall not kill ; you shall not steal ; you shall not bear false wit- ness ; you shall not covet ; and if there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this say- ing, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. 28. Be good, do good, and you will be happy. 142 CHARACTER: A MORAL TEXT-BOOK. Book VIII. Part 10. Patience. Patience is the exercise Of saints, the trial of their fortitude; Making them each his own deliverer, And victor over all That tyranny or fortune can inflict. — Milton. 1. Patience adorns the woman and improves the man ; is loved in a child ; praised in a young man ; ad- mired in an old man; it is beautiful in either sex and every age. 2. Patience governs the flesh, strengthens the spir- it, sweetens the temper, stifles anger, extinguishes envy, subdues pride; it bridles the tongue, restrains the hand, tramples upon temptations, endures persecutions. 3. Patience is the courage of virtue, enabling you to lessen pain of mind and body; it does not so much add to the number of your joys as it tends to diminish the number of your sufferings. 4. Patience produces loyalty in the state, harmony in families and societies ; it comforts the poor and mod- erates the rich ; it makes you humble in prosperity, cheerful in adversity, unmoved by calumny and re- proach ; it teaches you to forgive those who have in- jured you, and to be the first in asking forgiveness of those whom you have injured. 5. Patience is a virtue kindred to attention; and without it, the mind cannot be said to be disciplined. Patient labor and investigation are not only essential to success in study, but are an unfailing guarantee of suc- cess in most other things. 6. The most beneficent operations of nature are the result of patience. 7. Patience always belongs to great characters. 8. The humble faculty of patience, when rightly developed, may lead to more extraordinary developments of idea than even genius itself. 9 Patience will help you to see the bright side of everything that happens. 143 io. To know how to wait is a great secret of suc- cess. ii. Progress of the best kind is comparatively slow. Great results cannot be achieved at once ; and you must be satisfied to advance in life as you walk, step by step. 12. Patience is the guardian of faith, the preserver of peace, the cherisher of love, the teacher of humility. 13. Patience is bitter but its fruit is sweet. 14. The man who can calmly wait is master of the situation. 15. Ages do not try the placid and vast patience of the man who is to be a master. 16. Learn to wait as well as labor. The best har- vests are the longest in ripening. It is not pleasant to work in the earth plucking the ugly tares and weeds, but it is as necessary as sowing the seed. 17. Be patient with your pains and cares. These things are killed by enduring them, and made strong to bite and sting by feeding them with your frets and worry. 18. Be patient with your beloved. Love is the best thing on earth, but it is to be handled tenderly, and impatience is a nurse that kills it. 19. Be patient — it is the only remedy against all the ills of life. 20. He that can have patience can have what he will. 21. There is a virtue in passive endurance which is often greater than the glory of success. It bears, it suf- fers, it endures, and still it hopes. 22. By bravely enduring, an evil which cannot be overcome, is avoided. 23. Endurance is a much better test of character than any one act of heroism, however noble. 24. Understanding something of God's unconquer- able patience, you shall have patience with man that nothing can overcome. 25. Anybody can get into a rage ; it requires more effort and shows a higher type of manhood and woman- hood to be patient. 144 CHARACTER: A MORAL TEXT-BOOK. Book VIM. Part 11. Philosophy. Divine Philosophy! by whose pure light We first distinguish, then pursue the right; Thy power the breast from every error frees, And weeds out all its vices by degrees. — Gifford's Juvenal. i. You need to live long before you can do wisely in contradicting or correcting any of the simple, prac- tical rules for common conduct which men ages ago found out, and which millions of human beings have learned are reasonable by trying to live according to them. 2. The philosophy of life is, first to look after yourself. 3. Man is better today than he ever was, and it is your duty not only to know a good thing when you see it, but to realize its excellence and to apply it to your daily thinking. 4. A good humored acquiescence, and the disposi- tion to make the best out of things that are unpleasant, is true philosophy. 5. The true philosophy of life lies in the attainment of the largest amount of happiness with the smallest expenditure of force. 6. Philosophy is the cultivation of the mental fac- ulties ; it roots out vices and prepares the mind to re- ceive proper seed. 7. Truth in personality is life and power. Always the printed philosophy is less than the speaking philos- opher. 8. If there is anything calculated to produce con- tent and happiness it is philosophy. 9. The beginning of philosophy is the conscious- ness of your own feebleness and your incapacity in re- spect to many things. 10. Philosophy finds its highest province in the study of your own natures. 11. The popularizer succeeds the philosopher, and H5 the knowledge that would have been wasted on a few "becomes available for all. 12. There is not one primary desire or appetite in the human system that was put there to be taken out again. 13. Everything that is in man was put in him because it was necessary to the symmetry of the whole. 14. You have a right to every one of your appe- tites and passions ; and that, not for suppression, but for use, so that you use them in subordination to the higher moral sentiments and affections. 15. The measure of your duty is the greatness of your advantages, and the greatness of your advantages is the standard to which you will be subjected in the judgment of God and the judgment of history. 16. All the departments of your nature were made to grow, the one with the other, and not one at a time, and the development of the one should not demand the sacrifice of the other. 17. That the wicked have plenty to eat is no indi- cation of the approval of heaven. 18. A poor man, though living in the crowded mart, no one will notice ; a rich man, though dwelling amid the remote hills, everybody will find him out. 19. The best way for a man to train a child in the way he should go, is to travel that way sometimes himself. 20. The earlier in life the main principles of char- acter are developed and fixed, the more are they likely to resist the stress and strain of later years. The last principle implanted is the easiest to lose, and should be guarded against undue temptation. 21. Nothing learnt or taught forms a part of the character until it sinks from the conscious into the unconscious. 2.2,. There is nothing more visible than what is secret, and nothing more manifest than what is minute; therefore, the superior man is watchful over himself when he is alone. 23. You have no right to believe a thing because everybody says so. 146 CHARACTER: A MORAL TEXT-BOOK. Book VIM. Part 12. Perfection. All, that life can rate, Worth name of life, in thee hath estimate; Youth, beauty, wisdom, courage, virtue, all That happiness and prime can happy call. — Shakespeare. i. To arrive at perfection, you must show cheerful submission to superiors, self-respect and independence of character, kindness and protection to the weak, read- iness to forgive offense, a desire to conciliate the differ- ences of others, and, above all, fearless devotion to duty, and unflinching truthfulness. 2. A perfect balance between the animal and mental temperament would result in a perfect human being. 3. Moral law demands perfection. 4. To love truth for truth's sake is the principal part of human perfection, and the seed-plot of all other virtues. 5. Aim at perfection in everything, though in most things it is unattainable ; however, they who aim at it, and persevere, will come much nearer to it than those whose laziness and despondency make them give it up as unattainable. 6. You should resolve upon perfection in your own line, so that, if you be a mechanic, you be the best pos- sible mechanic ; or if a statesman, that you will be the best possible statesman. It is by such means that true success is achieved. 7. The masterpiece, a perfect man, is the result of such an extreme delicacy, that the most unobserved flaw in the boy will neutralize the most aspiring genius, and spoil the work. 8. Love works no ill to his neighbor, therefore love is perfection. 9. The character is best and most perfect when a good intelligence is joined to a warm heart, and the stream of emotion is controlled by wisdom. 10. A gentleman is the nearest approach to a per- fect man. 147 11. The model in the mind must be perfect, if you would obtain perfection of the body. 12. There grows within each heart, as in a shrine, the giant image of prefection. 13. Be firmly convinced that you were made in the image of perfection, designed for success and happiness,, and that you have the power to strangle the evils which would thwart you. 14. Proper praise promotes perfection. 15. Nothing but perfection must content you. 16. Perfection in the arts depends upon trifles, and the perfect in art suggests the perfect in conduct. 17. Trifles make perfection, but perfection is no trifle. 18. It is working and waiting that gives perfec- tion. 19. The demand for excellence is always greater than the supply. 20. The love of excellence is inseparable from a spirit of uncompromising detestation for all that is base and crimnial. 21. The aim of every man should be to secure the highest and most harmonious development of his pow- ers to a complete and consistent whole. 22. There are degrees of virtue. All graces are not of equal value. Without the observance of the place and proportion of each, a distorted and ill-formed char- acter must result. Symmetry of character requires dis- crimination. 23. Nothing will so save you fiom self-consump- tion as a complete surrender to excellence. It is a burn- ing zeal to get higher and higher in the scale of char- acter, an ever increasing thirst and enthusiasm fu/ the best — that will take nothing less — that lifts life on a plane worth living. 24. By habit there conies a time when you no longer possess a certain virtue, but it possesses you. When this is so, it is your assured property; and you can pass on to attain higher forms of virtue, and it is thus you grow into the perfectly tempered man who is the product of organized habit. 148 CHARACTER: A MORAL TEXT-BOOK. Book IX. Part 1. Weakness. If weakness may excuse, What murderer, what traitor, parricide, Incestuous, sacrilegious, but may plead it? All wickedness is weakness; that plea, therefore, With God or man will gain thee no remission. —Milton. 1. The strength of a chain lies in its weakest, not in its strongest link. You are apt to be proud of your strong links, and are constantly trying to make them stronger ; but you are sensitive about the weak ones ; you do not like to dwell upon your deficiencies. Consequent- ly the weak links in your character grow weaker and weaker, until they finally break. 2. Weakness is the damnation of manhood. It fills asylums, jails, and penitentiaries. It begets pauper- ism, crime and sin. If you expect to amount to anything you must be strong. 3. The place where character usually breaks down is not in the large but in the small things of life. The large dishonesty that startles the world is but the climax that discloses the career of petty dishonesties behind. 4. The weak and undisciplined man is at the mercy of every temptation ; he cannot say no, but falls before it. And if his companionship is bad, he will be all the easier led away by bad example into wrong-doing. 5. No apology can cover up weakness, whether it be a lack of energy, of will power, of physical stamina, or loss of brain force. 6. In the assurance of strength there is strength, and they are the weakest, however strong, who have no faith in themselves or their powers. 7. A person who is naturally weak or timid should bend all his energies to acquiring self-confidence, firm- ness, and decision. He should never for a moment give way to the thought that he would not be equal to any emergency. He should not refer to or lean on others, but should do his thinking independently. 8. Do not lose sight of the weaker parts of mind 149 and character, to strengthen which is often even more desirable than to develop abnormally a part which is naturally strong. 9. If a boy is not trained to endure and bear trouble he will grow up like a girl ; and a boy that is like a girl has all a girl's weaknesses without any of her regal qualities. 10. Vice recruits her victims as much by want of firmness, and weakness, as by a taste for wrong. That comes with indulgence. 11. Weakness excites sympathy and ridicule; strength admiration and envy. 12. The average transgressor of the laws of perfect integrity are the unconscious dupes of their own weak wills, silly caprices, or unhealthy ambitions. 13. One of the most contemptible forms of weak- ness is to acquiesce in the prejudices of others. 14. There are none so weak that you may venture to injure them with impunity; there are none so low that they may not, at some time, be able to repay an obligation. 15. No amount of cultivation will make some minds equal to those of others who have had but little training. But, whether great or small, everyone has some weak point : let him study to overcome that. 16. Oftentimes some little weakness, as a lack of courtesy, want of promptness or decision, a habit of doing things in a slovenly way, a want of precision, a bad temper, may prevent you from securing employ- ment, or may keep you from promotion. 17. The craving for pleasure, at once so natural and so dangerous, is an opening to weakness. 18. Forwardness and backwardness are alike defects of character to be guarded against. 19. The desire to possess without being burdened with the trouble of acquiring, is a great sign of weak- ness and laziness. 20. The will of youth is, as a rule, weak and irresolute, and ready to yield to a stronger, it may be for evil. 150 CHARACTER: A MORAL TEXT-BOOK. Book IX. Part 2. Ignorance. We think our fathers fools, so wise we grow; Our wiser sons, no doubt, will think us so. — Pope. i. Ignorance is not simply the negation of knowl- edge, it is the misdirection of the mind. 2. Intellectual laziness is the prolific source of ignorance. 3. An ignorant life must always be a comparatively dull one. Man needs knowledge, not merely as a means of livelihood, but as a means of life. 4. The most ignorant man is sometimes the most wise in his own conceit ; and the most vacillating often regards himself as firm and persistent as a rock, and possibly may be so at times when specially aroused. 5. There is no calamity like ignorance. 6. So long as you remain in ignorance, so long will you fail to command the respect of your fellow men. 7. Ignorance is no excuse before the courts for a violation of law, neither is it an excuse for the infrac- tion upon the unwritten statutes of social customs. 8. One of the penalties of ignorance is that the unlearned man must forego the keen delight of impart- ing knowledge. 9. Small is your knowledge in comparison with your ignorance. 10. Ignorance is the night of the mind, but a night without moon or star. 11. An ignorant person is despised, while knowl- edge wins you the esteem of your fellow men. 12. Absolute losses in business are generally the result of ignorance. 13. Want is little to be dreaded, when a man has but a short time to be miserable. Of all poverty, that of the mind is the most deplorable. 14. The gifts of the mind are able to cover the defects of the body ; but the perfections of the body can not hide the imperfections of the mind. 15. To know many things indifferently is, so far as i5i gaining a livelihood is concerned, tantamount to know- ing nothing. 16. Whatever study tends neither directly nor indirectly to make you better men and citizens, is at best but a specious and ingenious sort of idleness, and the knowledge you acquire by it only a creditable kind of ignorance. 17. All that the wise men of the past and present have learned will have been sought for and fought for in vain, if it be not well taught to those who are to do the thinking and working for the world after the men and women of today are laid away to rest. 18. Though wise men may learn of fools by avoid- ing their errors, fools rarely profit by the example which wise men set them. 19. Fools make feasts and wise men eat them. 20. Experience keeps a dear school but fools will learn in no other. 21. The practical dunce outstrips the theorizing genius. 22. No one is a fool always, everyone sometimes. 23. It has often proved to be the case that those who gave little promise in their early days happily dis- appointed their friends afterwards, and showed that they were capable of good things. It was only needful to wake up their slumbering powers and rightly direct them. 24. The majority of men are lost, not because they are criminals, but fools ; not because they sought wick- edness, but drifted into it ; not because they purposed folly, but simply because they never had a wise and enduring purpose. 25. Many remain in negligence and criminality from their circumstances in social life, position, habit, or education; but still so well organized and attempered as only to wait the influence of powerful appeal, clear knowlege, and realization, to turn them from wicked- ness to virtue. 26. Though ignorance can be certainly, it cannot be easily cured. 152 CHARACTER: A MORAL TEXT-BOOK. Book IX. Part 3. Poverty. Want is a bitter and a hateful good, Because its virtues are not understood; Yet many things, impossible to thought, Have been by need to full perfection brought. — Dryden. i. Until the flame of hope is extinguished; while the flame of ambition continues to burn ; as long as aspiration finds a home in the soul, the poor will be miserable and preventable poverty a disgrace. 2. No man can do his best work who feels want tugging at his heels, who is hampered and tied down and forever at the mercy of circumstances, or those upon whom he depends for employment. 3. The great trouble with the miserably poor is that their ideals are low, they lack education, and above all cleanliness, and have no adequate view of the dignity of life. 4. The poorest man who walks can stand in the presence of the man of millions with no consciousness of inferiority, but when poverty is the result of crime, it becomes at once sinful and disgraceful. 5. Poverty is a great enemy to human happiness. It certainly destroys liberty, and makes some virtues impracticable, and others extremely difficult, for with- out money none can be rich, and with it few can be poor. 6. The bitterest sorrow of poverty is that one so situated may not experience that highest type of joy which comes from enlarging the joy and gladness of your fellows. 7. Do not start out with the idea that poor or obscure men and women are necessarily failures. 8. To have nothing is not poverty. Whoever uplifts civilization is rich, though he die penniless. 9. Even the foolish may know how to use riches ; it is the wise who know how to use poverty. 10. Poverty has rocked the cradle of the giants who have wrung civilization from barbarism, and led the world up from savagery. 153 n. A condition of comparative poverty is compat- ible with character in its highest form. A man may possess only his industry, his frugality, his integrity, and yet stand high in the rank of true manhood. 12. There is a greater misfortune than being born poor. It is in being heir to great wealth and not know- ing how to use it wisely. 13. For the average man or woman to live in con- tinual poverty is a disgrace. 14. The poor are ever at the mercy of circumstan- ces. They cannot be independent. 15. Poverty takes away so many means of doing good, and produces so much inability to resist evil, both natural and moral, that it is by all virtuous means to be avoided. 16. Poverty itself may be lifted and lightened up by self-respect ; and it is truly a noble sight to see a poor man hold himself upright amid his temptations, and refuse to demean himself by low actions. 17. Poverty in itself is not a crime. No disgrace belongs to the man who, by reverses in business, is led down from affluence to destitution. 18. Poverty is a condition which no man should accept, unless it be forced upon him as an inexorable necessity or as the alternative of dishonor. 19. The man who has no money is poor, but one who has nothing but money is poorer than he. 20. It takes courage to remain in honest poverty when others grow rich by fraud. 21. A thought to brighten poverty is that, how- ever poor and obscure you may be, you can have as much fragrance in your life as the greatest and best. 22. It is not the greatest poverty to lack money, but rather to believe yourself poor, wretched and unfor- tunate. To be without some of those things which you strongly desire should not make you miserable. 23. Many of the greatest benefactors of the world have been those who had no money. 24. It is one of the mysteries of life that genius is nourished by poverty. 154 CHARACTER: A MORAL TEXT-BOOK. Book IX. Part 4. Worry. Fate steals along with silent tread, Found oftenest in what least we dread; Frowns in the storm with angry brow, But in the sunshine strikes the blow. — Cowper. i. The cankering, corroding, worrying habit of brooding over troubles real or imaginary, cheats a large part of the human race out of almost everything that is worth living for. 2. Worrying is an essentially feminine failing. 3. The chief source of worry is not real but imag- inary evil. 4. As a rule the most successful men and women are free from worry. They learn to convert all the force and energy they can generate into useful work instead of dissipating a large portion of it in anxiously preparing to meet troubles that never come. 5. Active minds are seldom troubled with gloomy forebodings. They come up only from the stagnant depths of a spirit unstirred by generous impulses or the blessed necessities of honest toil. 6. Do not bother yourself about what you cannot help, or about circumstances that you did not decree. 7. Worry has never done any good in the world except to kill off those who were not fit to survive in the race for existence and success. 8. Of all the foolish, useless and unprofitable things in the scheme of living, worrying is the most foolish and useless. Nothing is gained by it, and every- thing is lost. 9. Worry is a disease. Sometimes it becomes a crime. 10. Worry is a habit — one formed so early in life that it is often supposed to be ingrained in the very make-up of the individual. 11. You must attack your bad habit of worrying as you would a disease. It is something to be overcome, an infirmity that you are to get rid of. i55 12. Time occupied in worrying about opportun- ities, openings, and starts, is time wasted, because, to every capable man, a start and an opportunity are always furnished by the necessities of all other men. 13. No mental attitude is more disastrous to per- sonal achievement, personal hapiness, and personal use- fulness, than worry and its twin brother despondency. 14. Do not worry yourself and others with what cannot be remedied. 15. Worry kills as surely, though not so quickly, as ever gun or dagger did. 16. Worry not only impairs the mental faculties, but it also destroys or undermines physical power. 17. The energies of the mind are dissipated in worrying, in useless anxiety, in anticipating trouble or misfortune, and in thinking about what others will say of your work or of yourself. 18. W^orry wears out more people than work does, and fretting causes more unhappiness than either sickness or poverty. 19. Do not anticipate trouble, or worry about what may never happen. 20. Anxiety mars your work. Nobody can do his best when fevered by worry. 21. If you hug misery to yourself, by unerring law the tides of weakening, unhappy thought set toward you, flow into your being, rising higher and higher until you are submerged. 22. Any one who constantly holds the picture of want in his mind, talks incessantly of his misfortunes or ill luck, and thinks that fate is against him, has no chance of winning in the batle of life. He must change his point of view or his fortunes will not mend. It is fear that makes beggars. 23. If you perpetually carry your burdens about with you, they will soon bear you down under their load. 24. Pride is always trying to spy out faults in oth- ers. It wants no virtues to outshine those it claims for itself. 156 CHARACTER: A MORAL TEXT-BOOK. Book IX. Part 5. Timidity. Our doubts are traitors, And make us lose the good we oft might win By fearing to attempt. — Shakespeare. i. No youth can hope to succeed who is timid, who lacks faith in himself, who has not the courage of his convictions, and who always seeks for certainty before he ventures. 2. It is natural for the world to believe in the men who believe in themselves, who have confidence that they can accomplish things. No one has faith in the timid, vacillating, undecided man. 3. There is no impossibility for him who stands prepared to conquer every hazard — the fearful are the failing. 4. In matters of great concern, and which must be done, there is no surer argument of a weak mind than irresolution — to be undetermined when the crisis is plain and the necessity urgent. 5. There is nothing attractive in timidity, nothing lovable in fear. Both are deformities and are repulsive. 6. Excessive shyness must be overcome as an obstacle to perfect manners. 7. The youth who starts out by being afraid to speak what he thinks will usually end by being afraid to think what he wishes. 8. The man who waits for absolute certainty in regard to the success of his enterprises rarely accom- plishes much, and seldom inspires confidence in others. 9. There is no more universal and deadly foe to sucess than shyness, which in many cases becomes a malady. 10. Shy people are always distrustful of their pow- ers, and look upon their lack of confidence as a weakness or lack of ability, when it may indicate quite the reverse. 11. Hesitation shows a lack of ambition. When you are asked to do something, ask no questions, but 157 shoulder your task, and bend every energy to carry it to a successful termination. 12. Regard every suggestion that your life may be a failure, that you are not made like those who suc- ceed, and that success is not for you, as a traitor, and expel it from your mind as you would a thief from your house. 13. Fear is the deadly foe of success in every legit- imate undertaking. 14. It is fear that causes the wheels of thought to stop. If you can only keep off the clog of fear, the mind will go on revolving and find a way of escape when there seems none. 15. Fear makes you a slave to others. 16. There are few things more degrading to the moral nature than fear, the expectation of pain. 17. To think a thing is impossible is to make it so. 18. Self-distrust is the cause of most failures. 19. As soon as a man begins to care about what others will say of circumstances not under his control, such as his race, his origin, his appearance, his phys- ical defects, or his lack of wealth or natural talents, he may be laying up for himself a store of incalculable misery, and is certainly enfeebling and impairing his chances of future usefulness. 20. Your greatest enemies are your doubts. Reso- lutely refuse to surround yourself with an army of doubts, fears, and anxieties. Vigorously dispel these foes to your success and happiness, or they will under- mine your future. 21. The way to meet doubt is not with the smile of approval and the pose of tolerance, but with the sword of opposition and the battery of denunciation. 22. Doubt is an evidence of weakness. The man who constantly wavers, hesitates, and shifts from one thing to another, does so from doubt of his own capacity to improve or protect himself. He is universally con- sidered a weak man. 23. Doubt, hesitation, and over caution, cause mental stagnation or mental inefficiency. 158 CHARACTER: A MORAL TEXT-BOOK. Book IX. Part 6. Indifference. Better to stem with heart and hand The roaring- tide of life, than lie, Unmindful, on its flowery strand, Of God's occasions drifting- by! Better with naked nerve to bear The needles of this goading air, Than in the lap of sensual ease forego The godlike power to do, the godlike aim to know. — Whittier. i. They who allow themselves, habitually, to vac- illate, and hesitate, and remain undecided, in the every- day concerns of life, will habitually do so in those larger matters which recur less frequently. 2. Weak-minded youth who allow themselves to be pulled hither and thither by the strongest influence which happens to be acting at the moment, who have not the incisive resolution to choose and stick to one unwavering aim, may do something, but they will never fulfill their mission, nor perform any work worthy of the gift of life and its opportunities. 3. The man who starts out with the intention of doing no more than his part, is apt to be satisfied with doing only a part of that. 4. You find what you seek with all your heart, and if you look for nothing in particular, you find just that and no more. 5. Do not sit down and wait for a good job to come along and hunt you up. 6. The habit of dallying is a very dangerous one, and, if not strangled at the outset, will prove a grave barrier in the path of success. 7. Have that decision which means success. Get rid of that indecision which means defeat. 8. Nothing of worth or weight can be achieved with half a mind, with a faint heart or a lame endeavor. 9. He that thinks he can afford to be negligent is not far from being poor. 10. No one can accomplish anything great who is contented with little, who is confident that he was made 159 for little things, or is satisfied with what happens to come his way. ii. To dally with your purpose, to half will, to hang forever in the balance, is to lose your grip on life. 12. The man who works only when he feels like it, and has no power to compel himself to do a thing when he is averse to it, will never get very high up in the world. 13. The habit of skimming, of doing things in a careless, superficial manner, is one of the greatest stumbling-blocks to success. 14. Beware of the danger which lies in fickleness of purpose. 15. Take life easy, shirk every disagreeable duty; avoid every responsibility ; get into the popular swim ; make it your supreme ambition to have a good time ; — you will rapidly drift down the stream that carries many a man to perdition. 16. The purposeless life must ever be a failure. 17. Indecision, hesitation, infirmness of purpose, the failure to act when nothing but vigor of action will avail; these will ruin a man as surely and effectively as deliberate and outbreaking sin. 18. Lazienss is the worst foe to everything that is worthy and useful in life. 19. The vacillating man is always pushed aside in the race of life. 20. God never helps the man who will not act. 21. Negligence is the rust of the soul that corrodes through all her best resolves. 22. It is not men's faults that ruin them so much as the manner in which they conduct themselves after the faults have been committed. 23. A shirk and a thief are the same thing. 24. Do not be drifting constantly from one pur- pose to another, but keep your purpose in view and press towards it. 25. There is no place or work for the man without a purpose. The world needs men who will not add to life's burdens, but who will help to carry them. i6o CHARACTER: A MORAL TEXT-BOOK. Book IX. Part 7. Fault-Finding. Could we forbear dispute and practice love, We should agree as angels do above. — Waller. 1. There is no misery so constant, so distressing, and intolerable to others, as that of having a disposition which is your master, and which is continually fretting itself. 2. Excessive and indiscriminate scolding, fretting and fault-finding are even more injurious than excessive and indiscriminate laudation. 3. A fretful disposition sours all the relations of life, is a most pernicious acquisition and a dreadful inher- itance. 4. Murmur at nothing; if your ills are reparable it is ungrateful ; if remediless, it is vain. 5. Fretting is both useless and unnecessary ; it does no good and a great deal of harm. 6. Never find fault unless it is prefectly certain that a fault has been committed. 7. Fretting weakens your own self-respect. 8. Fretting is as vain and useless a habit as you can harbor. Nothing so warps your nature, sours your disposition and breaks up your friendly relations. 9. Fretting resorts to fear, apeals to brute force, and in return awakens only dread and dislike. It is an evil force that fosters the faults it seeks in vain to cor- rect. 10. It is impossible to love an habitual fault-finder. 11. He that can please nobody is not so much to be pitied as he that nobody can please. 12. Instances are very rare where people of irasci- ble tempers live to extreme old age. 13. No outward lot can give content to a grumbling soul. 14. The usual fortune of complaint is to call forth contempt more than pity. 15. Bear with much that seems impertinent. It i6i may not appear so to others and you may learn some- thing from it. 16. Slight small injuries and they will become none at all. 17. Be not disturbed by trifles or accidents com- mon or unavoidable. 18. It is hard to believe that others cannot see what seems plain to you ; everything is in the position you happen to occupy. 19. It highly gratifies a low disposition when it can find a fault in some highly-respected brother. 20. You are too apt to see the abuse of a thing. The abuse is nothing against the proper use. 21. Think it over and you will see that nothing can be done better by impatience than by its opposite. 22. There is no good to be looked for from a youth who, having done no substantial work of his own, sets up a business of finding faults in other people's work, and calls this practice of finding fault criticism. 23. There is enough in the world to complain about and find fault with, if you have the disposition. You often travel on a hard and uneven road, but with a cheer- ful spirit you may walk therein with great comfort and come to the end of your journey in peace. 24. A morbid theory is like a horrid cancer bring- ing suffering and despair. If you despise sweetness and light do not try to embitter the lives of others by purring at the little light that warms and cheers them. 25. The men who find the most fault are rarely those who work effectively to destroy the evils com- plained of. 26. Do not make yourself and others unhappy by your ingratitude and complaints. 2J. Wailings and complainings of life are never of any use ; only cheerful and continuous working in right paths are of real avail. 28. When differences arise they should be con- ducted with reason and moderation. 29. Never do you portray your own character more vividly than in your manner of portraying another's. 1 62 CHARACTER: A MORAL TEXT-BOOK. Book IX. Part 8. Greed. Ill fares the land, to hastening ills a prey, Where wealth accumulates and men decay. — Goldsmith. i. The highest character, the noblest manhood, can never be developed under a low, sordid aim. 2. The man who is always studying his own ad- vantage, always looking for the main chance, never elic- its love, or calls forth high admiration. 3. The youth who begins his career with a deter- mination merely to get rich, to amass a great fortune, unconsciously sets up a standard which will dwarf and demoralize the better part of himself. 4. It cannot be too often repeated or too strongly emphasized, that the soul-consuming thirst for gold, which burns like a slow fever in thousands of lives, de- stroys all the finer sensibilities, and all possibility of real happiness. 5. There is something hardening, demoralizing, and brutalizing in a mere money-making career, which strangles all the finer instincts for the good, the beauti- ful, and the true, dries up the sympathies for the mis- fortunes of others, dwarfs the growth of the higher self, marbleizes the affections, crushes out all that makes life strong, sweet, serene, and beautiful. 6. Mean, stingy, and uncharitable persons never advance very far in the world ; and, even if they happen to make money, they are depised in spite of it. 7. True thrift consists in getting all the good you can out of everything. 8. Many a bright, promising youth has become a failure in life, dwarfed his manhood, cramped his intel- lect, crushed his aspirations, blunted his finer sensibil- ities in some mean, narrow, unworthy occupation, be- cause he could make money in it. 9. In the rush for wealth people murder health, en- ergy, comfort, culture, friendship — all that they should really hold dearest. 10. The less you seek the more truly you live, and 163 the more happy you are ; for an unselfish life kills vices, extinguishes desires, strengthens the soul, and elevates the mind to higher things. ii. There is something about the exclusive pursuit of wealth which dwarfs and paralyzes all the nobler as- pirations. 12. Money-making is not an ennobling occupation, and he who values money most values himself least. 13. People who are over zealous in putting money into their purses have no time to put beauty into their lives. 14. The miser is never satisfied. He amasses wealth that he can never consume, whereas the econo- mist aims at securing a fair share of the world's wealth and comfort, without any thought of amassing a fortune. 15. You should be satisfied with what is reasona- ble without seeking to have everything. But such is the nature of greed that it cannot content itself with mod- erate possessions. 16. The great multitude are not satisfied with a moderate fortune. They become avaricious to a certain extent, and hence they struggle for more, even after they have accumulated a sufficiency, and at the risk very of- ten of health and strength, and even life itself. 17. To enjoy money you must learn how to use it as well as to earn it, for of all the many failures in life the stingy man is among the worst. 18. God has made selfishness unlovable, and shaped the universal human heart to despise it, and He has made unselfishness so lovable that you cannot with- hold from it your admiration. 19. The substitution of an inferior ideal for a su- perior ideal is the greatest calamity you can suffer. You must never lower your standard in order more easily to reach it. 20. A passion for the accumulation of wealth de- moralizes the individual until all life's ideals have fallen low, and the pursuers have become mere money-getting glands, secreting nothing but dollars, and are withering, blasting curses. Greed is a monster passion which de- vours everything in its path. 164 CHARACTER: A MORAL TEXT-BOOK. Book IX. Part 9. Pride. We rise in glory, as we sink in pride: Where boasting ends, there dignity begins. — Young. 1. You should not be proud of what you are, but of what you are able to contribute to the happiness and improvement of others. 2. Pride is less ashamed of being ignorant than of being instructed, and it looks too high to find that which very often lies beneath it. 3. Pride makes no increase of merit in the person ; it creates envy and hastens misfortune. 4. Pride is based on real or fancied superiority to others. Envy is due to real or fancied inferiority. Pride is the vice of the strong, envy of the weak. 5. Pride is always trying to cover up faults, and those who see the attempt are quite apt to ridicule it. 6. The more truly you estimate yourself, the less proud you will be. 7. Other vices choose to be in the dark, but pride loves always to be seen in the light. 8. Pride is usually the result of ignorance. The more you know the less you think you know. 9. Pride tries to elevate itself by pulling down the reputation of other people. 10. There is a just and lawful pride, and against this nothing can be said. You should have self-respect. 11. If you are entirely without pride there would be no hope for your improvement and little prospect of your being of any account to anybody, not excepting yourself. 12. You should have a just pride in your good name, in your attainments, in your successes, in your high aims, in your noble endeavors to be useful. 13. Your pride should dwell in your principles and not in your demeanor. 14. Against threats and bribes pride is the ally of principle. 165 15. When you fail your pride supports you; when you succeed it betrays you. 16. Vanity is the great commanding passion of all. It excites the most heroic deeds, and impels to the most dreadful crimes. If you can control this passion you can defy the others. 17. Judge of yourself with an honest self-respect, conscious of what you are and can be ; but as you value your position, let your self-judgment be free from van- ity, conceit and narrowness. 18. Vanity has played the leading part in nearly every considerable act of depredation whether by men or women. 19. There can be no doubt of the vast importance and the generally beneficial results of a keen sensitive- ness to the opinions of your fellow men. 20. Affectation lights a candle to your defects, and though it may gratify you it disgusts all others. 21. He that overvalues himself will undervalue others, and he that undervalues others will oppress them. 22. Boasting seldom or never accompanies a sense of real power. When you feel that you can express your- self by deeds, you do not often care to do so by words. 23. Haughtiness bears a striking resemblance to both of its parents — egotism and hate. 24. You follow the world in approving others, but you go before it in approving yourself. 25. Many men make the mistake of believing they are smarter than other people. 26. Whoever looks with too great approval on his character or his action has in consequence less character and is disarmed for future action. 27. Those who talk about themselves more than about their cause are sure to fail, and they merit the contempt they have earned. 28. He who thinks himself already too wise to learn of others, will never succeed in doing anything either good or great. i66 CHARACTER: A MORAL TEXT-BOOK. Book IX. Part 10. Crime. Man's inhumanity to man Makes countless thousands mourn. — Burns. 1. Violation of the decencies of life, and lawless- ness, even by effervescent youth, should be treated as criminal offences. 2. Impure familiarities, glances, and sports, are the commonest of actual crimes. 3. To speak disparagingly of a woman, or criticise women in general, is certain evidence of a depraved na- ture. 4. It is difficult for a man to have sense and be a knave. 5. Sin is the resulting moral condition of the soul, when a rational being, at the dictates of his lower na- ture, thinks, desires, or acts contrary to what he knows is for the best. • 6. Nine-tenths of the vicious desires that degrade society, and which, when indulged, swell into crimes that disgrace it, would shrink into insignificance before the advance of valiant self-discipline, self-respect and self-control. 7. The mean mind occupies itself with sneering, carping and fault-finding, and is ready to scoff at every- thing but impudent effrontery or successful vice. 8. The surest means for preventing wrong doing in the man is a careful training of the child. 9. Certain conditions produce criminals. These conditions can be eliminated by the proper education of the child. 10. Sin is not an impulse, but a result of a series of impressions — something picked up in fragments by the way and pieced together. 11. It is the coward who fawns on those above him. It is the coward who is insolent whenever he dares to be. 12. There is no manhood in the heart which treats despitefully one who neither provokes nor retaliates. 167 13. He that is violent in the pursuit of pleasure will not mind to turn villain for the purchase. 14. Do not pry into affairs that do not concern you, and do not talk about other people's private affairs. 15. The dissipated youth becomes a tainted man, and often he cannot be pure, even if he would. 16. It is infinitely more needful for you to be con- scious of your vices than of your virtues; the former should be unmercifully bared, while the latter best grow in the shade. 17. It is largely conceded that human nature is such that there is something in the misfortune of others, even your friends, that pleases you. 18. The foolish and wicked practice of profane cursing and swearing is a vice so mean and low that ev- ery person of sense and character detests and despises it. 19. He who is capable of a great crime is also in- capable of shame concerning it. 20. It is the function of civil government to make it easy to do right and difficult to do wrong. 21. Of all mean vices, perhaps lying is the mean- est. It is in some cases the offspring of perversity and vice, and in others of sheer moral cowardice. 22. He who commits a sin not only hurts himself, but makes life more difficult for some one else. 23. If it is possible to prevent a wrong, and you fail to do it, the wrong-doing is as much yours as his who actually performed it. 24. Slander springs from the impulse to convince people that other folks are just as bad as you are. 25. No matter how clever a man is, he is never so clever that he can afford to do wrong. The man who can play the game of dishonesty and win out must be shrewder than Almighty God. 26. Nothing works more unfailingly than the leav- en of evil, and a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump. 2J. The man who lives in vain lives worse than in vain. He who lives to no purpose lives to a bad pur- pose. 28. Vice stings you even in your pleasure, but vir- tue consoles you, even in your pains. i68 CHARACTER: A MORAL TEXT-BOOK. Book IX. Part 11. Deceit. O what a tangled web we weave, When first we practice to deceive. — Scott. 1. Deceivers never play their part absolutely true, the mask will slip down sometimes ; their cleverness cannot teach their eyes the look of sterling honesty ; they may deceive some people, but they cannot deceive all. 2. Use no hurtful deceit ; think innocently and justly; and if you speak, speak accordingly. 3. Subtlety may deceive you, integrity never will. 4. Whoever pays more court to you than he is ac- customed to pay, either intends to deceive you or finds you necessary to him. 5. All artifice is not only sinful, but is generally de- tected, even by children. 6. It is especially necessary to guard against that deceit which is too often the consequence of indolence. 7. The slightest duplicity destroys confidence. 8. Hypocracy is an actual lie. It is deception in its worst form. It speaks with the voice of sanctity and wears the mask of devotion, but it is false to the heart's centre. It is deception for the express purpose of seem- ing to be free from deception. Its sanctity is simulated and its virtues are all false. 9. The hypocrite is the basest counterfeit that cir- culates in the mart of life. He may escape exposure, but that will not save his character. He is the embodi- ment of fraud. 10. Hypocracy is cool, calculating, villainy. It wears piety as a mask. It lacks principle and convic- tion. 11. Precept at variance with practice is worse than useless, inasmuch as it only serves to teach the most cowardly of vices — hypocracy. 12. Everything unnatural, everything bordering on hypocracy, is to be most carefully checked. 13. A specious criminal selects a reputable guise under which to accomplish his villainies. 169 14. Suspicion is your natural armor against impo- sition. 15. Consciousness of having failed in duty will al- most inevitably induce a person to take refuge in false- hood or mean excuses. 16. There is no vice that so covers a man with shame as to be found false and perfidious. 17. Sham courtesy is the most transparent of all humbugs. 18. A right-minded man will shrink from seeming what he is not, or pretending to be richer than he really is, or assuming a style of living that his circumstances will not justify. 19. The surest way to reveal your weakness is to hide your motives. 20. Talent and worth will manifest themselves without resorting to trickery. 21. There is nothing more diligently to be avoided than every species of affectation ; it is always detected and it always disgusts. 22. Duplicity of conduct will not win implicity of confidence. 23. A lie told as a joke is no less a lie because it is a joke, and a joking liar cannot be a gentleman. 24. The strongest chain of circumstantial evidence may be broken by the slightest fact. 25. A character that is strong, that rings as the perfect bell does, is the character you must have if you would rank well among men and make the most of life. You cannot conceal the flaws, and any attempt to do it will soon be detected. 26. A double-minded man is unstable in all his ways. 27 On no occasion, nor under any temptation, mis- lead or falsify. 28. Lying is not only dishonest but cowardly. 29. No matter how intimate your supposed friend may be, the discovery of a purpose to deprave your mind, to corrupt your morals, proves him false to you. 30. Question the assertions of one who cannot be pinned to details, dates, names, or references. 170 CHARACTER: A MORAL TEXT-BOOK. Book IX. Part 12. Jealousy. It is jealousy's peculiar nature To swell small thing's to great; nay, out of naught To conjure much, and then to lose its reason Amid the hideous phantoms it has formed. — Young. 1. Of all the passions, jealousy is that which ex- acts the hardest service and pays the bitterest wages. 2. Jealousy is unthinking and often desperate. 3. Jealousy will sometimes change a lovely charac- ter to that of a fiend. 4. Those who are jealous cannot help but be un- happy. 5. The envious, jealous man can never be a friend. His mean spirit of detraction and insinuating ill-will kills friendship at its birth. 6. As a rule, men of rank, power, money and in- fluence are jealous of those beneath them, especially those of unusual intelligence, who seek to rise to their altitude. 7. Envious and jealous people, as a rule, are not really courteous. The genuine, the sincere, the helpful persons are the ones who constitute the best society. 8. A man that is prying and inquisitive is common- ly envious. 9. A man that has no virtue in himself is ever en- vious of virtue in others. 10. One main cause of discontent is found in that envy at once unreasonable and foolish, which leads you to compare yourself with others, and always to your own disparagement. 11. Expect no praise without envy until you are dead. 12. The only thing that envy can buy is disap- pointment. 13. He that pursues virtue only to surpass others, is not far from wishing others less forward than him- self ; and he that rejoices too much at his own perfec- tions will be too little grieved at the defects of other men. 171 14- Better adorn your own than seek another's place. 15. Better find one of your own faults than ten of your neighbor's. 16. Constant success shows only one side of the world ; for it surrounds you with friends who tell you only of your merits, so it silences those enemies from -whom only you can learn your defects. 17. Any good man who has an ounce of manly purpose and vim in him will be certain to arouse some people in enmity against him. 18. A man who has reached mature years and has riad no enemies is a man of little force. 19. Flatterers are the worst kind of enemies. 20. The man against whom nothing is said, is not, as a rule, worth much notice. 21. If you spend your time looking after the faults •of others, you neglect your own. 22. The person who is suspicious regarding anoth- er's actions is generally the one most in need of watch- ing. 23. There is nothing stronger than human preju- dice. 24. Suspicion is no friend to virtue and always an enemy to happiness. 25. The blasts of calumny, howl they ever so fiercely over the good man's head, contribute to his just- «r appreciation and to his wider fame. 26. Go right along about your business. Do not mind the idle talk of slanderous tongues of the thought- less or malicious. 27. The scandal monger is a mirror in which is reflected the faults he complains of. 28. Vain are the efforts of slander permanently to injure the fame of a good man. 29. Ill reports do harm to him that makes them and to those they are made to, as well as those they are made of. 30. Do not allow your mind to constantly present the unfavorable side of your choice and the attractive side of what other people have chosen. 172 CHARACTER: A MORAL TEXT-BOOK. Book X. Part 1. Happiness. Our aim is happiness, 'tis yours, 'tis mine, He said; 'tis the pursuit of all that live; Yet few attain it, if 'twas e'er attained. But they the widest wander from the mark, Who through the flowery path of sauntering joy Seek this coy goddess: that from stage to stage Invites us still, but shifts as we pursue. — Armstrong. 1. Happiness depends upon a sound mind in a sound body, the love of your friends, and the ability to appreciate the beauties and harmonies of earth and sky, which are the free gifts of the Creator to every living creature. 2. A profession of indifference to riches is gener- ally hypocritical ; but it is certain that they are not es- sential to happiness. There is a point, beyond which, all that a man can gain contributes little to positive en- joyment. 3. The child must learn to be happy while he is plodding over his lessons, the apprentice while he is learning his trade, the merchant while he is making his fortune, or they will be sure to miss their enjoyment when they have gained what they have striven for. 4. Your happiness will be found to be very much in proportion to the number of things you love, and the number of things that love you. 5. Happiness is to be sought in the possession of true manhood rather than in its internal conditions. 6. Pleasure and happiness are the fruits of work and labor, never of carelessness and indifference. 7. Art is one of the purest and highest elements in human happiness. It trains the mind through the eye, and the eye through the mind. 8. Happiness lies on the side of culture and virtue. Every good companion, every good book, every good thought, helps the good tendencies. If you persistently strive after good, you will, in time, no matter what ten- dencies you inherit, become a good, virtuous, and happy man. 173 g. Nature provides without stint the main requi- sites of human happiness. 10. Extract the little sweets of life as they come, and scatter them over a healthful lifetime, rather than poison happiness and shorten life in a gorge of dissipa- tion. ii. The applause of conscience, the self-respect of pride, the consciousness of independence, a manly joy in usefulness, the consent of every faculty of the mind, to your occupation, and their gratification in it — these constitute a happiness superior to the fever-flashes of vice in its brightest moments. 12. Happiness consists in being perfectly satisfied with what you have got and with what you have not got. 13. There are two ways of being happy — you may either diminish your wants, or augment your means ; either will do — the result is the same. But if you are wise you will do both in such a manner as to augment the general happiness of society. 14. He alone is the happy man who has learned to extract happiness, not from ideal conditions, but from the actual ones about him. 15. It is certain that happiness depends mainly on equanimity of disposition, patience and forbearance, and kindness and thoughtfulness for those about you. 16. The pursuit of happiness is one of the basic principles of human life, so do not disturb your neigh- bor in seeking his. 17. Happiness does not depend on money, but it certainly prospers on it. 18. Prosperity and success of themselves do not confer happiness ; indeed, it not unfrequently happens that the least successful in life have the greatest share of true joy in it. 19. Happiness is not attained by making it the chief object in life. The path to it often leads through trials and tears. 20. The most delicate, the most sensible of all pleasures, consists in promoting the happiness of others. 21. Excitement is not enjoyment, happiness is calmness. 174 CHARACTER: A MORAL TEXT-BOOK. Book X. Part 2. Health. Nor love, nor wealth, nor power, Can give the heart a cheerful hour When health is lost. — Gay. 1. All the united and combined treasures of the world cannot compare with the value of good health. 2. If a person be in perfect health, the very act of living is itself true happiness and thorough enjoyment, the greatest the world can bestow. 3. Without good health and a sound body, moder- ate success in life may be painfully possible ; with them a place in the front rank may be attained with far greater ease. 4. The capacity for continuous working in any calling must necessarily depend in a great measure on health ; and hence the necessity for attending to it, even as a means of intellectual labor. 5. Nature's price for health is regularity. You cannot safely bottle up sleep tonight for tomorrow night's use, or force your stomach at one meal because you expect to eat sparingly at the next, or become exhausted in working day and night, expecting to make it up later. 6. No one thing contributes more to health or suc- cess than a strong, vigorous will. It is a perpetual health tonic, physically and mentally. It braces the sys- tem, enabling it to endure hardships, disappointments and disease. 7. As a rule, physical vigor is the condition of a great career. 8. Your work is a part of yourself, and if you have a weakness anywhere of brain or nerve, it will sooner or later show itself in what you do, whatever it may be. 9. There are great advantages in the way of health that come to the person who is buoyant and happy, seeing the bright, even the ludicrous side of the affairs of life. 175 io. Physical health has a strong influence on character, and should be assiduously guarded in the home and in the school. ii. Other things being equal, intelligent, cultured, educated people enjoy the best health. 12. Worry, anxiety, jealousy, malice, hatred, hot temper, tclfishness, dishonesty, perversion of moral in- tegrity; in short, every discordant or abnormal thought, emotion, or expression, tends to destroy that perfect equilibrium of the faculties and functions which is called health. 13. In youth you should gain a reserve fund of strength and health to draw upon in later years. 14. The care and preservation of health is a moral duty and must be ranked among the cardinal virtues — that is, among the virtues which are the most important and essential to your well-being. 15. You have no right to allow your physical frame to remain in an uncultivated condition. 16. The requirements of health are good air, good food, suitable clothing, cleanliness, and exercise and rest. 17. Water, air and sunshine, the Three greatest hygienic agents, are free and within the reach of all. 18. Health, strength and longevity, depend on immutable laws. There is no chance about them. 19. The body is the background of all the achieve- ments of your life. 20. Next to life itself, the question of perfect physical health is of the greatest importance. 21. No energy, industry or opportunity can be made a substitute for health. 22. In versatility lies a large secret of health and happiness. 23. Health lies in labor, and there is no royal road to it but through toil. 24. Do not expect to have health for nothing. Nothing worth anything can be obtained without effort. 25. Genius is health, and beauty is health, and virtue is health. 176 CHARACTER: A MORAL TEXT-BOOK. Book X. Part 3. Money. Trade it may help, society extend, But lures the pirate, and corrupts the friend; It raises armies in a nation's aid, But bribes the senate, and the land's betrayed. — Pope. 1. The pursuit of wealth is not only legitimate, but a duty. If a man is a man and his fortune be honestly won and used, it will increase his usefulness and multiply his power. 2. There can be no appreciable social progress without wealth. 3. The acquirement of wealth is not a test of char- acter. 4. No man is as rich as all men ought to be. 5. Wealth is not an end to strive for, but an oppor- tunity. Not the climax of your career, but the begin- ning. 6. The desire to be rich, to have an abundance, to have more than you need for immediate requirements, seems to be in all healthy natures. It is one of the chief springs of human action. 7. The avaricious person makes gold his idol, before which he constantly bows down, whereas the thrifty person regards it as a useful instrument, and as a means of promoting his own happiness and the happi- ness of those who are dependent on him. 8. Wealth is not his that has it, but his that enjoys it. 9. The crowning joy of wealth is in the service of society and of mankind. 10. Money is a good friend if rightly used. Power and influence are blessings when their use is controlled by lofty purposes. 11. Ready money is a remedy for many ills. 12. Wealth is the source of half the nobleness as well as half the misery of life. 13. Wealth in the hands of men of weak purpose, of deficient self-control, or of ill-regulated passions, is 177 only a temptation and a snare — the source, it may be, of infinite mischief to themselves, and often to others. 14. Wealth that comes through worth and seeks benevolence, is a noble gift. A rich man with a good heart is one of God's choicest gifts to men. 15. Wealth is a relative thing, since he that has little and wants less, is richer than he that has much but wants more. 16. All property that men acquire is really only in the nature of trust funds, which the property holder is in duty bound to use as a steward, to better the con- dition of life of others as well as himself, and make men and communities happier and more useful. 17. When wealth is concentrated in the hands of a few, it is more potent to help or harm, those who are beneath its immediate influence. 18. While it is right to strive to abound and be prosperous, it is necessary to remember that abundance, whether the riches be in gold or knowledge or power, is matched by its responsibilities. 19. It is no sin to be rich, nor to wish to be rich, nor to try to be rich ; the mistake is in being too eager after riches. 20. The value of money depends partly on know- ing what to do with it, and partly on the manner in which it is acquired. 21. Wealth is demoralizing when obtained at the sacrifice of character. 22. Money blights, blasts and corrupts, when sought for its own sake. 23. While your earthly goods are kept under your feet they will do you no hurt, but when they rise as high as your heart, they have begun to bury you alive. 24. The more money you have the more moral strength is needed to protect you from its demoralizing influence. 25. Many have been ruined by their fortunes ; many have escaped ruin by the want of fortune. To obtain it, the great become little and the little great. 26. Money often brings danger, trouble and temp- tation. i 7 8 CHARACTER: A MORAL TEXT-BOOK. Book X. Part 4. Better Than Money. To whom can riches give repute or trust, Content or pleasure, but the good and just? Judges and senates have been bought for gold, Esteem and love were never to be sold. — Pope. 1. Existence gathers such enjoyment as it is capa- ble of realizing from sources not controllable by the purchasing power of money. 2. Riches may be amassed by the worst of men and means ; but a good character implies a good man, for the character is yourself. 3/ There are many things done for love which are a thousand times better than those done for money. The former inspire the spirit of heroism and self-devo- tion. The latter die with the giving. 4. A great fortune is not necessary for the attain- ment of faith, hope, or charity; and he that is endowed with these cannot be miserable. 5. The possession of wealth cannot compare with having the mentality stirred by a passion for expansion, being dragged out of the narrow rut of ignorance to come into close communion with the great and the grand of all ages, being brought into contact with nature, feeling the divine touch of science, and forming intimate rela- tions with the entire universe. 6. Peace of mind is one of the best things to seek, and fine tastes and feelings. The man who gets these, and maintains himself comfortably, is much more admir- able than the one who gets money and neglects these. 7. The desirable treasure of wisdom and knowledge which all men covet from the impulse of nature, infinitely surpasses all the riches of the world. 8. Nothing is more pitiable than for a person to have more property than he has manhood. 9. You may learn the whole system of divine and important truths; you may acquit yourself with all the beauty and enjoyment of virtue ; and you may learn tem- perance, fortitude, justice, modesty, constancy, patience, 179 and contempt for the world, without the assistance of much more wealth than will serve to feed and clothe you. 10. There is nothing that makes men rich and strong but that which they carry inside of them. Wealth is of the heart, not of the hand. ii. He is rich who has learned to infuse into his vocation and surroundings, no matter how humble they may be, that high sense of beauty and harmony which transforms the common into the uncommon, lifts the artisan into the artist, and makes even drudgery divine. 12. There are riches of intellect, and no man with an intellectual taste can be called poor. 13. Wealth cannot purchase pleasures of the high- est sort. It is the heart, taste, and judgment which determine the happiness of man, and restore him to the highest form of being. 14. Money cannot buy everything. It cannot buy health, life or love. If you were a hundred times richer than you are, you could not multiply your wants and pleasures by one hundred. 15. Good bones are better than gold, tough mus- cles than silver, and nerves that carry energy to every function are better than houses and land. 16. What the world wants is young men who will amass golden thoughts, golden wisdom, golden deeds, not mere golden dollars ; young men who prefer to have thought-capital, character-capital, to cash-capital. 17. The men who enrich the world with real wealth are not, as a rule, those who have the most money. 18. Success in life is not to be measured by the money you earn. If you succeed in reaching the full measure of your usefulness, if you instill proper ideas of life and right principles of action and thought into the world to the best of your ability, or if you always do the best you know how, then you are great, and grand, and a noble success, however small a sustenance you may have. i8o CHARACTER: A MORAL TEXT-BOOK. Book X. Part 5. Friendship. Who seeks a friend, should come disposed To exhibit, in full bloom disclosed, The graces and the beauties That form the character he seeks: For 'tis a union that bespeaks Reciprocal duties. — Cowper. 1. No blessing of life is in any way comparable to the enjoyment of a discreet and virtuous friend; it eases and unloads the mind, clears and improves the under- standing, engenders thoughts and knowledge, animates virtue and good resolutions, soothes and allays passions, and finds employment for the most vacant hours of life. 2. Friendship is not only a beautiful and noble thing for a. man, but the relation of it is also the ideal for the state; for if the citizens are friends, then justice, which is the great concern of all organized societies, is more than secured. 3. Friendship is supported by nothing artificial ; it depends on reciprocity and esteem. The only way to have a friend is to be one. 4. Some men shed friends at every step they rise in the social scale. It is mean and contemptible to merely use men so long as they further your personal inter- ests. 5. The interest that makes friends must be both kindly and honest. 6. Do not fail to have among your friends one or more noble women. 7. No one can long be your friend for whom you have not a decided esteem that will not permit you to trifle with his feelings, and which, of course, will prevent his trifling with yours. Great familiarity is inconsistent v/ith abiding friendship. 8. When two people appreciate each other because each has found the other convenient to have around, they are not friends. 9. Make no friend of one who does not meet your confidence half way. There is no friendship without mutual trust. i8i 10. Friendship is to be valued for what there is in it, not what can be gotten out of it. ii. A man who succeeds must have friends. These are not to be bought or borrowed ready made; they must be evolved out of the men and women whom he meets, both in social life and in business. 12. Friendship always carries with it that which is loving and lovable, a mutual liking, esteem for each other leading to sympathy and helpfulness. 13. Friendship throws a great lustre on prosperity, while it lightens adversity by sharing in its griefs and anxieties. 14. The essence of friendship is entireness, a total magnanimity and trust. 15. Much as worthy friends add to the happiness and value of life, you must in the main depend on your- self, and everyone is his own best friend or worst en- emy. 16. There is no influence more powerful in youth, and sometimes quite through life, than friendship ; none more delightful or blessed where it reaches an ap- proach to the best. 17. Friendly feelings must have influence so long as human nature is what it is. 18. Under the magnetism of friendship the mod- est man becomes bold ; the shy, confident ; the lazy, ac- tive ; or the impetuous, prudent and peaceful. 19. Everyone yearns for a heart that beats in un- ison with his own, for an ear into which he can pour his confidences and troubles, for a hand he can safely grasp, and for an arm he can always lean on. 20. If your friends are badly chosen they will in- evitably drag you down ; if well they will raise you up. 21. In selecting your friends you should remember that you will borrow habits, traits of character, modes of thought and expression, from each other; therefore be careful to select those who have not excellences merely, but whose faults are as few as may be. 182 CHARACTER: A MORAL TEXT-BOOK. Book X. Part 6. Heredity. Shall we call those noble, who disgrace Their lineage, proud of an illustrious race; Seek not to shine by borrowed lights alone, But with your father's glories blend your own. — Gifford. 1. You should have a proper respect for your an- cestors, but of what possible use is it to parade their virtues when you lack these virtues yourself? You should be some credit to the memory of your ancestors. 2. Success is due largely to heredity, that is, birth counts for a good deal. 3. In general, mental powers, like bodily powers, are inherited. 4. Heredity certainly stands for something, but achievement stands for more. 5. You are more like the company you keep than that from which you descended. Unconscious education is more powerful than heredity. 6. Up to a certain point your character is formed for you by heredity, beyond this it is formed by you through habit. 7. Every inherited instinct or tendency may be de- veloped into a virtue or degraded into vice. It must be watched, not trusted. 8. Title and ancestry render a good man more illustrious, but an ill one more contemptible. 9. There is no real aristocracy except that of char- acter. 10. It is better to make your descendants proud of you than to be proud of your ancestry. 11. It is a grander thing to be nobly remembered than to be nobly born. 12. It is not ancestry and splendid descent, but ed- ucation and circumstances, which form the man. 13. Not only what is born with you, but also what you acquire makes you a man. 14. Heredity and environment are the determining forces that stand for your fate. i83 15. The combined influences of heredity and edu- cation are constantly at work, moulding and shaping men and their intellects. 16. Religion and science unite in positive language, that the defects of the parents are discoverable in the children. 17. The advantage of riches remains with those who procured them, not with the heir. 18. All that was good and true in the olden times will live in the new. 19. You ought to be conscious of the fact that you are the product of the labor of ages, and whatever you do, be it good or evil, will live after you, so far as your individuality impresses itself on and influences your con- temporaries. 20. The morality of the world depends largely on the moral habits which mankind have formed in the course of many ages, and which are transmitted from generation to generation. 21. To be the son of one whose memory lingers like light in the air, is not only a delightful recollection, and a powerful stimulant, but a great material aid in life. 22. A life well spent, a character uprightly sustain- ed, is no slight legacy to leave to your children, and to the world; for it is the most eloquent lesson of nature and the severest reproof of vice, while it continues an endur- ing source of the best kind of riches. 23. The millions of the past, whose ashes have mingled with the dust for centuries, still live in their destinies through the laws of heredity. 24. People do not care about your ancestors ; they reckon you up, however, and some find out just what you are. 25. The most rigorous regimen, the most confirm- ed industry and steadfast morality, can alone disarm in- herited wealth and reduce it to a blessing. 26. One who is born of lowly parents, whose family demands nothing from him, who has no place to sustain from the time he first begins to apprehend his surround- ings, with all his disadvantages has at least the privilege of creating his own responsibilities. 1 84 CHARACTER: A MORAL TEXT-BOOK. Book X. Part 7. Life. A sacred burden is this life ye bear, Look on it, lift it, bear it solemnly, Stand up and walk beneath it steadfastly. Fail not for sorrow, falter not for sin, But onward, upward, till the goal ye win. — Franc'es Ann Kemble. i. The happy, prosperous life would be impossible without conformity to the laws of human nature; there- fore, the sooner you learn what these laws are, and obey them in your practice, the larger will be the measure of your welfare. 2. The highest end of life is to so live that the great purpose behind you may work itself out through you, and that, whether speaking or silent, whether work- ing or at rest, the unconscious atmosphere which you carry with you may breathe purity, fidelity and loyalty. 3. Your view of life must always be influenced and colored more or less by the condition of your mind and body. 4. Life may be earnest and sincere without being morally and intellectually wearisome and disagreeable. 5. Between satiety on the one hand and want on the other, the stream of life flows tranquilly along, which, but for these boundaries, would soon waste itself and dis- appear. 6. Life is full of responsibilities and opportunities, and they generally go together. 7. Life is an individual problem that every man must solve for himself. 8. The ideal art of living is the art of being true to all the relations of life. True to the home, to social circles, to city, to state, school, business, and to the church. 9. Power and a constant growth toward a higher life are the great end of human existence. 10. The wise person gradually learns not to expect too much from life. While he strives for success by worthy methods, he will be prepared for failure. ii. Life was meant to be joyous and glad. 12. Value the ends of life more than the means. 13. Life all sunshine without shade, all happiness without sorrow, all pleasure without pain, were not life at all, and not worth living. 14. Life is a battle between good and evil, from childhood. Good influences drawing you up toward the divine ; bad influences drawing you down to the brute. 15. To feel the faculties expanding and unfolding — this is the only life worth living. 16. Apart from accidents, you hold your life large- ly at will. 17. In taking yourself and life too seriously, you not only miss a lot of fun, but defeat the very ends you are apparently seeking. 18. Life is for the most part but the mirror of your individual self. To the good the world is good; to the bad it is bad. 19. If your views of life be elevated — if you re- gard it as a sphere of useful effort, of high living and high thinking, of working for others' good as well as your own — it will be joyful, hopeful and blessed. If, on the contrary, you regard it merely as affording opportuni- ties for self-seeking, pleasure and aggrandizement, it will be full of toil, anxiety and disappointment. 20. The life of each man tells on the whole life of society. 21. The more useful work you do, and the more you think and feel, the more you really live. The idle, use- less man, no matter to what extent his life may be pro- longed, merely vegetates. 22. Live as long as you may, the first twenty years are the longest half of your life, and they are by far the most pregnant of consequences. 23. Life is too short to be worn out in petty wor- ries, frettings, hatreds, and vexations. 24. The average duration of life has been length- ened by the increased knowledge and the increased sense of responsibility which civilization has developed. i86 CHARACTER: A MORAL TEXT-BOOK. Book X. Part 8. Blessings. Condition, circumstance, is not the thing-, Bliss is the same in subject or in king. — Pope. 1. God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it; because that in it He had rested from all His work which He created and made. 2. God's blessings are not for those who do not deserve them. The consciousness of a selfish and un- generous life will make bitter and burdensome the great- est riches, the most buoyant health, and the rarest tal- ents that nature bestows. 3. A blessing is anything that makes you happy, comfortable, or contented, particularly when it elevates your morals and impresses you with the beauty of a pure and upright life. They sometimes come through trouble and deprivations, but are no less blessings on that account, if they lead to a better and higher life. 4. Chiefest of blessings is hope, the most common of possessions ; for even those who have nothing else have hope. 5. As there are no blessings which may not be per- verted into evils, so there are no trials which may not be converted into blessings. 6. Make up your mind never to stand waiting and hesitating when your conscience tells you what you ought to do, and you have got the key to every blessing that you can reasonably hope for. 7. The blessings of fortune are the lowest; the next are the bodily advantages of strength and health ; but the superlative blessings are those of the mind. 8. Every evil you encounter, to which you do not succumb, is a blessing. 9. There is inestimable blessing in a cheerful spirit. 10. Smiles are little things, cheap articles to be fraught with so many blessings, both to the giver and the receiver. They are the higher and better responses of nature to the emotion of the soul. i8 7 11. To enjoy your blessings to the fullest extent you must be well and hearty. 12. Blessed is the hand that prepares a pleasure for a child, for there is no saying when and where it may bloom forth. 13. Eight hours for work, eight hours for sleep, and eight hours for what you will, is the best rule ever invented to bless mankind, and you should adjust your pursuits to it. 14. The blessings of leisure, retirement and rest, are pleasant only by contrast to previous toil and excite- ment. 15. Contact with the good never fails to impart good, and you carry away with you some of the bless- ing. 16. It is your duty to be cheerful and enjoy the blessings bestowed on you. 17. No service can be more distinguished than doing good, the scattering of blessings among the sons of men. 18. To be full of goodness, full of sympathy, full of helpful hope, causes you to carry blessings of which you may be unconscious, but fraught with good for your associates. 19. The strong will, allied to right motives, is full of blessings. The man thus influenced moves and influ- ences the minds and consciences of others. He bends them to his views of duty, carries them with him in his endeavors to secure worthy objects, and directs opinion to the suppression of wrong and the establishment of right. 20. Every joy which comes to you is only to strengthen you for some greater labor that is to suc- ceed. 21. There are occasions in life in which a great mind lives years of enjoyment in a single moment. 22. Love is chief of all the virtues that bless the world and make it happier. 23. Every pure and healthy thought, every noble and unselfish endeavor, makes the human spirit stronger, more harmonious, and more beautiful. i88 CHARACTER: A MORAL TEXT-BOOK. Book X. Part 9. Beauty. A thing of beauty is a joy forever; Its lovelin'ess increases; it will never Pass into nothingness; but still will keep A bower quiet for us, and a sleep Full of sweet dreams and health and quiet breathing. — Keats. 1. Beauty, which is the natural food of a healthy- imagination, should be sought after by every one who wishes to achieve the great end of existence — that is, to make the most of himself. 2. Beauty is the spiritual essence of all good cre- ation. The greater your appreciation of it, the more you possess of God-likeness. 3. In all ranks of life the human heart yearns for the beautiful ; and the beautiful things that God makes are His gift to all alike. 4. If you love beauty and look for it, you will see it everywhere. 5. One of the first lessons to learn is not to find fault but to perceive beauties. 6. You should commence with supplying your imaginative faculty with its natural food in the shape of beautiful objects of every kind. 7. Though you may travel the world over to find the beautiful, you must carry it with you or you find it not. 8. Everything beautiful has a refining influence, and without the beautiful the world would scarcely be worth living in. 9. No nature is capable of education to any high degree of culture, that has not in it a perception and love of the beautiful. 10. The world is most beautiful, framed by the best and most perfect reason, though to you it may be unclean and evil, because you are unclean and evil in a good world. 11. The most natural beauty in the world is hon- esty and moral truth. 1 89 12. Refinement creates beauty everywhere. The beautiful refines. 13. Beauty — in art, in nature, in fiction — is of incalculable importance, because it is the index of a good mind. 14. There are certain things you feel to be beautiful and good, and you must hunger after them. 15. Highest and noblest of all, beauty is in the human face and the soul that gives it life. 16. The highest type of beauty is that of the char- acter and the moral nature, this is something that all may possess, and it is your own fault if such beauty is not yours. 17. The love of beauty is an essential part of all healthy human nature. 18. The element of beauty is needed in your con- duct, as elsewhere in human life. 19. Beauty of mind and character increases in attractiveness the older it grows. 20. It is fervor and industry alone which give the beauty and the brightness to human life. 21. A new layer of character is formed every day, and if you see but the artificial, the sordid, the cold, cal- culating side of life, if you experience nothing of beauty or joy, you must expect your character to correspond. 22. Without painting, sculpture, music, poetry, and the emotions produced by natural beauty of every kind, life would lose half its charm. 23. Every day should add a new layer of beauty and joy to life before it gives place to the morrow. It was not intended that one part of life should be filled with joy and the remainder barren. 24. If you would grow, would feel your life expand- ing, you should never let a day pass without trying to see some beautiful thing. 25. Love of the beautiful has a powerful influence on life and character. 26. With nature each time and season has its spe- cial beauty. There is always variety in its scenery ; diver- sities of form and color are strewn throughout the world. 190 CHARACTER: A MORAL TEXT-BOOK. Book X. Part 10. Rest. Sweet recreation barred, what doth 'ensue But moody and dull melancholy, Kinsman to grim and comfortl'ess despair, And, at her heels, a huge infectious troop Of pale distemperatures, and foes to life? — Shakespeare. 1. The love of rational amusement is a virtue, no less to be cultivated than the love of innocence and truth, with which it stands intimately related. 2. Every human being needs, and is entitled to time for repose, time for recreation, time to exercise his mental faculties, time to enjoy his home and his family. 3. The natural and desired effect of healthful rest is to invigorate, to render brain and body better fitted for labor ; to give them a renewed appetite and relish for labor. 4. You should turn your every amusement to your eternal advantage. 5. Time spent in innocent and rational enjoyment, in social and family intercourse, in healthy games, is well and wisely spent. 6. Pleasure worth the name must be innocent, and must come only as a relaxation from work. 7. People who work the best ought to play the best, and those who play the best ought to work the best. 8. Leisure is just as needful to the human economy, to the doing of good work, to the rounding of life, as is activity. 9. The luxurious know little of the value of luxury because they do not earn it. One who continually rests and enjoys, neither rests nor enjoys. Rest implies labor. 10. The exercise of all the bodily functions within proper limits is not only desirable, but it is really a moral duty; it is one of the cardinal virtues. 11. It is vigor of mind which accomplishes results, and, in order to keep up a healthy mentality, it is neces- sary to give the mind a variety of food and frequent intervals of rest. 191 12. Aside from the right and the wrong of the thing, it is injurious to health to work seven days in the week, to work nights when nature intended you to sleep, or to sleep days when she intended you to work. 13. No man ever gets to the point where he can dispense with outdoor exercise and fresh air. 14. True rest, which is a very different thing from idleness, is not waste of time by any means. On the contrary, as it restores exhausted strength, it is often the greatest economy. 15. It is just as important to the building up of character, that a man should have reasonable hours of recreation, as it is that he should work. 16. When men are rightly occupied, their amuse- ment grows out of their work. 17. When the mind is given variety, it turns from business to recreation and from recreation to business, with equal pleasure and zest. 18. Rest strengthens labor and labor sweetens rest. 19. The mind is as much refreshed by variety as by idleness. 20. Next to virtue the fun in the world is what you can least spare. 21. If you are wise you will vary your pleasures, and add to them by mixing the grave with the gay. 22. That regular daily exercise which is most pleas- ant to you is that which, of all others, will be the most beneficial. 23. Vacations are necessary, but they are for the sake of work and success. 24. The young are apt to think that rest means a cessation from all effort, but the most perfect rest is in changing effort. 25. The spirit with which rest is taken influences its value. 26. Nothing gives more mental and bodily vigor than sound rest, when properly applied. 27. You sleep sound and your waking hours are happy, when they are employed; and a little sense of toil is necessary to the enjoyment of leisure, even when earned by study and sanctioned by the discharge of duty. 192 CHARACTER: A MORAL TEXT-BOOK. Book X. Part 11. Reaction, The tissue of the life to be, We weave with colors all our own; And in the field of destiny, We reap as we have sown. — Whittier. 1. The mechanical law that action and reaction are equal, holds true also in morals. Good deeds act and react on the doers of them ; and so do evil. Not only so : they produce like effects, by the influence of ex- ample, on those who are the subjects of them. 2. Your pleasant vices make instruments to plague you. 3. Out of your present you are building your fu- ture, and as surely as night follows the day, will you reap that which you have sown. 4. Most men are influenced very much by what oth- er people think and say concerning them, and it is found by experience that many wrongs are righted more effect- ually by leaving them to public opinion to settle, than by passing laws against them. 5. If fools and sinners did not suffer for folly and sin, the world would soon consist of nothing else. 6. Kindness begets kindness, and truth and trust will bear a rich harvest of truth and trust. 7. A guilty conscience is its own betrayer, and when least expected holds its victim up to mortification and shame. 8. Every small stroke of virtue or vice leaves its ever so little scar. Nothing you ever do is, in strict literalness, wiped out. 9. No one ever did a designed injury to another but at the same time he did a greater to himself. 10. Injuries which wilful men procure to themselves are their just punishment. 11. Every act of wrong doing carries its own pun- ishment ; it may be a long time coming but it will surely come. 12. Sow an act and you reap a habit; sow a habit 193 and you reap a character ; sow a character and you reap a destiny. 13. If you are idle and shiftless by choice, you shall be nerveless and powerless by necessity. 14. The pains of old age are the pleasures of youth grown perfect. 15. Beware of work that kills the workman. 16. There is seldom anything uttered in malice, which turns not to the hurt of the speaker. 17. The idols of the heart look through the eyes, appear in the manners, and betray their worshipers. 18. Old age seizes on an ill-spent youth like fire on a rotten house. 19. Be sure your sins will find you out. 20. You must pay the penalty of your vocations. 21. The first seminary of moral discipline, and the best, is the home ; next comes the school, and after that the world, the great school of practical life. Each is preparatory to the other, and what the man or woman becomes depends for the most part on what has gone before. If they have enjoyed the advantages of neither the home nor the school, but have been allowed to grow up untrained, untaught, and undisciplined, they will be of little use to the society of which they form a part. 22. Right relations, whatever their nature, are al- ways mutually beneficial. 23. Guilt has very quick ears to an accusation. 24. Nature does nothing before her appointed time, and any attempt to hurry her invariably means ultimate disaster. She takes note of all transactions, physical, mental and moral, and places every item to your credit. 25. Virtue or vice emit a breath every moment. 26. If you neglect your spring, your summer will be useless and contemptible, your harvest will be chaff, and the winter of your old age unrespected and desolate. 27. Give and it shall be given unto you ; for with the same measure that you mete withal it shall be meas- ured to you again. 194 CHARACTER: A MORAL TEXT-BOOK. Book X. Part 12. Liberty. 'Tis liberty alone that gives the flow'r Of fleeting' life its lustre and perfume, And we are weeds without it. — Cowper. i. You are free to use as you like the gifts of nature; and this freedom affords the opportunity by which your character is formed and displayed. 2. Unless you are possessed with a knowledge of your rights and how to assert them, unless you are ac- quainted with the rights of others and how not to en- croach on them, you are but poor citizens. 3. The only freedom that deserves the name is that of pursuing your own good in your own way, so long as you do not attempt to deprive others of theirs, or impede their efforts to obtain it. 4. To be morally and practically free you must be able easily to resist all instinctive and unconscious im- pulses. 5. The possibility of morality depends on the pos- sibility of liberty ; for if a man be not a free agent, he is not the author of his actions, and has, therefore, no re- sponsibility. 6. The liberty of the individual must be thus far limited : he must not make himself a nuisance to other people. 7. Mankind are greater gainers by suffering each other to live as seems good to themselves, than by com- pelling each to live as seems good to the rest. 8. The rights of society do not conflict with the liberty of the individual. The liberty of the individual ceases only when the rights of society are invaded. 9. Over himself, over his own body and mind, the individual is sovereign. 10. The sole end for which mankind are warranted, individually or collectively, in interfering with the lib- erty of action of any of their number, is self-preservation. 11. The state has no right to interfere with your 195 private thoughts; but as to other matters, as your ac- tions, labors, fortunes, and lives, you are bound to sur- render to its use, and submit to the opinion of those among whom your lot has been cast. 12. Nothing less is required and nothing more is needed, than your own personal freedom and responsi- bility, in order to build up personal character. 13. The wage worker whose livelihood depends absolutely on the will of an employer, individual or corporate, who can fix the rate and period of his com- pensation, and discharge him at pleasure, is not free. 14. Man becomes circumscribed in his nature and influence, just in the proportion that he is deprived of any one or more essential ingredients or elements of character; and he increases in power, goodness and majesty, just in the proportion that he is allowed full and free scope to all his legitimate powers. 15. True liberty allows each individual to do all the good he can to himself, without injuring his neigh- bor. 16. Everyone has a right to an opinion and a free expression of it, but he has no right to force it upon the attention of others. 17. Honorable discussion and honest criticism should never be suppressed. 18. Safe popular freedom consists in the diffusion of liberty, the diffusion of intelligence, the diffusion of property and the diffusion of consciousness. 19. Liberty is not exclusively a question of self- government ; it is chiefly a question of freedom in order- ing your life according to your taste. 20. It is the duty of every citizen to study the questions of his government until he has mastered them, not simply to take for granted what his neighbor says, but to think and investigate for himself. 21. A man who does not know how to learn from his mistakes turns the best schoolmaster out of his house. 196 CHARACTER: A MORAL TEXT-BOOK. Book XI. Part 1. Education. Knowledge is Bought only with a weary care, And wisdom means a world of pain. — Joaquin Miller. 1. Education does wonders, especially if begun «arly. It may alter, in the most marked manner, the form and shape of the brain, improve the quality, and increase the volume of it, and of course also the mind that is within it. 2. He who desires to acquire an education must cultivate habits of sobriety, thoroughness, and applica- tion. Education will follow such habits as surely as the night follows the day. 3. The supreme object of education and culture is to raise the man to his highest power, to develop him along the line of his noblest nature, so that he will be not only keen, sagacious and shrewd, but broad-minded, evenly and sympathetically balanced, tolerant, sweet, and charitable. 4. A thorough education should mean a physical, mental and moral training in the broadest sense. 5. The office of education is to call forth power of every kind, — power of thought, affection, will, and outward action ; power to observe, to reason, to judge, to contrive ; power to adopt good ends firmly, and to pursue them efficiently ; power to govern yourself and to influence others ; power to gain and to spread happiness. 6. You cannot get too much education or be too well equipped for your life work. 7. By increased education you can not only earn more, — you can be more truly manly, and can serve your family, your city, your country, your generation, more efficiently. 8. Education ought not to cease when you leave school ; but if well begun there, will continue through life. 9. A complete and generous education is that which fits you to perform justly, skillfully, and magnanimous- 197 ly, all the offices, both public and private, of peace and war. 10. Education is to unfold and develop, in complete- ness, the germ-principle lodged in you by your Creator. ii. The largest part of education, whether good or evil, is carried on at home, often unconsciously, under the daily influence of what transpires there. 12. Every one has two educations — one which he receives from others and one which he gives to himself. 13. Education consists in creating a capacity for learning and an instinct for what is right. 14. The proper use of education is largely a ques- tion of character. 15. Education should fit men and women for use- fulness in life by increasing their individual power of production, and by making them good companions for themselves and others. 16. The educated man, whose faculties have all been developed, longs to know all things of the universe, longs to own something, is restless when idle, and longs to act well his part in all the affairs of life. 17. Training the mind to think, and to discriminate between truth and error, is the object of education. 18. To attain the best results in the field of useful- ness, to which you are best adapted by nature, — that is the best education. 19. A liberal education is the result of training in youth so that the body is the ready servant of the will, and does with pleasure all the work that, as a mechan- ism, it is capable of; which makes the intellect a clear, cold, logical engine, with all its parts of equal strength, and in smooth working order ; that stores the mind with a knowledge of the great and fundamental truths of nature, and of the laws of her operations ; that fills with life and fire, but trains the passions to come to heed by a vigorous will, the servant of a tender conscience ; to love all beauty, whether of nature or art, to hate all vile- ness, and to respect others as yourself. 198 CHARACTER: A MORAL TEXT-BOOK. Book XI. Part 2. Mind and Body. Ev'n from the body's purity, the mind Receives a secret, sympathetic aid. — Thomson. 1. Mind and body are so closely and intimately connected, that one is incapable of pain or pleasure with- out the other. 2. As a rule a strong will, clear grit, pluck, stamina, and power of decision, accompany strong muscles, firm nerves, and a vigorous body. 3. Most of those who have accomplished much in the world have been vigorous in body as well as active in mind, and have been distinguished for their physical strength and vigor. 4. The character sympathizes with, and uncon- sciouly takes on, the nature of the body. 5. The relationship and sympathy between all the powers and faculties of man are such as to forbid that one department should suffer without impairing the health of the other. 6. A sound body with an untaught mind is better than a diseased body with a learned mind. Far better than either of these alternatives is it, if a sound mind dwell in a sound body. 7. Great enterprises are almost invariably placed in the hands of the man who is physically, as well as mentally, able to bear the brunt of things, to endure protracted exertion and strain, and to face a crisis with the assurance that he will not go to pieces because of bodily weakness. 8. It is not for you to give up in despair because you have been denied large and healthy bodies ; rather you should take the physical talents that have been put into your hands, and make the very best of them. 9. Moved by a mental aim, weak men are able to undergo a much greater amount of bodily labor than men of stronger muscular frames, actuated by no ex- citement of mind or vigorous nervous impulse. 10. Education should not sacrifice physical well- 199 being to mental attainments ; it should be harmonious in all its component parts, so that the boy or girl shall be- come a perfect man or woman. n. It is in the physical nature that the moral and mental nature lies enshrined, and it is only by acting in accordance with the natural laws, that the blessings of health of body, and health of mind and morals, can be secured. 12. Every faculty of the mind sympathizes with every defect and weakness of the body. 13. A diseased body may hamper, or thwart, or even dethrone, the most brilliant and noble intellect. 14. Healthy thoughts must come from healthy minds, and healthy minds cannot exist apart from healthy bodies. 15. Bodily vigor means activity, enthusiasm, de- termination and energy, — it means that the mind has at command its best powers, and that all the parts of your nature are in a condition to work together joyously and harmoniously. 16. The force of the understanding increases with the health of the body; when the body labors under dis- ease, the mind is incapacitated for thinking. 17. All upward aspiration, all noble ambition, all hope of great intellectual or spiritual attainments, must take into account the condition of the physical body. 18. You increase your chances of success as you in- crease your bodily strength, soundness and capacity. 19. The mind is by far the greatest factor in main- taining the body in a healthy condition. 20. Exercise taken in routine methods as such, does not afford the same benefits as when taken with the com- bined mental pleasure of games, sports, and other out- door diversions. 21. Every emotion tends to sculpture the body into beauty or into ugliness. 22. In consequence of the union of the two prin- ciples in the human frame, every act that you perform re- quires the agency both of body and mind. 23. The body is but the servant of the mind. 200 CHARACTER: A MORAL TEXT-BOOK. Book XI. Part 3. Common Sense. D'eep subtle wits, In truth, are master spirits in the world. The brave man's courage, and the student's lore, Are but as tools his secret ends to work, Who hath the skill to use them. — Joanna Baillie. 1. It is better to pass for a man of plain common sense, than to be brilliant or facetious at an expense which you cannot well bear for any length of time. 2. Common sense is not a reasoned quality, but rather a quality of the unconscious mind exercised intui- tively. 3. Common sense depends on all-around views — on seeing things from a general standpoint, and not being wholly absorbed by a single aspect. 4. A great idea or a great man is never laughed down or out. In the end the sceptre of common sense prevails. 5. In the affairs of life or business, it is not intel- lect that tells so much as character — not brains so much as heart — not genius so much as self-control, patience, and discipline, regulated by judgment. Hence there is no better possession for the uses of either private or pub- lic life, than a fair share of ordinary good sense guided by rectitude. 6. A man is sadly handicapped without a thorough schooling; but mere schooling will never give him com- mon sense. 7. It is a great thing to have brains, but it is vastly greater to be able to command them. 8. You can get along very well without genius, but you will fare badly without a reasonable share of that which is a more useful possession for workaday life, mother wit ; and you will be all the better for a real knowledge, however limited, of the ordinary laws of nature, and especially of those which apply to your own business. 9. In every position in life there is a demand for ability and common sense. 201 io. A young man should be hard-headed, should have common sense, undertake only what he can carry out and base his expectations on facts. ii. The aim of all intellectual training for the mass of the people should be common sense. 12. Great ability is not necessary to acquire com- mon sense, so much as patience, accuracy and watchful- ness. 13. In the pursuit of even the highest branches of human inquiry, the commoner qualities are found the most useful — such as common sense, attention, applica- tion and perseverance. 14. The world wants men who have not so much uncommon sense that they have no common sense ; men who can mix brains with their work. 15. Common sense bows to the inevitable and makes use of it. 16. The triumphs of tact, or common sense, over talent and genius, are seen everywhere. 17. The greatest men have been among the least believers in the power of genius. Some have even denned genius to be only common sense intensified. 18. Good, roundabout common sense, has never been superseded by the college diploma. 19. Native character and highest culture become rolled into each other with every advancing wave of humanity. 20. It does not matter how much you know or how much talent you have ; if you cannot transmute your acquirements into practical power, you will be a failure. 21. Women have more common sense than men. 22. The fundamental principle of good law is good common sense. 23. Science is nothing more than the refinement of common sense, making use of facts already known to acquire new facts. 24. The soul of every man has implanted in it a certain aptness or necessity to deduce certain universal truths from such observation and experience as are com- mon to all mankind. 25. It is grand to be self-complete ; to hear opinions, but to judge and act for yourself. 202 CHARACTER: A MORAL TEXT-BOOK. Book XI. Part 4. Knowledge. Knowledge is a food, and needs no less Her temp'rance over appetite, to know In measure what the mind may well contain; Oppresses 'else with surfeit, and turns Wisdom to folly. — Milton. 1. The pyramid of knowledge is made up of little grains of information, little observations picked up from everywhere. 2. Knowledge being of permanent importance, the acquisition of knowledge forms an indispensable and the most important department of human life. 3. The original and proper sources of knowledge are not books, but life, experience, personal thinking, feeling, and acting. 4. The acquisition of knowledge may protect a man against the meaner felonies of life ; but not in any degree against its selfish vices, unless fortified by sound prin- ciples and habits. 5. You cannot attain the intellectual aims of life without assistance, and as you cannot get much knowl- edge without the help of others, so you are not justified in seeking knowledge for your private pleasure or to pique your vanity. The pursuit of knowledge is a public, not a private end. 6. The value of knowledge consists not in its quan- tity, but mainly in the good uses to which you can apply it. 7. The mind is many sided and requires a great variety of food. 8. The mind may accumulate large stores of knowl- edge without any useful purpose ; but the knowledge must be allied to goodness and wisdom, and embodied in upright character, else it is naught. 9. The desire for knowledge, like the thirst for riches, increases ever with the acquisition of it. 10. Knowledge begets a desire for more knowledge, and it is a laudable desire, but you should remember that you cannot learn everything. 203 n. With the single exception of a good conscience, no possession can be so valuable as a good stock of infor- mation. 12. Knowledge, and knowledge only, makes men as a race improve. 13. In the first ten years of life, it is not the quan- tity of knowledge acquired, but the habit of learning well, that is of consequence. 14. Strive to know everything about something; and something about everything. 15. Gifts of speech can never attain their real momentum and power until founded upon a substratum of carefully acquired knowledge. 16. As the world grows in knowledge, practical morality grows. 17. Increase of knowledge is increase of civiliza- tion. 18. Knowledge is the material with which genius builds her fabrics. 19. Knowledge conquered by labor becomes a pos- session — a property entirely your own. 20. You can not have too much knowledge if prop- erly digested. 21. Knowledge is a comfortable and necessary retreat and shelter for you in an advanced age ; and if you do not plant it while young, it will give you no shade when you grow old. 22. The object of knowledge should be to mature wisdom and improve character, to render you better, happier, and more useful — more benevolent, more ener- getic, and more efficient in the pursuit of every high pur- pose in life. 23. The greatest power that you possess is knowl- edge. It is the capital of a person who lacks money, and it can never be lost. 24. A vast amount of knowledge may be gained in the course of a very few years, by rightly employing those leisure hours which every one has ; and this knowl- edge, if of a practical kind, will always insure you the means of elevation in the world. 204 CHARACTER: A MORAL TEXT-BOOK. Book XI. Part 5. Wisdom. To know That which before us lies in daily life, Is the prime wisdom. — Milton. 1. Wisdom is knowledge which has become a part of your being; it is the result of close, systematic think- ing, taken into the very tissue of the mind itself. 2. A just knowledge of the maxims you ought to- follow in the course of life is the principal object of wis- dom ; and virtue consists in putting them constantly in practice. 3. The aim of education is wisdom, the aim of wis- dom is truth. 4. Cheerfulness and diligence are nine-tenths of practical wisdom. They are the life and soul of success, as well as of happiness. 5. True wisdom is spontaneous, and not deliberate ; for wisdom is from the intuitional of man, and the intui- tion always knows, and knows at once. 6. You learn wisdom from failure much more than from success. 7. Good sense, disciplined by experience and inspir- ed by goodness, issues in practical wisdom. Indeed, goodness in a measure implies wisdom — the union of the worldly with the spiritual. 8. Practical wisdom, for the purposes of life, must be carried about with you, and be ready for use at call. 9. It may serve as a comfort in all your calamities, to know that he who loses anything and gets wisdom by it, is a gainer by the loss. 10. The truly wise are always growing wiser; it is the fool alone who remains standing. n. The wisest man may be wiser today than he was yesterday, and tomorrow than he is today. Total freedom from change would imply total freedom from error ; but this is the prerogative of Omniscience alone. 12. Mistakes are lessons in wisdom. The past cannot be changed. The future is yet in your power. 205 13. You should never be ashamed to own that you have been in the wrong, which is but saying, in other words, that you are wiser today than you were yesterday. 14. Wisdom and virtue are very often convertible terms, and they invariably assist and strengthen each other. 15. Truly wise you cannot be, unless your wisdom is constantly developing, from childhood to death. 16. Wisdom is the only thing that can relieve you from the sway of the passions and the fear of danger, and which can teach you to bear the injuries of fortune itself with moderation, and which shows you all the ways which lead to tranquility and peace. 17. The experience gained from books, though often valuable, is but of the nature of learning; whereas the experience gained from actual life, is of the nature of wisdom ; and a small store of the latter is worth vastly more than any stock of the former. 18. Your immense capacity for receiving and retain- ing impressions gives you that world stock of stored information and its arrested stimulus called knowledge. But wisdom, the higher word, refers to your capacity for considering what you know — handling and balancing the information in stock, and so acting judiciously from the best impression or group of impressions, instead of indis- criminately from the latest or from any that happens to be uppermost. 19. Wisdom is never attained by mere reason. The ideas of reason are clear, those of wisdom often obscure and unconscious. 20. The merchandise of wisdom is better than the merchandise of silver, and the gain thereof than fine gold. She is more precious than rubies, and all the things you can desire are not to be compared unto her. Length of days is in her right hand ; and in her left hand riches and honor. Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace. She is the tree of life to them that lay hold upon her : and happy is every one \hat retaineth her. 206 CHARACTER: A MORAL TEXT-BOOK. Book XI. Part 6. Experience. Experience is by industry achieved, And perfected by the swift course of time. — Shakespeare. 1. Take care to profit by your own experience — especially by your blunders and mistakes. These are the most expensive teachers, but the best of all. Still better to learn wisdom from the failure of other men. 2. The whole of life may be regarded as a great school of experience, in which men and women are the pupils. 3. Practical wisdom is only to be learned in the school of experience. 4. Experience is often bitter but wholesome ; only by its teaching can you learn to suffer and be strong. 5. The man made wise by experience endeavors to judge correctly of the things which come under his obser- vation, and form the subject of his daily life. 6. The man of experience learns to rely on time as his helper. 7. Get experience every time an opportunity pre- sents itself. 8. The results of experience are, of course, only to be achieved by living; and living is a question of time. 9. You know only too well what you can do; but until you have learned what you cannot do, you will neither accomplish anything of moment nor know inward peace. 10. The experience of the past is history; that of the present, observation. Both are requisite to under- stand either. 11. The man of noble spirit converts all occurren- ces into experience. 12. The aid you have from others is mechanical, compared with the discoveries you make yourself. What is thus learned is delightful in the doing, and the effect remains. 207 13. The broader the range of your digested experi- ence, the sounder will be your judgment. 14. You ought not to look back unless it is to derive useful lessons from past errors and for the purpose of profiting by dear-bought experience. 15. Experience is hands and feet to every enter- prise. 16. Association with persons wiser, better and more experienced than yourself, is always more or less inspir- ing and invigorating. They enhance your knowledge of life. You not only learn what they have enjoyed, but — which is still more instructive — what they have suffered. 17. Good thoughts and carefully gathered experi- ence take up no room, and may be carried about as your companions everywhere, without cost or encumbrance. 18. Your knowledge cannot go beyond your experi- ence. 19. Any one who would profit by experience will never be above asking for help. 20. The oft repeated experience of trustworthy per- sons may be taken for knowledge. 21. Nature is frugal in her operations, and will not be at the expense of a particular instinct, to give you that knowledge which experience will soon produce, by means of a general principle of human nature. 22. Useful and' instructive though good reading may be, it is only one mode of cultivating the mind ; and is much less influential than practical experience and good example. 23. Things which you learn by practicing and understanding are open to further knowledge and growth. 24. It is one of the sad conditions of life, that expe- rience is not transmissible. 25. It is always safe to learn, even from your ene- mies. 26. Do not look for judgment and experience in youth. 2J. It is the great lesson of biography to teach what man can be and can do at his best. It may thus give you renewed strength and confidence. 208 CHARACTER: A MORAL TEXT-BOOK. Book XI. Part 7. Genius. Time, place, and action may with pains be wrought, But genius must be born; and never can be taught. — Dry den. 1. To resolutely aim high, to never lose sight of your purpose, or abate your struggles to attain it, to make the best of the stuff that is in you, irrespective of what others are doing or have done, is the nearest ap- proach to genius you can ever make, and this kind of doing has wrought, with very few exceptions, all the things which are known as works of genius. 2. Genius is but a capacity of laboring intensely; it is the power of making g r eat and sustained efforts. 3. Genius is character, although character is not always genius. 4. A genius is successful in spite ol poverty. He seldom succeeds from the world's point of view, because, as a rule, he lacks selfishness. He adds much to the sum of human happiness. 5. The secret of genius is patience. 6. Genius is but the superlative degree of intell- gence, and may be acquired, and must be nourished by abundant food, exercise and careful training. 7. The surest sign of genius that can accomplish things, that can bring things to pass, is a divine hunger for achievement, a longing to be somebody and do some- thing in the world. 8. A genius never thinks ?bout his powers. 9. Genius may be distinguished from the lesser endowments by its ability to make the most of what common minds deem the merest surface drift of oppor- tunity, too ordinary and plentiful to be of any value. 10. When education has prepared your brains and hands, then it is that genius does those things which the world will not willingly let die ; but it is the spontaneous- ness of a second and disciplined nature. it. A boy who does not have a thirst for knowl- edge, a hunger for achievement, a determination to get 209 on in the world, and a willingness to do drudgery, may be sure that, whatever else he has, he does not have genius. 12. Talent, lying in the understanding, is often inherited ; genius, being the action of reason and imag- ination rarely or never. 13. The longing for something higher, the hidden germ oi aspiration struggling for the light — this is the kind of genius which youth should cultivate. 14. Genius has been well defined as the infinite capacity for taking pains. 15. Genius chooses its channel of expression with no desire for wealth, or fame, or happiness ; but because it cannot do otherwise. 16. Genius is known by its works ; genius without works is a blind faith, a dumb oracle. 17. A man is a miracle of genius because he has been a miracle of labor. 18. The light of other minds is necessary to the play and development of genius. 19. Even genius, however rapid its flight, must not omit a single essential detail, and must be willing to work. 20. Genius is the infinite art of taking pains. 21. Genius is intensity. 22. Liberty is alone fitted to bring out the noble thoughts of genius, filling them with hopes of success. 23. Genius is a power of producing excellences which are outside of the rules of art, a power which no prospect can touch and no industry acquire. 24. It is not wise to aim at impossibilities, though genius frequently accomplishes what some people term impossibilities. There is a distinction, however, between them, which the man of genius recognizes. If you recog- nize good in a seeming impossibility, and have faith in your power to accomplsh it, you will be the genius if you succeed. 25. The study of almost any great work, either in literature, art or science, will soon convince you that downright hard work is the only substitute for genius. 2IO CHARACTER: A MORAL TEXT-BOOK. Book XI. Part 8. Nature. How mean the ord'er and perfection sought In the best product of the human thought, Compared to the gr'eat harmony that reigns In what the spirit of the world ordains. — Prior. 1. Nature is inviting you to talk earnestly with her, to understand her, to subdue her, and to be blessed by her. 2. In nature, all is useful, all is beautiful. 3. Man loves nature. 4. The most important secrets of nature are often hidden away in unexpected places. 5. The love of nature is a great gift, and if it is frozen or crushed out, the character can hardly fail to suffer from the loss. 6. Work or starve is nature's motto, — starve men- tally, starve morally, starve physically. 7. Nature only gives you the raw material. You must take from her the things that lie useless, and make them minister to life. 8. Nature never lets a man rest until he has found his place. She haunts him and drives him until all his faculties give their consent, and he falls into his proper niche. 9. Nature does not excuse man for weakness, incompetence, or ignorance. She demands that he be at the top of his condition. 10. Nature teems with elements and forces to wait on man's every thought, to gratify his every desire, and to respond to his every aspiration. With all her wealth she surrounds him, and in ten thousand ways invites him to use it. 11. Man adapts himself to nature, not nature to man. 12. There is no trifling with nature; it is always true, and the faults and errors fall to your share. It defies incompetency, but reveals its secrets to the com- petent, the truthful, and the poor. 211 13. Nature constantly seeks to lead men to a keener and deeper realization of the power and wonder of the invisible. 14. Nature is the wisest of physicians, kindest of nurses, and cheapest of medicines. 15. Nature has no message for heedless, inattentive hearers. 16. Nature is constantly seeking to show man that he is his own best friend, or his own worst enemy. 17. If you hope to be a power in the world, to be able to bring things to pass, you must not only keep close to nature's heart, but you must keep in touch with the great forces of civilization. You must know nature and human nature at first hand. 18. The best part of your education comes from nature. 19. Man is but an apprentice in the workshop of nature. He creates nothing, but merely adapts what nature has already made. All his boasted achievements are but the imitations of nature. 20. Nature is able to supply all your wants without undue toil if you rightly know her laws and wisely util- ize her forces. 21. Strong men who have accomplished things, have drawn their strength from nature and life. They have not only lived and communed much with nature, but they have mingled with men. 22. Nature has recourse to a two-fold agency. To one man she assigns the task of originating the new thought ; to another, that of imparting to it a fitting shape and adapting it to the uses of mankind. 23. Nature in her kindness does not usually make one man the recipient of all her gifts. 24. All of nature's works are a part of the perfec- tion of a plan. She makes no mistakes, creates no vacancy, and guesses at nothing. 25. One law covers all men. Nature is very gener- ous with her gifts, but she insists that you appreciate them. 26. Nature never stops still. She either advances or retires, and humanity moves with her. 212 CHARACTER: A MORAL TEXT-BOOK. Book XI. Part 9. Improvement. The world advances, and in time outgrows The laws that in our fathers' days were best; And doubtless after us, some purer scheme Will be shaped out by wiser men than we, Made wiser by the steady growth of truth. — Lowell. 1. Much mental improvement in later life is the substitution of a better class of judgments for first imma- ture notions, these last being gradually dropped. 2. Alike in civil and religious affairs, youth has to play the great part in securing progress. 3. A mind that would grow must let no ideas become permanent, except such as lead to action. To- ward all others, it must maintain an attitude of absolute receptivity: admitting all, being modified by all, but per- manently biased by none. 4. A man who expects great things of himself is constantly trying to open a little wider the doors of his narrow life, to extend his limited knowledge, to reach a little higher, to get a little farther on than those around him. He has enough of the divine disposition within him to spur him on to nobler endeavors. He looks to get the best of the things offered to him. 5. Morality as a whole almost necessarily advances with the general progress of intelligence. 6. You cannot progress while keeping a close watch on your past. Do not be afraid to outgrow old thoughts and ways of living. Be courageous and dare to think on new lines, and as a result, live in new ways. 7. You are equally served by receiving and impart- ing knowledge. 8. Do not be content with doing what another has done — surpass it. 9. You should not hesitate to change your condi- tion, if you are pretty sure you see a way to better it. The object of life is to grow. 10. There is protection as well as education in a fervent love of improvement, with its multitude of asso- ciations. 213 ii. Whoever is satisfied with what he does, has reached his culminating point — he will progress no more. 12. It is only through strife, through labor and painful effort, by grim energy and by resolute courage, that you move on to better things. 13. There is a universal desire for the acquisition of new intelligence for the purposes of advancement. 14. You have to keep your mind and heart open, and never be ashamed to learn, with the assistance of those who are wiser and more experienced than your- self. 15. Every generation climbs a little higher than its predecessor. 16. You must continuously apply yourself to right pursuits, and you cannot fail to advance steadily, though it may be unconsciously. 17. True progress consists in bringing forward from yesterday the good of yesterday, and adding it to the store of the good of today. 18. Progress is not movement, but improvement. Its measure is not the ground passed over, but what has been gained in passing. 19. The powers of man have not been exhausted. Nothing has been done by him that cannot be better done. 20. Sometimes progress invites men, sometimes it drives them, but always it advances them. 21. To develop your threefold nature, moral, intel- lectual, and physical, to its highest possibility, should be the supreme object of living. 22. Ever since men existed as reasonable creatures, they have discriminated good from evil, making use of what has been done in this direction before them by oth- ers, struggled with evil, seeking a true and better way, and slowly but unceasingly have been advancing. 23. Your mind is developed successfully in pursu- ing subjects that give you knowledge of practical worth. 24. It is quite possible for conventional rules of action and conventional habits of thought to get such power that progress is impossible. 25. Work out in your mind better and brighter duties and responsibilities for yourself. 214 CHARACTER: A MORAL TEXT-BOOK. Book XI. Part 10. History. Wondrous and awful are thy silent halls, O kingdom of the past! There lie the bygone ages in their palls, Guarded by shadows vast. — Lowell. i. History makes a young man old without either wrinkles or gray hair, privileging him with the expe- rience of age without either its infirmities or inconven- iences. 2. History sets before the mind examples of hero- ism, of self-sacrifice, of love of country, of devotion to principles at the greatest cost. How can such examples fail to inspire, to ennoble, to awaken emulation? The great and good men of the past, the virtuous and wise, serve as models to the young, and often arouse enthu- siastic admiration, and a passionate discipleship. 3. Great example becomes the common heritage of the race ; and great deeds and great thoughts are the most glorious of legacies to mankind. They connect the pres- ent with the past and help on the increasing purpose of the future ; holding aloft the standard of principle, main- taining the dignity of human character, and filling the mind with traditions and instincts of all that is most worthy and noble in life. 4. The first lesson of history is the good that comes out of evil. 5. The example of other days is in great part the source of the courage of each generation ; and men walk up composedly to the most perilous enterprises beckon- ed onward by the shades of the men who live in history, 6. To exercise the imagination on the lives of great and good men brings with it a double gain ; for by this exercise you learn at a single stroke, and in the most ef- fective way, both what was done and what ought to be done. 7. History and biography show many wonderful instances of the immunity accorded to men of character. A strange talisman seemed to surround them. 215 8. Those who will read and heed the lessons of other lives will be able to live very nearly a correct life at the first and only trial vouchsafed each mortal. 9. History is a picture of the life in the past, of the whole human race, through which you can trace the gradual trend of humanity, ever upward towards a high- er ideal. 10. It is scarcely possible to have a thorough knowledge of your fellowmen, without the information concerning them to be obtained from the annals of his- tory. 11. With the light of great examples to guide you — representatives of humanity in its best form — you are not only justified, but bound in duty, to aim at reaching the highest standard of character; not to become the richest in means, but in spirit ; not the greatest in world- ly position, but in true honor ; not the most intellect- ual, but the most virtuous ; not the most powerful and influential, but the most upright, truthful, and honest. 12. What men have accomplished shows that hardly any ambitious longing can be considered as unwise on the part of those who are willing to undertake all work and suffer want, in the struggle. 13. Study to make yourself familiar, not with the foibles, oddities, and monstrocities of humanity, set forth in fictitious narratives, but with the real blood and bone of human heroism, which the select pages of biog- raphy present. 14. The recollection of men who have signalized themselves by great thoughts or great deeds, seems to create for the time a purer atmosphere around you, and you feel as if your aims and purposes were unconsciously elevated. 15. How wise, how philosophic, to measure and judge yourself according to the history of others, and avoid those errors of omission and commission, that have ruined so many lives. 16. History is full of examples of men who have left their mark on the world, but who made an utter failure of what they first started out to do. 2l6 CHARACTER: A MORAL TEXT-BOOK. Book XI. Part 11. Necessity. Soul of the world, divine Necessity, Servant of God, and master of all things. — Batt'ey. 1. That man is wise, and has understanding of things divine, who has nobly agreed with necessity. 2. It is certain that some of those who stand high- est in the world's repute, would have done nothing to make their names remembered, but for circumstances which either aided their efforts or compelled them to exertion ; and many who have been by no means cele- brated, have required but favoring opportunities, or the spur of adverse circumstances, to have achieved distinc- tion. 3. Responsibility alone drives man to toil and brings out his best gifts. 4. Nature cares little for man's ease and pleasure ; it is the man she is after, and she will pay any price or resort to any expedient to lure him on. She masks her own ends in his wants, and urges him onward, often- times through difficulties and obstacles which are dis- heartening, but ever onward and upward, toward the goal. 5. It was not without significance that the Creator concealed your highest happiness and greatest good be- neath the sternest difficulties, and made their attainment conditional upon a struggle for existence. 6. Being forced to work and forced to do your best, will breed in you temperance and self-control, diligence and strength of will, cheerfulness and content, and a hun- dred virtues which the idle never know. 7. The hard facts of existence have to be faced, to give that touch of truth to character which can never be imparted by reading or tuition, but only by contact with the broad instincts of common men and women. 8. Necessity may render a doubtful act innocent, but it cannot make it praiseworthy. 9. Your wits are sharpened by your necessity, and 217 the individual stands forth to meet and overcome the difficulties which stand in his way. 10. Necessity never compels you to do what is wrong, and if you resist the impulse to resort to crooked measures, when tempted either by the threats of misfor- tune or the avarice of ambition, you will find that it is a friend and a helper which leads you through avenues of trial and temptation, into mansions of knowledge and affluence. n. Necessity for exertion is the chief source of human advancement. 12. Necessity may be a hard school-mistress, but she is generally found the best. 13. Nobody knows what he can do until he has tried ; and few try their best until they have been forced to do it. 14. Necessity has goaded men to nearly all the great achievements in the history of the world. 15. It is often of advantage for a man to be under the necessity of having to struggle with poverty and conquer it. 16. Most men need a spur to make them begin and hold them to their task. 17. The greater number of men have to work with their hands, as a matter of necessity, in order to live ; but all must work in one way or another, if they would en- joy life as it ought to be enjoyed. 18. It is difficult, if it is even possible, for any human being to develop his highest faculties, to raise himself to his highest power, until he is thrown absolute- ly on his own resources. 19. Poverty and hardship have ever been the great schoolmasters of the race, and have forced into prom- inence many a man who would otherwise have remained unknown. 20. Since the world has existed, men, with great efforts, sufferings and privations, have been struggling for their common wants, and have not been able to over- come the difficulty. 21. Take away from a young man the necessity for earning his own living, and you make a characterless manikin of him. 218 CHARACTER: A MORAL TEXT-BOOK. Book XI. Part 12. Influence. W : e know not half the power, for good or ill, Our daily lives poss'ess o'er one another; A careless word may help a soul to kill, Or by one look we may redeem our brother. — Anon. 1. Man's conscious influence is small. But his un- conscious influence, — the silent, subtle radiation of his personality, the effect of his words and acts, the trifles he never considers, — is tremendous. 2. Influence is the power you exert over others by your thoughts, words, and actions — by your lives. It is a silent, a pervading, a magnetic, and a most wonder- ful thing. It works in inexplicable ways. You neither see nor hear it, yet, consciously or unconsciously, you exert it. 3. Into the hands of every individual is given a marvelous power for good or evil, — the silent, uncon- scious, unseen influence of his life. This is simply the constant radiation of what a man really is, not what he pretends to be. 4. Every man, by his mere living, is radiating sym- pathy, or sorrow, or morbidness, or cynicism, or happi- ness, or hope, or any of a hundred other qualities. Life is a state of constant radiation and absorption ; to exist is to radiate ; to exist is to be the recipient of radiations. 5. Something passes from every sentient thing, — which affects, for good or ill, for pleasure or pain, or perhaps indifferently, everyone who comes within the atmosphere of that being. 6. You should ever let your influence filter through human love and sympathy. You should not be merely an influence, you should be an inspiration. By your very presence you should be a source of strength to those around you. 7. You cannot escape for one moment from the radiation of your character, the constant weakening or strengthening of others. You can cultivate sweetness, 219 calmness, trust, generosity, truth, justice, loyalty, nobil- ity, — make them vitally active in your character — and by these qualities you will constantly affect the world. 8. There is something solemn and awful in the thought that there is not an act done or a word uttered by a human being but carries with it a train of conse- quences, the end of which you may never trace. Not one but, to a certain extent, gives a color to your life, and insensibly influences the lives of those about you. 9. You may surrender your own life to be driven hither and thither by pleasure's currents and passion's gusts. But the loss will not be yours alone. Your course will wantonly imperil hundreds of other lives, that may be making heroic struggles for better things. 10. The influence of character can never be over- estimated. You are moulding others wherever you are. Character keeps itself at all times before men's atten- tion, and its might is felt by everyone who comes with- in its sphere. 11. The good and the great draw others after them ; they lighten and lift up all who are within reach of their influence. They are as so many living centres of benefi- cent activity. 12. Numberless occasions will occur, in the life of an educated man, in which he can not only enhance his own wealth and happiness, but can contribute largely to the enjoyment of his fellows. 13. In your daily intercourse with the world, you meet scores of people by whose silent influence for evil, you are unconsciously drawn down to their own level. You may also meet a single individual in whose presence you feel the thrill of a moulding influence for good. 14. It is impossible for you to do anything serious- ly or permanently hurtful to yourself, without mischief reaching at least to your near connections, and often far beyond them. 220 CHARACTER: A MORAL TEXT-BOOK. Book XII. Part 1. Self-Culture. If solid happiness we prize, Within our breast this jewel lies, And they are fools who roam; The world hath nothing to bestow — From our own selves our bliss must flow. ■ — Cotton. i. He who seizes the grand idea of self-cultivation,. and solemnly resolves on it, will find that idea, that reso- lution, burning like fire within him, and ever putting him on his own improvement. 2. The young man who appplies himself to self- culture is bound in time to find a place where he will be able to use every power he possesses. 3. Be your own schoolmaster. Put yourself under special training, and perform your duty, your appointed task, faithfully, — as well as it can be done. 4. The opportunity for educating yourself, with- out interference with the work necessary to earn a liv- ing, should not be overlooked by anyone who really de- sires to improve his position and his prospects. 5. Self-culture may not end in eminence, but with- out it eminence can hardly be attained. 6. To regard self-culture either as a means of get- ting past others in the world, or of intellectual dissipa- tion and amusement, rather than as a power to elevate the character and expand the spiritual nature, is to place it on a very low level. 7. Much may be accomplished in self-culture by the energetic and the persevering, who are careful to avail themselves of opportunities, and use up the frag- ments of spare time which the idle permit to run to waste. 8. Instructors may assist the student over the rough places, but he must himself store his mind with the necessary knowledge, he must undergo the exer- cise by which alone his mind will become active and de- pendable, he must himself make the sustained effort whose reward is mental strength. 221 9. Self-culture calls forth power and cultivates strength. The solution of one problem helps the mas- tery of another ; and thus knowledge is carried into every faculty. 10. The love of emulation, so hurtful in the cheap, false forms it often takes, is a beautiful force when turn- ed to self-improvement. 11. Self-education is something very different from mere reading by way of amusement ; it requires long and laborious study. 12. There is no excuse for the man or woman who fails to secure an education sufficient to enable him or her to perform all duties intelligently. 13. In childhood your character is largely made for you by your parents, teachers, and companions, but in after life the only way to make any effective addition to your mental ways, lies in deliberately and persistently doing it of your own accord. 14. The struggle to obtain knowledge and to ad- vance yourself in the world, strengthens the mind, discip- lines the faculties, matures the judgment, promotes self- reliance, and gives you independence of thought and force of character. 15. No boy or girl is so deficient in mental power or acuteness, as to render the task of self-improvement hopeless. 16. Every man must educate himself. His books and teachers are but helps ; the work is his. 17. It is the duty of every person to cultivate the brain power that nature has given him. 18. The best part of every man's education is that which he gives to himself. All learning is self-teaching. 19. Though self-culture may not bring wealth, it will, at all events, give you the companionship of elevated thoughts. 20. True education is self-preparation. It must find something within you, or it brings nothing out of you. It converts your possibilities into practical powers. 21. What the learner discovers by mental exertion is better known than what is told him. 222 CHARACTER: A MORAL TEXT-BOOK. Book XII. Part 2. Example. Examples preach to th' eye — care, then, . mine says, Not how you end, but how you spend your days. — Henry Martin. 1. Example is one of the most potent of instructors, though it teaches without a tongue. It is the practical school of mankind, working by action, which is always more forcible than words. 2. Example in conduct, even in apparently trivial matters, is of no light moment, inasmuch as it is con- stantly becoming inwoven with the lives of others, and contributing to form their natures for better or for worse. 3. Nothing is so infectious as example. 4. Great men may learn something from the very humblest. 5. Study of the careers of successful men is always most interesting, if not always profitable. 6. Self-government is the principal end of educa- tion. It is not imparted by teaching, but by example. 7. The things done in the home give bias to char- acter far more than do sermons and lectures, newspapers and books. 8. The chief use of biography consists in the noble models of character in which it abounds. 9. It is the influence of your acts, more than your words, that moulds and shapes others. 10. The good deed or word will live, even though you may not see it fructify, but so will the bad; and no person is so insignificant as to be sure that his example will not do good on the one hand, or evil on the other. 11. It is more important to have a good example to follow, than to receive words of advice and instruc- tion. 12. Good advice has its weight; but without the accompaniment of a good example, it is of comparatively small influence. 223 13. If in doubt at any time as to what is proper, follow the example of others of more experience. 14. Good example nearly always brings forth good fruit. 15. Noble examples stir to noble actions. 16. Example is instruction in action. It is teaching without words, often exemplifying more than tongue can teach. 17. Precept may point the way, but it is silent, con- tinuous example, conveyed to you by habits, and living with you in fact, that carries you along. 18. True religion, embodied in human character and action, is more instructive than a thousand doctrinal volumes. 19. Your great forefathers still live among you in the records of their lives, as well as in the acts they have done, which live also; still sit by you at the table, and hold you by the hand ; furnishing examples for your ben- efit which you may study, admire and imitate. 20. One of the most valuable, and one of the most infectious examples which can be set before the young, is that of cheerful working. 21. A single virtuous action has elevated a whole village, a whole city, a whole nation. 22. The most powerful forces in nature are those which operate silently and imperceptibly. This is equally true of those moral forces which exert the greatest in- fluences on your mind, and give complexion to your character. 23. Models are of great importance in moulding the nature of the child ; and if you would have fine char- acters, you must necessarily present before them fine models. 24. Wherein you reprove another, be unblamable yourself, for example is more prevalent than precept. 25. Imperceptibly influence others by giving them an example of the gentleness and purity, the politeness and tenderness you wish them to emulate. 224 CHARACTER: A MORAL TEXT-BOOK. Book XII. Part 3. Imitation. O! who shall lightly say that Fame Is nothing but an empty name. While in that sound there is a charm The nerves to brace, the heart to warm, As, thinking of the mighty dead, The young from slothful couch shall start, And vow, with lifted hands outspread, Like them to act a noble part. — Joanna Baillie. i. It is by imitation far more than by precept, that you learn everything; and what you learn thus, you ac- quire not only more effectually, but more pleasantly. 2. Men are by nature imitators, and all persons are more or less impressed by the speech, the manners, the gait, the gestures, and the very habit of thinking of their companions. 3. Though much of the education of character by example is soontaneous and unconscious, the young need not necessarily be the passive followers or imitators of those about them. Their own conduct, far more than the conduct of their companions, tends to fix the pur- pose and form the principles of their lives. 4. Each possesses in himself a power of will and of free activity, which, if courageously exercised, will enable him to make his own individual selection of friends and associates. It is only through weakness of purpose that young people, as well as old, become the slaves of their inclinations, or give themselves up to a servile imitation of others. 5. You imitate only what you admire and believe. 6. For successful imitation in anything good sense is indispensable. 7. The spirit which gets its code of conduct from what everybody does is most pernicious, and opposed to all true nobility and growth. 8. Half the evils that curse young womanhood and manhood are the consequences of doing as the crowd does. 9. Warriors, statesmen, orators, patriots, poets, and 225 artists — all have been, more or less unconsciously, nur- tured by the lives and actions of others living before them, or presented for their imitation. 10. Everyone does you a service — gives you some- thing to imitate or avoid. ii. Any man can do what any other man has done. 12. Imitation is one of the strongest links of so- ciety; is a species of mutual compliance, which all men yield to each other, without constraint to themselves, and which is extremely flattering to all. 13. It is vastly more easy to imitate and borrow, both matter and manner, than to have them of your own. But no imitator ever reached anything like eminence. 14. Success is often achieved by tracing the foot- steps of those who have become successful. 15. What the superior man seeks is in himself; what the small man seeks is in others 16. It is a mistake to be forever copying copies. 17. Young people should conduct themselves with modest assurance ; let them observe, hear, and examine, and before long they will rival their models. 18. The true way to excel in any effort, is to pro- pose the highest and most perfect example for imitation. 19. By imitation of acts, the character becomes slowly and imperceptibly, but at length decidedly form- ed. The several acts may seem in themselves trivial ; but so are the continuous acts of daily life. 20. If young men are wisely influenced and direct- ed, and conscientiously exert their own free energies, they will seek the society of those better than them- selves, and strive to imitate their example. 21. To be like the best men is to command admira- tion and love. 22. The man who only carries out the thoughts and ideas of another is nothing more than a tool. 23. A sure mark of a little mind is the servile imi- tation of others. 24. There are few persons who can avoid imitat- ing those with whom they associate. For the most part this is unconscious, but its influence is permanent. 22.6 CHARACTER: A MORAL TEXT-BOOK. Book XII. Part 4. Observation. The works of God are fair for naught, Unless our eyes, in seeing, See, hidden in the thing, the thought That animates its being. — Tilton i. Observation is a matter of education. It re- quires to see things as well as it does to do things. 2. Commence study as much as possible, by direct observation of facts, and not by the mere inculcation of statements from books. 3. One of the greatest hindrances to advancement in life is the lack of observation, and of the inclination to take pains. 4. Higher education is an eye-opener, or rather an eye-multiplier, for the educated man is all eyes, and he sees and uses what is hidden from others. 5. More lies in the careful noting of every single act than careless minds can well imagine. 6. You must not allow anything which has any relation to your business or profession to escape your observation. 7. It is not always the original man who is most successful, but the one who is able to cull the best ideas from everyone with whom he comes in contact. 8. The act of seizing every bit of knowledge, every scrap of information, no matter how insignificant it may seem at the time, the laying hold of every opportunity and every occasion, and grinding them all up into ex- perience, cannot be overestimated. 9. By training the observing faculty you accom- plish wonders in the way of education. 10. Mediocrity can talk, but it takes genius to ob- serve. 11. No matter what your business, you should put your best thought into it. To do this you must observe keenly, train your eyes to take in everything about you, and your mind to reflect on it. 12. Let those studies be regarded as primary, that 22"] teach you to know what you are seeing, and to see what you would otherwise fail to see. 13. If you would get the most out of life you must learn not merely to look but to see. 14. You want to have your eyes open and your wits awake, to be sharp, and ready, and active. 15. The youth who is always on the alert for a chance, who is looking for an opportunity to step up higher, whose whole soul is in his work, cannot remain unnoticed very long. 16. Every man who observes vigilantly and resolves steadfastly, grows unconsciously into genius. 17. A close observer can learn from the mistakes of the unwise, as well as the correctness of the wise. 18. In mixed company, among acquaintances and strangers, endeavor to learn something from all. 19. No one who has the opportunity should omit to travel. The world belongs to him who has seen it. 20. Your interest in things about you invariably increases in direct ratio with your knowledge of them. 21. Many of the world's greatest men did not study under teachers, but procured their education under the supervision of their own minds. They had to feel their way along, and correct their own errors as the dawning of fresh light enabled them to see them, and you may do the same. 22. The one serviceable, safe, remunerative quality in every study and pursuit is the quality of attention. 23. Open eyes will discover opportunities every- where. 24. There is always something that you can learn from others. 25. The man or woman who is making use of the spare moments in improving the mind — in learning something of use and value — is accumulating wealth that cannot be lost by fire, flood, bank failure, or injudicious investment. 26. The difference of intellect in men depends more on the early cultivation of the habit of attention, than any great disparity between the powers of one individual and another. 228 CHARACTER: A MORAL TEXT-BOOK. Book XII. Part 5. Reason. I would make Reason my guide, but she should sometimes sit Patiently by the way-side, while I traced The mazes of the pleasant wilderness Around m'e. She should be my counsellor, But not my tyrant. — Bryant. 1. Reason is the glory of human nature, and one of the chief eminences whereby you are raised above the beasts. 2. Wise men are instructed by reason. 3. Though reason is not to be relied on as uni- versally sufficient to direct you what to do, yet it is gen- erally to be relied on and obeyed, when it tells you what you are not to do. 4. He that will not reason is a bigot, he that cannot reason is a fool, and he that dares not reason is a slave. 5. Peace rules the day where reason rules the mind. 6. Reason cannot be consumed by fire or over- whelmed by force. 7. Let your reason and not your senses, be the rule of your conduct ; for reason will teach you to think wise- ly, to speak prudently, and to behave worthily. 8. The highest perfection of human reason, is to know that there is an infinity of truth beyond its reach. 9. Mankind is ruled by reason, never by passion. 10. Reason, as it exists in man, is only your intel- lectual eye, and that, like the eye to see, needs light. 11. Reason reconciles you to the daily things of existence. 12. You can only reason from what you know. 13. In any line of life, intelligence will enable a man to adapt himself to circumstances, suggest improved methods of working, and render him more apt, skilled and effective in all respects. 14. Nothing has a greater tendency to obstruct the exercise of free inquiry than the spirit and feeling of a party. Let a doctrine, however erroneous, become a party distinction, and it is at once intrenched in in- 229 terests and attachments which make it extremely diffi- cult for the most powerful artillery of reason to dislodge it. 15. The human race possesses the power of radiat- ing more knowledge than it absorbs, of adding to the culture which it gets. 16. The intellect is merely an instrument, which is moved and worked by forces behind it — by emotions, by indignation, by enthusiasm, by everything that gives force and energy to character. 17. The lowest quality in character is intellect. Not that it is not so valuable as the others, but it is so abundant and, without the others, so useless. 18. Were you possessed of nothing but intellect, life would be a dull, monotonous, insipid, and wearisome calm. 19. The term intellect includes all those powers by which you acquire, retain, and extend your knowledge. 20. The mind of man is the noblest production of almighty power. 21. The truly strong and sound mind is that mind that can embrace equally great things and small. A man should be great in great things, and elegant in small things. 22. The mind is that which perceives, remembers, compares, and is susceptible of various emotions, or other feelings. 23. The mind is the instrument which is employed in every disquisition into which you enter. 24. It is the mind that makes good or ill, that makes wretchedness or happiness, rich or poor. 25. All science is in the mind, and must, conse- quently, derive its character from the nature and suscep- tibilities of the mind. 26. Mind is not character. 27. The intelligence of the people is the security of the nation. 230 CHARACTER: A MORAL TEXT-BOOK. Book XII. Part 6. Books. O books, ye monuments of mind, concr'ete wisdom of the wisest; Sweet solaces of daily life, proofs and results of immortality; Trees yielding- all fruits, whose leave's are for the healing of the nations; Groves of knowledge, where all may eat, nor fear a flaming sword; Gentle comrades, kind advisers, friends, comforts, treasures; Helps, governments, diversities of tongues; who can weigh your worth? — Tupper. 1. There is no one thing that enters more deeply into the very warp and woof of your character, than the books you read. One of the greatest blessings that can come to you early in life is the love of good books. 2. The best books for those who have little time to read are those which have stood the test of years, which have found their way into many hearts, which have brightened many lives, which have awakened many souls to noble aspirations, and have been the inspiration of other masterpieces of literature. 3. He that loves a book will never want a faithful friend, a wholesome counsellor, a cheerful companion, an effectual comforter. 4. Biography, well written, is beyond question, the richest of all general reading. 5. It must not be thought that books alone make a man, or that merely to know them is education. The practical is needed to apply and expand the theoretical. 6. To become a roundly and fully educated man, it is important, beyond almost anything else, to be a lover of reading. 7. No entertainment is so cheap as reading, nor any pleasure so lasting. 8. A book is, in a sense, a living being and becomes the companion of the one who reads it. 9. He is the best reader who consumes the most knowledge, and converts it into character. 10. The habit of well-directed reading may become a source of the greatest pleasure and self-improvement, and exercise a gentle coercion, with the most beneficial 231 results, over the whole tenor of your character and con- duct. ii. The greatest advantage of books does not al- ways come from what you remember of them, but from their suggestiveness. 12. In your choice of books, seek to read those that will not only bring you into closer sympathy with your fellowmen, but will also reveal to you your own nature, and help you to be more hopeful, happy and courageous. 13. The possession of the mere materials of knowl- edge is something very different from wisdom and un- derstanding, which are reached through a higher kind of discipline than that of reading. 14. As you should associate with people who can inspire you to nobler deeds, so you should only read those books which have an uplifting power, and which stir you to make the most of yourself, and your opportu- nities. 15. If you habitually read books that are elevating in tone, pure in style, sound in reasoning, and keen in insight, your mind develops the same characteristics. 16. A college education, or its equivalent, and more, is possible to the poorest boy or girl who has access to the necessary books. 17. A man, to be successful even as a specialist, should have a good general knowledge, and therefore ought to read and study much. A well-informed man is always the brighter for it. 18. Books are the true levelers. They give to all who will faithfully use them, the society, the spiritual presence of the best and greatest of your race. 19. In the world of books, what is grand and inspir- ing may easily become a part of every man's life. 20. The best books are those which stir you up most, and make you the most determined to do some- thing and be something yourself. 21. Whatever you read, read with enthusiasm, with energy, read with the whole mind, if you would increase vour mental stature. 232 CHARACTER: A MORAL TEXT-BOOK. Book XII. Part 7. Reflection. Errors, like straws, upon the surface flow; He who would s'earch for pearls must dive below. — Dryden. 1. There is nothing like reflection to reveal to the mind its own limitations. 2. Neither observation nor reading are of practical value, unless you learn to think about what you read and see. 3. It is thought and reflection which make books serviceable, and give health and vigor to the mind. 4. To cram the intellect by reading without due reflection, is to weaken and paralyze the mind. 5. Lack of time is by no means a good excuse for lack of thoughtfulness. Some of the most thoughtful men have been the busiest men, and have done most of their thinking in what would seem to be the most un- favorable surroundings. 6. Success is due largely to the power to think. 7. The vigorous exercise of the intellectual facul- ties, when cultivated, is just as enjoyable as physical recreation is to the athlete ; and he who will not think loses one of the greatest pleasures of life, as well as that which will make him more useful in his relations to others. 8. Thinking, not growth, makes manhood. 9. The mind must have exercise - — vigorous, strong, systematic, continuous. 10. It is not so much literary culture that is want- ed as habits of reflection, thoughtfulness, and right con- duct. n. It is the thoughtful man in every -day life, who is the useful man. 12. He who never thinks can never be wise. 13. The mission of true education is to make think- ers of all. 233 14- Whatever retards a spirit of inquiry, is favor- able to error ; whatever promotes it, to truth. 15. A large number of young men just entering on life, are kept back and labor under great difficulties, from lack of reflection. 16. Time spent thinking is well spent. 17. You cannot perform the operation of pure thought except in a healthy state of the body. 18. Everything should be submitted to the severest scrutiny, before it is admitted into the mind as a part of the intellectual fabric. 19. No simplicity of mind, no obscurity of station, can escape the universal duty of questioning all that you believe. 20. Reading makes a full man, but it is thinking that makes a wise one. 21. Learn to reflect on what you read — this is a sure road to knowledge. 22. To join thinking with reading is one of the first maxims, and one of the easiest operations. 23. To read without reflecting, is like eating with- out digesting. 24. If a student has a well trained mind, he is pre- pared to learn any business with ease. 25. A man may be great by chance, but never wise and good without taking pains about it. 26. Correct expression of your ideas is an aid to correct thinking. 27. No book worthy the name should be read hastily, and most good books should be read more than once to really gain all the benefit to be derived from them. The test of the value of a book, lies in how well it will bear re-reading. 28. Learn to absorb the mental and moral life of a book, and assimilate it into your life. 29. The value of books may be truly gauged by the manner in which they stimulate thought. 30. Wholesome, properly conducted intellectual training, not only quickens the perceptions, but enlarges their range. 234 CHARACTER: A MORAL TEXT-BOOK. Book XII. Part 8. Memory. Lull'd in the countless chambers of the brain, Our thoughts are linked by many a hidden chain. Awake but one, and lo, what myriads arise! Each stamps its image as the other flies. — Rogers. i. The mind must form the habit of being checked and interrupted, and of bringing itself back to the point from which it was taken off, and at once pursuing the train of mental operations in which it was engaged. Until this power is obtained, you are not prepared for active life ; and in proportion as it is acquired, in that proportion will little hindrances appear to you of little consequence. 2. Memory is the grand instrument of conveying knowledge from one man to another. Its cultivation is of the highest importance. 3. He who has a memory that can seize with an iron grasp, and retain everything he reads, sees, and hears, will scarcely fail of being distinguished, if he possess, though only in a moderate degree, the other faculty of making practical use of his information. 4. Every time you crowd into the memory what you do not expect it to retain, you weaken its power, and you lose your authority to command its service. 5. You are in great danger if you neglect your memory. It is too valuable to be neglected, for by it wonders are sometimes accomplished. 6. Memory must be reckoned with in the making of manhood. No one lives a royal life who does not secure for the future a memory that can exercise its functions, without the curse of regret and the penalty of remorse. 7. Memory is the cabinet of the imagination, the treasury of reason, the registry of conscience, and the council chamber of thought. 8. The most effectual aid to the attainment of broad culture, wide knowledge, familiarity with the great minds of the past and present, is a good memory; and 235 those who take the time and trouble to cultivate this faculty will be abundantly rewarded.. 9. Memory is one of the most wonderful gifts God has bestowed on you ; and one of the most mysterious ; you cannot fill it full of knowledge in a life time. Pour in all you please and it still thirsts for more. 10. It is well early to store your mind with the best things. You have to take pains to do this, for the mem- ory is a perverse faculty, apt to cling to the least worthy treasure. 11. You can draw from your bank of learning or manhood just what you have stored there, not an ounce more. In any crisis you must stand or fall by your reserve power. 12. It is memory alone that enriches the mind by preserving what your labor and industry daily collect. 13. It is the knowledge, experience, and character, — the mental and moral wealth which you have accumu- lated during your whole life, — that measure your real power and influence today, as you will learn to your sat- isfaction or chagrin, when you are subjected to any severe trial. 14. It is to live twice, when you can enjoy the recollections of your former life. 15. He who has intellectual resources to fall back on, will not lack for daily recreation most wholesome. 16. Memory is the only paradise out of which you cannot be driven. 17. It is of no use gathering treasures if you can- not store them ; it is equally useless to learn what you cannot retain in the memory. 18. It is not what you study, but what you remem- ber and reflect on, that makes you learned. 19. Your capacity for joy is far greater than for pain. Nothing is so easily forgotten as pain, nothing so long treasured as the remembrance of a supremely happy moment. 20. The faculty of memory can be cultivated and developed, as successfully as the athlete develops his muscles, and with more pleasure and far less effort. 236 CHARACTER: A MORAL TEXT-BOOK. Book XII. Part 9. Study. If not to some peculiar end design'd Study's th'e specious trifling of the mind, Or is at best a secondary aim, A chase for sport alone, and not for game. — Young. 1. Every occupation gives abundant field for study. 2. There is no talent that comes unasked; there is no grace of mind and heart that stays unurged. 3. Education is only secured at the cost of hard study; hard study is not to be accounted a curse then, but hailed as a boon. 4. With few acquirements now, and few opportuni- ties, you may, it you only will, gain the useful knowledge of the greatest scholars, but you will have to study if you do it. 5. Never does so great a responsibility rest on you as while a student, because you are then forming your character and habits, and setting your standard for all future life. 6. You may call on your mind today for its highest efforts, and stretch it to the uttermost in your power, and you have done yourself a kindness. The mind will be all the better for it. Tomorrow you may do it again ; each time it will answer more readily to your call. 7. Other things may be seized on by might, or purchased with money ; but knowledge is to be gained only by study. 8. Men, as a race, are earnest lovers of and seekers for the truth. They long to discover it, reveal it to their fellows, and hand it down to their descendants. 9. No one reaches a point at which he can abandon study, and live altogether on his past reputation. 10. To make life a continual success, you should start out with the determination of becoming a student for life. 11. You should possess a certain amount of liberal and scientific information, to which you should always be adding something as long as you live. 237 12. It is not the quantity of study that you get through, or the amount of reading, that makes you wise ; but the advantage of the study to the purpose for which it is pursued ; the concentration of the mind, for the time being, on the subject under consideration ; and the habitual discipline by which the whole system of mental application is regulated. 13. For any profession or business, it takes a long course of study before any real and substantial success can be looked for. 14. Every youth should have a regular course of study of some kind, even if he does not expect to use his knowledge at once. He will learn to accumulate facts, and will eventually have his mind in good working order. You cannot know too much of a subject which you expect to use. 15. Chance or circumstance may so cause it that another shall reap what he does not sow; but no man can be deprived, whether by accident or misfortune, of the fruits of his own studies ; and the liberal and extended acquisitions of knowledge, which he makes, are all for his own use. 16. Physical, mental and moral faculties are all developed by exercise. It does not matter how bright a mind you have, if you do not use it, you will lose it. 17. Thoroughness and accuracy are two principal points to be aimed at in study. 18. Wherever you observe a defective line of intel- lect or character, there is the place for educational stays and braces. The man will break at his least fortified link of intelligence or character. 19. Mankind's study of man occupies nearly the whole field of literature. The burden of history is what man has been ; of law, what he does ; of physiology, what he is ; of ethics, what he ought to be ; of revelation, what he shall be. 20. All the genius in the world will not help you much unless you become a hard student. 2 3 8 CHARACTER: A MORAL TEXT-BOOK. Book XII. Part 10. Opinion. Poise the caus'e in justice's equal scales, Whose beam stands sure, whose rightful cause prevails. — Shakespeare. i. Every individual, however humble, should insist strenuously on the right of private judgment; and repel the assumption that there is any culpability in not abso- lutely accepting the prevalent political or religious beliefs. 2. It is your duty to form the truest opinions you can ; to form them carefully, and never impose them on others, unless you are quite sure of being right 3. Your opinions are a part of you. 4. Opinion governs everything, and nothing more directly than personal character. 5. It is always of interest, as well as of greater or less value, to compare your own conclusions with those of others whose opinions you respect. 6. There is no such thing as absolute certainty in forming opinion, but there is assurance sufficient for the purposes of human life. 7. The cultivation of the understanding consists, more than in any other one thing, in learning the grounds of your opinions. 8. Opinion is almost always of the nature of sight, expressing the result of your own observations, or else of the observations of others. 9. Public opinion, — which is the great court of ap- peal, — grows more discerning and more powerful with the spread of education and enlightenment, and its influ- ence cannot fail to be increasingly effective. 10. From the tribunal of the public there is no appeal, and it is fit that it should be so. 11. It is certain that many opinions, now general, will be rejected by future ages, as it is that many, once general, are rejected by the present. 12. Religious and political opinions are the con- crete form of moral character. 239 13. Public opinion itself is, for the most part, the outgrowth of the home. 14. The smallest actions of your daily life become the lights which guide opinion. 15. Be not frightened or provoked with opinions differing from your own. 16. Every right thinking man has a right to send his thoughts abroad into any latitude, and to give them sweep around the earth. 17. You form your opinions, and you have a right to express them. You can tell what you think, and there is no discourtesy in doing so. 18. It is never the opinions of others that displease, but the pertinacity they display in obtruding them. 19. The thoughtful man realizes that every ques- tion has usually a great many different sides, and he therefore does not consider he has a right to formulate an opinion until he has studied and reflected on the mat- ter from every standpoint ; further knowledge may cause him to modify his opinion, for only the narrow, unthinking man never changes his mind. 20. Error of opinion may be tolerated where reason is left to combat it. 21. He who has no opinion of his own, but depends on the opinions and tastes of others, is a slave. 22. Men who feel their strength within them need not fear to encounter adverse opinions ; they have far greater reason to fear undue praise and too friendly crit- icism. 23. Whatever you are that is good, you owe in a great measure to the opinion of those with whom you associate. 24. No man can set up rights of priority in matters of opinion on any subject. 25. Fame or infamy, flows down to the many, from the mature judgment of the comparatively few. 26. Whoever is afraid of submitting any question to the test of free discussion, is more in love with his opinion than with truth. 240 CHARACTER: A MORAL TEXT-BOOK. Book XII. Part 11. Tact. The keen spirit Seizes the prompt occasion — makes the thought Start into instant action, and at once Plans and performs, resolves and executes! — Hannah Moore. 1. Possible friends are offended, influential patrons lost, and a career of energy and perseverance often spoiled, by want of tact. 2. Tact is the life of the five senses. It is the open eye, the quick ear, the judging taste, the keen smell, and the lively touch. 3. Tact prevents blunders that would make ene- mies, but does not necessarily make friends. 4. A man of tact will seize on the most trivial inci- dent and clothe it with magic, witchery and poetry ; while the man without tact will trample on your corn, probe unhealed wounds, expose your closet skeleton, touch all your sore places, and blunder and stammer about wholly unnecessary subjects of conversation. 5. Tact is not bounded by the confines of the social realm. Its influence is felt in all the relations of life ; its potency is visible no less on the material than on the ethical plan. 6. Tact cuts the knots it cannot untie, and leads its forces to glorious victory. 7. Tact will manipulate one talent so as to get more out of it in a lifetime, than ten talents will accomplish without tact. 8. Tact is a child of necessity. It has its highest development where man has to struggle hardest for existence. 9. Tact is something more than manner, yet man- ner enters largely into it. It is a combination of quick- ness, firmness, readiness, good temper and facility. It is something which never offends, never excites jealousy, never provokes rivalry, never treads on other people's toes. 241 io. Tact is really the highest essence of true polite- ness ; the real tactician is he who does a disagreeable duty in the most pleasant manner, robbing it of its sting. In all the affairs of life, it is a sword that cuts both ways, and generally with profit to all parties concerned. 11. An encouraging thing about tact is that, unlike talent, if you are born without it, it may be acquired. The fundamental rule for its acquisition is that you shall forget yourself and minister unto the temperaments, tastes, likes and leanings of others. 12. Tact is practical talent; it is force of character united to dexterity of action, and softened by ease of manner; it is insight guided by experience. It detects a want, and at once supplies a remedy. It sees an opening and immediately profits by it, and for all practical pur- poses of life is more valuable than talent. 13. Talent is power, tact is skill. Talent is weight, tact is momentum. Talent knows what to do, tact knows how to do it. Talent makes a man respectable, tact makes him respected. Talent is wealth, tact is ready money. Tact makes friends, talent may make enemies. 14. Tact is that nice diplomatic art which enables you, without deception or hypocracy, to be seemingly the same to all men, yet varying with each according to his peculiarity, and according to the mind of the man at the time, ready to see and seize any opportunity that offers to forward the end in view, in every transaction. 15. Many fine opportunities are wasted, by men of estimable character and more than ordinary talent, for want of tact. 16. Tact will win its way to the foremost places, while talent lags in the rear. 17. Tact adapts to its use anything that lies close at hand. 18. Tact may be defined as utter unselfishness, self- forgetfulness in action. 19. Tact means a ready power of appreciating and doing what is required by circumstances. 20. Whatever people think of you, do that which you believe to be right. Be alike indifferent to censure or praise. 242 CHARACTER: A MORAL TEXT-BOOK. Book XII. Part 12. Home. Home is the resort Of love, of joy, of peace, and plenty, wh'ere Supporting and supported, polish'ed friends, And dear relations mingle into bliss. — Thomson. i. Home is the first and most important school of character. It is there that you imbibe those principles of conduct which endure through manhood, and cease only with life. 2. The backbone of character is laid at home ; and whether the constitutional tendencies be good or bad, home influences will, as a rule, fan them into activity. 3. Home training includes not only manners and mind, but character. It is mainly in the home that the heart is opened, the habits formed, the intellect awak- ened, and character moulded for good or for evil. 4. A cheerful home and smiling face do more to make good men and women, than all the learning and eloquence that can be used. 5. The influences of home perpetuate themselves. 6. A true home is one of the most sacred of places. It is a sanctuary into which men flee from the world's perils and alarms. It is a resting place whither, at close of day, the weary retire to gather new strength for the battle and the toils of tomorrow. It is the place where love learns its lessons, where life is schooled into disci- pline and strength, where character is moulded. 7. The queen that sits on the throne of home, crowned and sceptered as none other ever can be, is mother. Her enthronement is complete, her reign unri- valled, and the moral issues of her empire are eternal. 8. A home is a residence not merely of the body but of the heart. It is a place for the affections to develop themselves. 9. The only real home a man has on earth is the spot in which he would rather be than in any other. The place in which he gets most rest, most comfort, most solace, most satisfaction to every craving of his nature — that is home. 243 io. It is in the order of nature that domestic life should be preparatory to social, and that the mind should first be formed in the home. ii. It is in the home that the first fruits of every- thing which is good and pure are brought forth. 12. Only the right kind of a home can furnish the right start in the world. 13. Every young man needs a home of his own. If he is wise he will, in due time, have one. The sooner he makes up his mind to that fact the better it will be for him. 14. If the home is graced and sweetened with kindness and smiles, no matter how humble the abode, the heart will turn lovingly toward it from all the tumult of the world, and it will be the dearest spot beneath the circuit of the sun. 15. Whatever may be the efficiency of schools, the example set in the home must always be of vastly greater influence, in forming the character of future men and women. 16. The good home is the best of schools, not only in youth but in age. There young and old best learn cheerfulness, patience, self-control, and the spirit of service and of duty. 17. The Christian home, implying marriage, mutual affection, piety, gentleness, refinement, meekness, for- bearance, is man's ideal of earthly happiness — a beauti- ful and impressive type of heaven. 18. Good moral habits are essential to the healthful- ness of the home. 19. A man's whole mind may be in his business, but if he would be happy, his whole heart must be in his home. It is there that his genuine qualities more surely display themselves — there that he shows his truthfulness, his love, his sympathy, his consideration for others, his uprightness, his manliness — in a word, his character. 20. Guard against reading too much or too rapidly. Read rather with attention ; lay the book down often ; impress on your mind what you have read, and reflect on it. 244 CHARACTER: A MORAL TEXT-BOOK. Book XIII. Part 1. Ambition. The true ambition that alone resides, Where justice vindicates, and wisdom guides; Where inward dignity joins outward state, Our purpose good, as our achievement great; Where public blessings, public praise attend, Where glory is our motive, not our end. — Young. 1. The ambition to excel may be a holy or an unholy one. If it is prompted by a desire to excel others for the simple pleasure of being above them, it is wrong. If, however, it arises from a desire to excel for the pur- pose of elevating others to the same point, it is right. 2. It is the passion of ambition that drives men to all the ways you see in use of signalizing themselves, and that tends to make whatever excites in a man the idea of this distinction so very pleasant. 3. God has planted in man a sense of ambition, and a satisfaction arising from the contemplation of his fel- lows in something deemed valuable among them. 4. The wish for public approval impels you to do many things which you would otherwise not do — to undertake great labors, face great dangers, and habit- ually rule yourself in a way that smooths social inter- course, and in gratifying your love of approbation you subserve ulterior purposes. 5. The ambition that comprehends another's wel- fare first, is the highest you can have. 6. He who has an ambition for a studious life and a desire for education, and fails of them because of pov- erty, is singularly lacking in force of character. 7. Sooner or later there come to every man dreams of ambition. 8. Every youth, however limited his opportunities, should have an ambition to be known for some one thing; to be master in some particular line. 9. Generous ambition and sensibility to praise are, especially in youth, among the marks of virtue. 10. With interminable industry and unconquer- able perseverance, pursue the object of your ambition. 245 n. Do not be deluded with ambition beyond your power of reasonable attainment, or tortured by wishes totally disproportioned to your capacity of fulfillment. 12. True ambition is a grand thing; without it you would be a slave. 13. Set the goal of your ambition, and then climb to it by steady, earnest steps. 14. There are two ambitions: the honest and the inordinate. Against the latter you must guard yourself. 15. You cannot accomplish much without a clean- cut purpose, a lofty ambition. — an ambition which soars upward and does not grovel. 16. A high ambition entirely transforms a human being, making him despise ease and sloth and welcome toil and hardship, to gratify his master passion. 17. Mere ambition has impelled many a man to a life of eminence and usefulness ; its higher manifestation, aspiration, has led him beyond the stars. 18. Having chosen his occupation, the young man of proper ambition will not be long in selecting for him- self an honorable position in it, to be filled as soon as he has shown himself worthy and capable. 19. Ambition, controlled by right motives, never harms any one. 20. Ambition to do good, to develop your talents to their utmost capacity, is praiseworthy. 21. No truly ambitious man will mind working to achieve his ambition. 22. Ambition is the spur that makes man struggle with destiny; it is God's own incentive to make purpose great and achievement greater. 23. Discontent without ambition and perseverance, is an unwholesome thing. 24. Men place their ambitions so high that they scarcely ever accomplish them ; if they do, they regret that their aim was not higher. 25. Ambition makes timidity strong and weakness valiant. 26. The making of your way comes only from the quickening of resolve, which is called ambition. 246 CHARACTER: A MORAL TEXT-BOOK. Book XIII. Part 2. Aspiration. All possibilities are in its hands, No danger daunts it, and no foe withstands; In its sublime audacity of faith, "Be thou removed!" it to the mountain saith, And with audacious feet, secure and proud, Ascends the ladder leaning on the cloud. — Longfellow. 1. The efforts of the young for worthy success, mean much to society and to the individual. 2. You cannot aspire if you look down. If you would rise, you must look up. 3. The ideal life, the life of full completion, haunts everyone. You feel the thing you ought to be beating beneath the thing you are. 4. No one is so satisfied with himself that he never wishes to be wiser, better, or richer. 5. The sweetest, the grandest thing in your life is the illusion which hangs constantly before you, which you never can seize, and which, as you die, you still look toward and sigh for, trusting that in another world you can reach it. 6. Power to do good is the true and lawful end of aspiring; for good thoughts are little better than good dreams, unless they be put into action; and that cannot be without power and place, as the vantage and com- manding ground. 7. As a rule, what the heart longs for, the head and hands may attain. 8. The search after the great is the dream of youth, and the most serious occupation of manhood. 9. The effort or struggle to climb to a higher place in life, has strength and dignity in it, and cannot fail to leave you strength for the struggle. 10. Honorable efforts in the direction of fortune- building, are always worthy of encouragement. 11. To hear always, to think always, learn always — it is thus that you truly live; he who aspires to noth- ing, and learns nothing, is not worthy of living. 12. The aesthetic faculties, the aspiring instincts, in a well-developed man, are ever more imperious in their 247 demands for the true and the beautiful, for the higher and the nobler, than is the body for material food. 13. Consciously or not, you continually reach out to something beyond. 14. Whatever will be for your benefit, for the good of mind or heart, this you should desire and seek with all your might. 15. It is the quality of the aspiration that deter- mines the true success or failure of a life. 16. So long as you have a desire for better things, you still have in reserve, greater or less, in proportion to the earnestness of your aspirations, the very power you need in attaining what you seek. 17. The most forbidding circumstances cannot repress a longing for knowledge, a yearning for growth. 18. You cannot have too much of that yearning called aspiration; for, even though you do not attain your ideal, the efforts you make will bring nothing but blessing. 19. From the lowest depth there is a path to the loftiest height. 20. God has not created you with aspirations and longings for heights to which you cannot climb. 21. No aspiration is too high ; the very grandeur of it is a promise of strength for its fulfillment. 22. Aspiration finally becomes inspiration, and ennobles the whole life. 23. As a rule, it is the intensity of that divine hun- ger within for achievement, that thirst for knowledge that must be quenched, which measures your success- power. 24. At every round of the ladder, it is possible to set before yourself human dignity and moral grandeur as your aim. 25. Every human heart feels the aspiration to a higher moral and social attainment, in some form at some time, and it is the duty of the government to place incentives in the pathway of all classes of its citizens, to keep this spark of celestial fire aglow, and to make it possible for the citizen to nourish it into a living flame. 248 CHARACTER: A MORAL TEXT-BOOK. Book XIII. Part 3. Admiration. What we admire we praise; and when we praise, Advance it into notice, that its worth Acknowledged, others may admire it, too. — Cowper. i. Let the young man, ambitious of intellectual excellence, cultivate admiration ; it is by admiration only of what is beautiful and sublime, that you can mount up a few steps towards the likeness of what you admire. 2. Large appreciation and high admiration of excellence, are generally indications of large powers and high talents, in the appreciator or admirer. 3. Society admires its scholar, but it reveres and loves its hero whose intellect is clothed with goodness; for character is not of the intellect, but of the disposi- tion. 4. No man will succeed who has not a grand pur- pose in life. You must have some object to live for. It must be definite, distinct, and command your admira- tion. 5. You must admire good humor, a blithe temper and a resilient imagination, even when they show forth in inferior men. 6. When people fall into the habit of admiring and encouraging ability as such, without reference to moral character, they are on the highway to all sorts of degra- dation. 7. Early learn the habit of admiration for every- thing that can inspire and ennoble life, for all that is beautiful and sublime. Thus may you redeem your existence from the curse of commonness. 8. Do you admire honest, and manly men? — if you do you are yourself of an honest, brave, and manly spirit. 9. People admire others of their own disposition. 10. It is in the season of youth, while the charac- ter is forming, that the impulse to admire is the greatest. 11. It is natural to admire and revere really great men. They hallow the nation to which they belong, and 249 lift up, not only all who live in their time, but those who live after them. 12. Everyone admires a determined, persistent man. 13. Good admiration and bad example, only build with one hand, to pull down with the other. 14. Great and good men draw others after them, exciting the spontaneous admiration of mankind. 15. The admiration of noble character elevates the mind, and tends to redeem it from the bondage of self, one of the greatest stumbling blocks to moral improve- ment. 16. If you admire mean men it is because your nature is mean. 17. Admiration of great men, living or dead, natur- ally evokes imitation of them, in a greater or less degree, 18. Intense admiration for individuals — such as you cannot conceive entertained for a multitude — has in all times produced heroes and martyrs. It is thus that the mastery of character makes itself felt. It acts by inspiration, quickening and vivifying the natures subject to its influence. 19. The very sight of a great and good man, is often an inspiration to the young, who cannot help admiring and loving the gentle, the brave, the truthful, and the magnanimous. 20. There is something which everyone admires in an aspiring soul, one whose tendency is upward and onward, in spite of hindrances and in defiance of obsta- cles. 21. There is nothing which all mankind venerate and admire so much as simple truth, exempt from artifice, duplicity and design. It exhibits at once a strength of character and integrity of purpose, in which all are wil- ling to confide. 22. Admiration of the beautiful is natural and intuitive. 23. Everybody admires achievement. 24. It is the bright, cheerful, hopeful, contented man, who makes his way, who is respected and admired. 250 CHARACTER: A MORAL TEXT-BOOK. Book XIII. Part 4. Ideals. Still, through our paltry stir and strife, Glows down the wished ideal, And longing molds in clay what life Carves in the marble real; To let the new life in, we know, Desire must ope the portal; Perhaps the longing to be so Helps make the soul immortal. — James Russell Lowell. 1. The thirst of the human mind for the ideal, is no less normal and imperative, than its hunger for the real. 2. Sooner or later you become like the food of your mind, like the creatures that live in your heart. 3. The constant struggle to attain the character of your ideal, is a wonderful uplift to the mind. It sustains and strengthens it. 4. Dominated by a great idea, the weak become strong, the timid brave, the vacillating resolute. 5. There has never been an act of importance that was not first a theory, a creed, or principle of faith. 6. The true life of a young man lies in his visions, his high ideals, and in his endeavor to realize them. 7. Loss of faith in ideals is destructive of charac- ter and stops its growth ; an ideal not followed is soon lost. 8. The reception of new ideas not only adds to the stock, but modifies the old. Ideas are living principles that act and react like chemicals on each other, produc- ing fresh compounds in the mind. But their force does not end in thought ; it is reproduced in action. 9. What the age to come will be is determined by what this age dreams. The institutions of today are the fruit of the aspirations of yesterday. 10. The ideal is the lever which has lifted the race of men, throughout the generations of the past, to higher and higher planes of being, and which will continue to lift them throughout the generations to come. 11. All inventors and discoverers are obliged to 25i use the imagination. They see their inventions as ideals and images, long before they are able to put them into practice. 12. The imagination is the chief fortress of the mind, and must be reckoned with first of all, after the body itself, in the building up of a strong character. 13. Imagery may be valued as a help, provided you do not rest your hope and affections and desires on the images, but on the inerrable and indescribable beyond. 14. Men's lives and characters are determined mainly by their ideals, that is, by the things they lay to heart and live by, often without themselves being aware of it; by those things which they in their inmost souls love, desire, aim at, as the best possibilities for them- selves and others. 15. The man with the ideal, struggling to carry it out, is the successful man. Of course, there are all grades of ideals, and the man with the highest, given the proportionate energy, is the most successful. The world makes way for that kind of men. 16. A man is what his ideal makes him, and it is important at the very outset of life, not only to have a high ideal, but to guard it jealously and keep it ever in sight ; otherwise it will soon be buried under the sordid motives which the pursuit of wealth begets. 17. Shape your course early in life, mark out the man you want to be, and then follow the pattern closely, remembering that if you go contrary to your plans for years, you cannot jump into a character precisely the reverse. 18. A noble ideal reflects its glory in the face and form, and life of the soul it dominates. 19. You need the ideal more even than you need bread. The ideal is the bread of the soul. 20. After once forming high ideals, you shall never- more be content with the low and the common. Charac- ter always develops according to the pattern within. 21. Your ideal determines your character. 2$2 CHARACTER: A MORAL TEXT-BOOK. Book XIII. Part 5. High Aim. Greatly begin! Though thou hast time But for a line, be that sublime, — Not failure, but low aim, is crime. — Lowell. 1. Nothing else so strengthens the mind, enlarges the manhood, and widens the thought, as the constant effort to measure up to a high ideal, to struggle after that which is above and beyond you. 2. A healthful hunger for a great idea is the beauty and blessedness of life. 3. Place no limit on your ambition, since the field is free to all, and work the price of progress. 4. To look constantly to a high ideal, is the only safe course for him who would become cultured and win real success. 5. There is a certain indescribable charm about the person who has formed a habit of looking up ; there is a superior quality in everything he does. 6. A soul occupied with great ideas, best performs small duties ; the divinest views of life penetrate most clearly into the meanest emergencies. 7. Try to be sombody with all your might. 8. The importance of having great models, high ideals, held constantly before the mind, when it is in a plastic condition, cannot be over-estimated. 9. Practice the art of stretching your mind over great expectations. In this way you will broaden your position. If you learn the art of expecting great things for and from yourself, you are more likely to prepare yourself for great things. 10. A noble character cannot be developed under the shadow of a low, sordid aim. The ideal must be high ; the purpose strong; worthy and true ; or the life will be a failure. 11. Cultivating an upward tendency in all that you do, and holding steadily a high ideal in the mind, is a perpetual stimulus to do things better and better, a daily incentive to a love of excellence. 253 12. You cannot rise above that at which you aim. 13. It is a great purpose which gives meaning to life; it unifies all your powers, binds them together in one cable ; makes strong and united what was weak, sep- arated, and scattered. 14. Give your life, your energy, your enthusiasm, all to the highest work of which you are capable. 15. The proper attitude towards life, is to seek the very best it has to give. 16. Aim high ! not alone at the material heights of ambition and estate, but strive for those attributes of mind and heart which tend toward the development and perfection of character; that pervasive essence which runs like a clearly denned thread through your individ- ual lives. 17. If the aim be right, the life in its details cannot be far wrong. Your heart must inspire what your hands execute, or the work will be poorly done. The hand can- not reach higher than does the heart. 18. No matter what your work may be, or what you may do, put your ideal into it ; be sure there is an upward tendency in it, an inspiring quality, a certain indefinable something which allies it to the divine. 19. As a rule, the larger the endowments of those faculties which go to build up success in life, the higher the aim which accompanies them. 20. The important thing in life is to have a great aim, and to possess aptitude and the perseverance to attain it. 21. There is no grander sight in the world than that of a young man fired with a great purpose, dominated by one unwavering aim. 22. Every youth should choose a high ideal in the person of some one to whom he can look up, and whose character he would like to resemble. 23. You cannot aspire if you look downward. Look upward, live upward. 24. A high standard is absolutely necessary. Dare to aim high. 25. You cannot hope to be the best in any field of labor, but you can hope to be among the best. 254 CHARACTER: A MORAL TEXT-BOOK. Book XIII. Part 6. Judgment. Oh! blind and wanting wit to choose, Who house the chaff and burn the grain; Who hug- the wealth ye cannot use, And lack the riches all may gain. — William Watson. 1. Success depends very largely on the ability to estimate properly, not the apparent but the real value of everything presented. 2. You can judge but poorly of anything, while you measure it by no other standard but itself. 3. Knowing that you have sought for objections and difficulties, instead of avoiding them, and have shut out no light which can be thrown on the subject from any quarter — you have a right to think your judgment better than that of any person who has not gone through a similar process. 4. One great object in study, is to form the judg- ment, so that the mind cannot only investigate, but weigh and balance opinions and theories. 5. Accept suggestions, but always use your own judgment as to what to adopt or reject. 6. One of the first great lessons of life, is to learn the true estimate of values. 7. Interest has keen eyes, and soon appraises its servants at their real value. 8. The right use of appearances is the crowning glory of judgment, and the greatest end of human intel- ligence. 9. The youth who would succeed must not allow himself to be deceived by appearances, but must place the emphasis of life where it belongs. 10. You must decide for yourself what your duties are, and in what manner you can perform them to the best adantage. 11. Good judgment may be pronounced deliber- ately or swiftly, according to the temperament of the judge, and quick judgment need not necessarily be bad judgment, although it often is so. 255 12. There are two distinct modes of making worldly success : one is by means of bold, speculative strokes ; the other by patient accumulation; but one way is as dependent on good judgment as the other. 13. In the end you judge men by their work, not by their lives ; by their best not their worst. 14. No matter how efficient a man may be in other qualities, if he is not a judge of men he is doomed to failure. 15. Good judgment in minor daily matters, hinges on a clear understanding of the relation of things ; gained by experimental comparison of order with disorder, har- mony with the inharmonious. 16. Any fair-minded person, with an eye for both sides of a question, can cultivate good judgment. 17. Good judgment is a perfect balance struck between intuition and reason. The masculine mind is capable of good judgment, when to its indigenous reason- ing powers, is added the intuitive sensibility of a woman — to a moderate degree. A woman has good judgment, when to native intuition, she prefixes and affixes temper- ately masculine logic. 18. Important as are obedience and discipline, they must not be carried to the point where they suppress individual judgment and destroy liberty. 19. Bodily health is undoubtedly a condition of the soundness of practical judgment. 20. Judgment is . invariably bad when colored by prejudices, confining your vision to one standpoint — that at which you have arrived by means of arbitrary per- sonal inclination, irrespective of extraneous motives and standpoints, bearing pertinently and logically on the matter. 21. Associate with men of good judgment, for judgment is found in conversation, and you make anoth- er's judgment yours, by frequenting his company. 22. In the affairs of life or of business, it is not intellect that tells, so much as heart— not genius, so much as self-control, patience, and discipline, regulated by judgment. 23. Men are slow in having sound judgment. 256 CHARACTER: A MORAL TEXT-BOOK. Book XIII. Part 7. Foresight. Often do the spirits Of great events stride on before the events, And in today already walks tomorrow. — Coleridge. 1. There is no condition of life, however low, from which a man may not aspire and rise to the highest hon- ors, and the most enviable distinction ; provided that he has the requisite natural endowments, favorable oppor- tunities, and the ability and foresight to grasp them. 2. Man easily sees before his mind's eye the whole path of life, and prepares things necessary for passing along it. 3. Time is the best friend and ally to those that have the discernment to use it properly, and watch the opportunities it presents ; and the worst enemy to those who will be rushing into action, when it does not call them. 4. The most successful men and women are they who soonest find out what they are fitted for, and educate themselves accordingflv. 5. The lucky man is the man who sees and grasps his opportunity. 6. Do not wait for opportunities to thrust them- selves on you ; good chances are always awaiting the reception of those who recognize them. 7. Rightly to divine your own life, is the most dan- gerous and difficult of tasks. 8. There is such a thing as too much foresight. People get to figuring what might happen, and forget to note what is happening. 9. If you have a clear idea of what you desire to do, you will seldom fail in selecting the proper means of accomplishing it. 10. Every man who is successful in large affairs, must possess foresight. 11. You must face the future; must be an up-to- date man. You must look forward, not backward. 12. One who falls in with time's changes, and goes 257 with the current of human affairs, will succeed; while those who obstinately cling to worn-out theories, and try to swim against the current, will go down in the eddy. 13. To succeed you must be prepared to seize and improve the opportunity when it comes. 14. Perhaps it is due to an inherent strain of wis- dom, that man discovers himself early and lays hold at once on the safeguards which insure permanent suc- cess, at the outset of his career; and at the same time conserves his natural forces for a long and steady course. 15. In counsel, it is good to see dangers; and in execution, not to see them, except they be very great. 16. A man forewarned is forearmed. 17. The successful man is he who sees the changes coming, and. accordingly adjusts himself to them. 18. There is strong hope for you if you realize your shortcomings, for you will work hard to overcome them. 19. Chances or opportunities come to everyone, often, in a lifetime. They should be recognized. Never let one slip, but weigh the possibilities. 20. The secret of success, so far as there is any secret, lies in the power of foresight. It comes simply from the habit of looking at every side of a question, of weighing the favorable and unfavorable features of a sit- uation, and of sifting out the inevitable result through good judgment. 21. Look sharply and with exhaustive glances about you, and see where you may drive in your enter- ing wedge. 22. Foresight and forethought are necessary to the planning of a successful life ; but you must learn to dis- tinguish between foresight, forethought, and the grind- ing anxiety and fear which paralyze the energies and sap the vital forces. 23. In the storms of life, those that are foreseen are half overcome. 24. Wide-seeing and far-seeing: an open and clear eye — produce results. 2 5 8 CHARACTER: A MORAL TEXT-BOOK. Book XIII. Part 8. Enthusiasm. He either fears his fate too much, Or his deserts are small, That dares not put it to the touch, To gain or lose it all. — Montrose. 1. Enthusiasm is the salt of life, the transmuting power that renews and enriches everything it touches. It gives new heart, courage to the mind, new hope to the discouraged, and to the already strong and coura- geous increased power for good. 2. The enthusiasm of youth is almost irresistible. It casts all shadows behind. It sees nothing but sun- shine. It drives away fear and limitation. Nothing can take its place. 3. Enthusiasm multiplies power. It is that mys- terious something, that indefinable quality that forces conviction, that makes mediocre ability more successful than great talent without it. 4. Enthusiasm is the genius of sincerity, and truth accomplishes no victory without it. 5. Enthusiasm, like beauty, is a divine gift, and yet it can be cultivated. 6. Success is often due, less to ability, than to enthusiasm. 7. Every great and commanding movement in the annals of the world, is the triumph of enthusiasm. Nothing great was ever achieved without it. 8. To be filled with the enthusiasm that wins, your work must be to you, your life, your all. 9. You cannot hope to accomplish much in the world, without that compelling enthusiasm which stirs your whole being into action. You cannot have this soul- energy unless you are in your right place, unless you are in love with your employment. 10. It is hard to discourage an enthusiastic man. No matter what objections may be raised, no matter how dark the outlook, he believes in his power to transform the vision which he alone sees, into a reality. 259 ii. Enthusiasm is that secret and harmonious spirit, which hovers over the production of genius. 12. There is little hope of success for the youth who starts out in life without enthusiasm. Nothing great in art, science, literature, or invention, has ever been accomplished without it. A man may possess tal- ent, even genius; he may be ever so brilliant and clever; he may be popular and entertaining; but, if he lacks this divine spark, this vitalizer of human energies, he will never achieve anything of importance. He can never hope to be a leader of men, to move or largely influence others. 13. Enthusiasm is a spiritual power. It has its birth among the higher potencies. You never find true enthusiasm in people who grovel on the lower plane of being. Its tendency is to uplift. It accomplishes great results, where lukewarmness or coldness fails to do any- thing. 14. Enthusiasm lights up a man's whole nature; it multiplies his power; it raises whatever ability he has to its highest standard. All his faculties come into har- mony under its beneficent influence. It is not so much a power that drives, as a beckoning hand that leads. 15. A man, permeated with enthusiasm, has his powers of perception heightened, and his vision magni- fied, until he sees beauty and charms others cannot dis- cern ; which compensate for drudgery, privations, hard- ships, and even persecution. 16. There is no substitute for enthusiasm. It makes all the difference between a half heart and a whole heart, between signal defeat and splendid victory. 17. If you are possessed by the divine flame of enthusiasm, you are not likely to be chilled by the most uncongenial surroundings, or daunted by seemingly in- surmountable obstacles. 18. Patience is not in conflict with enthusiasm. The one is co-partner with the other. Neither will get very far without the other. Together they are invincible. 260 CHARACTER: A MORAL TEXT-BOOK. Book XIII. Part 9. Confidence. Confidence is conqueror of men; victorious both over them and in them; The iron will of one stout heart shall make a thousand quail. — Tupper. 1. There is something sublime in the youth who possesses the spirit of boldness, of fearlessness, who has absolute confidence in his ability to do and to dare. 2. As a rule, the man who has a firm, unyielding belief in his ability to succeed, will reach the goal of his ambition, no matter what obstacles he may encounter. 3. An infinite benefit comes from forming the habit of expecting the best of life for yourself. Do not go about with an expression of discontent on your face, giving everybody the impression that the good things of the world were intended for someone else. 4. *After a man has once formed a habit of grappling with difficulties, there is a certain exhilaration in the consciousness of increased power, of being superior to obstacles — a pride in possessing strength to transform stumbling-blocks into stepping-stones. 5. Every great inventor, every leader of man, has always had a strong belief in himself, and has finally succeeded in communicating his confidence, his enthusi- asm to others. 6. The man is fortunate who feels within himself the original force and vigor which can do things, who does not lean upon others, who does not require crutches or assistance, but can play the game alone. 7. No one will insist on your rights while you yourself doubt that you have any. Hold firmly to the conviction that you possess the qualities requisite for success. Never allow yourself to be a traitor to your own cause by undermining your self-confidence. 8. Rashness is the twin sister of self-confidence. It misjudges its strength both of doing and resisting. 9. Want of confidence, like a rotten foundation, racks and brings down whatever may rest on it, be it ever so good in itself. 26 1 10. Want of confidence is perhaps a greater obsta- cle to improvement than is generally imagined. It has been said that half the failures in life arise from pulling in your horse while he is leaping. n. A young man is liked who has respect for his employers; and unobtrusive confidence in himself is a great support. It makes him pleasant and attentive to others. 12. Self-consciousness is a power of the mind that enables it to be aware of itself, to observe its own condi- tions and exercises. 13. Say of nothing that it is beneath you, nor feel that anything is beyond your powers. 14. Men and women who have succeeded in accom- plishing great things, have believed in themselves. They have had confidence in their ability to do the thing they set out to do. 15. Without firm resolution, without confidence in yourself, success is impossible. 16. You can accomplish little without confidence, and to lose confidence in yourself is infinitely worse than loss of capital, loss of position, or even loss of health ; for an invalid or a person without capital may succeed, at least to some extent ; but, when confidence is gone, all is gone. 17. Self-confidence indicates reserve power. It shows you feel equal to the occasion. 18. Self-confidence is the very foundation of all accomplishment. 19. Character gives confidence. 20. Human nature, in the main, is worthy of con- fidence ; men as they go are not prone to fraud and dis- honesty. 21. A man must possess the faculty of winning the confidence of other men, and making them his friends, if he would be successful in any walk of life. 22. Have faith in men. The world is full of true, upright, and noble men and women. To distrust men is to poison your hearts with the bitterness of suspicion. Trust men and you will find the bulk of the world trust- worthy. 262 CHARACTER: A MORAL TEXT-BOOK. Book XIII. Part 10. Faith. Nio great deed is done By falterers who ask for certainty. — George Eliot. 1. Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. 2. You must believe a great many things that you do not understand. 3. Faith has the support of reason and common sense, because it is always accompanied with a greater or less degree of earnest purpose. 4. Faith visits you in defeat and disappointment, and if you are cast down a thousand times, you are none the worse for it. 5. Faith has to be both evidence and substance. 6. If you undertake to do a thing your effort and success accord with the amount of faith you put into the work. 7. Faith is the earnest of success. 8. One of the greatest elements in success, is a firm faith in your ability to succeed. 9. Faith always outruns experience. It is progress- ive and fearless. 10. Faith is never so strong that proof does not strengthen it. 11. Faith, unlike confidence, which is based on reason, has nothing substantial to back it up against the logic of opposition. 12. Believe firmly that if you do not find a way- you can make one, and you will triumph. 13. There is so much power in faith, that if a man be firmly persuaded that he is born to do some day, what at the moment seems impossible, it is probable that he does it before he dies. 14. One of the most fatal things in the life of faith is discouragement. One of the most helpful is cheer- fulness. 263 15. If you trust in God and yourself, you can sur- mount any obstacle. Do not yield to restless anxiety. You must not always be asking what may happen to you, but you must advance fearlessly and bravely. 16. Though you may not apprehend the true mean- ing of the discipline of trial through which the best have to pass, you must have faith in the completeness of the design of which your little individual life forms a part. 17. Implicit faith proves imbecility; yet improb- able relations should be skeptically received, not posi- tively denied. 18. Learn to look at the bright side. Keep the sun- shine of living faith in the heart. Do not let the shadow of discouragement and despondency fall on your path. 19. Faith is the energy of a loyalty to certain pre- dispositions, which you recognize more or less distinct- ly as laws of your being. 20. The trying of your faith develops patience. 21. There is nothing that faith and striving cannot do; take the road and it must lead you to the goal, though strewn with difficulties, and cast through pain and shade. 22. Through faith you understand that the world was made by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear. 23. Love is a constraining power; it elevates and civilizes all who come under its influence. It indicates faith in man, and without faith in man's better nature no methods of treatment will avail in improving him. 24. Never lose faith that matters will come out right in the end. 25. All progress, of the best kind is slow; but to 'him who works faithfully and in a right spirit, be sure that the reward will be vouchsafed in its own good time. 26. If you would succeed up to the limit of your possibilities, hold constantly to the belief that you are success-organized, and that you will be successful, no matter what opposes. 27. Faith is knowledge, because knowledge is faith. 264 CHARACTER: A MORAL TEXT-BOOK. Book XIII. Part 11. Hope. Hope, like the glimmering taper's light, Adorns and cheers the way; And still, as darker grows the night, Emits a brighter ray. — Goldsmith. 1. Nature gives man large hopes, lest he falter before reaching the high mark she sets for him. 2. Hope quickens all the still parts of life, and keeps the mind awake in its most remiss and indolent hours. It gives habitual serenity and good humor. It is a kind of vital heart in the soul, that cheers and gladdens it. It makes pain easy and labor pleasant. 3. The hopeful person is not melancholy, has not the blues, looks cheerily forward, expecting something bright and glad a little further on, and helps to bring the gladness by the very mental attitude which refuses to see the clouds in the sky. 4. Life is what you make it. If you repine at your lot and do not strive to surmount the obstacles that confront you, you may not hope for any betterment in your condition. Hope should be the forerunner of re- newed determination and effort. 5. A strong mind always hopes, and has always cause to hope, because it knows the mutability of human affairs, and how slight a circumstance may change the whole course of events. Such a spirit, too, rests on itself; it is not confined to partial views or to one par- ticular object. And if at last all should be lost, it has saved itself. 6. The flights of the human mind are not from en- joyment to enjoyment, but from hope to hope. 7. Misfortune has no terrors for hope. She is the friend of the rich and the poor. She dawns on every eye, crosses every path, holds out her hand to every suf- ferer, paints victory on every cloud. Her triumphs are grander than those of generals. She does not halt, mountains are plains to her. She nerves the shrinking heart and fires the languid spirit. 265 8. Hope is a flatterer, but the most upright of all parasites, for she frequents the poor man's hut, as well as the palace of his superiors. 9. Like a valiant captain in a losing battle, hope is ever encouraging man, and never leaves him until they both expire together. It is almost as the air by which the mind lives. 10. Hope is the sustainer and inspirer of great deeds. 11. Nothing can compensate for the loss of hope; it entirely changes the character. 12. The power that keeps the world moving is the hopefulness of youth. 13. Hope springs from wisdom; for he who hopes strongly has within him the gift of miracles. 14. Hope is the truest friend and remains with you until the last. 15. Hope is necessary in every condition. The miseries of poverty, of sickness, of captivity, would, with- out this comfort, be insupportable. 16. You must be wide-awake, up and doing; your best foot forward, your eye keen, your valor aroused, your nerves taut, your best powers called into action. Then you may have good reasons to hope. 17. Hope, however deceitful, serves at least to lead you to the end of life by an agreeable path. 18. True hope is based on the energy of character. 19. He who has health has hope, and he who has hope has everything. 20. Hope is the mainspring of human action. 21. Hope is essential to effort. Effort soon ceases where there is no hope. 22. Hope is the parent of all effort and endeavor; and every gift of noble origin is breathed on by hope's perpetual breath. It may be said to be the moral engine that moves the world and keeps it in action. 23. Hope brings rest to the feverish pillow, com- fort to the stricken heart, strength to the fainting toiler, and turns shadow into sunshine. 24. Hope for the best, think for the worst, and manfully bear whatever happens. 266 CHARACTER: A MORAL TEXT-BOOK. Book XIII. Part 12. Resolution. I dare do all that may become a man: Who dares do more is none. — Shakespeare. 1. Resolve to perform what you ought; perform without fail what you resolve. 2. He who resolves on any great end, by that very resolution has scaled the greatest barriers to it. 3. The resolute qualities of human character have always been admired ; the opposite have met with de- rision and contempt. 4. All experience of life serves to prove that the impediments thrown in the way of human advancement may, for the most part, be overcome by steady good con- duct, honest zeal, activity, perseverance and above all, by a determined resolution to surmount difficulties, and stand manfully against misfortune. 5. Stoutly assert your divine right to be a man, to hold your head up and look the world in the face ; step bravely to the front, whatever opposes, and the world will make way for you. 6. You are not to stick to your resolve whether or no, but having made up your mind that what you are to do is right and reasonable, you are to do it. 7. Whatever you choose to be, resolve that you will be the very best it is possible to be. 8. The man who accomplishes things, who achieves results, must be a man of positive force, a man with a programme, who marks out his course and goes straight to his goal. 9. No one can succeed who has not a fixed and resolute purpose in his mind, and an unwavering faith that he can accomplish his purpose. 10. Resolutions, however good, are useless without the energy necessary to carry them out. 11. Set your face like a flint against all the com- bined influences that will be brought to bear on you, neither turning to the right or the left, never faltering, never fainting, but resolutely and bravely pushing on 26y to the goal, and victory will crown your well chosen life purpose. 12. To think you are able is almost to be so ; to de- termine upon attainment is frequently attainment itself. Thus earnest resolution has often seemed to have about it almost a savor of omnipotence. 13. Never relinquish your hold on a possible suc- cess, if mortal strength or brains are adequate to the occasion. 14. Resolution is mighty, when backed by uncon- querable will to carry it out. 15. A firm resolution can make realities out of pos- sibilities. 16. The way will be found by a resolute will. 17. The truest wisdom is a resolute determination. 18. Your success depends on holding your ground firmly ; yielding none and adding when you can. 19. Men and women who have accomplished great things have invariably been dead in earnest. 20. The resolute spirit is always a healthy and happy spirit; working cheerfully itself and stimulating others to work. It confers a dignity on even the most 2T. Firmness of purpose is master of the situation, ordinary occasion. 22. Firmness is only a virtue when it accompanies the most perfect wisdom. 23. What you need to cultivate is a tenacity of purpose that will not quail, nor turn aside, — a courage that, in emergencies, dares to separate from the crowd, — that never recognizes defeat, and will not stay de- feated. 24. Resolution and success reciprocally produce each other. 25. Success is a question of indomitable resolution, and power of rigid application. These are the only sub- stitutes for capital. 26. The strong-willed, intelligent, persistent man will find a way or make a way where, in the nature of things, a way can be found or made. 27. They can who think they can. 268 CHARACTER: A MORAL TEXT-BOOK. Book XIV. Part 1. Preparation. His joy is not that he has won the crown, But that the power to win the crown is his. — Anon. 1. There is a preparative process required of every- one who wishes to rise above his environments. If he is not willing to submit to the drill, he cannot expect promotion. 2. In all matters, before beginning, a diligent preparation should be made. 3. The days of youth should be spent in prepara- tion ; but, most important, it should be preparation of the right sort. You should early make up your mind what you want to do, and then prepare for that with all your heart. 4. Forethought is a necessary adjunct to thorough preparation, and he who fully considers every detail, the minute as well as the prominent ones, will always stand a better chance of profiting by good fortune, or of being less injured by bad or adverse circumstances. 5. Active and sympathetic contact with man in the transactions of daily life is a better preparation for healthy, robust action, than any amount of meditation and seclusion. 6. Hurry, in a few instances, may make wealth, and it may again win fame and glory, but it cannot make culture or refinement. It may gloss over the character with a fine veneer of culture that will deceive for a time, but there is nothing deep and abiding in it. 7. Take enough time to prepare properly for your life work. 8. To be prepared, to be honest, to be true — this is to merit success ; and, when really and truly merited, it is given. 9. Unless you are ready for the chance, the oppor- tunity will do you no good ; it will simply make you ridiculous. 10. The higher your structure is to be, the deeper must be its foundations. 269 ii. You can not succeed, until you have mastered the thing you have to do. 12. You must learn how to do the thing you try to do, otherwise you must fail. 13. Everything that you learn, is the mastery of a difficulty; and the mastery of one helps to the mastery of others. 14. Hard work and constant study will bring you into a higher and better life. 15. No man was ever numbered among the suc- cessful ones, unless he was waiting and prepared for fortune when she knocked at his door. She has never yet been known to wait for any one to prepare himself for her company. 16. Every great work is the result of vast prepara- tory training. 17. A great occasion is valuable to you, just in pro- portion as you have educated yourself to make use of it. 18. He who builds without broad and firm foun- dations, is almost sure to find that he has built uselessly and without profit. 19. It is the beginning of work to prepare for its performance. 20. Patient preparation is permanent power. 21. Have a grand object always in view, but do not overlook the lesser ones necessary to master, before you attain it. 2.2.. He who completes a job in his head before he puts hand to it, becomes a master. 23. It is the man of great reserve who achieves great results. It is the reserve that wins in life's battles. 24. Reserves which carry you through great emer- gencies, are the result of long working and long waiting. 25. The way to shorten the way to success, is to take plenty of time to lay in your reserve power. 26. One reason why so many fail, is because they never prepare for success. 270 CHARACTER: A MORAL TEXT-BOOK. Book XIV. Part 2. Start Right. Yet nerve thy spirit to the proof, And blench not at thy chosen lot; The timid good may stand aloof, The sage may frown — yet faint thou not. — Bryant. 1. The very first step a young man takes for him- self, is the most important of all. If he would be right all the time, he must start right. 2. What is put into the first of life, is put into the whole of life. First steps lead to the last. 3. The first step taken in the right direction, is really the important one. It may seem a trifling thing, a little thing, but it is not. 4. Do not make the mistake of scorning to start at the bottom. He is sure to rise in life who works his way up step by step, and he is sure to fall who begins at the top. 5. Take the first step carefully, and then, what- ever you do in life, do with honesty of purpose. You can at least do right. 6. Make a start, not at the top, but at the very bottom ; doing whatever you can get a chance to do, taking very great pains about your work, and bothering less about your pay, than about doing the very best every time to earn it. 7. You must fortify yourself at the beginning with push, pluck, and self-reliance ; for you will have to en- counter occasional skirmishes, taste the bitterness of temporary defeat, endure wounds, sickening disappoint- ments, and soul-haunting temptations. 8. The best way for you to begin is, first, by get- ting a position ; second, keeping your mouth shut ; third, observing ; fourth, being faithful ; fifth, making your em- ployer think that he would be lost without you ; and sixth, being polite. 9. It is better not to fail to begin with. To fail is to injure your own record and the interests of those you serve. . 271 io. Half the energy of life is wasted in not know- ing what to do first. 11. Success is dependent on starting from a correct principle of action. 12. The manner in which you look at your first employment is of fundamental importance. 13. One of the first lessons of life, is to learn how to get victory out of defeat. 14. When you are ready, take whatever you can get to do, and work at it with all your might. 15. Start with the fixed determination that every statement you make shall be the exact truth ; that every promise you make, shall be redeemed to the letter; that every appointment shall be kept with the strictest faith- fulness and with full regard for other men's time ; hold your reputation as a priceless treasure ; feel that the eyes of the world are on you, and that you must not deviate a hair's breadth from the truth and right. 16. Be sure you are right, then go ahead. 17. To make something good and noble of yourself, is the best start in life you can have, and, in fact, the only start you need. 18. That man lives twice, that lives the first of life well. 19. Truth and courage should be your watchwords, when starting out in life. 20. The most important work is that which is be- ing done by young men and women, who are at the out- set of their careers ; for on them, — on the foundations which they lay, — will largely depend the progress of civilization in the years to come. 21. Lay the foundations of a character broad and deep. 22. First consider what it is you are about to do, and then inquire of your own nature whether you can carry it out. 23. To understand your business, you must start at the bottom and work yourself up. To do so, you must commence when young, when you learn quickly and may be led. 272 CHARACTER: A MORAL TEXT-BOOK. Book XIV. Part 3. Purpose. There gleams a star of bright, unsullied rays, Which naught can quench or dim; it ever shows Its beacon light to all who set their gaze Above each varying, fleeting wind that blows. The star of Purpose! — Ada M. Pitts. 1. In order to have a reasonably successful life, you should make reasonable plans, and then set out to ex- ecute them with a purpose steady and fixed, not to be yielded until it is plain that they cannot be executed. 2. What you need is something to work for. When you have that, you are very nearly happy. 3. Keep the purpose honest and clean. 4. The first requisite of success in life, is an earnest and noble purpose, and the second the power of adapta- tion. 5. The power of a well-defined aim or a great pur- pose to unify life is marvelous. An all-absorbing pur- pose gathers up all the scattered rays of your ability and focuses them on one point. 6. It matters not how rich the materials you have gleaned from the years of your study and toil in youth, if you go out into life with no well-defined idea of your future work, there is no happy conjunction of cir- cumstances that will arrange them into an imposing structure, and give it magnificent proportions. 7. There is no road to success but through a clear, strong purpose. A purpose underlies character, culture, position, attainment of whatever sort. 8. A great purpose is cumulative; and, like a great magnet, it attracts all that is kindred along the stream of life. 9. People always believe in a man with a fixed purpose, and will help him twice as quickly as one who is loosely or indifferently attached to his vocation, and liable at any time to make a change, or to fail. 10. There is only one motive that can develop the highest manhood ; and that is, the constant determina- 273 tion to make the most possible of yourself, and to ren- der the greatest possible amount of service to others. ii. A strong purpose holds you down to your task, and shuts out a thousand temptations to wander away from your legitimate sphere. 12. A clear, strong purpose must precede any suc- cess, for purpose underlies everything. 13. You must resolve with an energy that knows no restraint, on the accomplishment of some definite thing in life, and then never turn a hair's breadth from your purpose, under any consideration. 14. A determined purpose in life, and a steady ad- herence to it through all disadvantages, are indispensa- ble conditions to success. 15. A healthy, definite purpose, is a remedy for a thousand ills which attend aimless lives. 16. An aim takes the drudgery out of life, scatters doubts to the winds, and clears up the gloomiest creeds. 17. Discontent and dissatisfaction flee before a defi- nite purpose. 18. A life which has no definite aim, is sure to be frittered away in empty and purposeless dreams. 19. A strong, vigorous purpose, held firmly and persistently, is the first step toward progress. Without this, there can be nothing but mediocrity or failure. 20. The man without a purpose, never leaves his mark on the world. He has no individuality; he is ab- sorbed in the mass, lost in the crowd, weak, wavering, incompetent. 21. Purpose, besides being honest, must be inspired by sound principles, and pursued with undeviating ad- herence to truth, integrity, and uprightness. 2,2,. A strong purpose does not wait for opportuni- ties ; it makes them. It has a magnetic power that draws to itself whatever is kindred, and enlists the support of all the faculties. It helps you to become master of your- self. 23. The voice, the dress, the look, the very motions of a person define and alter, when he or she begins to live for a purpose. 274 CHARACTER: A MORAL TEXT-BOOK. Book XIV. Part 4. Single Purpose. The man who seeks one thing- in life, and but one, May hope to achieve it before life be done; But he who seeks all things, wherever he goes, Only reaps from the hopes which around him he sows, A harvest of barren regrets. — Owen Meredith. i. The magic of a single aim has changed the face of the world. It has bridged rivers, tunneled moun- tains, built cities ; it has accomplished everything that has been accomplished. 2. If you ever mean to be a living power in the world, you must form a definite purpose and stick to that one thing, or you will not reach the pinnacle of success. 3. No man, no matter how humble his origin, that devotes himself with singleness of purpose to the in- terests of his home and his country, can fail to receive recognition. 4. There is no grander sight in the world than that of a young man, fired with a great purpose, dominated with one unwavering aim. He is bound to win. The world stands aside to let him pass. He does not have half as much opposition to overcome as the nerveless, undecided man. 5. Do not dally with your purpose. Not many things indifferently but one thing supremely. 6. All who have accomplished great things have had a purpose running through their lives. Each has had the single eye which sees but one thing; the un- daunted will which cannot be bent from its course. 7. Have a fixed purpose and stick to it. Around this, you will soon find your dormant ideas, hopes, and possibilities anchored. You will find that a resolute aim takes the place of aimless reverie. 8. A man never struggled hard and faithfully for years, toward a single aim, who did not, at least approx- imately, attain his object. 9. Have a definite and distinct object, or else your vital energies will be wasted, and your most industrious days will be recklessly squandered. 275 io. Man was made, not to do two things at once, but to direct his whole powers to one thing at a time, and he has ever excelled most when he has followed this law of his nature. ii. The highest excellence is seldom attained by one person in more than one vocation. 12. It is the man with one, unwavering aim, who cuts his way through opposition and forges to the front. 13. One affection, one object, must be supreme. Everything else will be neglected and done with a half- heart. You may have subordinate plans, but you can have but one supreme aim, and from this all others will take their character. 14. He who wishes to fulfill his mission, must be a man of one idea ; that is, of one great, overmastering purpose, overshadowing all his aims, and guiding and controlling his entire life. 15. A single aim, firmly and steadfastly held, no matter what opposes, trains the mind to facility and action, and brings efficiency, contentment and happiness. 16. The roads leading to distinction, in separate pursuits diverge ; and the nearer you approach the one, the further you recede from the other. 17. Almost all great men have been men of one idea. Not because they were incapable of harboring more than one, but because, having selected some one object as worthy of attainment, they gave themselves up to it solely. 18. The constant changing of your occupation is fatal to all success. 19. It is the man who does one thing well, that comes to the front. 20. It is doubtful whether a man can perform very great service to mankind, who is not permeated with a great purpose, with an overmastering idea. 21. Success in one line does not imply success in another. 22. Make up your mind what you think, everything considered, would be most desirable for you to do, and stick to it until you win. 2j6 CHARACTER: A MORAL TEXT-BOOK. Book XIV. Part 5. Appropriateness. Whether with reason or with instinct blest, Know, all enjoy that power which suits them best; To bliss alike by that direction tend, And find the means proportion'd to their end. — Pope. 1. Civilization will mark its highest tide when every man has chosen his proper work. 2. Every individual, no matter what his natural gifts, is most efficient in the work of life, when all his forces act together harmoniously under the control of intelligence. 3. There is no doubt that every person has a spe- cial adaptation for his peculiar part in life. 4. If you are in a business which you thoroughly like, which harmonizes with your tastes, and, in a word, in which you find yourself at home, stick to it; learn it thoroughly. 5. A youth who finds his true work, who feels all of his faculties tugging away at a life-purpose, rarely goes wrong. 6. It is possible that you may, at the outset of life, mistake your calling; in that case, the sooner you change it, the better. It is no discredit to you, if you perceive you are in the wrong groove, try to get into another. 7. If you do not succeed in what you attempt, after trying your level best ; if you do not feel interested in your occupation or profession, and enthusiastic in regard to whatever concerns it, you may be quite sure that you are out of place, and you should never rest until you find your niche in the world. 8. When you try to do that for which you are un- fitted, you are not working along the line of your strength, but of your weakness ; your will-power and enthusiasm become demoralized. 9. The place for the average man, is where he can use his strength and intelligence to the best advantage, and enjoy doing it. 277 10. Some men have more adaptability than others, but most have some special bent toward a certain kind of work, where they can be worth a great deal more than anywhere else. ii. A man out of his place is but half a man; his very nature is perverted. He is working against his in- clinations. 12. You should take your stand where your char- acter finds the most congenial footing. 13. Take the place and attitude which belong to you and all men will acquiesce. 14. Be what nature intended you for, and you will succeed ; be anything else, and you will be ten thousand times worse than nothing. 15. You are doomed to perpetual inferiority and disappointment, if out of your place, and get your living by your weakness instead of by your strength. 16. You have not found your place until all your faculties are roused, and your whole nature consents and approves of the work you are doing. 17. You will never succeed while smarting under the drudgery of your occupation ; if you are constantly haunted with the idea that you could succeed in some- thing else. 18. If you are careful and conscientious, you will be likely to get hold of the sort of work that you are best fitted to perform. 19. Somewhere, out in the world, there is a place for you, and no one can fill it but yourself. You alone must assume the responsibility of performing the work committed into your hands by the infinite Creator. 20. Those who have no special bent, as a rule pos- sess certain traits and tendencies which, if carefully fos- tered, will assist in finding their right places in the world. 21. Mental alertness will enable you to quickly exchange a career for which you are not fitted for one in which success will await 3^our efforts, provided you are made of the right sort of material. 22. Your wishes are presentiments of your capabil- ities. 278 CHARACTER: A MORAL TEXT-BOOK. Book XIV. Part 6. Time. Count that day lost whose low descending" sun Views from thy hand no worthy action done. — Saniford. 1. Time is requisite for the execution of all com- prehensive plans of action. 2. Think it a great fault not to employ your time either for the good of your soul, or improvement of your understanding, health or estate ; and as these are the most pleasant pastimes, so it will make you a cheerful old age, which is as necessary for you to design as to make provision to support the infirmities, which decay of strength brings. 3. He that is choice of his time, will also be choice of his company and choice of his actions. 4. You will never find time for anything; if you want time, you must make it. 5. If you would make time valuable, beware of low and trifling pursuits. Do nothing of which you will ever be ashamed. 6. Set a high price on your leisure moments. Prop- erly expended they will procure for you a stock of great thoughts — thoughts that will fill, stir and invigorate and expand your soul. 7. Many of the greatest men of history, earned their fame outside of their regular occupations, in odd bits of time which most people squander. 8. Each moment brings you to the threshold of some new opportunity. 9. Every hour in your life has its own special work possible for it, and for no other hour within the allotted span of years, and once gone it will not return. 10. Often it is only for a moment the favorable in- stant is presented. You miss it, and months and years are lost. 11. There are critical moments, in every successful life, when, if the mind hesitate or a nerve flinch, all will be lost. 12. Waste of time means waste of energy, waste of 279 vitality, waste of character in dissipation. It means bad companions, bad habits. It means the waste of oppor- tunities which will never come back. Beware how you kill time, for all your future lives in it. 13. There is no proportion between spaces of time in importance nor in value. A stray, unthought of five minutes, may contain the event of a life. 14. Time is an element that must enter into all real education, sound character, and enduring reputation. 15. Time is gold; throw not one minute away, but place each one to account. 16. Pay no moment but in purchase of its worth. 17. Time never works ; it eats, and undermines, and rots, and rusts, and destroys. But it never works. It only gives you an opportunity to work. 18. Let no moment pass, until you have extracted from it every possibility. 19. Thrift of time will repay you, in after life, be- yond your most sanguine dreams; and waste of it, will make you dwindle alike in intellectual and moral stature, beyond your darkest reckonings. 20. Lost wealth may be regained by industry and economy, lost knowledge by study and reflection, lost health by temperance and medicine, but lost time is gone forever. 21. Life, however short, is still made shorter by waste of time. 22. There is not an hour of youth but is trembling with destinies — not a moment of which, once passed, the apointed work can ever be done again. 23. Some young men will make more out of the odds and ends of opportunities, which many carelessly throw away, than others will get out of a whole lifetime. Every person they meet, every circumstance of the day, must add something to their store of useful knowledge or personal power. 24. One hour a day, withdrawn from frivolous pur- suits, and profitably employed, would enable any man of ordinary capacity to master a complete science, or make an ignorant man a well-informed man in ten years. 25. Great men have ever been misers of moments. 28o CHARACTER: A MORAL TEXT-BOOK. Book XIV. Part 7. Application. We have not wings; we cannot soar; But we have feet to scale and climb, By slow degrees, by more and more, The cloudy summits of our time. — Longfellow. 1. The best sort of character cannot be formed without effort. There needs the exercise of constant self-watchfulness, self-discipline, and self-control. There may be much faltering, stumbling and temporary defeat ; difficulties and temptations manifold to be battled with and overcome ; but if the spirit be strong and the heart be upright, no one need despair of ultimate success. 2. Those who succeed in life are not the geniuses. They are those who apply themselves to whatever busi- ness or profession they undertake with all their hearts, and by patient, plodding work, backed up by good health and good habits, who succeed. Even on the lowest ground — that of personal enjoyment — constant useful occupation is necessary. 3. Be master of your calling and do not let it mas- ter you. Application and assiduity must not sink into slavery. 4. The secret of every man's success, who has work- ed his way from poverty to affluence, is that he applied himself to legitimate business early and late, ignoring all outside interferences, paying no attention whatever to the many annoyances encountered. 5. History points to the fact that men of the most commanding abilities, have been the most persevering workers. 6. Men who have most moved the world, have not been so much men of genius, strictly so-called, as men of intense mediocre abilities, and untiring perseverance; not so often the gifted, of naturally bright and shining qualities, as those who have applied themselves diligent- ly to their work, in whatever line that might lie. 7. Application in the most severe form, and hon- esty, are the means by which true success is attained. 28l No matter what you do, do it to your utmost. Do it to the very best of your individual ability. 8. It is because application to business teaches method most effectually, that it is so useful as an edu- cator of character. 9. If you had the genius of all great men, past, pres- ent, and to come, you could do nothing well, without application and perseverance. 10. To be successful you must be master of your subject, such mastery being attainable only through con- tinuous application and study. 11. Intense application, is needed always, in the creation and maintenance of a business position. 12. It is a great advantage to be employed in the discharge of some daily mechanical duty — some regular routine of work, that renders steady application neces- sary. 13. Power lies not in the theory but in application. 14. The man who moves about, emulates and keeps in touch with other men and things, blunders over or runs across, accidentally, more success than ever comes to the man who sits and waits for it. 15. All progress, of the best sort, is slow; but to him who works faithfully and zealously, the reward will doubtless, be vouchsafed in good time. 16. You have but to glance at the biographies of great men, to find that the most distinguished inventors, artists, thinkers and workers of all kinds, owe their suc- cess, in a great measure, to their indefatigable industry and application. 17. The knowledge, which fits a man for eminence in any profession or calling, is not acquired without patient, long-continued and earnest application. 18. Stick to your business, if you want to succeed in it, but do not stick too closely; that is, do not dig so deep and narrow a furrow that you cannot see over the top of it, or climb out if necessary. 19. You can work yourself up to a position of honor and usefulness, from almost any beginning. 282 CHARACTER: A MORAL TEXT-BOOK. Book XIV. Part 8. Details. Sum up at night what thou hast done by day; And in the morning what thou hast to do. Dress and undress thy soul. Watch the decay And growth of it. — Herbert. 1. It is only by dwelling on details, that you slowly master the whole. 2. Be careful of details, as they are the mortar which binds the great walls of your operations. 3. All men who have accomplished success in life, have been conspicuous for minute attention to details, as well as for general scope and vigor. 4. Attention to details, makes a business man, or any other kind of a man. 5. Go to the bottom if you would get to the top. Be master of your calling in all its details. 6. Nothing is small which concerns your business. Master every detail. 7. The great commander leaves nothing to chance, but provides for every emergency. He condescends to apparently trivial details. 8. You should not come to the conclusion that de- tails are beneath your notice, or that you are less bril- liant in the great things of life, because you pay atten- tion to the little things. 9. The better you are acquainted with the details of the business in which you are engaged, the greater is your chance of success. In truth, if you are ignorant of these, you have no right to expect success. 10. Business is fact, and satisfactory results are dependent on careful and conscientious regard for details, and exact knowledge. 11. There is only one way to fit yourself to fill the high places in the business world. That is to begin at the bottom and work your way up. In no other man- ner can you acquire that familiarity with the details of your business, which the head of a great concern must have, if you are to manage it successfully. 283 12. It is the result of everyday experience, that steady attention to matters of detail lies at the root of human progress. 13. Your life is centered in the sphere of common duties. 14. You need not hope to rise above your present situation, if you suffer small things to pass by unim- proved. 15. To know all about a thing, is to know how to deal with it under all circumstances. 16. He who would get up in the world, who is anxious to make the most of himself, regards nothing as trifling. 17. The end of doing this little thing well, is the beginning of doing that other, more complicated, task. And surely there is inspiration in this thought. 18. Let all your things have their places ; let each part of your business have its time. 19. As nothing great can be accomplished without industry and an earnest purpose, so nothing great can be accomplished without order. The one is indispensable to the other, and they go hand in hand, as co-workers in your elevation. 20. To see in the doing of some simple duty, not merely the fulfillment of a task, but a means of growth, an experience with an end beyond itself, is to invest it with dignity and hopeful interest. 21. Never mind your position. Whatever it may be, try to fill it. The duties which you have to perform may seem trivial ; but because it is a small position, is no reason why you should be a small man. You may be big inside if you are small outside. 22. A job slighted, because it is apparently unim- portant, leads to habitual neglect, so that men degener- ate, insensibly, into bad workmen. 23. There are many things invincible in their col- lective capacity, and in a state of union, which may gradually be overcome, when they are separated. 24. It is the petty annoyances of life, ever present, to be met and conquered afresh every day, that try most severely the metal of which you are made. 284 CHARACTER: A MORAL TEXT-BOOK. Book XIV. Part 9. Determination. True fortitude is seen in great exploits That justice warrants, and that wisdom guides; All else is towering frenzy and distraction. — Addison. 1. You must be fired by a determination which knows no defeat, which cares not for hunger or ridicule, which spurns hardships and laughs at want and disaster. 2. A determination to accomplish something, ob- stacles or no obstacles; a firm resolution to make a way if no way is open, is an indication of ability to succeed. But the determination must come first. 3. Determination or fixity of purpose, has a great moral bearing on your success, for it leads others to feel confidence in you, and this is everything. 4. He who is fired with indomitable determination to succeed, and is willing to put forth all his force and energy to climb to the top, is the one who is in demand. 5. You must temper determination with discretion, and support it with knowledge and common sense, or it will only lead you to defeat. 6. As soon as you have determined what is most proper for you to do, you must steadily perform it, what- ever exertion it may cost you. 7. The successful man, who brings things to pass, grows stronger and more determined when the way looks darkest. Instead of becoming discouraged, as the ob- stacles which bar his progress grow more and more for- midable, he arouses himself to meet, and finally overcome them. He does not waste his time and energies in trying to evade or go around obstructions; he plows his way through them. 8. If you have an intense determination to suc- ceed in the course you have marked out for yourself, — and you work for this purpose early and late, so that you cannot be turned from your course no matter what tempts you, — success will sooner or later come to you, if your habits are good. 9. Defeat to the determined man, is nothing, it 285 only gives him new power. It is no use to oppose him ; this only doubles his determination and trebles his ex- ertions. Dangers and hardships only increase his courage. No matter what comes to him, — sickness, poverty, imprisonment even, — he never turns his eye from his work. 10. The determination to be your own helper, is the secret of individual development and strength. n. No tyranny of circumstances can permanently imprison a determined will. 12. There are some lives that speak more eloquent- ly than words. They inspire, they help, they prove that the world makes way for a determined man. 13. You should be able to face a duty or a trial. Walk up to it with determination in every look and action. 14. Great tenacity of purpose is the only thing that will carry you over the hard places, which appear in every career, to ultimate triumph. It gives credit and moral support in a thousand ways. 15. Invincible determination, and a right nature, are the levers that move the world. 16. A vacillating man, no matter what his abilities, is invariably pushed aside in the race of life by the man of determined will. 17. Sometimes young men are born to wealth or commanding the power of influential friendships, and find a start in the world comparatively easy ; occasionally there is a genius, but neither genius nor wealth will make position without the qualities of persistence and in- dustry. 18. Determined men are not likely to fail. They carry in their very pluck, grit, and determination, the conviction and assurance of success. 19. What are stumbling blocks to the weak and vacillating, are but stepping-stones and victories to the strong and determined. . — 20. The barriers have not yet been erected, which / can shut out from success the determined man or : woman. 286 CHARACTER: A MORAL TEXT-BOOK. Book XIV. Part. 10. Will. Strong souls within the present live, The future veiled, the past forgot; Grasping what is, with hands of steel, They bind what shall be to their will. — Lewis Morris. 1. It is in the exercise of the will that merit or demerit attaches to character. 2. In the world of action will is power; persistent will, with circumstances not altogether unfavorable, is victory; even in the face of circumstances altogether unfavorable, persistence will carve out a way to unex- pected success. 3. A close connection exists between morality and will, the finest character in the world being valueless if it does not include a strong and vigorous will. 4. Man is what he really wills. His whole being is nothing else but the ultimate product of a will acting in him. 5. Nothing is impossible, but everything possible, for the man who can will, who knows his goal, and moves straight for that and for that alone. 6. What men want is not talent, it is purpose; in other words, not the power to achieve, but the will to labor. 7. A resolute will is needful, not only for the per- formance of difficult duties, but in order to go promptly, energetically, and with self-possession, through the thou- sand difficult things which come in almost everybody's way. 8. The man of strong will stamps power on his actions. His energetic perseverence becomes habitual. He gives a tone to the company in which he is, to the society in which he lives, and even to the nation in which he is born. 9. If the sense of duty be strong, and the course of action clear, the courageous will, upheld by the con- science, enables a man to proceed on his course bravely, 287 and to accomplish his purposes in the face of all opposi- tion and difficulty. 10. Success in life is dependent largely on the will power, and whatever weakens or impairs it diminishes success. ii. Will power usually annihilates fate. Even brains are secondary to will, or a determination to suc- ceed at all hazards. 12. Iron will and persistent industry, are the best conquerors of ill luck. 13. It is of the utmost importance that attention should be directed to the improvement and strengthen- ing of the will ; for without this there can neither be independence, nor firmness, nor individuality of charac- ter. Without it you cannot give truth its proper force, nor save yourself from being machines in the hands of worthless and designing men. 14. The will, which is the central force of charac- ter, must be trained to habits of decision — otherwise it will neither be able to resist evil, nor to follow good. 15. Will power is necessary to success, and, other things being equal, the greater the will power the greater and more complete the success. 16. He who has a strong will, moulds the world to himself, 17. Conscience sets a man on his feet, while his will holds him upright. 18. Your best protection is your own will. 19. There is no faculty more susceptible to train- ing, none which responds more readily to drill, than the will power. No faculty can do more for you in forming habits which bless or curse. It holds your suc- cess or failure in its grasp, your happiness or misery. 20. Will makes the man and controls the circum- stances that elevate him in character, distinction or wealth. Education and environment are only factors. 21. Strong men, men of iron will, men of push and enterprise, are very apt to have things their own way. 22. Whether you work for fame, for love, for mon- ey, or for anything else, work your hands and heart and brain. Say I will, and some day you will conquer. 288 CHARACTER: A MORAL TEXT-BOOK. Book XIV. Part 11. Endeavor. Action, strong effort forever, — this is the life of our time; This is the heart-throb of Manhood, the pulsing of purpose divine. — Robert Macay. 1. You are the sum of your endeavors. 2. The principle of action is too powerful for any circumstance to resist. It clears the way, and elevates itself above every object, above fortune and misfortune, good and evil. 3. It is true of every scholar with the art he studies, of every apprentice with his trade, of every man in busi- ness — doing is the one condition of truly knowing. 4. Use develops, and disuse retards and destroys. 5. The real merit is not in the success but in the endeavor. 6. Man owes his growth chiefly to that active striv- ing of the will, that encounter with difficulty, which is called effort ; and it is astonishing to find how often re- sults apparently impracticable are thus made possible. 7. The storehouse of opportunity is open to all, and everything necessary for support and comfort can be procured through effort. 8. The desire must ripen into purpose and effort ; and one energetic attempt is worth a thousand aspira- tions. 9. Existence is the privilege of effort, and when that privilege is met like a man, opportunities to suc- ceed along the line of your aptitude will come faster than you can use them. 10. No effort is too dear which helps you along the line of your proper career. 11. Honest, earnest human endeavor tends to health of body, mind and soul. 12. You must have a chief purpose or end clearly apprehended by the intellect, capable of rousing all your feeling, and thus stimulating the will to grand and sus- tained effort. 289 13. To be successful you must needs be somewhat aggressive. Not unamiable, but amiability must be but- tressed round and bolstered up by a great strength of will and a resolute determination not to yield an inch of ground once honestly gained. 14. The man who has not fought his way up to his own loaf, and does not bear the scars of desperate con- flict, does not know the highest meaning of success. 15. You may have intelligence and penetration, pro- found knowledge of men and things; but without force, your learning remains unprofitable, and your best idea but an unproductive seed. 16. Success is not measured by what a man accom- plishes, but by the opposition he has encountered, and the courage with which he has maintained the struggle. 17. Victories that are easy are cheap. Those only are worth having which come as the result of hard fight- ing. 18. Notwithstanding all the difference in the nat- ural gifts of men, by which some are elevated to eminence and others kept in obscurity, or some tend to vice and others to virtue, it is the indomitable will and industry that some men exhibit, that gains for them their distinc- tion. 19. Diligently and earnestly you must labor, or you cannot stand side by side, in after years, with the men who have become distinguished for the important services they have rendered their fellow men. 20. If earnestness does not put vitality into what you do, your listlessness may be a stumbling block which, perhaps, will influence others to lead careless and aimless lives. 21. Produce! Were it but the pitifulest, infinitesi- mal fraction of a product, produce it. Whatsoever your hands finds to do, do it with all your might. 22. The story of the race is crowded with examples of the power of talent, industry, determination, and per- severance to conquer very great difficulties and misfor- tunes. 290 CHARACTER: A MORAL TEXT-BOOK. Book XIV. Part 12. The Present. Work for the good that is nighest; Dream not of greatness afar: That glory is ever the highest Which shines upon men as they are. — Punshon. 1. It is very important, while planning for the future, to beware how you slight the now of life. This is the only time of which you are sure. You should use it, not with a prodigal's waste or a miser's stint, but with a wise determination to make every day yield something to the sum of your happiness and highest welfare. 2. Your truest wealth is lying, doubtless, at your very feet, awaiting only the stalwart arm and dauntless will to seek and find. In yourself and in the homely sur- roundings of today, lie hid the treasures for which, else- where, you shall seek in vain. 3. Nothing ought to be more inspiring than the thought that possibly just before you, in the dim and unforseen tomorrow, whose voice is even now faintly calling to you through the lattice of today, awaits the great opportunity of your life. 4. Remember that you are building up character every day, every hour. The public are scrutinizing it all the time, watching to see how you are building. 5. It is the outcome of every day's work that inspires you, and forms the future, and nothing else. 6. He who is eager to be a great and noble man in the future, must in the present be great and noble in thought, as well as in deed. 7. The present is the raw material out of which you make whatever you will. 8. Act well at the moment, and you have performed a good action to all eternity. 9. The common life of every day, with its cares, affords ample opportunity for acquiring experience of the best kind ; and its most beaten paths provide the true worker with abundant scope for effort and room for self- improvement. 291 io. What you are today, is the index of what you will be tomorrow. 11. The seed you planted yesterday, you are reaping the fruits of today. 12. To excel, to do a little better today than yes- terday, is commendable. 13. He who is false to present duty, breaks a thread in the loom, and will find the flaw when he may have for- gotten the cause . 14. Invest every moment of time, in such a way, that it will make for you the largest possible return in time and eternity. 15. Do not brood over the past not dream of the future ; but seize the instant and get your lesson from the hour. 16. Make the most of every day as it comes. 17. No economy is so essential as the economy of time. 18. The present time has one advantage over every other — it is your own. Past opportunities are gone, future are to come. 19. Look not mournfully into the past, it cannot come back ; wisely improve the present, it is yours ; go forth to meet the shadowy future, without fear and with a manly heart. 20. Present time is very precious. 21. There should be no time like the present, for the display of creative ability ; for the very multiplicity of the achievements of the past, in every field, furnish just that much food for still greater achievements in the future. 22. True success comes through making haste slowly, in disciplining the soul to enjoy the innocent pleasures of a beautiful world, in making refinement and culture the ideals of existence, and in extracting from each moment of the day the drop of happiness that is con- tained in it. 23. Today's troubles look large, but a few days hence they will be forgotten and out of sight. 24. The present is the living sum-total of all the past. 25. Whatever helps you best today, is the help you need. 292 CHARACTER: A MORAL TEXT-BOOK. Book XV. Part 1. Method. Order is Heav'n's first law; and this confest, Some are, and must be, greater than the rest. — Pope. 1. As much as possible, throw your business into a certain method, by which means you will learn to improve every precious moment, and find an unspeakable facility in the performance of your respective duties. 2. Method, unless based on nature's laws, never rises to greatness. 3. Of method this may be said : If you make it your slave it is well, but it is bad if you are a slave to method. 4. Marshal all your notions into a handsome method. 5. A man is most successful in his pursuits, when he is most careful as to his method. 6. The habit of working teaches method. It com- pels economy of time, and the disposition of it with judi- cious forethought. 7. Take up the first important thing that comes to hand, and concentrate the mind on it until it is accom- plished. 8. The best method is obtained by earnestness. If you can impress people with the conviction that you feel what you say, they will pardon many shortcomings. 9. Method and true order are not only useful in the lesser concerns of life, but necessary to success in the most important objects; it is by these that the powers and activity of the mind are turned to good account. 10. Accurate people are methodical people, and method means character. 11. Every business man must be systematic and or- derly ; so must every housewife. 12. Method, which is the soul of business, is also of essential importance in the home. Work can only be got through by method. 13. Method is essential, and enables a large amount of work to be accomplished satisfactorily. 14. Men who lack method seldom accomplish much. 293 15. Put yourself under stern and rigid discipline each day ; be true to your best instincts and faithful to the daily task imposed on you ; be animated with the high purpose of pleasing God rather than yourself. 16. There is great advantage in having your mind systematized, or accustomed to system. It is a great mistake to try to do many things at once, for certainly none of them will be done well. Try one thing at a time, and do that thing well. It is the best general rule of conduct to follow. 17. If that which is first at hand be not instantly, steadily, and regularly dispatched, other things accumu- late behind, until affairs begin to press all at once, and no human brain can stand the confusion. 18. Force yourself to take an interest in your work, and the effort will soon become a pleasure instead of a hardship. 19. Arrangement is a most important idea, to be so imbedded in the mind that it works and controls you, until method shall show itself in whatever you undertake. 20. Work must be directed with intelligence. 21. Neatness in moderation is a virtue, but when it is carried to excess, it shows littleness of mind. 22. You must strive after accuracy as you would after wisdom, or anything else you would attain. 23. Accuracy is the twin brother of honesty. 24. System is an arrangement to secure certain ends, so that no time may be lost in accomplishing them. 25. The man who would succeed, must make the best use of all his resources. 26. The great difference between those who succeed and those who fail, does not consist in the amount of work done by each, but in the amount of intelligent work. Many of those who fail most ignominiously, do enough to achieve grand success ; but they labor at haphazard, building up with one hand only to tear down with the other. 27. A man who does things at the time when they ought to be done, is likely to be wanted. 294 CHARACTER: A MORAL TEXT-BOOK. Book XV. Part 2. Originality. Though old the thought, and oft expressed, 'Tis his at last who says it best. — Pope. 1. The great emotions of life are none the less new, because they have been felt by others before you. If a thought is a real growth out of your own experience and meditation, it matters not how often it may have been expressed by others, it is none the less original to you. 2. There is no effort of science or art that may not be exceeded ; no depth of philosophy that cannot be deeper sounded ; no flight oi imagination that may not be passed by strong and soaring wing. 3. There is always need of persons not only to dis- cover new truths, and point out when what were once truths are true no longer, but also to commence new practices, and set the example of more enlightened con- duct, and better taste and sense in human life. 4. The popular demand is for men who can develop the world's material resources. 5. True originality consists in doing things well, and doing them in your own way. 6. Energy of will — self-originating force — is the soul of every great character. Where it is, there is life ; where it is not, there is faintness, helplessness, and de- spondency. 7. There is very little chance for a young man to distinguish himself in the midst of tremendous competi- tion, unless he is original. 8. The creative energy which accomplishes things, the original, vitalizing force of achievement, must ever come from within. 9. It takes a very bold, a very original, and a very strong man, to step to the front and attract the attention of his competitors. 10. In reality the origin, as well as the progress and improvement of civil society, is founded in mechanical inventions. 295 11. What the world demands is striking originality. It admires the man who has the courage to lift his head above the crowd, who dares to step to the front and declare himself. 12. Search out the things that might be done bet- ter, or in addition to the obvious ones at hand. No business is so perfect in its details that there is no room for improvement. 13. Originality bristles at every point with energy, enterprise and quick antagonism. 14. Originality is at a premium. The world makes way for the man with a new idea. 15. As long as among the millions of human beings in the world, there are no two persons exactly alike, so long will it be possible to think thoughts and present ideas peculiar to yourself. 16. There are plenty of ideas left in the world yet. All good things have not been done. 17. Be original in your methods and lead rather than follow. 18. Originality consists not so much in presenting something that is actually new, as it does in rearranging what you have gleaned from books and observation, or from other men. 19. The rising man must do something exceptional, and beyond the range of his special department. He must attract attention. 20. No one is educated in any subject who cannot produce something original. 21. One original thought, well expressed, will do more to prove you an educated person, than all the bor- rowed ideas of the greatest minds the world has ever produced. 22. It is not so difficult a task to plant new truths, as to root out old errors ; for there is this paradox in men, they run after that which is new, but are prejudiced in favor of that which is old. 23. Some degree of novelty must be one of the ma- terials in every instrument which works upon the mind; and curiosity blends itself more or less with all passions. 296 CHARACTER: A MORAL TEXT-BOOK. Book XV. Part 3. Decision. The spirit of a single mind Makes that of multitudes take one direction, As roll the waters to the breathing wind. — Byron. 1. One of the first things to learn in life is the power of quick, prompt, and energetic decision, the de- cision which is not always coming up for reconsideration when opposing arguments are presented. It is infinitely better to make mistakes by deciding too quickly, or by making a wrong decision, than to be always vacillating, hanging in the balance, not knowing what to do. 2. Quick penetration and intelligence, comprehen- sion, the view of facts together, comparison, the mental power to set things side by side and perceive the greater, the wiser, the more effective of different plans or powers, sagacity, foresight of probable results, — these seem to be the intellectual qualities which go with or precede those decisions which have secured success. 3. Calling on others to help in forming a decision is worse than useless. You must so train your habits as to rely on your own powers, and depend on your own courage, in moments of emergency. 4. The ability to plan quickly and surely is the secret of professional as well as business success, for it lies at the bottom of executive ability of which so much is urged. 5. Without decision there can be no concentration ; and, to succeed, you must concentrate. 6. Decision, strong and unyielding, has had much to do with the great successes which command admira- tion and excite surprise. 7. If you lack decision you are ever at the mercy of circumstances, and the puppet of stronger minds. 8. Half the misery and suffering of the world, comes from weakness of mind and lack of decision. 9. Always be able to say yes or no. 10. To be decisive on important occasions you must keep cool. 297 11. Do not mistake stupid pride or obstinacy for healthy decision. 12. Decision, when untempered by affection and unpoised by a wise, considerate, generous estimate of the rights of others, too quickly degenerates into sternness and severity. 13. There is need for coolness of manner, and de- cision of action, in all lines of business. 14. There is nothing else that will fix a floating life and prevent it from being tossed hither and thither, like forming a habit of prompt decision, and thus putting yourself forever beyond the temptation of vacillation, from the influence of others. 15. As a rule, great decision of character is usually accompanied by great constitutional firmness. 16. The decided man, the prompt man, does not wait for favorable circumstances ; he does not submit to events ; events must submit to him. 17. Strong characters, who make their mark in the world, are always noted for quick and prompt decision. They weigh the situation carefully and then plunge in to win. 18. Prompt decision and whole-souled action, sweep the world before them. 19. Decision of character outstrips even talent and genius, in the race for success in life. 20. Decision gives the power of standing firmly, when to yield, however slightly, might be only the first step in a down-hill course to ruin. 21. The positive man, the decided man, is a power in the world, and stands for something. You can esti- mate the work that his energy will accomplish. 22. Decision of character will give to an inferior mind, command over a superior. 23. To be fixed and resolute, to be decided and firm, is only to be expected of those who have brains enough to come to a conclusion. 24. It is the man who decides immediately on the course he will take, and what he will sacrifice, that reaches the goal. 25. Acquire a quick and steadfast decision. 298 CHARACTER: A MORAL TEXT-BOOK. Book XV. Part 4. Devotion. To business that we love, we rise betime, And go to it with delight. — Shakespeare. 1. A man generally does well what he loves to do. 2. Half-hearted service is always hard. 3. You must throw your whole self into whatever you touch ; be a whole man in whatever you do, no matter how apparently small it may be. 4. The successful man, the world over, is the one who loves his work, to whom it is a joy instead of a task. 5. You must love your work, and not always be looking over the edge of it, wanting your play to begin ; and you must not be ashamed of your work and think it would be more honorable for you to be doing something else. 6. You should clearly understand in advance, that if you do not have the capacity or love for work, there is no profession in which you can win success. But, having this, you will find great opportunities to make a name for yourself and to earn large pecuniary rewards. 7. Show strong, absolute whole-heartedness in whatever you undertake ; throw yourself, body and soul, into whatever you do. 8. Stick to the thing and carry it through. Believe you were made for the place you fill, and that no' one else can fill it as well. Put forth your whole energies. Be awake, electrify yourself; go forth to the task. Only once learn to carry a thing through in all its completeness and proportion, and you will become a hero. You will think better of yourself; others will think better of you. 9. The one-talented man who has fallen in love with his work, who is enthusiastic over his vocation, will accomplish infinitely more in life than the ten-talented man who has not been touched by this divine spark. 10. Labor is best performed, not only in the expec- tation of pay, but because of a friendly interest and thank- ful spirit. 299 11. Put heart into your Avork. Do not look on it simply as a means of earning money. 12. No one who is not in love with his work, need expect to attain important results. Coldnesss, lukewarm- ness, and indifference are fatal to progress. 13. If you wish to accomplish something of worth, you must give your life, your energy, your enthusiasm to your work; you must concentrate all your powers on some occupation or profession. 14. Study successful men, and you will find that they did their work not from a slavish hunger after emolu- ments, but from a genuine love of it and satisfaction in discharging its duties well. 15. Your heart must inspire what your hands ex- ecute, or the work will be poorly done. 16. The happiest hours of your life should be when you are working. 17. The first thing to do, if you have not done it, is to fall in love with your work. 18. Generally speaking, success is the result, and the laudable result, of absorption in your work. 19. The winner is he who gives himself to his work, body and soul. 20. To succeed, you must be possessed, carried away with your work. 21. Whatever you do, you should devote all your energy to it, and not allow your mind to wander, balance motives, or hesitate, for to hesitate is sometimes to be lost. 22. It is a prerequisite of success, that you love your calling. In your eyes it must be the grandest and most honorable of all callings. 23. Merely mechanical diligence is never enough ; you must give yourself to your work. Devotion and loy- alty to it are the conditions of improvement and real ad- vancement ; without them you neither do it justice, nor yourself. 24. Love your work, then you will do it well. 3oo CHARACTER: A MORAL TEXT-BOOK. Book XV. Part 5. Industry. Toil and be glad! let industry inspire Into your quickened limbs her buoyant breath! Who does not act is dead: absorbed entire In miry sloth, no pride, no joy he hath: O leaden-hearted men, to be in love with death! — Thomson. 1. Industry gives character and credit to the young. 2. The industry that prospers, must be steady to a given object; not fitful or easily daunted. Whatever it undertakes it must do heartily, as a pleasure, not as a task ; thoroughly, not with a fainting zeal. 3. Some are born restless, active, and energetic ; others slow and lethargic, but the masses are neither, at first, and may school themselves into useful industry, or insensibly fall into the opposite. 4. In the ordinary business of life, industry can do anything which genius can do ; and very many things which it can not. 5. Industry is a substitute for genius. 6. God has stored the world with an endless variety of riches for man's wants, but he has made them all accessible only to industry. 7. The poor with industry, is happier than the rich in idleness ; for labor makes one more manly and riches unman the other. 8. Industry takes a high rank as a virtue. By it you learn to reinforce the moments by the hours, and the days by the years. You learn how the puny individual can conquer great obstacles. 9. Never depend on your genius ; if you have talent, industry will improve it ; if you have none, industry will supply the deficiency. 10. Good appetite, good digestion and good sleep are the elements of health, and industry confers them. 11. Sloth makes all things difficult, but industry all easy. 12. As idleness is the inlet to most other evils, so it is by industry that the powers of the mind are turned to good account. 301 13. If you are industrious you will never starve ; for, at the working-man's door, hunger looks in, but dares not enter. 14. All that is called progress — civilization, well- being and prosperity — depends on industry, diligently applied. 15. The spirit of industry, embodied in man's daily life, will gradually lead him to exercise his powers on objects outside himself, of greater dignity and more ex- tended usefulness. 16. Industry conduces to longevity. So honest, earnest, human endeavor tends to health of body, mind and soul. 17. Industry is a perpetual call on the judgment, the power of quick decision ; it makes ready men, practical men. 18. There is no art or science that is too difficult for industry. It conquers all enemies, and gives wings to all blessings. 19. Industry gives comfort, and plenty and respect. 20. Sedulous attention and painstaking industry, always mark the true worker. 21. Those who constitute the business portion of the community, those who make great and useful men, were trained up in their boyhood to be industrious. - 22,. One who has the courage to remain steadfast, and rely on thrift and industry, is almost sure to achieve success. 23. Industry is prosperity. .-- 24. Industry gives physical and mental strength to men and awakens all the intellectual energies which have characterized the brain of the intelligent laborer, of the inventor, of the discoverer, and, generally speaking, of the genius so productive, so fruitful, and so beneficial to the welfare and happiness of mankind. 25. Industry enables the poorest man to achieve honor, if not distinction. 26. Let those born without particular genius take courage, for well-directed industry and faithful effort will find opportunity. 302 CHARACTER: A MORAL TEXT-BOOK. Book XV. Part 6. Concentration. Whate'er your forte, to that your zeal confine, Let all your talents there concentered shine; As shallow streams, collected, form a tide, So talents thrive to one grand point applied. — Anon. i. Concentration calls, not for educated men, not for talented men, not for geniuses, but for men who are trained to do one thing as well as it can be done. 2. To be successful, you must possess apitude for the particular business that engages you. You must love it for its own sake. If, suited to and loving it, you con- centrate on it all your energies, you are tolerably sure to succeed, according to the measure of the business itself and of your own capacity. 3. There is no important work or calling — and there is scarcely a calling that does not entail important work — that does not, with its main features and correlations, mean concentration and absorption, and the letting go, or never taking hold of, to any great extent, of most other things in the world. 4. The weakest living creature, by concentrating his powers on one thing, can accomplish something; the strongest, by dissipating his over many, may fail to accomplish anything. 5. If you practice daily, concentration upon all the little or trivial things, then, when something of larger proportion presents itself, you are ready to meet it. You must not defer your concentration until something of importance comes to you, but must make yourself ready for it by practice in the common ones. 6. Abide unflinchingly by your choice, and in a little while your power of concentration will increase, and in time you will become satisfied with what you have chosen. 7. Versatile men, universal geniuses, are usually weak, because they have no power to concentrate their talents on one point, and this makes all the difference between success and failure. 303 8. Too much concentration on any one subject is a mistake, especially in youth. 9. It is the concentration of all the powers on a single purpose that wins the race. 10. To succeed, a man must concentrate all the faculties of the mind on one unwavering aim, and have a tenacity of purpose which means death or victory. 11. If you want to do substantial work, concen- trate ; if you wish to give others the benefits of your work, condense. 12. You should commence life with some definite object, concentrating the mind on one particular sub- ject. 13. To be able to shut out from the mind all ideas irrelevant to the problem before it is an indication of a fine brain. 14. To think of one thing at a time is a mental quality rarer than it would appear to be, and one which has much to do with your success in life. 15. One of the secrets of a successful life is to be able to hold all of your energies on one point, to focus all of the rays of the mind on c&3 place or thing. 16. The moment you divide your attention, you break your force. It is in the union of all your faculties that you become invincible. 17. Science joined with sound judgment, force, and steadfastness of will, is called administrative power — the power to bring things to pass — and it is the highest, the rarest, and most valuable form of human capacity. Compared with it, mere genius is insignifi- cant. Without it, nothing great or good is ever done. Those who have it are the great controlling and con- structive minds of the world. 18. All great lives have tasted of everything a little, looked at everything a little, but lived for one great object. All more or less, are idealists, and rivet their thoughts on certain ideals seeming possible. 19. To be great you must hold the mind firmly and persistently to one thing. 304 CHARACTER: A MORAL TEXT-BOOK. Book XV. Part 7. Thoroughness. If thou canst plan a noble deed, And never flag- till it succeed, Though in the strife thy heart should bleed, "Whatever obstacles control, Thine hour will come — go on, true soul! Thou 'It win the prize, — thou 'It reach the goal. — C. Macay. 1. A complete life, thoroughly rounded physically, mentally, spiritually, is the life that contains within itself the elements of success in material, equally with higher things. The bane of living is incompleteness. 2. The consciousness of thorough knowledge, the habit of doing everything to a finish, gives a feeling of strength, of supremacy, which takes the drudgery out of an occupation. 3. Never be satisfied with doing anything as well as it is required, but do it better. 4. To learn and master a few things, is better than to know a little of many things ; and the earnest student who goes slowly and surely will be the man who wins in the end. 5. Do everything entrusted to you, no matter how trivial it may seem, as well as it can be done. 6. A high-minded man will set his face against every form and phase of shirking, and will feel that whatever is worth doing at all, is worth doing well. 7. Know your trade ; it is an interesting study, as well as one of major importance. 8. It is better to begin business with a small cap- ital and an expert knowledge, than with a big capital and no knowledge of the business. 9. There is a great satisfaction in doing things just right. This sense of completeness, of things well done, has a most salutary influence in strengthening character, and bringing all the faculties into harmony, in qualifying you for better and higher work. 10. The superficial man will be content with knowledge of the routine, that has to do with his daily work and the result will be commonplace mediocrity. 305 The thorough man will be discontented unless he is always learning. ii. The complete mastery of an occupation will render even the dryest details interesting. 12. The more completely you master a vocation, the more thoroughly you enjoy it. 13. The world wants your best, and you should resolve early in life never to give anything but the best of which you are capable. Put your best thought, your best work, your best energy into everything you do. Make up your mind that you will never do anything by halves, no matter what others may do. Your life is worth too much to be thrown away in half doing things, or botching anything you undertake. 14. Be thorough. Bend all the best faculties of your mind to everything that is brought to your atten- tion. Always remember that quality and not quantity is the desideratum in everything. 15. By thoroughly mastering any given branch of knowledge, you render it more available for use at any moment. 16. Be thorough. Take advantage of every point that will make your work successful and lasting, even if you may be sometimes underpaid for it. 17. Do everything to a finish, do the smallest thing as well as it can be done. Those who, early in life, acquire this habit, will always enjoy that peace of mind, that peculiar sense of contentment and satisfaction, which can only come from the consciousness of doing things completely. 18. First, be master of what you undertake, and the money will then be likely to flow to you. 19. Doing well depends on doing completely. 20. Everything that is well done, leads up to a more difficult thing, that stands waiting to be done. 21. Do not expect success if you have never learned your business, and do not expect promotion if you fail to give the best there is in you. 22. Do not evade your work, do it thoroughly. 306 CHARACTER: A MORAL TEXT-BOOK. Book XV. Part 8. Energy. Not he who rests upon the glory won, Not he who sighs to have his life-work through, But he who, in the midst of what is done, Impatient stands for what is still to do. — Montrose J. Moses. 1. No matter how much ability you may have, or how clever, courteous, or amiable you may be, if you lack energy, the powder of success, you will never accom- plish much. 2. Energy without talent, will accomplish more than talent without energy. 3. Mere energy is not enough ; it must be concen- trated on some steady, unwavering aim. 4. Decision and energy go together, but prompt- ness to put them into execution is needed as well. 5. Energy of mind, like power in mechanism, if once attained, may be directed and applied to a variety of objects; but a want of energy, is a defect most diffi- cult to overcome. 6. Energy, without integrity and a soul of good- ness, may only represent the embodied principle of evil. Very different is the man of energetic character, inspired by a noble spirit, whose actions are governed by rectitude, and the law of whose life is duty. He is just and upright — in his business dealings, in his public action, and in his family life. He will be honest in all things — in his words and in his work. He will be gen- erous and merciful to his opponents, as well as to those who are weaker than himself. 7. Given persistence, and energy soon becomes habitual. 8. Energy of will — self originating force — is the soul of every great character. Where it is, there is life ; where it is not, there is faintness, helplessness, and despondency. 9. It is energy — the central element of which is will — that produces the miracles of enthusiasm in all ages. Everywhere it is the mainspring of what is called 307 force of character, and the sustaining power of all great action. 10. To succeed, you need more than anything else, to know how to apply your energy. n. You must concentrate your energies to definite purposes, in proportion as you wish to excel. 12. Energy may be turned to bad uses ; but more good may always be made of an energetic nature, than of an indolent and impassive one. 13. Energy is the queen of the world. Even benev- olence, love, grace, everything that is charming or admir- able, is of less value than energy. 14. Ability without energy, is the engine without steam. 15. There are few things more beautiful than the calm and resolute progress of an earnest spirit. The triumphs of genius may be more dazzling; the chances of good fortune may be more exciting; but neither is at all so interesting, or so worthy, as the achievement of a faithful, steady and fervent energy. 16. The career of a great man remains an enduring monument of human energy. 17. Endurance and energy are the dual soul of worth, the true valor. 18. The results of human energy wait on defi- niteness and persistency of purpose. This calls for the long look forward, that fixes the general aim of life, determining the profession or calling which each man should choose. 19. The difference between one boy and another consists not so much in talent as in energy. 20. Cleverness counts one point in the race to nine points for energy. 21. It is the duty of every man, to devote his entire energies to the interests of his employers. 22. The zealous, energetic man unconsciously car- ries others along with him. His example is contagious, and compels imitation. He exercises a sort of electric power, which sends a thrill through every fibre, flows into the nature of those about him, and makes them give out sparks of fire. 3 o8 CHARACTER: A MORAL TEXT-BOOK. Book XV. Part 9. Perseverance. Yet nerve thy spirit to the proof, and blench not at thy chosen lot; The timid good may stand aloof, the sage may frown, — yet faint thou not: Nor heed the shaft too surely cast, the foul and hissing bolt of scorn ; For with thy side shall dwell, at last, the victory of endurance bom. — Bailey. i. Perseverance does not get thrown into a panic; it is not subject to fainting fits. In its book of tactics there is no such word as retreat. Forward is on every page, but there is no retreat. It burns the bridges it has crossed. It knows nothing about backward movements. It does not run at the sight of a foe. It halts only to get breath. It rests only to rise in greater strength. It may have to go slowly, but it goes. Mountains of diffi- culty may be against it, but it knows how to climb ; now it is on the other side. A man who cannot perse- vere is too weak, nerveless, limpsy, for this rough, go- ahead world. He is sure to get left. 2. It is only the early days which bring weariness and pain. These conquered by perseverance, the rest is easy, and the success in conquering the first pleadings of the siren fickleness of purpose, who is of closer kin to laziness than you might think, lays the corner-stone of success in life. 3. Persistent people begin their success where others leave off. 4. Perseverance can sometimes equal genius in its results. 5. The chief difference between success and fail- ure lies in the single element of staying power. 6. There is no trait more valuable than a determi- nation to persevere, when the right thing is to be accom- plished. 7. No one will succeed in acquiring true decision of character without perseverance. A few feeble efforts, continued a day or two, or a week, are by no means suf- ficient to change the character or form the habit. The 309 efforts must be earnest, energetic, and unremitting; and must be persevered in through life. 8. It does not matter how clever a young man may- be, whether he leads his class in college or outshines all the other boys in his community, he will never succeed if he lacks this essential of determined persistence. 9. Although success is the prize for which all men toil, they have, nevertheless, often to labor on persever- ingly, without any glimmer of success in sight. They have to live, meanwhile, on their courage — sowing their seed, it may be, in the dark, in the hope that it will yet take root and spring up in achieved result. 10. Little by little must your capital stock of ideas, influence or wealth be built up, by economizing time and persistent toil. 11. The persistent man never stops to consider whether he is succeeding or not. The only question with him is how to push ahead, to get a little further along, a little nearer his goal. 12. All the performance of human art, at which men look with praise and wonder, are instances of the resistless force of perseverance. 13. Persistency of purpose is power. It creates confidence in others. Everybody believes in the deter- mined man. When he undertakes anything, his battle is half won, because not only himself, but everyone who knows him, believes that he will accomplish whatever he sets out to do. 14. Conscientious persistence cannot fail of its ultimate reward. 15. The lives of eminent inventors are illustrative of the quality of perseverance. 16. Much greater are the effects of perseverance than those of force. 17. There is not so much in knowing what is the best thing to do, as there is in persistent adherence to the work you undertake. 18. When a man goes by fits and starts and jumps, he may make more of a sensation, but he does not accomplish nearly as much as the man who keeps a steady pull and never lets up. 19. Men of intellect, labor a life-time in the pursuit of a single object. 3io CHARACTER: A MORAL TEXT-BOOK. Book XV. Part 10. Economy. Man's rich with little, were his judgment true; Nature is frugal, and her wants are few. — Young. 1. Study the virtue of economy. It enters into every phase of human affairs. It is as broad and deep as the sea. Practice it with cheerfulness and alacrity, as is its due. It contains the secret of the highest form of success. 2. Waste nothing — time, talent nor money. 3. In its narrow sense, the word economy has a somberness which makes it disagreeable, because it is generally associated with painful self-denial of those things which you most desire. But economy is the most beautiful word in any language. It is a broad term, and stands for a broad and beautiful science ; and it should be understood and practiced in its broadest and most effective sense. In brief, it means getting the most good out of everything. 4. Economy does not require superior courage, nor superior intellect, nor any super-human virtue. It merely requires common sense, and the power of resist- ing selfish enjoyments. 5. No gain is so certain as that which proceeds from the economical use of what you have. 6. There is a dignity in every attempt to econ- omize. Its very practice is improving. It indicates self-denial, and imparts strength to the character. It produces a well-regulated mind. It fosters temperance. It is based on forethought. It makes prudence the dom- inating characteristic. It gives virtue the mastery over self-indulgence. 7. Economy is of itself a great revenue. 8. It is not the amount made, but that which is saved that indicates success. The habit of economy is important in getting along in the world. 9. There is an economy of time as well as of money. To spend hours in useless pursuits, or to suffer spare moments to slip by unimproved, is as truly waste- 3ii ful as it would be to empty your purse every now and then into the sea. 10. As men become wise and thoughtful, they gen- erally become provident and frugal. ii. Make no expense but to do good to yourself or others ; that is : waste nothing. 12. The more the habit of thrift is practiced, the easier it becomes, and the sooner it compensates the self-denier for the sacrifices which it has imposed. 13. A thousand men win competence by quietly saving their spare money, where one gets rich by crazy speculation. 14. Save without parsimony, spend without lav- ishness. 15. There is one sure sign of a coming successful man. His revenues always exceed his expenditures. He begins to save early, almost as soon as he begins to earn. 16. Increase your wealth by lessening your desires. Develop a capacity to do without money. 17. Economy is very essential ; but a man may be too economical, and then he becomes miserly. He deprives himself of essentials, and perhaps little luxuries, that would make him more agreeable. Little luxuries impart an easiness of manner, and a sense of comfort. 18. That kind of economy which verges on the niggardly, is better than the extravagance that laughs at it. Either, when carried to excess, is not only apt to cause misery, but to ruin the character. 19. Do not squeeze out of your life, and comfort, and family, what you save. 20. There is a dignity in the very effort to save with a worthy purpose, even though the attempt should not be crowned with eventual success. It gives prudence a triumph over extravagance ; it gives virtue the mastery over vice ; it puts the passions under control ; it drives away care ; it secures comfort. 21. You must learn how to save. 312 CHARACTER: A MORAL TEXT-BOOK. Book XV. Part 11. Pluck. Pluck wins! It always wins, though days be slow, And nights be dark 'twixt days that come and go, Still pluck will win. Its average is sure. He gains the prize who can the most endure, Who faces issues, he who never shirks, Who waits and watches, and who always works. — Anon. i. Pluck is that element of character which enables you to clutch your aim with an iron grip, and keep the needle of your purpose pointing to the star of your hope. 2. The world admires plucky men. Blow them this way and that, and they only bend ; they never break. Put obstacles in their way, and they surmount them. It is almost impossible to keep such men down. Trip one up, and instantly he is on his feet again ; bury him in the mud, but at once he is up and at it again. Such men as he build cities, establish schools and hos- pitals, whiten the ocean with sails, and blacken the air with the smoke of their industry. 3. Pluck is opposed to cowardice. It does not belong to weak characters. You find it wherever any- thing worth doing is done, worth achieving is achieved. It can stand a shock without fainting. Pluck has done wonders. 4. Pluck has won all fame and all fortune. It has put the laurel on every brow that ever wore it. 5. Men who study life most profoundly and incis- ively, say that it is pluck and not luck that wins in the world. 6. The man who makes a success of an important venture, never waits for the crowd. He strikes out for himself. It takes nerve. It takes a great lot of pluck. But the man that succeeds has both. 7. Nothing else, except honesty, is so much in demand as pluck. Everybody believes in it. They want a man who can do something. 8. Pluck clears the track. People get out of the way of an energetic man. 9. Put pluck in the place of chance, and make a 313 way. In every age of the world's history, it has been repeatedly proved than this can be done. 10. Many have to encounter failure again and again before they succeed; but if they have pluck, the failure will only serve to rouse their courage, and stim- ulate them to renewed effort. ii. Unless you are deprived of all your limbs or all your faculties, you can surely do something; in most cases something effectually and adequately, if you will, with a staying mind and resolute will, put pluck in place of whatever is missing. 12. Most of the battles of life, moral and physical, have been won by men and women who have put pluck in place of popular approval and support, money, and encouragement. 13. Even the privation of some important bodily sense, such as sight or hearing, has not been sufficient to deter courageous men from zealously pursuing the struggle of life. 14. The man who is considered equal to the occa- sion, master of the situation — who is known to have a large reserve force — is the one who is sought after for great undertakings. 15. A man who is made of the stuff that succeeds may pull himself out of the most desperate and hopeless situations. 16. Men who have the right kind of material in them will assert their personality, and rise in spite of a thousand adverse circumstances. You cannot keep them down. Every obstacle seems only to add to their ability to get on. 17. Do not let the thorns which appear in every vocation, or temporary despondency or disappointment, shake your purpose. 18. Your greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time you fall. 19. What you do in spite of circumstances, rather than because of them, is the measure of your success ability. 3H CHARACTER: A MORAL TEXT-BOOK. Book XV. Part 12. Crowding. So man that thinks to force and strain Beyond its natural sphere, his brain, In vain torments it on the rack, And, for improving, sets it back. — Butler. 1. No man should so utterly wrap himself up in one phase of business as to make him ignorant of what is going on about him in other ways, and especially should he guard against becoming a specialist in any line of business to the extent of ignoring other branches of the same general work. 2. Crowding, however practiced, is seldom neces- sary ; it is resorted to by those especially who cannot, or will not, learn to think. 3. A large proportion of the evils of the day is due to haste and hurry, and then worry comes in to com- plete the wreck. 4. No person should be obliged beyond his ability. 5. Over-culture, without practical experience, weakens a man, and unfits him for real life. 6. Moderation in the pursuit of business, is neces- sary to success. Labor becomes a drudgery if this pre- caution is not observed ; and that which was intended as a blessing for man, becomes a curse. 7. The attempt to break a record has ruined many a young man. 8. The mind, like the atmosphere, has its satura- tion point, beyond which its powers of absorption cannot act. 9. To be safe is worth taking time. 10. The man who is always grinding, who keeps everlastingly at it, will ultimately become dull, stupid and narrow. His social faculties will die, and finally he will not be able to enjoy anything outside of the mechanical routine of his business. 11. Long-continued, intense mental exercise, weakens the brain, disorders the stomach, and makes general action of the whole organism languid and unem- phatic. 3i5 12. If you will persist in cramming your mind full of more things than you can possibly think about, men- tal dyspepsia and stagnation will be the result. Your mental energies will be dissipated over too wide a field, and you cannot therefore be otherwise than superficial in whatever thinking you do. 13. If you are worn out or suffering from brain exhaustion, the inferiority of your work shows itself in everything you do. 14. Demand hours that do not strain vitality to the limit. You can shape your way of life to your income, but you cannot shape your life to hours that exhaust you, for then you have no life left to shape. 15. A tired man is many removes from a tired-out man, and there is a great deal in knowing whether your work is overdoing you or simply tiring you. 16. All you accomplish by stimulating or crowding the mind or body, when tired, is worse than lost. 17. It is a law of nature that the over-development of any function or faculty, forcing or stimulating it, tends not only to ruin it, but the injury reacts injuriously on every other faculty and function. 18. Mental vigor is always impaired by over-exer- tion at hard and long-continued labor, by irritation from frequent and unnaturally violent nervous impressions, by want of sleep, or by severe intellectual effort. 19. A man who lives to the limit of his vitality, has no reserve of strength against accident or illness, and in the end the time saved by putting these minutes of leisure to business account, is more than offset by the strain on eyes, nerves, muscles and mind. 20. The constant employment of any faculty of the brain, without any opportunity for relaxation, must either unbalance the mind or lead to a general break- down. 21. You should not permit one great faculty to dwarf, cripple, warp or mutilate your manhood. 22. Young men who spend too many years at school, are apt to forget the great end of life, which is to be and to do, and not to read and brood over what other men have done. 316 CHARACTER: A MORAL TEXT-BOOK. Book XVI. Part 1. Labor. Let me but do my work from day to day, In field or forest, at the desk or loom, In roaring market-place, or tranquil room; Let me but find it in my heart to say, When vagrant wishes beckon me astray — "This is my work; my blessing - , not my doom." — Van Dyke. 1. Labor is the divine law of existence. 2. Labor shuts up the first avenue to dishonesty ; it opens a broader field for the display of every talent ; and inspires with a new vigor the performance of every social and religious duty. 3. The great majority of men, in all times, however enlightened, must necessarily be engaged in the ordinary avocations of industry; and no degree of culture which can be conferred on the community at large, will ever enable them — even were it desirable, which it is not — -to get rid of the daily work of society, which must be done. 4. Nature works with you. And it ought never to be forgotten that, however rich or poor you may be, all that you eat, all that you are clothed with, all that shel- ters you, irom the palace to the cottage, is the result of labor. 5. There is no operation of manual labor so simple, so mechanical, which does not require the exercise of per- ception, reflection, memory, and judgment, — the same intellectual powers with which the highest truths of science have oeen discovered and illustrated. 6. The man who paints a picture, writes a book, makes a law, creates a poem, is a working man of the highest order ; not so necessary to the community as the plowman or the shepherd, but not less important as providing for society its highest intellectual nourishment, and leading it onward and upward. 7. Without labor there can be no real and perma- nent success, no substantial and lasting achievement. 8. The object of all labor, is to supply human 317 wants ; and want is the incentive to all human progress. The greater your wants the higher your life. 9. The law of labor is equally binding on genius and mediocrity. 10. Labor is not only a necessity, but it is also a pleasure. What would otherwise be a curse, by the constitution of your physical system, becomes a blessing. n. Man not only obtains the gifts of nature at the price of labor, but these gifts become more precious, as you bestow on them greater skill and cultivation. 12. Labor found the world a wilderness and made it a garden. 13. Labor is the condition of all improvement. 14. There is something wrong about the man who looks on manual labor as degrading. 15. Work is not only a discipline, it is an educator of character. Even work that produces no results, be- cause it is work, is better than torpor, inasmuch as it educates facility, and is thus preparatory to successful work. 16. Excellence is seldom, if ever granted to man, save as the reward of severe labor. 17. The highest good will be obtained, when all the reasonable wants of civilized man are supplied with the least labor. 18. He who is a stranger to industry may possess, but he cannot enjoy ; for it is labor which gives relish to pleasure. 19. Even the drudgery of the commonest laborer, contributes toward the general well-being of society. 20. You must either work, or somebody must work for you. 21. Work is difficult in proportion, as the end to be attained is high and noble. God has put the highest price on the greatest worth. 22. The working people are the true nobility. This includes those who work with their minds and those who work with their hands ; and with these workers you should enroll your name, and honor it through life, by being a working man — a producer, and not a mere con- sumer of what others earn. 3i8 CHARACTER: A MORAL TEXT-BOOK. Book XVI. Part 2. Opportunity. Ah, happy he who, knowing how to wait, Knows also how to watch and work and stand On life's broad deck alert, and at the prow To seize the passing moment, big with fate, From opportunity's extended hand, "When the great clock of destiny strikes now! — Mary A. Townsend. i. The opportunity is in the man, far more than in the place or the surroundings. 2. Do not wait for extraordinary opportunities ; seize common occasions and make them great. 3. The man who seizes his opportunity and im- proves it, in any community or walk of life, prospers. The man who does not, fails. 4. Learn to look on everything which comes to you in life as an opportunity, a new point of departure for something higher and better. 5. Make it the object of your life to look for, and avail yourself of, the opportunities of the day. Press close after the leaders ; do not wait for the crowd. Be quick to know discoveries and to use them. 6. When opportunities do not seem to come to you, it is entirely possible to make them for yourself. Do not wait for them. They come to all sooner or later. You may not know it, but it is not the fault of the opportu- nities. 7. Opportunity comes to everyone sooner or later, and it is indispensable that you be ready to take advan- tage of it. 8. Great opportunities not only come seldom into the most fortunate life, but they are often quickly gone. 9. To know opportunity, is a rare and exquisite wisdom ; a hundred arts and sciences are as nothing to it. 10. He who improves an opportunity, sows a seed which will yield fruit in opportunity for himself and others. 11. The opportunity to try is before everyone, and 3i9 he who fails to try, and try hard, and long, and earnestly, must not expect to achieve his aim in life. 12. God gives to all ability and opportunities enough, to make them moderately successful. If you fail, it is your own fault. 13. Golden opportunities are nothing to laziness, but industry makes the commonest chances golden. 14. The true way is, first to develop your ability to the last ounce, and then you will be ready for your op- portunity, when it comes, or make one, if none offers. 15. Given the possibility, the right man can make his opportunity, and should do so, if it is not at hand, or does not come, after reasonable waiting. 16. You cannot expect that your whole life shall be made up of opportunities, that they will meet you at regu- lar intervals as you go on, like milestones by the road- side. 17. Opportunity is open to every man according to his ability, his purpose, and his patient industry. 18. Every season and every occasion makes its own imperious demand, and presents its peculiar opportunity of glorious victory or ignoble defeat, in the great battle of existence. 19. Do not think that opportunity comes to others and not to you. Fortune visits every healthy, determined soul many times ; but, if she does not find it ready for its opportunity, she snatches her gift away and gives it to another. 20. There is no difficulty in finding openings, if you only keep your eyes open. 2.1. Energy, push and determination will bring openings, even to very small places. 22. There are always possibilities, and there is no telling how high, one strictly attentive to business, and observing all the rules that govern it, may finally rise. 23. If you fill your present position, whatever it may be, full to overflowing; if you are faithful, careful, and prudent ; if you study the needs of the next higher step above you, you may soon take that step. 24. There is always something to be done, that is awaiting the coming of somebody that can do it well. 320 CHARACTER: A MORAL TEXT-BOOK. Book XVI. Part 3. Usefulness. Are you in earnest? Seize this very minute What you can do, or think you can, begin it. — Faust. 1. Highest use is always attended with the greatest pleasure — a benevolent provision of the Creator to stimu- late the performance of these uses. 2. Usefulness of character depends more on dili- gence than on anything else. 3. The man who is useful, is the man who is suc- cessful. 4. The more you know, the more you can do with less effort. 5. The vast bulk of men are required to discharge the homely duties of life, and they have less need of genius, than of intellectual industry and patient enter- prise. 6. It is disreputable for anyone in vigorous health and years, even of ample fortune, to be without employ- ment. 7. Working men and working women are the best in the world. 8. Education is no value, talent is worthless, unless it can do something, achieve something. 9. The purest pleasures lie within the circle of use- ful occupation. 10. Be fit for more than the thing you are now doing. n. Even the meanest condition may be made use- ful ; for the light set in a low place shines as faithfully as that set on a hill. 12. It is not how much a man may know that is of importance, but the end and purpose for which he knows it. 13. Whatever your occupation or profession in life may be, it is most desirable to create for yourself some other special interest. 14. Knowledge is not knowledge until you use it. 15. The mere resolve not to be useless, and the hon- 321 est desire to help other people, will, in the quickest and most delicate way, improve yourself. 16. The world honors utility, and has more use for the trained man that will work in harness, than for the brilliant but ethereal fancies of a genius, that float idly on every changing current of the imagination. 17. It is a good way to do more than is required of you, — to bring yourself forward. The able, industrious, and clear-headed man is always in demand. 18. Thousands may be out of employment, but the man who can do things, never. The whole world is look- ing for the man who can do things. 19. When the art of packing life with useful occupa- tions is once acquired, by practice, every minute will be turned to account; and leisure, when it comes, will be enjoyed with all the greater zest. 20. The time surely comes, in the lives of most peo- ple, when the highest human happiness is found in keep- ing busy. 21. The diligent man is quick to find employment for his leisure; and he is able to make leisure when the idle man finds none. 22. If your hands cannot be usefully employed, at- tend to the cultivation of your mind. 23. Lose no time ; be always employed in something useful ; and cut off all unnecessary actions. 24. Get something honest and do it, no matter what. Keep doing anything you can get, until you can get what you want. 25. Constant useful occupation is wholesome, not only for the body, but for the mind. Even any ordinary drudgery is better than idleness. 26. Only the man who is trained to help himself, can "be helpful to others. 2J. Never ask another to do for you, what you can just as well do for yourself. To depend on others, has a tendency to enervate the mind and weaken the active powers. 28. One who is cheerful is pre-eminently useful. 29. You should be active, ready for any and every emergency. 322 CHARACTER: A MORAL TEXT-BOOK. Book XVI. Part 4. Vocation. All the world's a stage And all the men and women merely players: They have their exits and their entrances And one man in his time plays many parts. — Shakespeare. i. One of the greatest questions a human being is ever called on to decide, is the choice of a career. It affects your entire character and destiny. 2. All business and all work should lift up, and not hold down ; it should make free, and not enslave ; it should ennoble and not degrade. 3. Do not choose your life work, solely for the money that you can make by it. It is a contemptible estimate of an occupation, to regard it as a mere means of making a living. 4. As a rule, a man takes pride in his occupation, when he feels that his whole nature is in harmony with it, when all of his faculties give their full consent to what he is doing. 5. It is not to the value of your services you should look, but to the opportunity offered. 6. Live in your occupation or profession so as to ennoble it while you stay in it. When the nobleness ceases, let the occupation or profession cease. 7. Choose an occupation which will develop you ; which will elevate you ; which will give you a chance for self-improvement and promotion. You may not make so much money, but you will be more of a man, and man- hood is above all riches. 8. You should choose an occupation which will call out the noblest, the strongest, in you, and allow that which is mean, narrow and contemptible to die. 9. Power and constant growth toward a higher life, arc the great end of human existence. Your calling should be the great school of life, the great man de- veloper, character-builder, that which should broaden, deepen, and round out into symmetry, harmony and beauty, all the God-given faculties within you. 3 23 io. The crowning fortune of a man, is to be born to some pursuit, which keeps him in employment and happiness. ii. Whether a life is noble or ignoble, depends not only on the calling which is adopted, but on the spirit hi which it is followed. 12. A man's business does more to make him than anything else. No man feels himself a man who is not doing a man's business. 13. In selecting the life career, it behooves every- one to be conscientious, to be careful in taking account of the predilection, of talent and probable opportunity. 14. If your vocation be an humble one, elevate it with more manhood than others put into it. Put into it brains and heart, and energy and economy. Broaden it by originality of methods. Extend it by enterprise and industry. Study it as you would a profession. Learn everything that is to be known about it. Concentrate your faculties on it, for the greatest achievements are reserved for the man of single aim, in whom no rival powers divide the empire of the soul. 15. A vocation ought to be selected, in which there is a prospect of making more than a mere living. It is ennobling to feel, as you advance in life, that you are laying up something for old age, not only for your own subsistence, but for religious and philanthropic purposes as well. 16. As the calling dignifies the man, so the man much more advances his calling. 17. Select a clean, useful, honorable occupation. If there is any doubt on this point, abandon the thought of it at once. Choose a career that has expansiveness in it. 18. The most unhappy people in the world are those who are out of place. 19. Your occupation has everything to do with your development and destiny. 20. Choose that occupation which focuses the larg- est amount of your experience and taste. 21. A man cannot succeed when his whole nature is entering its perpetual protest against his occupation. 324 CHARACTER: A MORAL TEXT-BOOK. Book XVI. Part 5. Business. There is a tide in the affairs of men, Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune; Omitted, all the voyage of their life Is bound in shallows, and in miseries. — Shakespeare. 1. Business qualities have, indeed, a very large field of action. They mean aptitude for affairs, compe- tency to deal successfully with the practical work of life — whether the spur of action lie in domestic management, in the conduct of a profession, in trade or commerce, in social organization, or in political government. And the training which gives efficiency in dealing with these various affairs is of all others the most useful in practical life. Moreover, it is the best discipline of character, for it involves the exercise of diligence, attention, self-denial, judgment, tact, knowledge of and sympathy with others. 2. The path of success in business is invariably the path of common sense. 3. The business community demands well-trained minds, capable of grasping details and carrying out in- structions in a correct and orderly manner. 4. A sacred regard for the principles of justice, forms the basis of every transaction, and regulates the conduct of the upright man of business. 5. If in business such methods are practiced, if such aims are followed as destroy the man, however great the returns in money, it is worse than a failure ; for the man it was destined to make, it has destroyed. 6. The young man who would succeed, must have a keen eye for the best facilities for doing business, for the most ingenious devices, or he will soon find himself drifting to the rear. 7. Business is a combination of nerve and conser- vatism. Experience and a good head must determine how far to go in either direction. 8. The qualities of mind which enable a man to grow prosperous in business, are, to a certain extent, 325 inherent in character, but may be cultivated. If the natural bent is not there, the possibility of success is always less, and a mere inclination for a commercial life were better abandoned if the stronger talent, with a pos- sibility of success, manifests itself. 9. The young man who is seeking a sound business education, must make up his mind to follow a disciplined course of life, to wait patiently while working hard, to begin modestly before rising high, to eschew the pleas- ant indulgence which waste time, strength and money, and to take his place in the world of men, not as a rival and a bully, but as a comrade and co-worker. 10. Essential elements of success in business are adaptibility to the calling, hard work, strict attention to business and honest dealing. 11. The young man starting in business must be resourceful, and quick to meet an emergency, if he would succeed. 12. Sooner or later every business man finds that persistence, patience in mastering the small things in his business, and hard work, are necessary to his success, and that he must acquire these habits in order to succeed. 13. No young man is fitted for business life, who is not in excellent physical trim, and who neglects to keep himself in this condition. 14. Attention, application, accuracy, method, punctuality and dispatch, are the principal qualities re- quired for the efficient conduct of business of any sort. 15. Business habits, cultivated and disciplined, are found useful in every pursuit — whether in politics, lit- erature, science, or art. 16. Successful business men are those who are striv- ing to render the best service to the people. 17. The business world is full of prizes for the brainy man, and education will teach such a one to use his brains to the best advantage. 18. Habits of business do not relate to trade merely, but apply to all the practical affairs of life — to every- thing that has to be analyzed, to be organized, to be pro- vided for, to be done. 326 CHARACTER: A MORAL TEXT-BOOK. Book XVI. Part 6. Surroundings. \ We are living, we are dwelling, In a grand and awful time; In an age on ages telling, To be living is sublime. — Anon. i. Accident, chance, environment, location of birth- place, poverty, lack of early opportunities or education, generally have more to do with your position in life than free choice. 2. A noble, high-minded, honorable man, can ele- vate his surroundings, however humble they may be. 3. Instead of changing yourself with your surround- ings, you may make your surroundings take on your hue, and you see in them only the reflection of yourself. 4. If your environments impede your progress, rise above them. 5. Improve yourself and let your surroundings be determined by an improved manhood. 6. What your social life-work may be, will depend entirely on surroundings and opportunity. 7. While it is true that surroundings have much to do with conduct ; environment with success ; it still re- mains a fact that your deeds find only their occasion in the conditions of life ; the cause is in the character. 8. Circumstances only affect, they never create character. You determine your surroundings and never the surroundings you. 9. Give a man power and a field in which to use it, and he must accomplish something. He may not become all that he desires and dreams of, but his life cannot be a failure. 10. Man is formed through the forces and action of such apparent needs and necessities, as his peculiar sur- roundings make. A strong, manful, self-reliant character, can no more spring from surroundings where little per- sonal effort is required, than a flow of water from a dry fountain. 11. It is part of your nature, and wholly within 327 your power, greatly to change and to take advantage of, your circumstances ; so that you can rise much superior to your natural surroundings, simply because you can thus vary and improve the surroundings. 12. Surroundings, which men call unfavorable, can- not prevent the unfolding of your powers. 13. While it is true that your circumstances or en- vironments do affect you, in most things, they do not pre- vent your growth. 14. God is responsible for the manner of a man's success, because that is largely determined by his sur- roundings ; but, for the success itself, the man alone is always and everywhere responsible. 15. Men are moulded by their surroundings and be- come transformed into the likeness of their outlook. 16. Every person is effected, more or less, accord- ing to the strength of his individuality, by his environ- ment, which is not always of his own choosing. 17. There is something in circumstances but, as a rule, the best man does win the best place, and persistent merit does succeed. 18. A constant struggle, a ceaseless battle to bring success from inhospitable surroundings, is the price of all great achievement. 19. It may be true, in rare instances, that circum- stances make the man. On the other hand, it is true that the man makes the circumstances. 20. The best men do not always get the best places ; circumstances have a great deal to do with position, salaries, and station in life. 21. You must ever stand upright, happen what may, and for this end you must cheerfully resign yourself to the varied influence of this many-colored life. 22. What seem like accidental occurrences, some- times show you your true bent, your real work in the world, and determine your course in life. 23. Men's characters and habits are not influenced so much by the peculiarities of family and race, as by the physical features of their native land and mode of life — things by which they are supported and by which they live. 328 CHARACTER: A MORAL TEXT-BOOK. Book XVI. Part 7. Competition. The heights of great men reached and kept Were not attained by sudden flight, But they, while their companions slept, Were toiling upward in the night. — Longfellow. 1. Competition is the great law of success. In the educational world, competition is a great and powerful factor. 2. An educated man, with proper staying power, will stand the best chance of success in the business world. 3. In proportion as you are hard pressed in compe- tition it is of the sternest necessity for you to choose the right aim, so as to be able to throw the whole of your energy and enthusiasm into the struggle for success. 4. Life should always have enough competition to keep the edge tools of the brain sharp and bright. 5. Opposing circumstances create strength. 6. The moment man is relieved of opposition or friction, that moment he often ceases to struggle and therefore ceases to grow. 7. There is no possible success without some oppo- sition as a fulcrum ; force is always aggressive and crowds something. 8. It is the difficulties that scare and keep out un- worthy competitors. 9. If competition troubles you, work away ; your competitor is but a man. 10. He that wrestles with you strengthens your nerves and sharpens your skill. n. Your antagonist is your helper. 12. Post yourself thoroughly on your competi- tor's side of the question as well as your own. 13. No one can engage in any work without incur- ring opposition. 14. Competition demands application and diligence, if you would not be beaten. 15. Opposition gives greater power of resistance. 329 16. A man's enemies are often the making of him. 17. Possibly your enemy has some virtues which you need. 18. A good man will, as much as possible, strive to be shaken out of himself, and learn to study the excel- lences of persons and parties to whom he is naturally opposed. 19. The educational advantages of money-making: the planning, this way and that, to make a profit, the ex- ercise of foresight, spurring the imagination and the reasoning faculties, the constant daily rubbing of wit against wit — these are the factors of self-education which competition teaches. 20. You get needed training in coming in contact with men. Your wits are sharpened. 21. The perpetual attritition of mind on mind, rasps off the rough edges of impractical life, and gives polish to character. It teaches patience, perseverance, forbear- ance, and application. It teaches method and system, by compelling you to crowd the most possible into every day and hour. 22. It is ever the survival of the fittest. The stronger use the weaker, and the unfit become extinct. 23. The highest working qualities are best trained by active and systematic contact with others, in the affairs of daily life. 24. The living principle of constant work, of abund- ant occupation, of practical contact with men in the affairs of life, has in all times been the best ripener of the energetic vitality of strong natures. 25. It is by mixing with the world that you find your chief sphere of duty, that you learn the discipline of work, and that you educate yourself in that patience, dili- gence, and endurance which shape and constitute char- acter. 26. By mixing with the world, you encounter the difficulties, trials, and temptations which, according as you deal with them, give color to your entire after life ; and there, too, you become subject to the great discipline of suffering, from which you learn far more than from the safe seclusion of the study or the cloister. 330 CHARACTER: A MORAL TEXT-BOOK. Book XVI. Part 8. Talents. Talents angel bright, If wanting worth, are shining instruments In ambition's hand, to finish faults Illustrious, and give infamy renown. — Young. 1. Natural talents are not to be depreciated, nor should they be neglected. Cultivate them, render them serviceable at all times and on all occasions; not con- fining their usefulness to great emergencies that may never come. 2. A young man ought to succeed in any occupa- tion for which he has a natural talent, and which permits him to be honest in his dealings. 3. The safest plan is to improve the talents which you are sure you possess. 4. Cleverness will aid talent, but without cultiva- tion and direction, it only makes the failure of its pos- sessor more conspicuous. 5. The foundation of talent is imagination, which is sensibility of mind. 6. You may bury your talents, but not one of them can ever stay buried. Somewhere, some day, they will rise up and demand their rights. 7. Nature neither gives nor withholds her natural talents as an excuse for aimless work. She does not place the mark of genius on the brow as an especial seal of God's approval, except as it accomplishes results that He commends. 8. First-class talent is always in demand ; never below par. 9. Talent is by no means rare in this world ; nor even is genius. 10. Every man has some natural aptitude. 11. The talent of success is nothing more than doing what you can do well, and doing well whatever you do, without a thought of fame. 33i 12. A small talent, if kept within its limits, and rightly discharges its task, may reach the goal, just as well as a great one. 13. Those who fail, as a rule, desert the line of their talent, and do not stick to what nature intended them for. 14. No man ever made an ill figure who understood his own talents, nor a good one who mistook them. 15. Guard against a talent which you cannot hope to practice in perfection. 16. The barriers are not yet erected, which shall shut out aspiring talent. 17. Unrewarded talent will not long remain uncom- pensated. It cannot be concealed. 18. To cultivate the talents and gifts possessed by everybody, in greater or less degree, to the best of your individual ability, without reference to others, is your paramount duty. 19. Do not mistake mere liking for talent. 20. It takes superior talents to do big things, even when the means are at hand. 21. Everybody is endowed with one or more tal- ents; it remains with you to decide whether or not you will develop them. 22. Whatever you are by nature, keep to it; never desert your line of talent. 23. Well-matured and well-disciplined talent, is always sure of a market, but it must not cower at home and expect to be sought for. 24. You must discover the bias of your nature, and not wait for the proclivity to make itself manifest. 25. It is only by mixing freely in the world, that you can form an estimate of your own capacity. 26. Do not go outside your part, for whatever part in life you may be cast. 2.7. What you lack is not more talents, but more purpose with those you have. 28. What you like to do best of all, that you should do and try to do better than any one else. That is legit- imate emulation. 332 CHARACTER: A MORAL TEXT-BOOK. Book XVI. Part 9. Merit. There's a charm in independence, — To feel that you have won The prizes due to merit By the labor you have done; To feel that, single handed, While your neighbor stood aside, You have gained the meed of courage, The reward of honest pride. — Anon. 1. The passport to success is merit. If you are earnest, persistent, and self-reliant, you will succeed by your own merit, whether you are helped or not. 2. Every employer is on the lookout for marked merit, and even if he does not recognize your superior effort, others will, and you will soon find your proper place. 3. Accuracy in everything should be attempted, as it is a badge of merit ; and any one with a reputation for its constant practice will gain the confidence of others, and win his way where another with known careless habits will fail. 4. No man can stay on top simply because he is put there. His rating will be determined by his ability and his performance. 5. Employers are as anxious to get good service, as workmen to obtain good employment. 6. After giving luck all possible credit, you know that, in the long run and with few exceptions, real merit wins. 7. Merit procures you the esteem of men of sense, and good fortune that of the public. 8. A rich boy may get and hold a place on account of his wealth or influence ; but in the works, merit alone will enable a man to hold a place long. 9. Merit, as a rule, gets the reward. 10. If the possessor of capacity sought to hide him- self, he would be discovered and induced to employ his ability for the benefit of those who need it. 11. Where success depends on merit, instead of 333 favor, as it always should, intelligence, industry, and honesty, are the three most necessary qualities. 12. There is really no more personal merit attach- ing to the possession of superior intellectual powers, than there is to the succession to a large estate. The merit comes from the use of the powers or the estate. 13. When big work is to be done, when the big position is to be filled, it is the man of merit that is wanted. 14. There is but one straight road to success, and that is merit. 15. This is a busy world, and men have no time to hunt about in obscure places for retiring merit. They prefer to take a man at his own estimate until he proves himself unworthy. 16. It is not capital that your superiors require, it is the man who has proved that he has the business habits which create capital. 17. The commercial world bows to the successful business man, Even in the remotest hamlet the hustler is admired. 18. Capacity never lacks opportunity. It cannot remain undiscovered, because it is sought by too many anxious to utilize it. 19. The great distinction should be remembered, that while money can buy quantity, there is something beyond its limitations, and that is quality. 20. There is no service so low and simple, neither so complex and high, in which the young man of ability and willing disposition, cannot readily and almost daily, prove himself capable of greater trust and usefulness. 21. Nothing has more to do with forming a strong character, and ability of a high order, than constant cul- tivation of a love of excellence. 22. Though the reputation of men of genuine char- acter may be of slow growth, their true qualities cannot be wholly concealed. They may be misrepresented by some, and misunderstood by others, misfortune and adversity may, for a time, overtake them ; but, with patience, they will eventually inspire the respect and command the confidence which they really deserve. 334 CHARACTER: A MORAL TEXT-BOOK. Book XVI. Part 10. Deserts. The tissue of the life to be We weave with colors all our own; And in the field of destiny, We reap as we have sown. — Whittier. 1. Conduct yourself so as to deserve the best that can come to you, and the consciousness of your own proper behavior will keep you in spirits if it should not come. 2. He alone is trusted who possesses that priceless, peerless treasure — good character. 3. In the long run a man will rise and prosper in almost exact proportion to his real value to the business world. He will rise or fall according to his ability. 4. Some prize is open to most every one who deserves it. 5. It is not the salary, but the man who draws it, that is at fault, if the salary continues small. 6. The difference in the lives of men, is not in any great degree due to the difference in their opportunities ; it is due to the difference in the men themselves. 7. You may be pretty certain, that persons whom all the world treats ill, deserve entirely the treatment they get. 8. For those who have the energy, the persever- ance, and knowledge, there is a ripe harvest always waiting. 9. A man's opportunity, usually has some relation to his ability. It is an opening for a man of his talents and means. It is an opening for him to use what he has, faithfully and to the utmost. It requires toil, self-denial and faith. 10. Every employer has his eyes on the brightest, the most energetic, and the most determined youth, and will generally advance him when the opportunity comes. 11. If the job be long, the pay will be greater; if the task be hard, the more competent you must be to do it. 335 12. First deserve and then desire. Deserve success and it will come. 13. Qualities that make men really valuable are recognized, and the places to be filled are seeking men to fill them. 14. The confidence and approbation of your fellow human beings, is the highest premium placed on doing good and being good. 15. The first requirement is to be fitted for better and higher things ; the second is to attain them. Prepara- tion comes by painful steps and slow ; promotion comes frequently to the earnest man as a surprise. 16. No honest, heroic work ever failed of reward. It may not be the particular reward that the worker set out to win, but something richly worth the toiling for is bound up with all labor, for this is one of God's beau- tiful laws. 17. What ought rather to be rewarded is the endeavor, the struggle and the obedience ; for it is the youth who does his best, though endowed with an infe- riority of natural powers, that ought above all others to be encouraged. 18. The world is always hunting for efficient men ; a man who can do things ; a man with executive ability ; a man who has transmuted every bit of his knowledge into practical power, and has learned to bring it out with great energy, on whatever he undertakes ; this is the kind of man who is always in demand. 19. Too many youths enter on the business to which they are assigned in a languid, half-hearted way, and do their work in a slipshod manner ; the consequence being that they inspire neither admiration nor confidence on the part of their superiors, and cut off almost every chance of success. 20. Every man is almost sure to overrate his own importance. Your friends flatter you, and your own heart still more. The judgment of your enemies, though more severe, is more likely to be correct. 21. Intelligent, persevering effort, is sure to meet with reward. 336 CHARACTER: A MORAL TEXT-BOOK. Book XVI. Part 11. Success. Success it is To front the angry tumult of the world With right for comrade; faithfully to work; To wear contentment shining- on the brow. — Amos R. Wells. 1. Exceptional intellectual ability is not needed to secure success. Average men run the business affairs of the world, and the highest places are at the command of such men, provided that they display fidelity, industry and intelligence, and are vitalized by character. 2. There is nothing else which has such a magical effect on the brain, the nervous system, the whole man in fact, as the consciousness of achieving that on which his heart is set. Achievement acts like a tonic on the whole system, it quickens the circulation, stimulates the digestion, and enlarges hope. 3. Success is the accomplishment of the laudable life-purpose of a man of natural or cultivated parts, who has found an object in life worth living for, and has worked honestly and perseveringly to attain it. 4. True success is many-sided, and consists in the symmetrical development, to the highest possible extent, of all the higher qualities of your nature. 5. The men who, in addition to success in business, accomplish the most in promoting the common good and in raising character, are the real representatives of success. 6. From the humblest craft to the most exalted, in order to succeed, it is requisite to have intelligence and brains. 7. Genuine success, is the kind that is helpful to others, as well as to the one who is striving. 8. Success is rightly to be expected, and waits your winning in far more cases than you realize. 9. True success, is when a fair share of this world does not cost either moral, or intellectual, or physical health or life. 337 io. Keep steadily before you the fact, that all true success depends at last on yourself. ii. Success worth the having, is not merely making money ; it is the keeping a fair name and clear conscience in doing it, and living for something better than gain. 12. A worthy life is the best success, whether it is attained by wealth or poverty. 13. The man who does the very best he can under all circumstances, who makes the most of his ability and opportunities, who helps his fellow men whenever it is in his power to do so, who gives the best of himself to every occasion, who is loyal and true in his friendships, kindly, charitable, and magnanimous toward all, is a suc- cessful man. 14. Success is a growth, is expansion, is the unfold- ing of the divine nature of man, of all that is god-like within him. 15. There is really very little connection between the accumulation of money and real success. 16. Success does not run to meet you. It is you who must run to meet success. Persistent, earnest endeavor ; observance of all set rules of society; a willingness to imbibe knowledge and information ; alertness ; affability ; pleasantness and tact ; are necessary qualities. 17. Any man is successful who does well what comes to his hand, and who works to improve himself so that he may do it better. 18. Pure, upright living, and steady devotion to principle, are the surest foundations of any success worth having. 19. Success lies, not in achieving what you aim at, but in aiming at what you ought to achieve. There may be so-called success which is really a failure, and a failure which is truly a success. 20. He is really the most successful, who enriches his country the most, who gives himself with his money, who opens wider the door of opportunity to those about him, whose beneficence and kindness enrich his neigh- bors. 338 CHARACTER: A MORAL TEXT-BOOK. Book XVI. Part 12. Luck. There's a divinity that shapes our ends, Rough-hew them how we will. — Shakespeare. 1. All successful men have agreed in one thing: They believed that things go not by luck but law. 2. Notwithstanding all that is said about lucky hits, the best kind of success in every man's life is not that which comes by accident. 3. Luck never brightens the mind, never purifies or ennobles the heart, never sweetens the cup of bitterness, never softens the heavy hands of poverty, and never lightens the oppressive burdens of life. 4. Business success is never attained through luck, but is due to wonderful energy and foresight, good, sound judgment and ambition, and not to any supernatural source. 5. Excepting in rare instances, luck has nothing to do with success. It is no stroke of genius, but just the exercise of plain, plodding common sense, oftentimes the persistence in dry, dreary drudgery. 6. No man ever prospered by luck, unless it was the luck of working hard, and maintaining honor and integ- rity. 7. Rarely is there luck for idle, dawdling, nerveless men and women. 8. Men of force and grit, men who are not afraid of hard work, never complain of luck. 9. Accidental circumstances are nothing, except to men who have been trained to take advantage of them. 10. Shallow men believe in luck. Strong men believe in cause and effect. 11. What you do not seek you rarely if ever find. 12. A good character, good habits, and iron industry are impregnable to the assaults of ill luck. 13. There is no luck for all practical purposes, to him who is not striving, and whose senses are not all eagerly attent. What are called accidental discoveries 339 are almost invariably made by those who are looking for something. 14. The lucky man is the man who sees and grasps his opportunity. 15. Luck is only another word for good manage- ment in practical affairs. 16. Those who look into practical life, will find that fortune is usually on the side of the industrious, as the winds and waves are on the side of the best nav- igator. 17. Things over which you have no control, do sometimes appear to help to win in the race of life. 18. There is an amount of luck in the amount of success which crowns the efforts of different men; but it will usually be found that the sagacity with which the efforts are directed and the energy with which they are prosecuted, measure pretty accurately the luck contained in the results achieved. 19. To be thrown on your own resources, is to be cast into the very lap of fortune. 20. Knowledge, energy, and push, annul luck. 21. Only he who determines to rise superior to what is commonly meant by destiny, will ever achieve great success. 22. Fortune always finds those who are fitted. 23. Fate recedes as knowledge advances. 24. You carry your destiny in your own bosom. Fate is but the deepest current of your nature. 25. Many a robust, magnificent nature, has been hopelessly withered and shriveled by the hot blast of so-called good fortune. 26. Fate is unpenetrated causes. 27. Virtue and happiness and character are too precious commodities to be the sport and traffic of for- tune. 28. Nearly all successful men know that they are the causes of their own success. They do not wait around for luck to turn up and help them. 29. Diligence is the mother of good luck. 340 CHARACTER: A MORAL TEXT-BOOK. Book XVII. Part 1. Misfortune. Nothii.g is a misery Unless our weakness apprehend it so: We cannot be more faithful to ourselves, In anything- that's manly, than to make 111 fortune as contemptible to us As it makes us to others. — Beaumont and Fletcher. 1. It is in misfortune that the character of the up- right man shines forth with the greatest luster; and when all else fails, he takes his stand on his integrity and courage. 2. When things go hard with you, when everything seems to go against you, when you are thwarted on every side, when the sky is dark and you can see no light; that is just the time to exhibit your mettle, to show what you are made of. If there is anything in you, adversity will bring it to light. 3. Afflictions often prove but blessings in disguise. 4. A well-balanced mind is the best remedy against affliction. 5. In the experience of life, it is found that the wholesome discipline of adversity, in strong natures, usually carries with it a self-preserving influence. 6. The great danger in adversity, is that you permit yourself to be narrowed and soured in your feelings. 7. Adversity means different things to different peo- ple. The quality of the man weighs as much as the qual- ity of the happening. 8. To be worth anything, character must be capable of standing firm on its feet in the world of daily work, temptation, and trial ; and able to bear the wear and tear of actual life. 9. Affliction is a school of virtue. It corrects levity and interrupts the confidence of sinning. 10. Adversity has the effect of eliciting talents, which, in prosperous circumstances, would have lain dormant. 11. Rashness is the faithful but unhappy parent of misfortune. 34i 12. He that has never known adversity, is but half acquainted with others, or with himself. 13. The first lesson in the art of living, is to learn the value of misfortune. 14. There are natures which blossom and ripen amidst trials, which would only wither and decay in an atmosphere of ease and comfort. 15. It is not prosperity so much as adversity, not wealth so much as poverty, that stimulates the persever- ance of strong and healthy natures, rouses their energy and aevelops their character. 16. None can expect exemption from trial and vicis- situde, and when these misfortunes come, they should be encountered with a brave spirit, and a determination to deserve better for the future. 17. There is a close kinship in trouble. There are no gentlemen on board sinking ships ; every man is then taken for what he is practically worth. 18. It never yet happened to any man, since the be- ginning of the world, nor ever will, to have all things ac- cording to his desires, or to whom fortune was never op- posite and adverse. 19. Adversity exasperates fools, dejects cowards, draws out the faculties of the wise and industrious, puts the modest to the necessity of trying their skill, awes the opulent and makes the idle industrious. 20. Evils are more to be dreaded from the sudden- ness of their attack, than from their magnitude or their duration. 21. Adversity borrows its sharpest sting from impa- tience. 22. You cannot escape from anxiety and labor— it is the destiny of humanity. Those who shirk from facing trouble, find that trouble comes to them. 23. It takes will-power, in the face of greatly de- pressing circumstances, to turn the face sunward and to find the silver lining behind the clouds that hang like a pall over the present; but it can be done, and must, and this not only for yourself, but for others who are weakly waiting to see whether you will face the blast, or be bowed and torn by it, before they know which course to take. 342 CHARACTER: A MORAL TEXT-BOOK. Book XVII. Part 2. Failure. Not all who seem to fail have failed indeed; Not all who fail have therefore worked in vain; For all our acts to many issues lead. — Politics for the People. 1. You must not blame your failures to hard luck and unkind fate. It is lodged in you. You may not be able to control your circumstances, but you can control yourself in the midst of them. 2. Failure often leads a man to success, by arousing his latent energy, by firing a dormant purpose, by awak- ening powers which were sleeping. 3. One who is out of his place cannot get posses- sion of himself. He must fill the niche which nature made for him, or he will be a failure. He must feel the whole of himself, all of his faculties, his entire being tugging away at his life aim, if he would make the most possible of himself. 4. An honorable defeat is better than a mean vic- tory, and no one is really the worse for being beaten, un- less he loses heart. 5. Failure is not defeat, if you remain true to what you know is right and noble. 6. The triumph of a just cause may come late ; but when it does come, it is due as much to those who failed in their first efforts, as to those who succeeded in their last. 7. To contemplate failure, to think of yourself as unlucky and destined not to succeed, is to court failure. 8. Failure is only endeavor temporarily off the track. 9. Failure comes from an under-estimate of your- self as truly as from an over-estimate. You are practi- cally as strong and purposeful as you think yourself. 10. You cannot pursue a worthy object steadily and persistently, with all the powers of your mind, and yet make your life a failure. 11. The man who looks to others for help, instead of relying on himself, will fail. 343 12. Complete failure will come, sooner or later, to every man who does not subscribe to the principles of rectitude. 13. If you start out in life as a failure, you will end as one, unless you get thoroughly waked up in some way. 14. Nothing, except crime, is so humiliating as the consciousness of being considered a failure, when you have the ability to succeed. The mind constantly rebels against the inferior position into which it has been forced. 15. Defeats and failures have played a great part in the history of success. 16. Failure is, in a sense, the highway to success, inasmuch as every discovery of what is false, leads you to seek earnestly after what is true ; and every fresh ex- perience points out some form of error, which you shall afterwards carefully avoid. 17. Most people fail, because they do not deserve to succeed. They set about their work in the wrong way, and no amount of experience seems to improve them. 18. Failures in sensible men, incite to better self- management, and greater tact of self-control, as a means of avoiding them in the future. 19. Failure, to the man who learns, means expe- rience, and experience is equipment, and equipment is wealth. 20. If you once get a thirst for education, get your ambition fired to do something, there is very little danger of failure. 21. There is only one real failure in life possible, and that is not to be true to the best you know. 22. Defeats and failures are great developers of character. 23. Do not be afraid of defeat. You are never so near to victory as when defeated in a good cause. 24. Many, who have seemed to fail utterly, have often exercised a more potent and enduring influence on their race than those whose career has been a course of uninterrupted successes. 25. Failures are but the pillars of success. 344 CHARACTER: A MORAL TEXT-BOOK. Book XVII. Part 3. Sorrow. And light is mingled with the gloom, And joy with grief; Divinest compensations come, Through thorns of judgment mercies bloom In sweet relief. — Whittier. 1. Sorrow asks for sympathy, aches to let its griefs be known and shared by a kindred spirit. To find such is to dispel the loneliness from life. To have a heart which you can trust and into which you can pour your griefs and your doubts and your fears, is to take the edge from grief, and the sting from doubt, and the shade from fear. 2. The sum of life's sorrows does not arise from the crushing weight of one or two heavy providences, but from the hardships, or thoughtlessness, or want of gener- osity, or want of sympathy of your fellow-man. 3. As years pass, you find the world to be a place of sorrow as well as of joy. 4. From the deepest sorrow, the patient and thoughtful mind will gather richer wisdom than pleasure ever yielded. 5. Griefs knit two hearts in closer bonds than hap- piness ever can ; and common sufferings are far stronger links than common joys. 6. Suffering chastens and sweetens the nature, teaches patience and resignation, and promotes the deep- est as well as the most exalted thought. 7. Suffering, patiently and enduringly borne, is one of the noblest attributes of man. There is something so noble in the quality as to lift it into the highest regions of heroism. 8. Whoever has the power of concentrating his at- tention, and controlling his will, can emancipate himself from most of the minor miseries of life. 9. Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls. 10. Suffering is not necessary to man's happiness, 345 any further than it goes to correct his irregularities, and to call him back to the path of duty. Its mission is ac- complished when this is effected, and it will finally dis- appear, if the causes which produce it are removed. ii. Men are frequently wretched and miserable, be- cause they have despised the warnings of conscience. 12. Sorrows will come sometimes, as a matter of course, but they need not come as frequently as they do, if you do not encourage them ; you often make your own sorrows, let trifles annoy you, grow impatient and fretful at small troubles, and render yourself and everybody else uncomfortable by your unhappy mood. 13. Only people who are capable of loving strongly, can also suffer great sorrow; but this same necessity of loving, serves to counteract their grief, and heals them. For this reason, the moral nature of man is more active than the physical. 14. Probably the major part of your griefs are born, nourished, and perfected, entirely in an anxious, imagin- ative brain. 15. Sorrow is, in some mysterious way, linked with joy and associated with tenderness. 16. You can never be the judge of another's grief. That which is sorrow to one, to another is joy. 17. No man can learn from the sufferings of an- other ; he must suffer himself. 18. Gird your heart with silent fortitude, suffering yet hoping all things. 19. You will find much in your life to try you, and show the kind of material of which you are made. 20. Suffering becomes beautiful when you bear great calamities with cheerfulness, not through insen- sibility, but through greatness of mind. 21. The cement of your heart is mixed with tears, and nearly all your deep affections have their beginning in some sorrowful emotion. 22. Sorrow's best antidote is employment. 23. Sorrow comes unbidden ; but comfort waits for an invitation. Solace is for those who seek it. 24. Suffering is a misfortune as viewed from one side, and a discipline as viewed from the other. 346 CHARACTER: A MORAL TEXT-BOOK. Book XVII. Part 4. Difficulties. The wise and active conquer difficulties By daring to attempt them. — Rowe. i. Difficulties may intimidate the weak, but they act only as a wholesome stimulus to men of resolution and valor. 2. The apprenticeship of difficulty, is one which the greatest of men have had to serve. It is usually the best stimulus and discipline of character. It often evokes powers of action that, but for it, would have remained dormant. 3. A difficulty is a thing to be overcome ; grapple with it at once ; facility will come with practice ; and. strength and fortitude with repeated effort. Thus the mind and character may be trained to an almost perfect discipline, and enabled to act with a grace, spirit and lib- erty, almost incomprehensible to those who have not passed through a similar experience. 4. Difficulty is the soil in which all manly qualities best flourish ; and the true worker in any sphere is con- tinually coping with difficulties. 5. In all accomplishment, there is difficulty; the greater the work, the greater the pains necessary to ac- complish it. 6. It is the surmounting of difficulties that makes heroes. 7. Grappling with difficulties is the surest way of overcoming them. 8. Think your way out of difficulties, never trust to chance. But first learn how to think. The first grand requisite is self-restraint and the next self-possession. 9. Difficulties are your best instructors, and your mistakes often form your best experience. 10. There is no vocation or occupation that does not present many difficulties, at times almost over- whelming; and the young man who allows himself to waver every time he comes to a hard place in life, will not succeed. 347 ii. Difficult things are the only things worth doing ; and they are done by a determined will and a strong hand. 12. The school of difficulty, is the best school of moral discipline. When difficulties have to be encoun- tered they must be met with courage and cheerfulness. 13. In overcoming difficulties, you must be careful not to magnify them, and imagine them to be greater than they are. 14. The more difficulties you have to encounter, within and without, the more significant and the higher in inspiration your life will be. 15. Many owe the grandeur of their lives to their tremendous difficulties. 16. Nature, when she adds difficulties, adds brains. 17. If there were no difficulties, there would be no success ; if there were nothing to struggle for, there would be nothing to be achieved. 18. There is, perhaps, no station in life, in which difficulties have not to be encountered and overcome, be- fore any decided measure of success can be achieved. 19. Difficulties strengthen the mind, as labor does the body. 20. Seldom does a man reach a position with which he has reason to be satisfied, without encountering diffi- culties. 21. It is good for men to be roused into action and stiffened into self-reliance, by difficulty, rather than to slumber away their lives in useless apathy and indo- lence. 22. The history of difficulty, would be but a history of all the great and good things, that have yet been accomplished by men. 23. There is no more helpful and profiting exercise than surmounting obstacles. 24. Difficulties melt away before the man who car- ries about a cheerful spirit, and persistently refuses to be discouraged ; while they accumulate before the one who is always groaning over his hard luck, and scanning the horizon for clouds not yet in sight. 348 CHARACTER: A MORAL TEXT-BOOK. Book XVII. Part 5. Disappointment. To seek is better than to gain, The fond hope dies as we attain; Life's fairest things are those which seem, The best is that of which we dream. — Whittier. 1. Discontent ruins everything. A discontented man is a curse to himself, and a bugbear to others. He is not ready for work nor fit for society. You must get above this spirit of unrest, up to contentment, to self- control, to serenity of spirit, and placidity of soul, to freedom from vexation, envy, jealousy, and that wearing friction, that irritater, that disorganizes and destroys life's delicate machinery. 2. No one ever found the world quite as he would like it. 3. Disappointment seldom cures you of expectation, or has any other effect, than that of producing a moral sentence or peevish exclamation. 4. The brave, cheerful man will survive his blighted hopes and disappointments, take them for just what they are, lessons and perhaps blessings in disguise, and will march boldly and cheerfully forward in the battle of life. 5. Lack of self-control is one main source of dis- appointment. 6. Do not take everything too seriously. 7. Never be cast down by trifles. 8. The story of human life is that of dreams unful- filled, ideals unrealized, goals unattained. Youth steps forth with ambition beating high, and paints its concep- tion of life in the colors of the dawn ; but days of fierce heat beat down, nights of chill close in, and there is fail- ure and disappointment. 9. You must not change your situation, because of troubles or disappointments. Every trade and profession has its drawbacks ; but it has its pleasures as well. 10. History is, to a large extent, the record of dis- appointments. 11. Men of mettle turn disappointments into helps. 349 12. Young men need to be taught, not to expect a perfectly smooth and easy way to the objects of their en- deavor or ambition. 13. Pain may be said to follow pleasure as its shadow. 14. He who grasps at manv enjoyments, is sure to be troubled by many disappointments. 15. By most men the rosy dreams of youth are never realized. 16. He who always complains of the clouds, receives little of life's sunshine and deserves less. 17. Guard carefully against letting discontent ap- pear in you. It will be sorrow to your friends, a triumph to your competitors, and cannot be productive of any good. 18. One of the principal causes of discontent, is im- moderate desires and expectations. 19. A good man and a wise man may, at times, be angry with the world, at times grieved for it ; but be sure no man was ever discontented with the world, if he did his duty in it. 20. The honors and emoluments of the world bring so many cares with them, that they bring also torture and disquietude. 21. Life is crowned by its lost causes, for a cause that has enlisted noblest powers, evoked highest en- deavors, won love, consecrated and commanded bravery, patriotism, self-sacrifice, can never be utterly lost. 22. Do not let the thorns which appear in every vocation, or temporary despondency or disappointment, shake your purpose. 23. Obstacles that many persons would consider in- surmountable, only spur on a man of will and persever- ance, and often such men achieve greater distinction than they do who have everything in their favor. 24. The paths to lofty eminence have always been circuitous, laborious, and at times threatening. 25. It is not ease and facility that try men and bring out the good that is in them, so much as trial and difficulty. 35o CHARACTER: A MORAL TEXT-BOOK. Book XVII Part 6. Discouragement. If what shone afar so grand Turn to ashes in the hand. On again, the virtue lies In the struggle, not the prize. — R. M. Milnes. 1. Every young man, beginning life in earnest, nat- urally feels discouraged at times ; but, if he is made of the right kind of stuff, he will fight off the feeling and work and wait. 2. It is impossible for discouragement to paralyze a healthy and properly trained character. The misfor- tunes will have to be terrible and continued to break down such a man ; but if the training is there, the first ray of light will reinvigorate the mind, and with renewed hope, the deepest troubles will be alleviated if not entirely overcome. 3. No person ought to settle an important question when he is discouraged or depressed ; he ought to recog- nize such a condition as something abnormal and un- healthful — a condition which makes wise judgment and right action impossible. 4. When a youth gets discouraged and does not find life what he thought it would be, because he is not doing the work he was cut out to do, he easily drifts ; and the powers which are not employed in a legitimate way seek illegitimate ways. 5. Do not be discouraged over trifles, or lack of sym- pathy. Be not cast down because people fail to believe in your ability. Show them that you can and will succeed. 6. No one is ever beaten unless he is discouraged. 7. Indulging in the feeling of discouragement, never helped any one over a difficulty, and never will. 8. The man who can be easily discouraged, or turned aside from his purpose, the man who has no iron in his blood, will never win. 9. You do not live in a world in which a man can afford to be discouraged by trifles. There are real diffi- culties enough, with which to fight is to live, and which to conquer is to live nobly. 35i io. If you learn to treat your times of depression and discouragement as symptoms of disease, and avoid deciding or acting when they are on you — to look at them as something apart from your best and truest self — you will avoid the mistakes into which they will lead, and you will do much to overcome them. ii. Despondency scarcely entertains as possible, the plan which cheerfulness readily works out. Despondency gives up the work at the very first discouragement, but cheerfulness sings of successes to come. Despondency is broken hearted because of the hardness of men's hearts ; but cheerfulness remembers the might of the eternal hammer, which can break the rock in pieces. 12. The real causes of despondency are within. At the head of the list is physical debility. There is where despondency starts. The body, which is the citadel of life, has been broken down, and you fall an easy prey to every doubt that would harass you. 13. Industry pays debts while despair increases them. 14. To the great majority, there come hours when life loses its song. The effect of despondency is most dis- astrous. It produces complete paralysis of effort. It unfits and disqualifies for living. 15. The darkest, dreariest, most depressing spell of despondency, that ever made life a burden and the world unendurable, can be completely and gloriously cured. 16. Despondency discrowns manhood. It is a dis- ease that saps manhood of its strength. 17. At intervals, you may feel despondent about your progress ; but all who have achieved greatness have had to undergo these same enervating and depressing periods. 18. Gloom and depression not only take much out of life, but detract greatly from the chances of winning success. 19. The most perilous hour of your life is when you are tempted to despond. 20. A prolific cause of despondency, is a false view of life. You see the wrong things. You take your eyes off encouragements and look at difficulties. 352 CHARACTER: A MORAL TEXT-BOOK. Book XVII. Part 7. Appearance. 'Tis not the richest plant that folds The sweetest breath of fragrance in; 'Tis not the fairest form that holds The mildest, purest soul within. — Rufus Dawes. i. It is born in man to respect appearances. 2. You should be ever better than you seem. 3. Make the very best appearance you can, honestly, but stop there. 4. You cannot long deceive the world, for that other self, who ever stands in the shadow of yourself, holding the scales of justice, that telltale in the soul, rushes to the eye or into the manner and betrays you. 5. If you observe a man becoming, day by day, richer, or advancing in station, or increasing in profes- sional reputation, you set him down as a successful man. 6. The world at large, cannot help forming its judg- ment and likings, mainly according to outward conduct. 7. Dangers are light, if they once seem light ; and more dangers have deceived men than have forced them. 8. That which seems a trifle, may be the secret spring which shall move the issues of life and death. 9. The way to be beautiful without, is to be beauti- ful within. 10. You must not jump to the conclusion, that be- cause a man has not succeeded in what he has really tried to do with all his might, he cannot succeed in any- thing . 11. A hill ahead is higher than a mountain behind. 12. Men are all prone to judge of a movement, by the character of certain individuals identified with it. If they believe in the person, the movement is good ; if they distrust him, it is bad. 13. A man's character and success, are greatly af- fected by his friends. A man is known by the company he keeps. 14. The eye speaks with an eloquence and truth- 353 fulness surpassing speech. It is the window out of which the winged thoughts often fly unwittingly. 15. A judgment of the character of another, founded on a close study of its display in his life, and in all over which he has influence, from his clothes to his friends and pursuits, is generally fairly correct in its main out- lines. 16. The equivalent of capital, with many young men, is their ability to create a good impression, and to maintain it by correct bearing. 17. In civilized society, external advantages make you more respected. A man with a good coat on his back, meets with a better reception than he who has a bad one. 18. Always endeavor to be really what you would wish to appear. 19. It is as easy to judge, a man by the enemies he has made as by his friends. 20. The peculiarities and oddities of a man, gen- erally impress you first ; and it is not until you are better acquainted with him, that you begin to look below these superficial traits, and to know the better part of him. 21. Actions are of so mixed a nature, that as men pry into them, or observe some parts more than others, they take different hues, and put contrary interpretations on them. 22. The world at large judges of a man largely by his dress, rather than by his accomplishments. 23. The style and neatness of your attire, have much to do with your success in any respectable calling. 24. First impressions are always the most lasting and, in nearly every instance, are derived from personal appearance. 25. The slovenly, dirty person, by rendering him- self physically disagreeable, sets the feelings of others at defiance, and is rude and uncivil only in another form. 26. A man may have a good character and a bad reputation, or he may have a good reputation and a bad character. The reason of this is, that men form their opinions of others from what they appear to be, and not from what they really are. 354 CHARACTER: A MORAL TEXT-BOOK Book XVII. Part 8. Uncertainty. O, many a shaft, at random sent, Finds mark the archer little meant. — Scott. 1. The things you expect people to do they do not do, and the things you never look for simply come around to show how little you know about fate. 2. An element of uncertainty permeates every action and aspiration of man, but he who deliberately places his hopes and happiness in matters of chance and specula- tion, is not only jeopardizing his own future usefulness, but unfits himself for the service of others. 3. The decrees of fate are beyond the powers of man to avert, but the lesser uncertainties of life may be easily warded off and overcome. 4. Take the lot of the happiest — it is a tangled yarn. It is made up of sorrows and joys ; and the joys are all the sweeter because of the sorrows. 5. Apparent trifles often change an entire destiny. 6. There is no man so great, but he may both need the help and service, and stand in fear of the power and unkindness, even of the meanest of mortals. 7. Where one man lives to enjoy the good he has in view, ten thousand are cut off in the pursuit of it. 8. Men become slaves for life, to reputation that they are not able to maintain, to wealth that they are not strong enough to handle. 9. A weaker man may sometimes light on truths which have escaped a stronger. 10. A man's success cannot be measured until he dies. A business man may be counted among the suc- cessful one day, and he may be a bankrupt the next. A man in public life may be popular one year, and may be forgotten the next. 11. There is no enterprise on which a man can embark his capital, without an element of uncertainty attaching thereto. 12. Many of the great fighters and men of action, after perils on land and sea, and heroic deeds that live in history, found commonplace ends. 355 13. Changing surroundings, personal and social, changing standards in morals and religion, and changing objects and pursuits, all effect character for better or for worse. 14. He that you now look up to may be your servant, and your servant may become your master. 15. When you heap up riches, you cannot know who may spend them. 16. Everyone knows that there is not always a way where there is a will ; that labor does not always conquer all things ; that there are things impossible, even to him that wills, however strongly ; that one cannot always make anything of himself he chooses ; that there are limi- tations in his very nature which no amount of will power or industry can overcome. 17. The test of character comes at the unexpected time in the unexpected way. 18. Death comes as suddenly to the rich man as to the poor. 19. Today's losses may be tomorrow's gains. 20. Money cannot be, at the best, more than a tem- porary consolation. 21. Providence, perhaps has wisely ordained it, that the possession of estates should change, like the succes- sion of the seasons. 22. Rapidly acquired wealth, or reputation, is more difficult to keep than to acquire. 23. You brought nothing into this world, and it is very certain you can carry nothing out. 24. What is certain in death, is somewhat softened by what is uncertain. 25. The victory of yesterday is reversed by the de- feat of to day ; the star of military glory, rising like a meteor, like a meteor has fallen ; disgrace and disaster hang on the heels of renown ; victor and vanquished presently pass away to oblivion, and the world holds on its course, with the loss only of so many lives and so much treasure. 26. Duty and today are yours ; results and futurity belong to God. 356 CHARACTER: A MORAL TEXT-BOOK Book XVII. Part 9. Temptation. He who tempts, though in vain, at last asperses The tempted with dishonor foul, supposed Not incorruptible of faith, not proof Against temptation. — Milton. 1. You are daily exposed to temptations, whether it be of idleness, self-indulgence, or vice. The feeling of duty and the power of courage, must resist these things at whatever sacrifice of worldly interest. 2. No young man has a right to remain in a posi- tion, if it is possible to get out of it, where he will be constantly subjected to the great temptations of pover- ty. His self-respect demands that he should get out of it. It is his duty to put himself in a position of dignity and independence, where he will not be liable at any moment to be a burden to his friends, in case of sickness or other emergencies. 3. A beautiful woman, if poor, should use double circumspection ; for her beauty will tempt others, her poverty herself. 4. He that cannot decidedly say no, when tempted to evil, is on the highway to ruin. He loses the respect even of those who would tempt him, and becomes the pliant tool and victim of their evil designs. 5. When a doubtful but attractive future is placed before you, there is a great temptation to juggle with the wrong, until it seems right ; yet any aim that is im- moral, carries in itself, the germ of certain failure, in the real sense of the word — failure that is physical and spiritual. 6. Remove temptation, and you erase the whole black catalogue of sin. 7. Every period of life has its peculiar temptations and dangers, but youth is the time when you are most likely to be ensnared. 8. The temptations and allurements of the world, are very enticing, and often promise personal comfort 357 and pleasure, that, for the time being, involve pleasure and perhaps profit. 9. Idle hands and idle thoughts, are easily tempted to do things which they ought not to do. 10. So long as man is alive and free, he will, in one way or another, seek that which gives him pleasure, and temptation promises pleasure without the effort of earn- ing it. But this promise has never been fulfilled, in all the history of all the ages. 11. The world honors those who prove themselves beyond the seduction of any tempter. 12. Great power is alwavs a great temptation, whether it be physical, moral, political, or financial. But virtue may be strong enough to withstand even that temptation. 13. The best thing you can do, is to make a sacred vow, on no occasion and on no account, to keep com- pany with persons who will lead you into haunts of dis- sipation and debauchery. 14. One of the chief objects of legislation, is to prevent crime, by removing the inducements to com- mit it. 15. Life can never remain passive, and a thousand ills come in through the open door of unresisted tempta- tion. 16. No one can ask honestly or hopefully, to be delivered from temptation, unless he has himself hon- estly and hopefully determined to do the best he can to keep out of it. 17. Every temptation succumbed to, every act of meanness or dishonesty, however slight, carries self- degradation. It matters not whether the act be success- ful or not, discovered or concealed ; the culprit is no longer the same, but another person ; and he is pursued by a secret uneasiness, by self-reproach, of the workings of conscience, which is the inevitable doom of the guilty. 18. Your adversity will excite temptation in your- self, and your prosperity in others. 19. For all who stand on the brink of the forbidden, there is a voice within which declares : "It is wrong." 358 CHARACTER: A MORAL TEXT-BOOK. Book XVII. Part 10. Excesses. The gods are just, and of our pleasant vices Make instruments to plague us. — Shakespeare. 1. There is not an appetite to be gratified, which does not pall and turn to be an enemy the moment it has become your master. It makes you a slave with all his sorrows and degradation, without any of the slave's freedom from thought and anticipation. You cannot give way to any appetite, without feeling instant and con- stant degradation ; and he- who sinks in such a way that he despises himself, will soon be a wretch indeed. 2. No argument need be urged, to show how utterly unworthy of his education, of his friends, and of him- self, he acts, who so degrades himself as to make the appetites and passions of his animal nature the object of life, and looks to them for happiness. 3. Knowledge and strength, beauty and skill, may all be abused ; if you neglect or misuse them, you are worse off than if you had never had them. 4. Calamities sent by heaven may be avoided, but from those you bring on yourself, there is no escape. 5. There is nothing more important for you, than to resolve not to exhaust yourself nervously and physic- ally. 6. You are in danger from any recreation which you love much, for men always give their time freely to what they love. 7. A life exclusively occupied in affairs of business, insensibly tends to narrow and harden the character. 8. Nothing can be more hurtful to a youth, than to have his soul sodden with pleasure. The best qualities of his mind are impaired ; common enjoyments become tasteless, his appetite for the higher kind of pleasure is vitiated ; and when he comes to face the work and the danger of life, the result is usually aversion and disgust. 9. Corruption and frivolity in high places never fail to exert a pernicious influence on the condition of society. They extend to the lower classes, where all become alike profligate. 359 io. The human machine, it should be remembered, is certain to give out after a specified amount of effort, use, and exhaustion. 11. Bad habits, careless living, dissipation, over- excitement, over-work, sooner or later bring on exhaus- tion — physical, mental, moral. 12. A man, to get through work well, must not overwork himself; for, if he do too much today, the reaction of fatigue will come, and he will be obliged to do too little tomorrow. 13. There is danger in a calling which requires great expenditure of vitality at long, irregular intervals. 14. Pleasure is an expenditure of stored force. You must save up in order to have a good time. Nature is a merciless usurer, and demands heavy interest on her advances. 15. Youth is prone to excess, and once it begins, does not know how to stop. 16. Amusement in moderation is wholesome, and to be commended ; but amusement in excess vitiates the whole nature, and is a thing to be carefully guarded against. 17. You have no more right to render yourself useless by excesses, than to destroy yourself. 18. Extravagance is the bane of social happiness. It has filled the world with misery. It is an irregularity that strikes at the very root of the tree of domestic peace. It entails wretchedness on what might otherwise be happy families. It is a fruitful source of intemperance, bankruptcy, and villainy. 19. Work is good for a child, but you can put such heavy burdens on him, as to deform his body and stunt his growth. 20. While all true work is beautiful and holy, it is also a fact that excesses are evils — a fact that over-work and underpaid work tend to break down instead of build up. 21. Excessive hours of work produce very little. There comes a moment in the day's work when it is no longer possible to maintain an interest in work. 360 CHARACTER: A MORAL TEXT-BOOK. Book XVII. Part 11. Idleness. An idler is a watch that" wants both hands; As useless if it goes as when it stands. — Cowper. i I I. Idleness is the nursery of crime. It is that pro- lific germ of which all rank and poisonous vices are the fruits. It is the source of temptation. 2. Idleness is the parent of vice ; and vice strikes at the very root of social order and happiness. 3. Indolence consists in the indulgence of a heavy, inactive disposition, entreating you to delay, till some future time, what ought to be done now. This will beset you by day and night, unless you act from principle, and a high sense of moral responsibility. ^4. A man without employment is not a man. He does not prove by his works that he is a man. 5. No work is worse than overwork ; the mind preys on itself — the most unwholesome of food. 6. Indolence as surely runs to dishonesty, as lying. They are but different paths of the same road and not far apart. 7. Leisure, relaxation, and amusement, when men to be usefully engaged, are indolence. 8. All efforts, without the design of usefulness, are \ of the nature of indolence. 9. No easy, healthful, idle person was ever chaste, if he could be tempted. 10. Idleness is the strength of bad habits. rn. It is indolence which exhausts, not action, in which there is life, health and pleasure. 12. The indolent may contrive that he shall have less than his share of the world's work to do, but nature, proportioning the instinct to the work, contrives that the little shall be much and hard to him. 13. It is idleness that is the curse of man, not labor. Idleness eats the heart out of men as of nations, and consumes them as rust does iron. 14. Idleness and the consciousness of incompetency, ought 361 should make any man ashamed of himself, and drive him to do something that is worth the doing. ^___ 15. An indolently inclined person can neither make nor keep property. 16. The spirits may be exhausted and wearied by employment, but they are utterly wasted by idleness. 17. If you are idle you are on the way to ruin, and there are few stopping places on it. It is rather a preci- pice than a road. 18. Be ashamed to catch yourself idle, when there is so much to be done for yourself, your family and your country. 19. There is no room for drones, tramps, or vaga- bonds, and those who are not willing to work for a living must make room for those ambitious men and women who desire to achieve success by lawful methods. 20. Idleness is a thorough demoralizer of body, soul and conscience. 21. The best preventative against idleness, is to start with the deep-seated conviction of the earnestness of life. 22. Perfect inactivity, may bring on a tired state of mind and body, not to be exceeded by the effect of the most exhausting labor. On the other hand, hard work is often so exhilarating, that it operates as an incompar- able tonic. 23. A brain kept in a state of inactivity, loses by degrees, its power of perception and judgment. 24. Doing nothing is apprenticeship to doing wrong. 25. The indolent is also a slave to visionary and vagrant ideas and dreams. He makes hobbies of them. This is the mental history of all confirmed indolents. 26. Diligence, and regular employment, are great safeguards to purity; for it is the indolent and vacant mind that is the most susceptible of improper impressions. - ~ 27. Out of work has caused more crime and wretchedness than almost anything else. 28. He who is not regularly, systematically em- ployed, incurs perpetual risk. 362 CHARACTER: A MORAL TEXT-BOOK. Book XVII. Part 12. Debt. Neither a borrower nor a lender be: For loan oft loses both itself and friend; And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry. — Shakespeare. i. Few young men would willingly go into debt if they could lift the veil of the future, if they could see every step of the thorny way to which it leads. If they could see the moral degradation, the course of lying, prevarication, dishonest subterfuge to avoid meeting promised payments, which the borrowing of the first dollar, for the gratification of some personal whim or luxury, too often involves ; if they could see the grinning phantom which robs the harassed debtor of peace by day and sleep by night, that stands forever by his side mocking at his impotence to shake off the chains by which he has bound himself, hand and foot, they would shrink back appalled from the sight; they would suffer any privation, endure any hardship, rather than become the slaves of the grim jailer, debt. 2. To do your best, you must own every bit of your- self. If you are in debt, part of you belongs to your creditors. Nothing but actual sin is more paralyzing to a young man's energies than debt. 3. Be content to begin life at the beginning, and to wait, as others have done, until your income warrants indulgences, before taking them. 4. Debt is an inexhaustible fountain of dishonesty. 5. When a debtor is beaten at every point, and the law will put her screws on him, there is no depth in the gulf of dishonesty into which he will not boldly plunge. 6. Never run into debt, unless you see a way to get out again. 7. He who incurs debts in striving to maintain a style of living beyond his income, is in spirit as dishonest as the man who openly picks your pocket. 8. Debt makes everything a temptation. It lowers a man in self-respect, and places him at the mercy of his 363 tradesmen and servants. He cannot call himself his own master, and it is difficult for him to be truthful. 9. It is impossible for you to cultivate the graces of the mind, or to acquire a fine manner, if you are har- assed by debt, or if you are dependent on others for your living - . 10. Debt injures any young man's reputation. 11. The maelstrom of debt has been the grave of thousands of talented, ambitious men, who might have won honorable distinction, and the love of their fellow- men, in their various fields of endeavor, had they not given way at the outset to some petty vice or vanity, and in order to gratify it, borrowed money. 12. A contented mind is a continual feast, but a feast that can never be enjoyed by the unhappy victim of debt. Corroding care must ever be his companion, rob- bing him of strength, sapping his ambition, and destroy- ing that peace and tranquility, so absolutely essential to the successful pursuit of his occupation or profession. 13. It is always well to expand, but it is rather dangerous to get beyond your income. 14. It is much easier to practice a little self-denial, even to deprive yourself of some necessaries, than to suffer the stings of conscience, the torture of being con- stantly goaded by creditors, without the means of satis- fying them ; the horror of being chained day and night to a load from which there is no deliverance ; the humil- iating consciousness of being a mere chattel-slave, whose time and thought are, in a sense, owned by others. 15. Often has debt, needlessly and carelessly con- tracted, dragged down to shame and ruin, moral and phy- sical, the joy of a mother's heart, the pride of a father's old age. 16. In the conduct of business, it is frequently necessary, in order to obtain the best results, both to give and to get credit, although even this form of borrowing would better be, for the benefit of the community, sub- ject to limitations. 17. A lazy person, is the most deplorable, and the most unutterable nuisance on earth. 18. Adversity is the prosperity of the great. 364 CHARACTER: A MORAL TEXT-BOOK. Book XVIII. Part 1. Man. God give us men. A time like this demands Strong- minds, great hearts, true faith, and ready hands; Men whom the spoils of office cannot buy; Men who possess opinions and a will; Men who have honor — men who will not lie; Men who can stand before a demagogue And scorn his treacherous flatteries without winking; Tall men, sun- crowned, who live above the fog In public duty, and in private thinking. — Holland. 1. Although customs universally vary, men in all climates and countries are essentially the same. 2. What a piece of work is man ! how noble in reason! how infinite in faculties! in form and moving, how express and admirable ! in action, how like an angel ! in apprehension, how like a god ! the beauty of the world ! the paragon of animals ! 3. Man is the miracle of miracles — the great inscrutable mysery of God. You cannot understand it, you know not how to speak of it ; but you may feel and know, if you like, that it is verily so. 4. The ideal man is the one who is a true father, neighbor, citizen, workman, business man, and church- man. 5. Man is the battling ground of two great king- doms of life — the animal and the spiritual. 6. Every profession, trade, and social clique, in every walk of life, has some peculiar standard of its own, by which it judges a gentleman ; but it must be remem- bered that you are men before you are gentlemen, and that no claims of any profession, institution, or class, can replace or supplant those of humanity and citizen- ship. 7. Man is greater than all his acts; — greater than any deed he ever does, than any thought he evei thinks, than any creed to which he may ever make subscription. 8. Man has no deeper and surer impression, than that the world belongs to and was made for him. This 365 impression is deepened, year by year, as he se^s how the relations he bears to it increase. 9. If there is mind in the universe, and if there is purpose in the order and movement of the earth, then man is the culmination of that purpose, and with refer- ence to him were the movements determined and the order constituted. 10. Man exists for culture ; not for what he can accomplish, but for what can be accomplished in him. 11. Man is greater than a world, than systems of worlds. There is more mystery in the union of soul with the physical man, than in the creation of a universe. 12. Man was not made to be a business or profes- sional machine. To fulfill the object of his being, he must be an all-round, fully developed character. 13. Man is the lord of all the earth. He counts the stars in the heavens ; he walks upon the pathways of the deep ; he delves from the recesses of the earth her hidden treasures to make them useful for his comfort ; he has annihilated time and distance, and behold all things are under his feet. 14. Man is a fruit formed and ripened by the culture of all the foregoing centuries ; and the living generation contains the magnetic current of action and example, destined to bind the remotest past with the most distant future. 15. Man is placed in the world not as a finality, but as a possibility. 16. A man's pleasure, as well as duty, brings him in contact with womanhood, from the cradle to the grave. 17. Man is the brain, but woman is the heart of humanity; he its judgment, she its feeling; he its strength, she its grace, ornament and solace. 18. Let no man speak a word against a woman at any time, or mention a woman's name in any company, where it should not be spoken. 19. Men are naturally less amiable and more intractable than women. 20. The question, which will settle your destiny in life, is the question of your relation to women. 3 66 CHARACTER: A MORAL TEXT-BOOK. Book XVI II. Part 2. Woman. Seek to be good, but aim not to be great, A woman's noblest station is retreat; Her fairest virtues fly from public sight. — Lord Lyttelton. i. Woman was not meant to be either an unthink- ing drudge, or the merely pretty ornament of man's leisure. She exists for herself as well as for others ; and the serious and responsible duties she is called on to perform, in life, require the cultivated head as well as the sympathizing heart. 2. To instruct woman, is to instruct man; to elevate her character, is to raise his own; to enlarge her mental freedom, is to extend and secure that of the whole community. For nations are but the outcomes of homes, and peoples of mothers. 3. Men cannot be sound in mind or morals, if women be the reverse; and if the moral condition of a people mainly depends on the education of the home, then the education of women is to be regarded as a mat- ter of national importance. 4. The world looks to woman, and depends on her, for its moral and spiritual advancement. 5. The influence of woman is the same everywhere. Her condition influences the morals, manners, and char- acter of the people in all countries. When she is debased, society is debased ; when she is morally pure and enlightened, society will be proportionately ele- vated. 6. The woman who makes a sweet, beautiful home, filling it with love and purity, is doing something better than anything else her hands could do beneath the skies. 7. A girl's noblest ambition should be to prepare herself to be a loving and helpful wife, a noble mother, and a competent manager of a home. If she is thor- oughly competent in these lines, she will hardly need to prepare in any other. 367 8. Women, as the mothers of the race, the bearers and nurses of children, are entitled to special considera- tion and care, on account of the physical disabilities which these duties entail. 9. The able housewife must necessarily be an efficient woman of business. She must regulate and control the details of her home, keep her expenditures within her means, arrange everything according to plan and S3^stem, and wisely manage and govern those subject to her rule. 10. If there is anything that challenges the unlim- ited respect and devotion of the masculine mind, it is ability in woman to order well her own household. 11. If woman is true and tender, loving and heroic, and self-devoted — she consciously and unconsciously organizes and puts in operation a set of influences that do more to mould the destiny of a nation than any man, uncrowned by power, possibly can. 12. To direct the power of the home aright, women, as the nurses, trainers and educators of children, need all the help and strength that mental culture can give them. 13. In disciplined mental power, woman will find a stronger and safer protection against deception and imposture, than in mere innocent and unsuspecting ignorance ; in moral and religious culture, she will secure sources of influence more powerful and enduring than in physical attractions ; and in due self-reliance and self-dependence, she will discover the truest sources of domestic comfort and happiness. 14. Mothers and daughters, wives and sisters, remember that you have the making of the morals of the future generation, and rise at once to your high and holy duty. 15. Man may direct the intellect, but woman culti- vates the feelings, which mainly determine the charac- ter. While he fills the memory, she occupies the heart. She makes you love what he can only make you believe, and it is chiefly through her you are enabled to arrive at virtue. 368 CHARACTER: A MORAL TEXT-BOOK. Book XVIII. Part 3. Marriage. He is the half-part of a blessed man Left to be finished by such as she; And she a fair divided excellence, Whose fulness of perfection lies in him. O, two such silver currents, when they join, Do glorify the banks that bound them in. — Shakespeare. 1. Man without woman is only half a man, and his nature cries out for the full complement of his being. 2. For a man to be happy he must have a soul-mate as well as a helpmeet. Both must be true, chaste, and sympathetic. 3. The man who is not faithful to his wife, is guilty of a high crime against himself, a high crime against his wife, a high crime against his children, a high crime against society, and a high crime against God. To be thus faithful is the solemn promise at mar- riage. It is the vital part of the marriage vow. And remember, the faithfulness promised and required, is one of thought and intent, as well as act. 4. The causes of marital unhappiness may be found, not so much in mistakes of selection before mar- riage, as in mistakes after marriage. The relation is in some respects a trying one, requiring a broad and toler- ant spirit. 5. Success in marriage, depends on making a sensi- ble and not too hasty choice. Similarity of tastes, of social position, of education, are desirable ; and too wide a disparity of age, should be avoided. 6. Marriage is an institution of such value to society, that it is not to be spoken of in a trivial way. The happiness of marriage, depends first on character, and next on mutual adaptation. 7. Young men of bad habits and fast tendencies, never marry girls of their own sort, but demand a wife above suspicion. 8. The risks of marriage are for the greater part on the woman's side. 369 9. There is nothing which so settles the turbulence of a man's nature, as his union in life with a high- minded woman. There he finds rest, contentment, and happiness — rest of brain and peace of spirit. 10. Marriage, with all its disappointments, has contributed more to human happiness and human advancement, than any other institution ever devised by God or man. 11. The marriage condition, in its essence, is one of mutual advantage and mutual surrender, and is thrown completely out of balance by attempts on either side to enjoy the benefits, without yielding equal ones to the other. 12. There may be, and doubtless are, numerous abuses of the married state ; but that does not argue against its importance, neither does it detract from its absolute value and necessity. 13. Chief among essentials to a happy married life, should be placed a real and genuine affection ; not a fancy, not a preference, not a passion, but a love that makes it possible to be happy with its object no matter who departs, and unhappy without him, no matter who remains. 14. The true union needs to be one of mind as well as of heart, and based on mutual esteem as well as mutual affection. In short, true union must rest on qualities of character, which rule in domestic as in pub- lic life. 15. The blending of the male and female charac- teristics, produces the grandest character in each. 16. There is nothing which a sensible man is so certain to find, if he looks for it, as a good wife. 17. A man's moral character is, necessarily, power- fully influenced by his wife. A lower nature will drag him down, as a higher will lift him up. 18. The basis of permanent happiness in marriage, is companionship. The husband and wife should be comrades and confidants with one another. 19. Young women should require, in association and marriage, purity for purity, sobriety for sobriety, and honor for honor. 370 CHARACTER: A MORAL TEXT-BOOK. Book XVIII. Part 4. The Family. Two heads in council, Two beside the hearth, Two in the tangled business of the world, Two plummets dropped for one, to sound The abyss of science and the mind. — Tennyson. i. The family, in its origin is divine; and God has instituted laws for its regulation and perpetuity, and these laws must be scrupulously observed and obeyed, or it ceases to be an ornament and a blessing — the great training school for Church and State — the safeguard of society and a hope for the future. 2. The management of a family and a household, is as much a matter of business as the management of a shop or of a counting-house. It requires method, accu- racy, organization, industry, discipline, tact, knowledge, and capacity for adapting means to ends. All this is of the essence of business ; and hence business habits are as necessary to be cultivated by women who would suc- ceed in the affairs of home — in other words, who would make home happy — as by men in the affairs of trade, of commerce, or of manufacture. 3. Adultery saps the foundation of civilization, and would topple the proud structure into the oblivion of ignorance and lust. 4. The importance of sacredly regarding the family relation, can not well be overestimated. It is the foun- dation stone of all that is good and pure, both in civiliza- tion and religion. Take this away and the whole fabric must topple and fall. 5. It is highly important and necessary, not only to continue the validity of the marriage rite, on which the true idea of the family is based, but great care should be exercised to make these homes all that they can and should be made — the most delightful and entic- ing places on earth, where everything that is good is encouraged, and everything evil pointed out and dis- countenanced ; for as children leave the paternal home, they are, to a great extent, moulded for life. 37i 6. They who would dissolve the marriage rite, with all its hallowed and binding influences, would overthrow everything that is worth living for, and turn society into a bedlam of confusion and moral degrada- tion ; for it is the chain that binds the entire network of human society together, in all its highest prospects, both for time and eternity. 7. The unity and perpetuity of the family tie, in purity and peace, is the only safeguard to national per- petuity, peace and honor. 8. Demoralize the family and you thereby destroy both domestic and national happiness, and undermine completely the temple of virtue and hope, and prepare the way of moral and civil desolation. 9. Family life is God's own method of training the young. Domestic love and duty are the best security for all that is most dear to man on earth. 10. Nothing can exceed in beauty and sublimity, the quietude, peace, harmony, affection and happiness of a well-ordered family, where virtue is nurtured and every good principle fostered and sustained. 11. The true success or failure of a marriage, is not in the happiness of the husband and wife, but in the happy result in the family which arises from it. The happiness of the generation that is coming up, not of the generation that is passing away, affords the true test of marriage. 12. God meant, when he made you, that you should live in families. It is the only way that the two sexes can come together, without impairing virtue and purity. 13. The family circle ought to be the most charm- ing and delightful place on earth, the center of the purest affections and most desirable associations, as well as the most attractive and exalted beauties to be found on earth. 14. It is the duty of every adult male human being to earn enough to feed, clothe and make comfortable and happy, himself, wife, and children. 15. The family is the first institution, and lies at the basis of everything that is good in society. 16. The family is Nature's great moral school ; and. real character is mostly formed by home influence. 372 CHARACTER: A MORAL TEXT-BOOK. Book XVIII. Part 5. Classes and Masses. For just experience tells, in ev'ry soil, That those who think must govern those who toil; And all that Freedom's highest aim can reach Is but to lay proportion'd loads on each. — Goldsmith. 1. Certain kinds of equality are possible, but social or money equality is impossible. 2. Both extreme poverty and extreme wealth are, in a large majority of cases, dangerous and demoralizing. 3. All men are created equal ; they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights ; among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. 4. Under constitutional governments, where all classes more or less participate in the exercise of political power, the national character will necessarily depend more on the moral qualities of the many than of the few. 5. While statesmen, philosophers, and divines rep- resent the thinking power of society, the men who found industries and carve out new careers, as well as the com- mon body of working people, from whom the national strength and spirit are from time to time recruited, must necessarily furnish the vital force and constitute the real backbone of every nation. 6. The loftiest mortal loves and seeks the same sort of things with the meanest, only from higher grounds and by higher paths. 7. The need is not that the rich man should become a pauper, the titled throw away his influence, and strength become a weakling. Strength must be retained and added to, if possible ; but it must also be used to uplift and enrich those who are poor and down. 8. Riches and luxury contain in themselves no evil, they are given by God, and it is possible to help those in need while living in luxury. 9. The .dominion of one man over others, comes not from money, but from the circumstance that a work- ing man does not receive the full value of his labor. 373 10. The many sudden changes of demand and supply are at the bottom of the troubles of labor and capital alike. ii. It is the duty of the government to throw safe- guards around the savings of the poor people, and return to them all losses they may incur through dishonesty or incompetency of the monied classes. 12. It is not the existence of inherited wealth, even on a very large scale, that is likely to shake seriously the respect for property ; it is vast wealth acquired by shameful means, employed for shameful purposes, and exercising an altogether undue influence in society and in the state. 13. Every man should have just what he earns and nothing more. The humblest avocations require men to fill them, and every man is entitled to a fair share of the good things of life, if he is industrious, and should be paid accordingly. 14. Labor multiplies and extends in all directions, in proportion as capital furnishes man with the means of labor. 15. The cottage is sure to suffer from every error of the court, the cabinet, or the camp. 16. The employer is justified in having work done as cheaply as he can, and it is the business of the work- ingman to get all he can for his work. 17. The condition of labor is always worst where capital is small. 18. The influence of talent will always be the greatest, in that government which is the most pure ; while the influence of riches will always be the greatest, in that government which is the most corrupt. 19. It is every man's duty, whose lot has been favored in comparison with others, who enjoys advan- tages of wealth, or knowledge, or social influence, of which others are deprived, to devote at least a certain portion of his time and money to the promotion of the general well-being. 20. There should be no discrimination for one class of work above another. 374 CHARACTER: A MORAL TEXT-BOOK. Book XVIII. Part 6. Prosperity. They that stand high, have many blasts to shake them; And if they fall, they dash themselves to pieces. — Shakespeare. 1. In time of your prosperity, you need to lay to heart the lesson that riches are only sent to you in trust, and that you must one day give an account of your stew- ardship. 2. Money cannot buy happiness, but it can pur- chase more than almost anything else in the way of those substitutes for happiness, which most people manage to exist by. 3. The poor man of fixed purpose, of good habits, content to bide his time, who endeavors to please his employer and who is fairly economical, almost invariably finds himself, at the prime of life, in a prosperous condi- tion. 4. Thrift is not a painful virtue. On the contrary, it enables you to avoid much contempt and many indig- nities. It requires you to deny yourself, but not to abstain from any proper enjoyment. It provides many honest pleasures, of which thriftlessness and extrava- gance deprive you. 5. It is very important for a man to know how to master and control his abundance. 6. Make money that you may possess it, but do not aim at making too much, for fear it should possess you. 7. Thrift is merely common-sense in every day working action. It needs no fervent resolution, but only a little patient self-denial. 8. Comparatively few people can be rich ; but most have it in their power to acquire, by industry and econ- omy, sufficient to meet their personal wants. 9. Competence and comfort lie within the reach of most people, were they to take the adequate means to secure and enjoy them. 10. Surround yourself with the bracing atmos- phere of prosperity, no matter how little money you may have. 375 ii. Prosperity is the touchstone of virtue : it is less difficult to bear misfortunes than to remain incorrupted by pleasure. 12. Men honor the rich, because they have exter- nally the freedom, power and grace which they feel to be proper to man — proper to them. 13. The prosperous man must be all the more active and alert in his duties as a citizen and a neighbor, because of this added power for which he is sponsor. 14. Possessed of a little store of capital, a man walks with a lighter step, his heart beats more cheerily. When interruption of work or adversity happens, he can meet it ; he can recline on his capital, which will either break his fall or prevent it altogether. 15. Prosperity tends to longevity, if you do not wear life away or burn it out in the feverish pursuit of wealth. 16. You must make up your mind to it that things will not always go pleasantly. Xo career is ever without a break in its prosperity. 17. The wealthiest and best men have been formed amid difficulties and trials ; and you should never suc- cumb to hardships or shirk from toil if you wish to win an honorable career. 18. If a man has health, and is earnest and intense and persistent and industrious, and is able to see the world broadly, and the men and affairs of the world in their true perspective ; there is no difficulty whatever about his making a good living. 19. The great satisfaction coming from wealth, is an assurance of power; besides this, it opens up a way to a higher delight, meeting your desire for education and art. 20. Most every man pictures himself as being in comfortable circumstances at some future day, as the result of his own industry and skill. 21. The road of human welfare lies along the old highway of steadfast well-doing; and they who are the most persistent, and work in the truest spirit, will usually be the most prosperous. 376 CHARACTER: A MORAL TEXT-BOOK. Book XVIII. Part 7. Reputation. The purest treasure mortal times afford Is spotless reputation: that away Men are but gilded loam, or painted clay. — Shakespeare. 1. You must make your reputation by first making yourself. 2. If a man is going to amount to anything his success will depend very largely on his reputation — what other people think of him. 3. A good name must be the fruit of your own exertions. You cannot possess it by patrimony; you cannot purchase it with money ; you will not light on it by chance ; it is independent of birth, station, talents, and wealth ; it must be the outcome of your own endeavor and the reward of good principles and honorable conduct. 4. With due qualifications, a good name is the best means of either attaining or keeping any promotion. 5. Mien and manner have much to do with your influence and reputation in any walk of life. 6. It is right that in life good qualities should tell — that industry, virtue, and goodness should rank the highest — and that the really best men should be fore- most. 7. The art of using moderate abilities to advantage wins praise, and often acquires more reputation than actual brilliancy. 8. A man must have the reputation of being prompt, energetic, decisive, earnest, and true, if he would have the assistance of others ; and without this, success is impossible. 9. A good name keeps its lustre in the dark. 10. Nothing will give greater confidence in a man and bring assistance more quickly, than the reputation for promptness. 11. Many a great man has snatched his reputation from odd bits of time which others, who wonder at their failure to get on, throw away. 377 12. The very reputation for being strong-willed, plucky, and indefatigable, is of priceless value. It cows enemies, and dispels opposition to your undertakings. 13. A good reputation for honesty and manliness is above all price. 14. Reputation is much easier to lose than to gain. 15. The reputation of being always equal to any emergency, of having the power to conquer difficulties, is a very great help in advancing your position. 16. A man's reputation draws eyes on him, that will narrowly inspect every part of him. 17. To gain the good opinion of those who sur- round them, is of great interest to everyone, in all walks of life. 18. There are two modes of establishing reputa- tion : to be praised by honest men, and to be abused by rogues. It is best to secure the former, because it will be invariably accompanied by the latter. 19. A good reputation, based on a good character, is a fortune to any man. 20. A good name is rather to be chosen than great riches. 21. It is the use you make of the powers intrusted to you, which constitutes your only just claim to respect. 22. A name for being thoroughly reliable, opens many a door that has much within. 23. If any one speaks ill of you, let your life be so that none will believe him. 24. Result makes reputation. 25. When you speak in your own praise, you add nothing to your reputation. 26. To be desirous of a good name, and careful to do everything that you may, innocently, to obtain it, is so far from being a fault, even in private persons, that it is their great and indispensable duty. 27. Men of good character are generally men of good reputation ; but this is not always the case, as the motives and actions of the best of men are sometimes misunderstood and misrepresented. 28. He is rich who values a good name above gold, 378 CHARACTER: A MORAL TEXT-BOOK. Book XVIII. Part 8. Leadership. If you were born to honor, show it now; If put upon you, make the judgment good That thought you worthy of it. — Shakespeare. 1. The world wants leaders, thinkers, doers, men of power and action, men who can step out from the crowd and lead instead of follow. 2. A leader is a man who does not fear to be him- self, who believes in himself, who lives his own creed ; a man who cannot be wheedled hither and thither by every new argument presented, but who knows his goal and goes straight to it. 3. The energetic leader of noble spirit not only wins a way for himself, but carries others with him. His every act has a personal significance, indicating vigor, independence, and self-reliance, and unconsciously com- mands respect, admiration and homage. 4. When popularity is won by fawning on the people, by withholding the truth from them, by writing and speaking to the lowest tastes, and still worse, by appeals to class-hatred, such a popularity is simply con- temptible in the sight of all honest men. 5. Popularity, in the lowest and most common sense, is not worth the having. Do your duty to the best of your power, win the approbation of your own conscience, and popularity, in its best and highest sense, is sure to follow. 6. The great leader attracts to himself men of kin- dred character, drawing them towards him as the load- stone does iron. 7. You must live outside of yourself, and the more you can do this, the more you will draw others to you. 8. The best school in which to train a man for public service, is a practical and close touch and ming- ling with the masses of the people, maintained until he knows them and knows the vicissitudes of their lives — their griefs and disappointments, as well as their hopes and aspirations. 379 g. The qualities which enable an individual to ac- quire wealth are often of a character to promote his suc- cess in politics, apart from his wealth. 10. You cannot seclude yourself in the cloister or study and expect to move men. ii. There is no accident about a person being a favorite, and the secret of it is tact, good fellowship, and amiable unselfishness. 12. Popularity, a desirable adjunct in society or business, depends in no small degree on the measure in which you have mastered the fine art of pleasing. 13. Power belongs only to the workers ; the idlers are always followers. 14. If by integrity, industry, and well-earned suc- cess, you deserve well of your fellow-citizens, they may, in years to come, ask you to accept honors. 15. The secret of personal popularity, the power of exciting irrational and vehement devotion to its object, has never been detected. If it is not possessed it cannot be acquired. It is an art for which there is no text-book nor any teacher. 16. Men of genuine excellence, in every station of life — men of industry, of integrity, of high principle, of sterling honesty of purpose — command the spontaneous homage of mankind. It is natural to believe in such men, to have confidence in them. All that is good in the world is upheld by them, and without their presence it would not be worth living in. 17. It is the strong and courageous men who lead, and guide, and rule the world. 18. In public life, a man's success depends more on his ideas, and on his honesty, than on his ability either to speak or write. If his ideas agree with those of the people, he will be popular. If, in addition to having popu- lar ideas, he is able to present them well, his influence is increased. 19. It is not men of genius who move the world and take the lead in it, so much as men of steadfastness, purpose and indefatigable industry. 20. The brave man is an inspiration to the weak, and compels them, as it were, to follow him. 3&> CHARACTER: A MORAL TEXT-BOOK. Book XVIII. Part 9. Greatness. A great life is every person's privilege. Who seeks, and will not take when once 'tis offer'd, Shall never find it more. — Shakespeare. i. True greatness is in the character, never in the circumstance. 2. The range of most men in life is so limited, that very few have the opportunity of being great. But each man can act his part honestly, honorably, and to the best of his ability. He can use his gifts and not abuse them. He can strive to make the best of life. He can be true, and faithful, even in small things. He can do his duty in that sphere in which God has placed him. 3. There is little greatness that is worth the name, that is not founded on and accompanied by sound, moral principles. 4. True greatness has little, if anything, to do with rank or power. 5. There is a greatness that rests for its basis on circumstance ; it is the greatness of accident. There is a greatness that rests for its basis on raw might; it is the greatness of the brute. There is a greatness that rests for its basis on age ; it is that of appearance rather than reality. Then there is a greatness that is innate. It exists to secure rights and protect the weak ; its domin- ion is the sovereignty of good-will, and its titles and degrees are the inherent prerequisites of character. It is the only true greatness. It is this greatness that makes the humanity and beauty of the world. 6. Men in great places are thrice servants — servants of the state, servants of fame, and servants of business ; so they have no freedom, neither in their persons, nor in their actions, nor in their time. 7. The truly large man carries his business with ease and dignity, and never allows himself to become the slave of his environment. He thinks there is something in the world besides merchandise and dollars, and shows forth his belief to all with whom he comes in contact. 38i 8. The great man is he who abides easily on heights to which others rise occasionally and with diffi- culty. 9. Men are not born great ; greatness is not thrust on any one. 10. All that is great in man comes through work, and civilization is its product. 11. Great men are always exceptional men; and greatness itself is but comparative. 12. Greatness cannot be analyzed. Success does not always come to those of whom it might be expected. 13. Great men are not always good, but good men are always great. 14. Great men are but common men more fully developed and ripened. 15. It is as easy to be great as it is to be small. 16. The really great men are those who produce public opinion and direct the public mind in the direc- tion of the best end. 17. The difference between an ordinary man and a great man, may be denned by the difference in the activ- ity of the will power. 18. Moral excellence is an indispensable element in all forms of human greatness. 19. Greatness is founded on the alliance of virtue and of fortune. 20. Great occasions are the necessities only for which great men are the supplies. 21. From the highest to the lowest, the richest to the poorest, to no rank or condition in life has nature denied her highest boon — the great heart. 22. Honesty is not only the first step toward great- ness — it is greatness itself. 23. A lowly beginning and an humble origin are no barrier to a great career. 24. No man has come to greatness who has not felt, in some degree, that his life belongs to his race, and that what God gives him, He gives him for mankind. 25. Without goodness no man can truly be great. 382 CHARACTER: A MORAL TEXT-BOOK. Book XVIII. Part 10. Fame. Enough of merit has each honored name To shine untarnished on the rolls of fame, And add new lustre to the historic page. — David Humphreys. 1. The only genuine and commanding fame is that which character creates. 2. Character will take care of fame. Now and then the world's plaudits may miss the mark somewhat, now a little scant now a little full in their meed of praise, but they usually average up to the level of truth, and their grossest injustices can never circumscribe its destiny. 3. With character achieved, rank and fame will come of themselves ; and when they come can be taken care of. 4. Fame is only for those who contend. 5. Fame seeks to crown him who is firm in his con- victions, who invites reason against any opinion he has expressed, and admits that the field of knowledge is wider than his own store of it. 6. The rising into fame is laborious, and by pains men come to greater pains. 7. A life may be showy and brilliant. It may be prodigious in splendor and display, but if behind all its blazonry there is a failure to meet common obligations, and the neglect of plain duties, fame is too scant a gar- ment to hide the wretched deformity of such a life. 8. Men who acquire fame, have never been thrust into popularity by puffs begged or paid for, or given in a friendly spirit. They have outstretched their own hands and touched the public heart. 9. Fame is the united expression of approval by the good ; the genuine testimony of men who have the power of forming a proper judgment of virtuous conduct. 10. The birthplace of fame is in the minds of the discerning and wise. In this sense it is a heavenly voice. Their judgment of some man or woman is taken by the multitude and becomes a common saying. 11. If you cannot attain fame or distinction accord- 383 ing to the world's estimate, you can at least build up a beautiful character, and this constitutes the greatest suc- cess to which the most learned and most highly cultured can attain. 12. No true and permanent fame can be founded, except in labors which promote the happiness of man- kind. 13. Fame never comes because it is craved. 14. The test of enduring fame is not money, but brains and character. Poverty of purse, is not incompat- ible with riches in honor and intellect. 15. Men may wake at times surprised to find them- selves famous, but it was the work they did before going to sleep, and not the slumber, that gave them eminence. 16. Fame, which is the opinion the world expresses of any man's excellent endowments, is the idol to which the finest spirits have, in all ages, burnt their incense. 17. It is well to have knowledge, and be famous for learning and general information. 18. Maintain your post; that is all the fame you need. 19. To be remembered is not necessarily to be famous. There is infamy as well as fame. 20. When the big heart of the world speaks out, it has respect to the man that is sternly honest, and will not yield his principles. 21. Whatever aptitude for particular pursuits nature may donate to her favorites, to her particular children, she conducts none but the laborious and the studious to distinction. 22. The feeling that the nation is waiting, ready with its praise or blame, accordingly as the duty is well performed or ill, is a great stimulus. 2^. The love of the approbation of your fellow-men, is implanted in you by nature, and is entirely commend- able, if properly regulated. 24. Nothing will try your moral fibre so much as the favor of fortune and the flattery of the world. 25. Meritorious works are the result of time and labor, and cannot be accomplished by intuition or by a wish. 3^4 CHARACTER: A MORAL TEXT-BOOK. Book XVIII. Part 11. Immortality. Oh, may I join the choir invisible Of those immortal dead who live again In minds made better by their presence. — Geo. Eliot. 1. God, through man, is working out some mighty- plan. 2. Character, embodied in thought and deed, is of the nature of immortality. 3. Nothing perishes and passes away but lives for- ever, though changed in form ; men's thoughts are as imperishable as their bodies ; time may yet prove an everlasting existence of the soul as unquestionable as that of the body that harbored it, and the thoughts it threw off. 4. There is an essence of immortality in the life of man, even while in this world. 5. The prophecy of immortality is written in your yearnings. 6. There is something within man which is not all clay, something greater than his calling, which abso- lutely refuses to grovel in the midst of dollars and mer- chandise. 7. The spirits of men do not die ; they still live and walk abroad. 8. The man dies and disappears ; but his thoughts and acts survive, and leave an indelible stamp on his race ; and thus the spirit of his life is prolonged and perpet- uated, moulding the thought and will, and thereby con- tributing to form the character of the future. 9. The solitary thought of a great thinker, will dwell in the minds of men for centuries, until at length it works itself into their daily life and practice. It lives on through the ages, speaking as a voice from the dead, and influencing minds living thousands of years apart. 10. Only what you have wrought into your charac- ter during life, can you take away with you. 11. To live in the hearts you leave behind, is not to die. 385 12. Write your name in kindness, love and mercy, ■on the hearts of those who come in contact with you, and you will never be forgotten. 13. Learned men not only instruct and educate those who are desirous to learn, during their life, and while they are present on earth, but they continue to do the same after death, by the monuments of their learn- ing which they leave behind them. 14. While the frame moulders and disappears, the deed leaves an indelible stamp and moulds thought and will of future generations. 15. Do good, and leave behind you a monument of virtue, which the storms of time can never destroy. 16. Everything that has immortality stamped on it, has been done in the most painstaking and careful manner. 17. Whoever has left behind him the record of a noble life, has bequeathed to posterity an enduring source of good ; for it serves as a model for others to form them- selves by in all time to come ; still breathing fresh life into men, helping them to reproduce his life anew, and to illustrate his character in other forms. 18. No man's acts die utterly; and though his body may resolve into dust and air, his good or his bad deeds will still be bringing forth fruit after their kind, and influ- encing future generations for all time to come. It is in this momentous and solemn fact that the great peril and responsibility of human existence lies. 19. It is a high, solemn, almost awful thought, for every individual man, that his earthly influence, which has a commencement, will never, through all the ages, htave an end. What is done is done, has already blended itself with the boundless, ever living, ever working uni- verse, and will work there for good or for evil, openly or secretly, throughout time. 20. Man's best products are his happy and sancti- fying thoughts, which, when once formed and put into practice, extend their fertilizing influence for thousands of years, and from generation to generation. 386 CHARACTER: A MORAL TEXT-BOOK. Book XVIII. Part 12. Religion. Religion does not censure or exclude Unnumber'd pleasures, harmlessly pursued. To study culture, and with artful toil To meliorate and tame the stubborn soil; To give dissimilar yet fruitful lands The grain, or herd, or plant that each demands. — Cowper. 1. Religion is a personal matter between man and his Maker, and all systems that have tried to intervene, have found themselves set aside by the onward progress of events. 2. Religion, in its essential nature, is an endeavor after a practical expression of man's conscious relation to the infinite. 3. Religion was intended to bring peace on earth and good-will towards men, and whatever tends to hatred and persecution, however correct in the letter, must be utterly wrong in the spirit. 4. Religion is a necessity, growing out of the rela- tion man sustains to his God. He is therefore by nature religious. 5. Religion should be a strength, guide, and com- fort, not a source of intellectual anxiety or angry argu- ment. 6. In the realm of consciousness, a manly religion is not only a creed but an experience. In the realm of conduct, it is not only a restraint but an inspiration. In the realm of destiny, it is not only an insurance for the next, but a program for the present world. 7. If your religion means anything, it means com- posure, heroism, serenity, loyalty at all times and in all places. It must be able to stand the strain put on it, if it is to recommend itself to the world. 8. Anything that tends to oppress, weaken, debase, or mortify, is not religion. Religion lightens, strength- ens, encourages, uplifts, and makes happy and cheerful. 9. Philosophy, science, experience, reason, all the best methods of inquiry at your command, must be 387 called on to guide your feelings and your religious en- thusiasm. 10. In every age and every clime, men and women have been willing to incur poverty, hardship, toil, ridicule, persecution, or even death, if thereby they might shed light o.r comfort on the path which all must walk from the cradle to the grave. ii. Knowlege and religion have to march hand in hand, or religion does not march at all. 12. Behind the creation is a mind and a will ; before the creation lies a goal and a hope. It was not by chance that either your home or yourself came into being, nor are you the victim of blind fate. The seen at every turn proves the unseen, and above all the world is God. 13. All religions which do not aspire to be based on truth, are superstitions. There is but one true relig- ion, which is the religion of truth. 14. Improvement in morality and religion, like improvement in government, is part and parcel of civil- ization, and results from the same cause. 15. Superstition is a weakening of the mind, against which you should be always on your guard. It is an implied atheism, as it assumes either that God does not rule the world, or that He admits elements of absurdity into His rule of it. 16. A man's religion is not worth much, unless it can illuminate his face, sweeten his words, elevate every action, and make all his life divine. 17. If you cherish the conviction that Christ was but a good man and his death but a martyr's sacrifice — if you say that after the long, hard pull over the hill of life there is no final resting place — if you believe that love, truth and honor are but names ; if, in short, you have any disagreeable or unholy theory which cavils at the good of life and the crowning of death, in the name of humanitv keep it to yourself. 18. The codes of morality, which are adopted into various religions, and afterward taught as part of relig- ious systems, are derived from secular sources. INDEX. The first figure refers to the Bookj the second figure to the Part; the third figure to the Verse. Ability— 15: 8, 14. 2, 22; 7: 2, 23; 7: 2, 24; 7: Abstemiousness — 4: 6 , 20. 2, 25; 7: 2, 26; 7: 2, 27; 7: Abundance — 10: 3, 18 2, 28. Abuse— 17: 10, 3. Affectation- -9: 9, 20; 9: 11, 21 Accident— 16: 6, 22. Affection — E : 11, 15. Accuracy — 15: 1, 22; 15: 1, 23 Affliction — L7: 1, 3; 17: 1, 4; 16: 9, 3. 17: 1, 9. Achievement — 4: 9, 6; 5: 11, 17 Aged, The— -1: 2, 8. 15: 2, 8; 16: 6, 18; 16: 11, 2. Agreeableness — 2: 6, 22; 2: 6 Action— 8: 4, 1; 8: 4, 2; 8 : 4, 3 23; 6: 5, 19; 6: 5, 21. 8: 4, 5; 8: 4, 6; 8: 4, 7 8: 4 Aim— 8: 12 21; 13: 2, 24; 13: 8; 8: 4, 10; 8: 4, 13 ; 8: 4, 15 5, 17; 13 : 5, 19; 13: 5, 20; 8: 4, 16; 8, 4, 17; 8: 4, 18 13: 5, 21; 13: 5, 24 14: 3, 16; 8: 4, 22; 8: 4, 24; 8: 8, 13 14: 3, 18. 8: 9, 4; 12: 2, 21; 14: 11, 2 Alms— 7: 1 , 5. 14: 11, 3; 14: 12, 8; 17 7, 21 Ambition — L3: 1, 1; 13: 1, 2, Acts— 4: 9, 8; 4: 10, 2; 4: 10 13: 1, 3; 13: 1, 5; 13: 1, 6 3; 4: 10, 24. 13: 1, 7; 13: 1, 8; 13: 1, 9; Adaptation — 14: 3, 4; 14 5, 3 13: 1, 10; 13: 1, 11; 13: 1, 12 14: 5, 10. 13: 1, 13; 13: 1, 14; 13: 1, 16 Admiration — 7: 4, 3; 13: 3, 1 13: 1, 17; 13: 1, 18; 13: 1, 19 13: 3, 2; 13: 3, 4; 13 . 3, 5 13: 1, 20; 13: 1, 21; 13: 1, 22 13: 3, 6; 13: 3, 7; 13 3, 8 13: 1, 24; 13: 1, 25; 13: 1, 26 13: 3, 9; 13: 3, 10; 13: 3, 11 13: 5, 3; 17: 5, 12. 13: 3, 12; 13: 3, 13; 13: 3, 14 Amiability- -6: 11, 16 7: 4, 6. 13: 3, 15; 13: 3, 16; 13 3, 17 Amusement —10: 10, 1; 10: 10 13: 3, 18; 13: 3, 19; 13: 3, 20 4; 10: 10 , 5; 10: : L0, 16; 17 13: 3, 21; 13: 3, 22; 13: 3, 23 10, 16. 13: 3, 24. Adultery— 18: 4, 3. Advancement — 12 : 4, Adversity — 17: 1, 2; 17: 1, 6; 17: 1, 7; 17: 1, 12; 17: 1, 15; 17: 1, 19; 17: 1, 21; Advice— 7: 2, 1; 7: 2 3; 7: 2, 4; 7: 2, 5 7: 2, 7; 7: 2, 8; 7 2, 10; 7: 2, 11; 7: 2, 13; 7: 2, 14; 7: 2, 17; 7: 2, 18; 7: 17: 1, 5; 17: 1, 10; 17: 1, IS; 17: 1, 24 , 2; 7 : 2 7: 2 6; 2, 9; 7: 2, 12; 7: 2, 15; 7: 2, 19; 7: Ancestors — 10: 6, 1. Anger— 4: 8, 6; 4: 8, 7; 4: 8, 8 4: 8, 9; 4: 8, 10; 4: 8, 11; 4 8, 12; 4: 8, 13; 4: 8, 21; 4 8, 31; 5: 10, 25. Animals— 1: 2, 9; 7: 5, 10; 7 5, 17. Antagonist— 16: 7, 11. Anxiety— 9: 4, 20. Apparel — 6: 9, 2. Appearance — 6: 9, 4; 13: 6, 8 17: 7, 1; 17: 7, 2; 17: 7, 3 17: 7, 4; 17: 7, 5; 17: 7, 9 390 17: 7, 10; 17: 7, 11; 17: 7, 12 17: 7, 15; 17: 7, 16; 17: 7, 17 17: 7, 18; 17: 7, 20; 17: 7, 22 17: 7, 23; 17: 7, 24; 17: 7, 25 17: 7, 26. Appetite— 4: 6, 9; 8: 11, 12; 8 11, 14; 17: 10, 1; 17: 17 10, 2. Application — 14: 7, 2; 14: 7, 3 14: 7, 4; 14: 7, 6; 14: 7, 7 14: 7, 8; 14: 7, 9; 14: 7, 11 14: 7, 12; 14: 7, 14; 14: 7, 16 14: 7, 17; 14: 7, 18; 14: 7, 19 Appreciation — 13: 2, 1. Appropriateness — 14: 5, 5; 14 5, 6; 14: 5, 7; 14: 5, 8; 14 5, 9; 14: 5, 11; 14: 5, 12; 14 5, 13; 14: 5, 14; 14: 5, 16 14: 5, 17; 14: 5, 19; 14: 5, 20 14: 5, 21; 14: 5, 18. Approval — 13: 1, 4. Aptitude— 16: 8, 10. Aristocracy— 10: 6, 9; 10: 6, 24. Arrogance — 6: 12, 10. Art— 10: 1, 7. Artifice— 9: 11, 5. Aspiration — 3: 2, 21; 8: 3, 6 13: 2, 2; 13: 2, 3; 13: 2, 4 13: 2, 6; 13: 2, 7; 13: 2, 8 13: 2, 9; 13: 2, 10; 13: 2, 11 13: 2, 12; 13: 2, 13; 13: 2, 14 13: 2, 15; 13: 2, 16; 13: 2, 17 13: 2, 18; 13: 2, 19; 13: 2, 20 13: 2, 21; 13: 2, 22; 13: 2, 23 13: 2, 28; 13: 5, 7; 13: 5, 12 13: 5, 13; 13: 5, 14; 13: 5: 15 13: 5, 16; 13: 5, 23; 13: 5, 25 13: 7, 1; 13: 2, 1; 13: 5, 5. Assistance— 7 : 9, 1; 7: 9, 25. Association— 4 : 7, 8; 4: 11, 4 4: 11, 6; 4: 11, 7; 4: 11, 8 4: 11, 16; 4: 11, 21; 7: 9, 3 11: 6, 16; 14: 1, 5; 17: 7, 13 17: 9, 13. Assumption — 6: 8, 16. Attention— 12: 4, 22; 12: 4, 26 15: 5, 20. Backwardness — 9: 1, 18. Badness— 8: 9, 12. 10: Beauty— 6: 6, 22; 10: 9, 1; 9, 2; 10: 9, 3; 10: 9, 4; 9, 5; 10: 9, 6; 10: 9, 7; 9, 8; 10: 9, 9; 10: 9, 10; 9, 11; 10: 9, 13; 10: 9 ; 10: 9, 15; 10: 9, 16; 10: 8 10: 9, 18; 10: 9, 19; 10: S 10: 9, 24; 10: 9, 25; 17: 9, 3; 10: 9, 20. Beginning - — 14 : 14: 2, 9. Benefactors — 9 : Benevolence — 6 : 25. Best— 1: 3, 2. Best, Do Your— 3: 2, 1; £ 2, 3; 3: 2, 4; 3: 2, 5 2, 7; 14: 2, 8; 3, 23. 1, 16: 12, 3: 2, 8, 13; 10: 8, 10: g 3: 2, 7; 3: 2, 2, 10; 3: 2, 11; 3: 2, 2, 13; 3: 2, 14; 3: 2, 2, 17; 3: 2, 22; 3: 2, 2, 28; 3: 2, 29. Biography— 11: 6, 27; 11: 10 11: 10, 8; 11: 10, 13; 11: 14; 12: 2, 8; 12: 6, 4. Blessing— 1: 2, 2; 10: 5, 1; 8, 1; 10: 8, 2; 10: 8, 3; 10 4; 10: 8, 5; 10: 8, 6; 10 7; 10: 8, 8; 10: 8, 9; 10 11; 10: 8, 12: 10: 8, 14; 10: 8, 15; 10: 8, 17; 10: 8, 18 Bluster— 7: 12, 15. Boasting — 9: 9, 22. Body— 10: 2, 19. Bonds— 7: 9, 8; 7: 9, 14; 16. Books— 12: 6, 1; 12: 6, 2; 6, 3; 12: 6, 5; 12: 6, 8; 6, 11; 12: 6, 12; 12: 6, 12: 6, 19; 12: 6, 20; 12: 7, 12: 7, 28; 12: 7, 29. Boor— 4: 10, 19. Borrowing — 17: 12, 16. Boy— 4: 12, 20; 9: 1, 9. Brain— 2: 2, 8; 5: 12, 14; 3, 7. Bravery — 4: 5, 20; 5, 24; 8: 6, 25. 9; 12: 15 27: 6; 10, 10: 10: 16; 19. 7: 9, 12: 12: 18; 27; 4: 5, 21: 39i Breeding-— 6 : 3, 24; 6: 5, 5; 6: 5, 22; 6: 6, 17; 6: 6, 23; 6: 6, 24; 7: 8, 6. Burdens — 5: 11, 22. Business — 14: 5, 4; 14: 8, 10 14: 8, 11; 16: 5, 1; 16: 5, 3 16: 5, 4; 16: 5, 5; 16: 5, 7 16: 5, 8; 16: 5, 9; 16: 5, 10 16: 5, 11; 16: 5, 12; 16: 5, 13 16: 5, 14; 16: 5, 15; 16: 5, 17 16: 5, 18; 16: 7, 1; 17: 10, 7 16: 5, 2. Calamity — 17: 10, 4. Callousness — 7: 5, 17. Calumny— 9: 12, 25. Candor— 5: 10, 5; 5: 10, 27; 6: 8, 18; 7: 7, 6; 7: 7, 12. Capacity— 16: 8, 25; 16: 9, 10; 16: 9, 18. Caprice — 4: 6, 5. Career— 5: 3, 14; 16: 4, 1; 16: 4, 3. Care— 8: 10, 17. Ceremonies — 1: 2, 5. Censure — 7: 2, 16. Chance— 12: 7, 25: 13: 7, 19. Change— 14: 4, 18. Character— 1 : 1, 11; 1: 2, 25 2: 1, 5; 2: 1, 11; 2: 1, 14; 2 1, 15; 2: 2, 3; 2: 2, 5; 2 3, 5; 2: 3, 14; 3: 1, 1; 3: t 15; 4: 1, 1; 4: 1, 2; 4: 1, 3 4: 1, 4; 1, 7; 4: 10; 13; 16; 19; 22; 25; 4: 4: 1, 1, 8; 1, 11; 1, 14; 1, 17; 1, 20; 1, 23; 2, 1; 4 5; 4: 1, 6; 4: 1, 9; 4 4: 1, 12; 4: 1, 15; 4: 1, 18; 4: 1, 21; 4: 1, 24; : 2, 2; 4 5; 4: 7, 5; 4: 7, 16: 4 8, 16; 4: 9, 1; 4: 9, 3; 4: 10 1; 4: 10, 6; 4: 12, 5; 5: 1, 1 5: 1, 2; 5: 1, 6; 5: 3, 13; 5 4, 8; 5: 6, 17; 5: 8, 1; 5: 9 1; 5: 10, 24; 6: 2, 9; 6: 6, 3 7: 4, 21; 7: 10, 11; 7: 12, 3 7: 12, 19; 8: 4, 9; 8: 5, 7 8: 8, 4; 8: 8, 5; 8: 8, 8; 8 11, 21; 8: 12, 9; 9: 7, 29; 10 6, 6; 10: 9, 21; 11: 2, 4; 11: 3, 19; 11: 10, 7; 12: 1, 13; 14: 12, 4; 17: 1, 8; 17: 7, 27. Charity— 3: 3, 18; 6: 2, 22; 7: 1, 1; 7: 1, 2; 7: 1, 3; 7: 1, 4; 7: 1, 5; 7: 1, 6; 7: 1, 7; 7: 1, 8; 7: 1, 9; 7: 1, 10; 7: 1, 11; 7: 1, 12; 7: 1, 13; 7: 1, 14; 7: 1, 15; 7: 1, 16; 7: 1, 17; 7: 1, 18; 7: 1, 19; 7: 1, 20; 7: 1, 21; 7: 1, 22; 7: 1, 23; 7: 1, 24; 7: 1, 25; 7: 1, 26; 7: 1, 27; 7: 5, 27; 7: 8, 25. Chastity— 6: 4, 1; 17: 11, 9. Cheerfulness— 4: 2, 23; 6: 11, 1; 6: 11, 2; 6: 11, 3; 6: 11, 4; 6: 11, 5; 6: 11, 6; 6: 11, 7; 6: 11, 8; 6: 11, 9; 6: 11, 10; 6: 11, 11; 6: 11, 12; 6: 11, 13; 6: 11, 14; 6: 11, 15; 6: 11, 17; 6: 11, 18; 6: 11, 20; 6: 11, 21. Child— 2: 1, 1; 2: 1, 3; 2: 1, 4; 2: 1, 6; 2: 1, 8; 2: 1, 11; 2: 1, 13; 2: 1, 14; 2: 1, 19; 2: 1, 20; 2: 1, 21; 2: 2, 1; 2: 2, 4; 2: 2, 6; 2: 2, 9; 2: 6, 5; Childhood— 2: 1, 7; 2: 1, 9; 11: 4, 13. Chlidren— 2: 1, 2; 2: 1, 16; 2: 2, 5; 2: 2, 12; 2: 2, 15; 4: 3, 17; 7: 7, 10. Chivalry — 5: 8, 24. Choice— 4: 3, 1; 8: 8, 2; 8: 8, 6; 8: 8, 9. Circumstances — 4: 1, 12; 5: 4, 1 9; 8: 8, 14; 16: 6, 17; 16: 6, 19; 16: 6, 20; 16: 6, 21. Civility— 2: 6, 3; 6: 5, 16; 6: 5, 17; 7: 9, 15. Civilization— 14 : 5, 1. Classes— 18: 5, 4; 18: 5, 5; 18 5, 6; 18: 5, 7; 18: 5, 9; 18 5, 10; 18: 5, 11; 18: 5, 13 18: 5, 14; 18: 5, 15; 18: 5 16; 18: 5, 17; 18: 5, 18; 18 5, 19; 18: 5, 20. Cleanliness — 6: 5, 3; 8: 1, 6 392 4: 16: 16: Clothes— 6: 9, 1; 6: 9, 2. Coarseness — 4: 7, 26. Common Sense — 11: 3, 1; 3, 2; 11: 3, 3; 11: 3, 4; 3, 5; 11: 3, 6; 11: 3, 8; 3, 9; 11: 3, 10; 11: 3, 11; 3, 12; 11: 3, 13; 11: 3, 11: 3, 15; 11: 3, 16; 11 17; 11: 3, 18; 11: 3, 24; 3, 25. Companionship — 2: 1, 6; 4, 1; 4: 11, 3; 4: 11, 5; 4: 9; 4: 11, 12; 4: 11, 13; 11, 15. Company — 4: 2, 11; 4 4: 11, 11; 4: 11, 18; 19; 4: 11, 20. Competition — 15: 2, 9; 1; 16: 7, 3; 16: 7, 4 8; 16: 7, 9; 16: 7, 10; 7, 12; 16: 7, 14; 16: 7, 16: 7, 20; 16: 7, 21; 16: 22; 16: 7, 23; 16: 7, 24; 7, 25; 16: 7, 26. Complaint — 9: 7, 26; 9: 7, Complexity — 6: 10, 8. Composure — 5: 11, 19. Comprehensiveness — 6: 10, Comradeship — 7: 9, 11. Conduct— 4: 2, 4; 5: 9, 22; 3, 8; 8: 11, 1; 17: 7, 6. Confidence'— 5 : 7, 16; 9: 5, 13: 9, 1; 13: 9, 2; 13: 9, 13: 9, 4; 13: 9, 5; 13: 6; 13: 9, 7; 13: 9, 8; 13 9; 13: 9, 10; 13: 9, 11; 9, 13; 13: 9, 14; 13: 9, 13: 9, 18; 13: 9, 19; 13: 20; 13: 9, 21; 13: 9, 22. Concentration — 15: 1, 7; 6, 1; 15: 6, 2; 15: 6, 3; 6, 4; 15: 6, 5; 15: 6, 6; 6, 7; 15: 6, 8; 15: 6, 9; 6, 10; 15: 6, 11; 15: 6, 15: 6, 13; 15: 6, 14; 15 15; 15: 6, 16; 15: 6, 18; 6, 19. Conclusion — 15: 3, 23. 11 11 11 11 14 11 11, 11, 4: 2; 11, 7, : 7, 16: 19; Conscience — 2: 4, 8: 5, 2; 8: 5, \ 5. 6: 8: 5, 8; ! 16 27. 23. 2; 3; 9, 9, 13: 17; 11; 8 14; 8 17; 8 22; 14 5, 12; 5, 15; 5, 19; : 10, 7. 21; 8: 5, ; 8: 5, 5; : 5, 10; 8 : 5, 13; 8: : 5, 16; 8: : 5, 20; 8: Consciousness — 13: 9, 12 Consideration — 2: 1, 19; 7; 3, 3, 32. Consistency — 5 Contentment— 8 : 3, 1; 8: 3, 2; 8: 3, 3; 8: 3, 3, 8; 8: 3, 9; 11; 8: 3, 12; 15; 8: 3, 18; 20; 8: 3, 21. Conversation — 6 Conviction — 5 17. Coolness— 15: 3, 13. Co-operation — 7: 9, 20; 21; 7: 9, 22; 7: 9, 23; 24. Correctness — 12: 7, 26. Corruption — 17: 10, 9. Counsel— 7: 2, 20; 7: 2 Courage— 4: 2, 23; 4: 5, 10, 6. 3, 1; 4; 8: 3, 8: 3, 10; 8: 3, 14; 8: 3, 19; : 6, 16. 10. 13: 10, 7: 9, 7: 9, 5, 2; 4: 6; 4: 5, 5, 10; 5, 14; 5, 17; 5, 22; 5, 6; 5, 7; 4: 4: 4: 4: 7: 4 4 4 4 5 15: 11, 13. Courtesy — 2: 6 6, 7; 2: 6, 8 10; 2: 6, 11; 2: 6, 14; 2: 6, 17; 2: 6, 20; 4: 2, 23; 9: 11, 17. 4: 5, i 5, 12; 5, 15; 5, 18; 5, 23; 8. 13; 5, 5; 8; 4 4: 4: 4: 4: 9: 13; 16; 19; 21: 5 1; 2: 6, 2: 6, 9; 2: 6, 12; 2: 6, 15; 2: 6, 18; 2: 6, 21; 4: 10, 17; Covetousness — 3: 4, 15; 16; 9: 1, 19. Coward— 9: 10, 11. Crime— 9: 10, 1; 9: 10, 10, 6; 9: 10, 8; 9: 10, 21. 1; 4: 4: 5, 5, 9; 5, 13: 5, 16; 5, 19; 5, 24: 3, 20; 6; 2: 2: 6, 2: 6, 2: 6, 2: 6, 3: 393 10, 19; 9: 10, 20; 9: 10, 23; 9: 10, 25; 9: 10, 27. Critic — 7: 7, 2. Criticism— 7: 2, 25; 7: 7, 1; 7: 7, 3; 7: 7, 4; 7: 7, 5; 7: 7, 8; 7: 7, 9; 7: 7, 11; 7: 7, 14; 7: 7, 18; 7: 7, 20; 7: 7, 22; 7: 7, 24; 7: 7, 26; 7: 7, 27; 7: 7, 28; 7: 7, 31. Crowding— 15: 12, 1; 15: 12, 2; 15: 12, 3; 15: 12, 4; 15 12, 7; 15: 12, 8; 15: 12, 9 15: 12, 10; 15: 12, 11; 15 12, 13; 15: 12, 14; 15: 12, 15 15: 12, 16; 15: 12, 17; 15: 12 18; 15: 12, 19; 15: 12, 20 15: 12, 21; 15: 12, 22. Cruelty — 7: 1, 22. Culture— 6: 6, 1; 6: 6, 2; 6: 6, 3; 6: 6, 4; 6: 6, 5; 6: 6, 6; 6: 6, 7; 6: 6, 8; 6: 6, 9; 6: 6, 10; 6: 6, 15; 8: 5, 4; 9: 1, 15; 11: 1, 3; 11: 3, 19. Curiosity — 3: 6, 17. Dallying— 9: 6, 6; 9: 6, 11. Danger — 17: 7, 7. Days, Bright — 8: 1, 10. Death— 17: 8, 18; 17: 8, 24. Debt— 17: 12, 1; 17: 12, 2; 17: 12, 4; 17: 12, 5; 17: 12, 6; 17: 12, 7; 17: 12, 8; 17: 12, 9; 17: 12, 10; 17: 12, 11; 17: 12, 12; 17: 12, 13; 17: 12, 14; 17: 12, 15. Deceit— 9: 11, 1; 9: 11, 2; 9: 11, 4; 9: 11, 6; 9: 11, 25; 9: 11, 27; 9: 11, 29. Decision — 9: 7, 6; 15: 3, 1; 15: 3, 2; 15: 3, 3; 15: 3, 4; 15: 3, 5; 15: 3, 6; 15: 3, 7; 15: 3, 8; 15: 3, 9; 15: 3, 10; 15: 3, 11; 15: 3, 12; 15: 3, 13; 15: 3, 14; 15: 3, 15; 15: 3, 16; 15: 3, 17; 15: 3, 18; 15: 3, 19; 15: 3, 20; 15: 3, 22; 15: 3, 24; 15: 3, 25; 15: 8, 4. Defeat— 17: 2, 4; 17: 2, 15; 17: 2, 22; 17: 2, 23. Deeds— 8: 4, 20; 8: 4, 23; 8: 4, 25. Deficiency — 3: 2, 17. Deliberation — 3: 5, 2. Delicacy — 6: 12, 11. Dependence — 16: 3, 27. Depravity — 8: 9, 17, 9: 2, 24; 9: 10, 3. Depression — 17: 6, 10; 17: 6, 18. Desire— 8: 11, 12; 14: 11, 8. Despair — 17: 6, 13. Despondency — 9: 4, 13; 17: 6, 11; 17: 6, 12; 17: 6, 14; 17: 6, 15; 17: 6, 16; 17: 6, 17; 17: 6, 19; 17: 6, 20. Deserts— 16: 10, 1; 16: 10, 2; 16: 10, 3; 16: 10, 4; 16: 10 5; 16: 10, 6; 16: 10, 7; 16: 10, 8; 16: 10, 10; 16: 10, 11; 16: 10, 12; 16: 10, 13; 16: 10, 14; 16: 10, 15; 16: 10, 16; 16: 10, 17; 16: 10, 18; 16: 10, 19; 16: 10, 20; 16: 10 21. Destiny— 16: 12, 21; 16: 12, 24 Details— 14: 8, 1; 14: 8, 2; 14 8, 3; 14: 8, 4; 14: 8, 5; 14 8, 6; 14: 8, 7; 14: 8, 8; 14 8, 9; 14: 8, 12; 14: 8, 14; 14 8, 15; 14: 8, 16; 14: 8, 17" 14: 8, 18; 14: 8, 22; 14: 8 23; 14: 8, 24. Determination — 14: 9, 1; 14: 9 2; 14: 9, 4; 14: 9, 5; 14: 9 6; 14: 9, 8; 14: 9, 9; 14: 9 10; 14: 9, 11; 14: 9, 12; 14 9, 13; 14: 9, 15; 14: 9, 18 14: 9, 20. Development — 4: 12, 3; 8: 8, 5 Devotion— 15: 4, 1; 15: 4, 3 15: 4, 4; 15: 4, 5; 15: 4, 6 15: 4, 7; 15: 4, 8; 15: 4, 9 15: 4, 11; 15: 4, 12; 15: 4, 13 15: 4, 14; 15: 4, 16; 15: 4 17; 15: 4, 18; 15: 4, 19; 15 4, 20; 15: 4, 21; 15: 4, 22 15: 4, 23; 15: 4, 24. Differences— 9: 7, 28. 394 Difficulty— 14: 11, 22; 17: 4, 1; 17: 4, 2; 17: 4, 3; 17: 4, 5; 17: 4, 6; 17: 4, 7; 17: 4, 8; 17: 4, 9; 17: 4, 10; 17: 4, 11; 17: 4, 12; 17: 4, 13; 17: 4, 14; 17: 4, 15; 17: 4, 16; 17: 4, 17; 17: 4, 18; 17: 4, 19; 17: 4, 20; 17: 4, 21; 17: 4, 22; 17: 4, 24; 17: 5, 25; 17: 4, 4. Dignity— 6: 8, 1; 6: 8, 2; 6: 8, Despair — 4: 6, 30. Disposition — 7: 4, 18; 8: 1, 8: 1, 2; 8: 1, 4; 8: 1, 5; 1, 7; 8: 1, 8; 8: 1, 11; 8 12; 8: 1, 13; 8: 1, 14; 8 15; 9: 7, 11; 13: 3, 3. Dissipation — 9: 10, 15. Distinction — 7: 10, 16; 18: 21. Distrust— 4: 4, 7; 9:5, 18. 10, 3 6: 8, 4; 6: 8, 5 ; 6: 8 , 7 Doubt— 9: 5, 20; 9: 5, 21; 9: 5, 6: 8, 8; 6: 8, 9; 6 8, 12; 6 22; 9: 5, 23; 12: 2, 13. 8, 13; 6 8, 14; 6: 8, 15; 6 Dress— 6: 9, 3; 6: 9, 5; 6: 9, 8, 17; 6 8, 19; 6 8, 20 6 6; 6: 9, 7; 6: 9, 8; 6: 9, 9; 8, 21; 6 8, 22; 6: 8, 23; 6 6: 9, 10; 6: 9, 11; 6: 9, 12; 8, 24; 6 8, 25; 6: 8, 26; 6 6: 9, 13; 6: 9, 14; 6: 9, 15; 8, 28; 6 8, 29; 6: 8, 30; 6 6: 9, 16; 6: 9, 18; 6: 9, 19; 8, 31; 6 12, 7; 6: 8, 6. 6: 9, 23; 6: 9, 24; 6: 9, 25; Diligence — 16: 3, 21. 6: 9, 26. Disagreeable, The — 3 : 6, 8. Drifting— 3: 6, 24. Disappointment — 14 : 5, 15; 17 Drill— 14: 1, 1. 5, 2; 17: 5, 3; 17: 5, 4; 17 Drudgery — 16: 1, 19. 5, 5; 17: 5, 7; 17: 5, 8; 17 Duality— 5: 10, 9. 5, 9; 17: 5, 10; 17: 5, 11; 17 Dunce— 9: 2, 21. 5, 15; 17: 5, 20; 17: 5, 21 Duplicity— 9: 11, 7; 9: 11, 22;' 17: 5, 22. 9: 11, 26. Discipline — 3: 6, 19; 5: 12 , 1 Duty— 2: 3, 6; 2: 3, 19; 2: 5, 5 12, 2; 5: 12, 3; 5: 12 , 4 1; 2: 5, 2; 2: 5, 3; 2: 5, 4; 5 12, 5; 5: 12, 6; 5: 12 , 7 2: 5, 5; 2: 5: 6; 2: 5, 7; 2: 5 12, 8; 5: 12, 10; 5: 12, 11 5, 8; 2: 5, 9; 2: 5, 10; 2: 5, 5 12, 12; 13: 6, 8; 15: 1, 15 11; 2: 5, 12; 2: 5, 15; 2: 5, Discontent — 5: 7, 9; 8: 3, 17 16; 2: 5, 17; 2: 5, 18; 2: 5, 13: 1, 23; 17: 5, 1; 17 : 5 19; 2: 5, 20; 2: 5, 21; 2: 5, 16; 17: 5, 17; 17: 5, 18; 17 22; 2: 5, 23; 2: 5, 24; 2: 5, 5, 19. 25; 4: 10, 18; 7: 10, 5; 5: 1, Discouragement — 17 : 6, 1; 17 1; 8: 11, 15; 13: 6, 10; 14: 6, 2; 17: 6, 3; 17: 6, 4; 17 8, 20; 15: 8, 21. 6, 5; 17: 6, 6; 17: 6, 7; 17 Earnestness — 5: 10, 14; 5: 10, 6, 8; 17: 6, 9; 17: 6, 10. 15; 5: 10, 19; 5: 10, 23; 14: Discretion — 3: 3, 14; 4: 3, 19 11, 20. 4: 3, 20; 4: 3, 21; 4: 7, 23 Earth, The— 1: 1, 8. Discrimination — 8: 12, 22. Eccentricity— 6: 1, 20. Disgrace — 5: 4, 26; 6: 12, 21 Economy— 14: 12, 17; 15: 10, 9: 3, 13. 1; 15: 10, 2; 15: 10, 3; 15: Dishonesty — 5: 3, 17; 5: 3, 18 10, 4; 15: 10, 5; 15: 10, 6; 5: 3, 19; 5: 3, 20. 15: 10, 7; 15: 10, 8; 15: 10, Dislike— 7: 12, 6. 9; 15: 10, 10; 15: 10, 11; 15: Disobedience — 2: 4, 22; 2 4 10, 14; 15: 10, 15; 15: 10, 16; 2' 5; 2: 4 , 24. 15: 10, 17; 15: 10, 18; 15: 10, 395 19; 15: 10, 20; 15: 10, 21. Ecstasy — 4: 6, 30. Education — 4: 12, 6; 10: 16, 5 11: 1, 1; 11: 1, 2; 11: 1, 3 11: 1, 4; 11: 1, 5; 11: 1, 6 11: 1, 7; 11: 1, 8; 11: 1, 9 11: 1, 10; 11: 1, 11; 11: 1 12; 11: 1, 13; 11: 1, 14; 11 1, 15: 11: 1, 16; 11: 1, 17 11: 1, 18; 11: 1, 19; 11: 2 10; 11: 5, 3; 11: 8, 18; 12 I, 20; 12: 6, 6; 12: 6, 16. Efficiency — 14: 5, 2. Effort— 8: 1, 19; 14: 7, 1; 14: II, 6; 14: 11, 7; 14: 11, 9; 14: 11, 10; 14: 11, 12; 15: 5, 26. Election— 8: 8, 1; 8: 8, 7; 8 8, 10; 8: 8, 12; 8: 8, 15; 8 8, 16; 8: 8, 17; 8: 8, 18; 8 8, 19; 8: 8, 20; 8: 8, 21; 14 10, 21. Eloquence — 4: 3, 20. Eminence — 17: 5, 24. Emotion — 7: 4, 20; 8: 4, 14. Emulation — 12: 1, 10; 16: 8, 28. Endeavor — 7: 7, 7; 14: 11, 1; 14: 11, 11. Endurance — 8: 10, 21; 8: 10, 22; 8: 10, 23; 15: 8, 17. 4, 17; 9: 4, 21; 15: 21; 15: 8, 1; 15: 15: 15: 15: 15; ,3; 15: 8, 4; 6; 15: 8, 7; 9; 15: 8, 11; 8, 13; 15: 8, 15: 8, 17; 15 Energy — 9 2, 6; 15 8, 2; 15 8, 5; 15 8, 8; 15: 8, 12; 15 15: 8, 16; 19; 15: 8, 20; 15 8, 18. Enemy — 16: 7, 16; 17: 7, 19. Enmity— 9: 12, 17; 9: 12, 18. Enthusiasm — 13: 8, 1; 13: 8, 2 13: 8. 3; 13: 8, 4; 13: 8, 5 13: 8, 7; 13: 8, 8; 13: 8, 9 13: 8, 10; 13: 8, 11; 13: 8, 12; 13: 8, 14; 13: 8, 15; 13 8, 16; 13: 8, 17; 13: 8, 18; 16 22; 15: 7, 17; 13: 8, 13. Environment — 2: 2, 4; 16: 6, 4; 16: 6, 13; 16: 6, 16; 16: 6, 23. Envy— 9: 9, 4; 9: 12, 5; 9: 12, 7; 9: 12, 8; 9: 12, 9; 9: 12, 10; 9: 12, 11; 9: 12, 12; 9: 12, 14; 9: 12, 15; 9: 12, 20. Equality— 4: 2, 20; 18: 5, 1; 18: 5, 3. Errands — 2: 4, 4. Error — 4: 3, 29. Estimate— 13: 6, 1; 13: 6, 6. Etiquette— 6: 1, 4; 6: 2, 2. Evil— 8: 9, 8; 8: 9, 18; 8: 9, 23. Example— 2: 2, 5; 2: 2, 14; 4: 12, 9; 8: 4, 19; 8: 11, 19; 11: 10, 3; 11: 10, 5; 11: 10, 11; 12: 2, 1; 12: 2, 2; 12: 2 3; 12: 2, 4; 12: 2, 5; 12: 2, 10; 12: 2, 11; 12: 2, 12; 12: 2, 14; 12: 2, 15; 12: 2, 16; 12: 2, 17; 12: 2, 20; 12: 2, 24; 12: 2, 25. Excellence— 3 : 2, 23; 4: 3, 13; 5: 9, 25; 8: 11, 3; 8: 12, 19; 8: 12, 20; 8: 12, 23; 16: 1, 16; 16: 9, 21. Excess— 17: 10, 12; 17: 10, 13; 17: 10, 15; 17: 10, 17. Excitement — 10: 1, 21. Exercise— 10: 10, 10; 10: 10, 13; 10: 10, 22; 11: 2, 20. Exercises, Regular — 2: 5, 13. Exhaustion— 17: 10 5; 17: 10, 10; 17: 10, 11. Expectation — 13: 5, 9. Experience — 11: 5, 17; 11: 6, 1 11: 6, 2; 11: 6, 4; 11: 6, 5 11: 6, 6; 11: 6, 7; 11: 6, 8 11: 6, 9; 11: 6, 10; 11: 6, 11 11: 6, 12; 11: 6, 13; 11: 6 14; 11: 6, 15; 11: 6, 17; 11 6, 18; 11: 6, 19; 11: 6, 20 11: 6, 21; 11: 6, 23; 11: 6 24. Explanation — 7: 6, 16. 39^ Extravagance — 4: 6, 25; 17: 10, 18. Extremes — 4: 6, 30. Eye, The— 2: 1, 17; 17: 9, 14. Face, The — 7: 12, 1. Failure — 3: 2, 27; 6: 8, 13; 9: 3, 7; 9: 6, 16; 17: 2, 3; 17: 2, 5; 17: 2, 6; 17: 2, 7; 17: 2, 8; 17: 2, 9; 17: 2, 10; 17: 2, 11; 17: 2, 12; 17: 2. 13; 17: 2, 14; 17: 2, 15; 17: 2, 16; 17: 2, 17; 17: 2, 18; 17: 2, 19; 17: 2, 20; 17: 2, 21; 17: 2, 22; 17: 2, 24; 17: 2, 25. Fairness— 2: 1, 20. Faith— 13: 10, 1; 13: 10, 2; 13: 10, 3; 13: 10, 4; 13: 10, 5; 13: 10, 6; 13: 10, 7; 13: 10, 8; 13: 10, 9; 13: 10, 10; 13: 10, 11; 13: 10, 12; 13: 10, 13; 13: 10, 14; 13: 10, 16; 13: 10, 17; 13: 10, 18; 13: 10, 19; 13: 10. 20; 13: 10, 21; 13: 10, 22; 13: 10, 24; 13: 10, 26; 13: 10, 27. Faithfulness— 4 : 3, 25; 5: 10, 16; 16: 2, 23. Falsehood— 5: 2, 18; 9: 11, 15; 9: 11, 16. Fame— 18: 10, 1; 18: 10, 2; 18 10, 3; 18: 10, 4; 18: 10, 5 18: 10, 6; 18: 10, 7; 18: 10 8; 18: 10, 9; 18: 10, 10; 18 10, 11; 18: 10, 12; 18: 10, 13 18: 10, 14; 18: 10, 15; 18: 10 16; 18: 10, 17; 18: 10, 18; 18 10, 19; 18: 10, 20; 18: 10, 22 18: 10, 23; 18: 10, 24. Family, The— 3: 4, 1; 18: 4, 1 18: 4, 2; 18: 4, 4; 18: 4, 5 18: 4, 7; 18: 4, 8; 18: 4, 9 18: 4, 10; 18: 4, 11; 18: 4, 12 18: 4, 13; 18: 4, 14; 18: 4, 15 18: 4, 16. Fashion — 6: 2, 17; 6:9, 22. Fascinating — 6: 1, 24. Fate— 8: 2, 13; 16: 12, 23; 16: 12, 26; 17: 8, 3. Fault — 7: 7, 29. Fault-Finding — 9: 7, 2; 9: 7, 6; 9: 7, 10; 9: 7, 14; 9: 7, 17; 9: 7, 18; 9: 7, 19; 9: 7, 20; 9: 7, 22; 9: 7, 25. Fear— 4: 5, 5; 4: 8, 5; 9: 4, 22; 9: 5, 3; 9: 5, 5; 9: 5, 13; 9: 5, 14; 9: 5, 15; 9: 5, 16. Feeling— 7: 5, 16. Fickleness — 9: 6, 14. Fidelity— 5: 9, 8; 5: 9, 9; 5: 9, 10; 5: 9, 11; 5: 9, 12; 5: 9, 15. First, The — 1: 1, 4; 2: 1, 9. Firmness — 5: 9, 18; 5: 9, 19; 12: 12, 21; 13: 12, 22. Flattery— 9: 12, 19. Flowers — 1: 2, 9. Folly— 2: 1, 13. Forbearance — 7: 6, 17; 7: 8, 18; 7: 8, 20; 7: 8, 21; 7: 8, 22. Force— 14: 11, 15. Forefather — 12: 2, 19. Forethought— 13: 7, 22; 14: 1, 4. Forgiveness — 7: 5, 22; 7: 6,1; 7: 6, 2; 7: 6, 3; 7: 6, 6; 7: 6, 7; 7: 6, 9; 7: 6, 11; 7: 6, 12; 7: 6, 13; 7: 6, 14; 7: 6, 15; 7: 6, 19; 7: 6, 21; 7: 6, 22; 7: 6, 23; 7: 8, 17; 7: 8, 18. Fool— 9: 2, 18; 9: 2, 19; 9: 2, 20; 9: 2, 22. Foresight— 13: 7, 2; 13: 7, 4; 13: 7, 7; 13: 7, 8; 13: 7, 9; 13: 7, 10; 13: 7, 11; 13: 7, 12; 13: 7, 14; 13: 7, 15; 13: 7, 16; 13: 7, 17; 13: 7, 18; 13: 7, 23; 13: 7, 24. Fortitude— 4: 2, 22; 17: 3, 18. Fortune— 16: 2, 19; 16: 12, 16; 16: 12, 22; 16: 12, 25; 16: 12, 27. Foundation— 14: 1, 10; 14: 1, 18; 14: 2, 21. Forwardness — 9: 1, 18. Frankness — 5: 3, 27; 5: 3, 29; 7: 8, 4. Freedom— 5: 5, 3; 10: 12, 1; 10: 12, 3; 10: 12, 4; 10: 12, 397 12; 10: 12, 13; 10: 12, 14 10: 12, 18. Fretting — 9: 7, 1; 9: 7, 2; 9 7, 3; 9: 7, 5; 9: 7, 7; 9: 7, 8 9: 7, 9. Friendship— 4: 11, 14; 7: 9, 7 10: 5, 2; 10: 5, 3; 10: 5, 4 10: 5, 6; 10: 5, 7 10: 5, 9; 10: 5, 10 10: 5, 12; 10: 5, 13 10: 5, 15; 10: 5, 16 10: 5, 18; 10: 5, 19 10: 5, 21. 10: 5, 5; 10: 5, 8; 10: 5, 11; 10: 5, 14: 10: 5, 17 10: 5, 20 Frivolity — 17: 10, 9. Frugality — 6: 10, 17 Fun— 10: 10, 20. Fury — 4: 8, 8. Future— 2: 1, 1; 14 12, 6. Generosity — 7 : 8, 1 7; 8, 4; 7 8, 8; 7: 8 12, 5; 14: 7: 8, 2; 7: : 8, 5; 7: 8, 7; , 9; 7: 8, 10; 7: 8, 7: 8, 14; 7: 8, 8: 6, 21. 11; 7: 8, 12 15; 7: 8, 16; Geniality— 7: 8, 9. Genius— 9: 3, 24; 11: 7, 1; 11 7, 2; 11: 7, 3; 11: 7, 4; 11 7, 5; 11: 7, 6; 11: 7, 7; 11: 7 8; 11: 7, 9; 11: 7, 10; 11: 7 11; 11: 7, 12; 11: 7, 13; 11: 7, 14; 11: 7, 15; 11: 7, 16 11: 7, 17; 11: 7, 18; 11: 7, 19 11: 7, 20; 11: 7, 21; 11: 7, 22 11: 7, 23; 11: 7, 24; 11: 7, 25 16: 8, 19. Gentility— 6: 6, 19; 6:6, 20. Gentleman— 4: 10, 19; 6: 3, 1 6: 3, 2; 6: 3, 3; 6: 3, 4; 6 3, 5; 6: 3, 6; 6: 3, 15; 6 3, 16; 6: 3, 17; 6: 3, 18; 6 3, 19; 6: 3, 20; 6: 3, 21; 6 3, 22; 6: 3, 23; 6: 3, 24; 6 3, 25; 6: 3, 26; 7: 7, 13; 7 9, 4; 8: 12, 10; 6 : 3, 7; 6 3, 8; 6: 3, 9; 6: 3, 10; 6: c 11; 6: 3, 12; 6: 3, 13; 6: c 14. Gentleness— 4: 5, 17; 6: 7, 12 6: 7, 13; 6: 7, 14; 6: 7, 15 6: 7, 16; 6: 7, 23. 4, 16; 6: 4, 18; 6: 2, 7. Gloom— 17: 6, 18. Glory — 5: 5, 5. God— 1: 1, 1; 1: 1, 3 1 4, 28; 18: 1, 1, 5; 1: 1, 6; 1: 1, 7; 1 1: 1, 9; 1: 1, 10; 1: 1, 2, 2; 1: 2, 3; 1: 2, 4; 1 1: 2, 7; 1: 2, 8 2, 11; 1: 3, 1; 3, 4; 1: 3, 5; 1: 1: 3, 8; 2: 3, 1; 18: 12, 12. Good Cheer— 7: 5, 11. Goodness — 3: 2, 30; 4: 6, 12; 4: 7, 3; 1: 2, 1: 3, , 6; 1 3: 2, 4: 5, 4: 10 : 9, 8 9, 12 9, 19 9, 22; 9, 27; 24 8: 9, 2; 8: 9, 5; 9, 10; 8: 9, 11; 9, 13; 8: 9, 14; 9, 20; 8: 9, 21; 9, 23; 8: 9, 25; 9, 28; 11: 5, 7. Good Will— 7: 4, 1; 7: 4, 2; 4, 4; 7: 4, 5; 7: 4, 7; 7 9; 7: 4, 10; 7: 4, 11; 7 12; 7: 4, 14. Government — 4: 4, 10; 8: 6, 10: 12, 20. Gratitude— 8: 7, 1; 8: 7, 8: 7, 4; 8: 7, 5; 8: 7, 8; 7, 9; 8: 7, 17. Greatness — 3: 1, 10 3: 2, 31; 6: 7, 6 9, 1; 18: 9, 2 9, 4; 18: 9, 5 9, 7; 18: 9, 8 9, 10; 18: 9, 3: 1, 7: 9, 18: 9, 18: 9, 18: 9, 11; 18: Girl— 4: 11, 14; 11, 15; 6: 18: 9, 13; 18: 9, 14; 9, 15; 18: 9, 16; 18: 9, 18: 9, 18; 18: 9, 19; 18: 9, 18: 9, 21; 18: 9, 22; 18: 9, 18: 9, 24; 18: 9, 25. Greed— 9: 8, 1: 9: 8, 2; 9:8 9: 8, 4; 9: 8, 5; 9: 8, 6; 8, 8; 9: 8, 9; 9: 8, 11; 9 12; 9: 8, 13; 9: 8, 14; 9 15; 9: 8, 16; 9: 8, 20. Grief— 17: 3, 5; 17: 3, 14; 3, 16. Growth— 5: 1, 12. Grumbling — 9: 7, 13; 9: 7, 7: : 4, 4, 22; 2; 11; 13; 3; 6; 9; 9, 18: 17; 20; 23; 17: 24. 398 Guilt— 4: 7, 18; 10: 11, 11, 23. Habit— 3: 5, 11; 4: 7, 7; 1; 4: 10, 2; 4:- 10, 4; 4 4: 10,6; 4: 10, 7; 4: 4: 10, 9; 4: 10, 10; 4: 10, 13; 4: 10, 14; 4: 10, 16; 4: 10, 19; 4: 10, 22; 8: 9, 9; j Half-Doing — 3 3: 2, 20. Happiness — 2: 3: 3, 29; 4: 8: 3, 10; 8: 10: 1, 2; 10 4: 10, 17; 4: 10, 20; 4: 10, 23; : 12, 24. -3: 2, 18; 5, 7; 21, 9; 6, 23; 1, 3; 7; 10: 4: 10 10, 5 10, 8 10, 11 10, 15 10, 18 10, 21 10, 24 3: 2, 19; 2: 4: 10: 10: 10: 10: 10: 5, 22 4, 15 1, 1 1, 4 1, 8 1, 12 1, 15 1, 18 10: 1, 5; 10: 1, 6; 10: 1, 9; 10: 1, 11; 10: 1, 13; 10: 1, 14; 10: 1, 16; 10: 1, 17; 10 10: 1, 19; 15: 4, 16. Harshness— 6: 7, 4; 7: 5, 15; 7: 5, 20. Haste— 4: 3, 29. Hatred— 4: 4, 7; 4: 4, 8. Haughtiness — 9: 9, 23. Health— 4: 6, 17; 6: 10, 2, 1; 10: 2, 2; 10: 2, 2, 4; 10: 2, 7; 10: 2, 2, 10; 10: 2, 11; 10: 10: 2, 14; 10: 2, 15; 10 10: 2, 17; 10: 2, 18; 10 10: 2, 21; 10: 2, 23; 10 10: 2, 25; 10: 4, 15. Heart, The— 8: 9, 15; 10: Heartlessness — 7: 8, 16. Help— 5: 7, 20. Heredity — 10: 6, 7; 10: 3; 10: 9; 10: 2, 12; : 2, 16; : 2, 20; : 2, 24; 8, 23. 10: 6, 5; 10: 3; 10: 6, 7; 10: 10: 6, 10; 10: 6, 11; 10: 10: 6, 13; 10: 6, 14; 10: 10: 6, 16; 10: 6, 17; 10: 10: 6, 19; 10: 6, 20; 10: 10: 6, 22; 10: 6, 23; 10: 10: 6, 26. Heroism — 4: 5, 4; 4: 5, 5, 26. Hesitation — 3: 6, 16; 9: 9: 5, 23. High Aim— 4: 12, 10. 6, 4 6, 8 6, 12 6, 15 6, 18 6, 21 6, 25 11; 4: 5, 11; High Birth— 6: 3, 24. History— 11: 10, 1; 11: 10, 2; 11: 10, 4; 11: 10, 9; 11: 10, 10; 11: 10, 15; 11: 10, 16. Home — 6: 2, 3; 8: 6, 20; 12: 2 7; 12: 12, 1; 12: 12, 2; 12 12, 3; 12: 12, 4; 12: 12, 5 12: 12, 6; 12: 12, 8; 12: 12, 9 12: 12, 10; 12: 12, 11; 12: 12 12; 12: 12, 13; 12: 12, 14 12: 12, 15; 12: 12, 16; 12: 12 17; 12: 12, 19. Honesty— 4: 2, 23; 5: 3, 1; 5 3, 2; 5: 3, 3; 5: 3, 4; 5: 3, 5 5: 3, 6; 5: 3, 7; 5: 3, 8 5: 3, 9; 5: 3, 10; 5: 3, 11 5: 3, 15; 5: 3, 16 5: 3, 12; 5: 3, 20; 5: 3, 23; 5: 3, 26; 5: 3, 29; 5: 3, 21; 22 24; 5: 3, 25 5: 3, 27; 14: 7, 7. t, 28 Honor — 5: 8, 3; 5: 8, ;; 5: 8, 8 5: 8, 11 5: 8, 14 5: 8, 20 5: 8, 9; 5: 8, 10; 5: 8, 12; 5: 8, 13; 5: 8, 15; 5: 8, 17; 5: 8, 23; 6: 12, 5. Hour— 14: 6, 9; 14: 6, 24. Hope— 5: 11, 8; 8: 2, 16; 13: 11, 1; 13: 11, 2; 13: 11, 3; 13: 11, 5; 13: 11, 6; 13: 11, 7; 13: 11, 8; 13: 11, 9; 13: 11, 10; 13: 11, 11; 13: 11, 12; 13: 11: 13; 13: 11, 14; 13: 11, 15; 13: 11, 16; 13: 11, 17; 13: 11, 18; 13: 11, 19; 13: 11, 20; 13: 11, 21; 13: 11, 22; 13: 11, 23; 13: 11, 24. Hospitality— 6: 5, 21; 7: 1, 17. Humility— 6: 10, 13; 6: 12, 15; 6: 12, 16; 6: 12, 17; 6: 12, 18; 6: 12, 19; 6: 12, 26. Humor— 6: 11, 19; 7: 11, 12. Hurry — 14: 1, 6. Hypocrisy — 9: 11, 8; 9: 11, 9; 9: 11, 10; 9: 11, 11; 9: 11, 12; 9: 11, 13; 9: 11, 18; 9: 11, 19; 9: 11, 20. Ideal— 2: 2, 3; 3: 2, 16; 8: 3, 12; 9: 8, 19; 13: 4, 1; 13: 4, 2; 13: 4, 3; 13: 4, 4; 13: 4, 5; 13: 4, 6; 13: 4, 7; 13: 4, 399 9; 13: 4, 10; 13, 4, 14; 13 4, 15; 13: 4, 16; 13: 4, 17 13: 4, 18; 13: 5, 11; 13: 5, 18 13: 5, 22; 13: 4, 19; 13: 4 20; 13: 4, 21; 13: 5, 1; 13 5, 4; 13: 5, 8; 13: 5, 10. Idea— 13: 4, 8; 13: 5, 2; 13: 5, 6. Idle, The— 3: 6, 10. Idleness— 9: 2, 16; 15: 5, 12; 17: 11, 1; 17: 11, 2; 17: 11, 4; 17: 11, 5; 17: 11, 10; 17: 11, 13; 17: 11, 14; 17: 11, 16; 17: 11, 17; 17: 11, 18; 17: 11, 19; 17: 11, 20; 17: 9, 9; 17: 11, 21; 17: 11, 22; 17: 11, 23; 17: 11, 24; 17: 11, 27; 17: 11, 28. Ignorance — 9: 2, 1; 9: 2, 3; 9 2, 4; 9: 2, 5; 9: 2, 6; 9 2, 7; 9: 2, 8; 9: 2, 9; 9 2, 10; 9: 2, 11; 9: 2, 14; 9 2, 15; 9: 2, 16; 9: 2, 26. Illusion— 8: 11, 22; 8: 11, 23; 13: 3, 5. Imagery — 13: 4, 13. Imagination— 4: 9, 8; 13: 4, 11; 13: 4, 2. Imitation — 2: 1, 8; 2: 1, 16; 12: 3, 1; 12: 3, 2; 12: 3, 3; 12: 3, 4; 12: 3, 5; 12: 3, 6; 12: 3, 7; 12: 3, 8; 12: 3, 9; 12: 3, 10; 12: 3, 11; 12: 3, 12; 12: 3, 13; 12: 3, 15; 12: 3, 16; 12: 3, 18; 12: 3, 19; 12: 3, 20; 12: 3, 21; 12: 3, 22; 12: 3, 23; 12: 3, 24. Immortality— 18: 11, 2; 18: 11, 3; 18: 11, 4; 18: 11, 5; 18: 11, 6; 18: 11, 7; 18: 11, 8; 18: 11, 9; 18: 11, 10; 18: 11, 11; 18: 11, 12; 18: 11, 13; 18: 11, 14; 18: 11, 15; 18: 11, 16; 18: 11, 17; 18: 11, 18; 18: 11, 19; 18: 11, 20. Impartiality — 4: 4, 10; 4: 4, 11. Impatience — 9: 7, 21. Impertinence — 9: 7, 15. Impossibility — 9: 5, 3; 9: 5, 17. Impressions — 2: 1, 12. Imr. >rovement— 11:9, 1; 11:9,3; 11: 9, 4; 11: 9, 7; 11: 9, 8 11: 9, 9; 11: 9, 10; 11: 9, 12 11: 9, 13; 11: 9, 14; 11: 9, 15 11: 9, 16; 11: 9, 19; 11: 9, 21 11: 9, 22; 11: 9, 23; 11: 9, 25 12: 2, 12. Impulse— 2: 1, 10; 8: 4, 11. Incincerity — 5: 10, 7; 5: 10, 11. Incompleteness — 15: 7, 1. Indecision — 3: 6, 2; 9: 6, 1; 9: 6, 2; 9: 6, 7. Independence — 4: 12, 11; 4: 12, 12; 4: 12, 13; 4: 12, 14. Indignation — 4: 8, 8; 4: 8, 30; 5: 10, 25; 7: 4, 16. Indifference — 9: 6, 3; 9: 6, 4; 9: 6, 5; 9: 6, 8; 9: 6, 9; 9: 6, 10; 9: 6, 12; 9: 6, 13; 9: 6, 15; 9: 6, 17; 9: 6, 20; 9: 6, 22; 9: 6, 24; 9: 6, 25; 15: 4, 2. Indiscretion — 5: 1, 17. Individuality — 4: 12, 1; 4: 12, 2; 4: 12, 3; 4: 12, 4; 4: 12, 5; 4: 12, 6; 4: 12, 7; 4: 12, 8; 4: 12, 9; 4: 12, 10; 4: 12, 15; 4: 12, 16; 4: 12, 18; 4: 12, 19; 7: 7, 16. Indolence— 17: 11, 3; 17: 11, 6; 17: 11, 7; 17: 11, 8; 17: 11, 11; 17: 11, 12; 17: 11, 15; 17: 11, 25; 17: 11, 26. Indulgence— 17: 12, 3. Industry— 5: 9, 15; 8: 3, 16; 14: 7, 16; 14: 8, 19; 14: 11, 18; 15: 5, 1; 15: 5, 2; 15: 5, 3; 15: 5, 4; 15: 5, 5; 15: 5, 6; 15: 5, 7; 15: 5, 8; 15: 5, 9; 15: 5, 10; 15: 5, 11; 15: 5, 12; 15: 5, 13; 15: 5, 14; 15: 5, 15; 15: 5, 16; 15: 5, 17; 15: 5, 18; 15: 5, 19; 15: 5, 20; 15: 5, 21; 15: 5, 23; 15: 5, 24; 15: 5, 25; 15: 5, 26; 17: 6, 13. Infancy — 2: 1, 12. Inferiors— 6: 8, 11. Inferiority— 6 : 12, 20; 14: 5, 15. Infirmities — 4: 8, 4. 400 Influence— 2: 2, 6; 4: 5, 26; 10 3, 10; 11: 12, 1; 11: 12, 2 11: 12, 3; 11: 12, 4; 11: 12 5; 11: 12, 6; 11: 12, 7; 11 12, 8; 11: 12, 9; 11: 12, 10 11: 12, 11; 11: 12, 12; 11: 12, 13; 11: 12, 13; 12: 2, 9. Information — 11: 4, 11. Ingratitude— 8: 7, 10; 8: 7, 11; 8: 7, 13; 8: 7, 14; 8: 7, 16; 8: 7, 18; 9: 7, 26. Initiative, The — 3: 6, 15. Injuries — 9: 7, 16. Injustice— 4: 4, 29; 7: 4, 15. Innocence — 4: 7, 18; 4: 7, 22. Tnquiry — 12: 7, 14. Inquisitiveness — 9: 10, 14. Insensibility — 7: 8, 24. Instructors — 12: 1, 8. Integrity— 4: 4, 17; 4: 7, 18; 5: 9, 1; 5: 9, 2; 5: 9, 3; 5: 9, 4; 5: 9, 5; 5: 9, 6; 5: 9, 7; 5: 9, 16; 5: 9, 17; 5: 9, 23; 5: 9, 26; 9: 11, 3. Intellect— 12: 5, 16; 12: 5, 17; 12: 5, 18; 12: 5, 19. Intelligence— 6 : 4, 25; 6: 4, 26; 12: 5, 13; 12: 5, 27; 15: 1, 26. Intemperance — 4: 6, 4; 4: 6, 5; 4: 6, 13; 4: 6, 28; 4: 6, 32. Interest— 12: 4, 20; 13: 6, 7. Invention — 15: 2, 10. Ire— 4: 8, 8. Irresolution — 9: 5, 4. Jealousy— 9: 12, 1; 9: 12, 2; 9 12, 3; 9: 12, 4; 9: 12, 5; 9 12, 6; 9: 12, 7; 9: 12, 13; 9 12, 20; 9: 12, 21; 9: 12, 22 9: 12, 26; 9: 12, 31. Jesus — 2: 3, 1. Joke— 9: 11, 23. Joy— 10: 8, 20; 10: 8, 21; 10: 9, 23. Judge— 7: 7, 2. Judgment— 4: 4, 13; 7: 7, 19; 7: 7, 21; 7: 7, 23; 7: 7, 30; 12: 10, 1; 12: 10, 25; 13: 6, 2; 13: 6, 3; 13: 6, 4; 13: 6, 11; 13: 6, 12; 13: 6, 13; 13: 6, 14; 13: 6, 15; 13: 6, 16; 13: 6, 17; 13: 6, 19; 13: 6 20; 13: 6, 21; 13: 6, 22; 13: 6, 23; 4: 3, 2; 7: 9, 6. Justice — 2: 1, 19; 4: 2, 23; 4 4, 1; 4: 4, 2; 4: 4, 3; 4: 4, 4 4: 4, 5; 4: 4, 6; 4: 4, 7; 4 4, 9; 4: 4, 10; 4: 4, 12; 4 • 4, 13; 4: 4, 14; 4: 4, 15; 4 4, 16; 4: 4, 17; 4: 4, 18; 4 4, 19; 4: 4, 20; 4: 4, 21; 4 4, 22; 4: 4, 23; 4: 4, 24; 4 4, 26; 4: 4, 27; 4: 4, 28; 7 8, 10; 8: 5, 21. Kindness— 4: 2, 23; 6: 7, 1; 6 7, 2; 6: 7, 3; 6: 7, 4; 6: 7, 5 6: 7, 6; 6: 7, 7; 6: 7, 9; 6 7, 10; 6: 7, 11; 6: 7, 18; 6 7, 19; 6: 7, 20; 6: 7, 21; 6 7, 22. Knave — 9: 10, 4. Knowledge— 4: 12, 8; 9: 2, 17 10: 4, 7; 11: 4, 1; 11: 4, 2 11: 4, 3; 11: 4, 4; 11: 4, 5 11: 4, 6; 11: 4, 9; 11: 4, 10 11: 4, 12; 11: 4, 14; 11: 4, 17 11: 4, 18; 11: 4, 19; 11: 4, 20; 11: 4, 21; 11: 4, 22; 11: 4, 24; 11: 5, 18; 16: 3, 4; 16: 3, 14. Labor— 14: 11, 19; 15: 4, 10; 16: 1, 1; 16: 1, 2; 16: 1, 4; 16: 1, 5; 16: 1, 7; 16: 1, 9; 16: 1, 10; 16: 1, 11; 16: 1, 12; 16: 1, 13; 16: 1, 14; 16: I, 17; 16: 1, 18. Lady— 6: 4, 1; 6: 4, 3; 6: 4, 4; 6: 4, 5; 6: 4, 7; 6: 4, 8; 6 4, 10; 6: 4, Is.; 6: 4, 13; 6 4, 14; 6: 4, 15; 6: 4, 17; 6 4, 21; 6: 4, 23; 6: 4, 24; 6 4, 27. Laughter— 6: 11, 18. Law— 6: 1, 1; 11: 3, 22. Laziness— 9: 2, 2; 9: 6, 18; 17: II, 29. Leader— 18: 8, 1; 18: 8, 2; 18: 8, 3; 18: 8, 6; 18: 8, 8; 18: 40i 8, 9; 18: 8, 10; 18: 8, 14; 8, 16; 18: 8, 17; 18: 8, 18: 8, 19; 18: 8, 20. Learning — 11: 6, 25. 10: 10, 27; Leisure— 10: 10, 14: 6, 6. Lessons — 14: 2, 13. Liberty— 10: 12, 5; 10: 12, 10: 12, 7; 10: 12, 8; 10: 9; 10: 12, 10; 10: 12, 15; 12, 17; 10: 12, 19. Life— 2: 1, 5; 4: 9, 9; 5 5: 8, 5; 5: 12, 9; 8: 2, 6; 8, 11; 10: 7, 1; 10: 7, 2; 7, 3; 10: 7, 4; 10: 7, 6; 7, 7; 10: 7, 8; 10: 7, 9; 7, 10; 10: 7, 11; 10: 7, 10: 7, 13; 10: 7, 14; 10 15; 10: 7, 16; 10: 7, 17; 7, 18; 10: 7, 19; 10: 7, 10: 7, 21; 10: 7, 22; 10 23; 10: 7, 24; 13: 11, 4; 6, 21; 14: 8, 13. Life-Work— 16 : 6, 6. Little Things— 3: 1, 6 3: 1, 9; 3: 1, 12; 3: 1, 14; 3: 1, 15; 3: 1, 19; 3: 1, 20; 3: 1, 24; 3: 1, 25; Longevity — 6 : 6, 11 ; 6: 6, 13; 10: 2, 18. Longing — 11: 10, 12. Loss— 9: 2, 12; 14: 6 Love — 2: 3, 2; 2: 3, 3 2: 3, 5; 2 3, 8; 2: 3, 10; 3, 12; 2: 3, 13; 3, 15; 2: 3, 16; 3, 18; 2: 3, 19; 3, 21; 2: 3, 22; 4: 2, 21; 4, 8; 7: 11, 2; 7: 11, 7; 8 21; 8: 10, 18; 8: 12, 8; 4, 3; 10: 8, 22; 13: 10, 2: 3. 9. Luck— 13: 7: 5; 14: 10, 12; 12, 1; 16: 12, 2; 16: 12, 16: 12, 5; 16: 12, 6; 16: 7; 16: 12, 8; 16: 12, 9; 12, 10; 16: 12, 11; 16: 12, 6; 12, 10: 8, 4 ; 8 10 10 10 12 1 10 20 14 6; 2: 3 2: 3, 2: 2: 2 3: 1 1, 1, 1, 1, 3, 6, 20. 2: 3 , 7; 3, 11; 3, 14; 3, 17; 3, 20; 7 13 16 22 12; 4 2 2 2 2 2 7 : i 10 23 16: 3; 12. 16: 12; 16: 12, 13; 6: 12, 14; 16: 12, 15; 16: 12, 17; 16: 12, 18; 16: 12, 19; 16: 12, 20; 16: 12, 28; 16: 12, 29. Luxury— 8: 9, 7; 15: 10, 17; 18: 5, 8. Lying— 5: 2, 19; 5: 2, 21; 5: 2, 22; 9: 10, 21; 9: 11, 28. Malignity— 7 : 6, 10. Man— 4: 1, 1; 4: 1, 2; 8: 11, 13; 8: 11, 16; 18: 1, 1; 18 1, 2; 18: 1, 3; 18: 1, 4; 18 1, 5; 18: 1, 6; 18: 1, 7; 18 1, 8; 18: 1, 9; 18: 1, 10; 18 1, 11; 18: 1, 12; 18: 1, 13 18: 1 ,14; 18: 1, 15; 18: 1, 16 18: 1, 17; 18: 1, 18; 18: 1, 19; 18: 11, 1. Manhood— 4: 5, 4; 4: 5, 13; 1, 1; 5: 1, 2; 5: 1, 3; 5 4; 5: 1, 5; 5:1 5: 1, 8; 5: 1, 9; 1, 11; 5: 1, 14; 1, 16; 5: 1, 18; 1, 20; 5: 1, 21; 1, 23; 6: 2, 7; 10, 12; 9: 10, 26; 5: 1, 13. Manliness — 8: 9, 1. Manner— 4: 10, 12; 6: 1, 1; 6 6; 5: 1 7 5: 1, 10; 5 5: 1, 15; 5 5: 1, 19; 5 5: 1, 22; 5 9: 3, 11; 9 2; 6: 6: 1, 1, 10; 1, 13; 1, 16; 1, 19; 1, 23: 8, 9. 6: 1, 5 1, 6: 1, 11; 6: 1, 14; 6: 1, 17; 6: 1, 21; 6: 5, 7; 6: 1 6: 1, 9 : 1, 12 : 1, 15 : 1, 18 : 1, 22 : 5, 24 18: 18 18: Marriage — 18 : 3, 1 ; 18: 3, 3; 18: 3, 4 18: 3, 6; 18: 3, 1; 18: 3, 9; 18: 3, 10; 18: 3, 11 18: 3, 12; 18: 3, 13; 18: 3 14; 18: 3, 15; 18: 3, 16; 18 3, 17; 18: 3, 18; 18: 3, 19 18: 4, 6; 18: 4, 17. Martyr— 7: 10, 21. Master— 14: 1, 22; 14: 7, 10 15: 7, 18. Mastery— 14: 1, 11; 14: 1, 13. 402 Meanness — 9: 10, 7; 9: 10, 17 Memory— 12: 8, 2; 12: 8, 3; 12 8, 4; 12: 8, 5; 12: 8, 6; 12 8, 7; 12: 8, 8; 12: 8, 9; 12 8, 10; 12: 8, 11; 12: 8, 12 12: 8, 13; 12: 8, 14; 12: i 15; 12: 8: 16; 12: 8, 17; 12 8, 18; 12: 8, 19; 12: 8, 20. Mercy— 7: 5, 1; 7: 5, 2; 7: 5, 3 ; 7: 5, 4; 7: 5, 5; 7: 5, 6 7: 5, 7; 7: 5, 8; 7: 5, 9; 7 5, 12; 7: 5, 18; 7: 5, 19; 7 5, 21; 7: 5, 23. Merit— 14: 1, 8; 14: 11, 5; 16 9, 1; 16: 9, 2; 16: 9, 3; 16 9, 4; 16: 9, 5; 16: 9, 6; 16 9, 7; 16: 9, 8; 16: 9, 9; 16 9, 12; 16: 9, 13; 16: 9, 14 16: 9, 15; 16: 9, 16; 16: 9, 17 16: 9, 20; 16: 9, 22; 18: 10 25. Method— 15: 1,1; 15: 1, 2; 15 1, 3; 15: 1, 5; 15: 1, 6; 15 1, 8; 15: 1, 9; 15: 1, 10; 15 1, 11; 15: 1, 12; 15: 1, 13 15: 1, 14; 15: 1, 18; 15: 1, 19. Mind— 4: 1, 14; 4: 9, 9; 4: 9, 20; 4: 9, 21; 11: 4, 7; 11: 4, 8; 12: 7, 9; 12: 7, 24; 12: 5, 20; 12: 5, 21; 12: 5, 22; 12: 5, 23; 12: 5, 24; 12: 5, 26; 12: 8, 1. Mind and Body— 11: 2, 1; 11 2, 2; 11: 2, 3; 11: 2, 5; 11 2, 6; 11: 2, 7; 11: 2, 8; 11 2, 9; 11: 2, 11; 11: 2, 12; 11 2, 13; 11: 2, 14; 11: 2, 15 11: 2, 16; 11: 2, 17; 11: 2 19; 11: 2, 21; 11: 2, 22; 11 2, 23. Might— 4: 4, 25. Misery— 4: 4, 15; 17: 3, 8. Misfortune— 17: 1, 1; 17: 1, 13; 17: 1, 14; 17: 1, 16; 17: 1, 17; 17: 1, 20; 17: 1, 23. Mistake— 11: 5, 12; 11: 6, 28; 17: 4, 9. Models— 12: 2, 23; 12: 3, 17; 13: 5, 8. Moderation— 4 : 6, 15; 7: 7, 15 15: 12, 6. Modesty— 6: 12, 1; 6: 12, 2 6: 12, 3; 6: 12, 4; 6: 12, 5 6: 12, 6; 6: 12, 7; 6: 12, 8 6: 12, 9; 6: 12, 10; 6: 12, 11 6: 12, 12; 6: 12, 14; 6: 12 23; 6: 12, 24; 6: 12, 25; 12, 27. Moment— 14: 6, 8; 14: 6, 10 14: 6, 11; 14: 6, 16; 14: 6 18; 14: 6, 25; 14: 6, 14. Money— 5: 12, 4; 10: 3, 7; 10 3, 10; 10: 3, 11; 10: 3, 20 10: 3, 22; 10: 3, 24; 10: 3 26; 10: 4, 1; 10: 4, 14; 10 4, 17; 17: 8, 20; 18: 6, 2 18: 6, 6. Morality— 1: 3, 9; 2: 4, 25; 4 11, 4; 4: 12, 21; 8: 6, 19; 8 9, 16; 8: 12, 3; 11: 4, 16; 11 9, 5; 12: 12, 18. Mother— 2: 2, 12; 2: 2, 13; 2 2, 14; 2: 2, 15; 12: 12, 7. Motive— 7: 7, 17; 14: 3, 10. Music— 6: 6, 21. Murmuring — 9: 7, 4. Nature— 1: 1, 2; 6: 10, 6; 11 8, 1; 11: 8, 2; 11: 8, 3; 11 8, 4; 11: 8, 5; 11: 8, 6; 11 8, 7; 11: 8, 8; 11: 8, 9; 11 8, 10; 11: 8, 11; 11: 8, 12 11: 8, 13; 11: 8, 14; 11: 8, 15 11: 8, 16; 11: 8, 17; 11: 8 19; 11: 8, 20; 11: 8, 22; 11 8, 23; 11: 8, 24; 11: 8, 25 11: 8, 26. Neatness— 3: 1, 4; 15: 1, 21. Necessity— 11: 11, 1: 11: 11, 2 11: 11, 4; 11: 11, 5; 11: 11 6; 11: 11, 7; 11: 11, 8; 11 11, 10; 11: 11, 11; 11: 11, 12 11: 11, 13; 11: 11, 14; 11 11, 15: 11: 11, 16; 11: 11, 17 11: 11, 18; 11: 11, 19; 11: 11 20; 11: 11, 21. Negligence— 7: 10, 6; 9: 6, 21 Neighborliness — 7: 9, 27. 403 Nobility— 4: 2, 17; 5: 8, 7; 5 8, 16; 5: 8, 19; 5: 8, 21; 6: 8, 27; 7: 4, 19; 7: 5, 13; 7 9, 12; 7: 10, 20. Notion— 15: 1, 4. Novelty— 15: 2, 23. Nuisance — 2: 2, 10. Occasion — 14: 1, 17. Occupation — 16: 4, 3; 16: 4, 4: 16: 4, 7; 16: 4, 8; 16: 4, 19; 16: 4, 20; 16: 4, 21. Obedience— 2: 4, 1; 2: 4, 2; 2 4, 3; 2: 4, 5; 2: 4, 6; 2: 4 7; 2: 4, 8; 2: 4, 9; 2: 4, 10 2: 4, 12; 2: 4, 13; 2: 4, 14 2: 4: 15; 2: 4, 16; 2: 4, 17 2: 4, 18; 2: 4, 19; 2: 4, 20 2: 4, 21; 3: 5, 14; 13: 6, 18 Observation — 12: 4, 1; 12: 4 4; 12: 4, 5; 12: 4, 6; 12: 4 7; 12: 4, 8; 12: 4, 9; 12: 4 10; 12: 4, 11; 12: 4, 13; 12 4, 14; 12: 4, 15; 12: 4, 16 12: 4, 17; 12: 4, 18; 12: < 21; 12: 4, 23; 12: 4, 24; 12 4, 25. Obstacle— 17: 4, 23; 17: 5, 23. Opinion— 10: 12, 16; 12: 10, 2 12: 10, 3; 12: 10, 4; 12: 10 5; 12: 10, 6; 12: 10, 7; 12 10, 8; 12: 10, 9; 12: 10, 10 12: 10, 11; 12: 10, 12; 12 10, 13; 12: 10, 14; 12: 10, 15 12: 10, 17; 12: 10, 18; 12 10, 19; 12: 10, 20; 12: 10, 21 12: 10, 22; 12: 10, 23; 12: 10 24; 12: 10, 26; 12: 10, 27. Opportunity — 3: 5, 21; 9:4, 12 13: 7, 6; 13: 7, 19; 16: 2, 1 16: 2, 2; 16: 2, 3; 16: 2, 4 16: 2, 5; 16: 2, 6; 16: 2, 7 16: 16: 14: 2, 8; 16: 2, 9; 16: 2, 10 2, 11; 16: 2, 13; 16: \ 16: 2, 15; 16: 2, 16; 16 2, 17; 16: 2, 18; 16: 2, 19 16: 2, 20; 16: 2, 21; 16: 2, 24; 16: 10, 12. Opposition — 16: 7, 5; 16: 7, 6; 16: 7, 7; 16: 7, 13; 16: 7, 15; 16: 7, 18. 2, 14: 15: 2, 15: 2, 15, 2, Optimism — 7: 4, 13; 8: 2, 1; 8: 2, 3; 8: 2, 4; 8: 2, 5; 8: 2, 7; 8: 2, 8; 8: 2, 9; 8: 2 10; 8: 2, 11; 8: 2, 15; 8: 2, 17. Order— 14: 8, 19. Originality — 15: 2, 1 15: 2, 3; 15: 2, 4 15: 2, 7; 15: 2, 11 15: 2, 14; 15: 2, 15; 15 16; 15: 2, 17; 15: 2, 18; 2, 19; 15: 2, 20; 15: 2, 15: 2, 22. Over-Culture — 15: 12, 5. Pain— 8: 10, 17; 17: 5, 13; 5, 14. Parents — 2: 2, 1; 2 2, 8; 2: 2, 11. Partiality — 4: 4, 8. Party— 12: 5, 14. Passion — 4: 6, 5; 4 8, 1; 4: 8, 2; 4: 4; 4: 8, 5; 4: 8, 7; 8: 11, 14; 17: 10, 2. 17: 2, 2; 2: 6, 9; 4: 3; 4: 8, Patience — 7: 8, 23; 8: 10, 1; 8: 10, 2; 8: 10, 3; 8: 10, 4; .8: 10, 5; 8: 10, 6; 8: 10, 7; 8: 10, 8; 8: 10, 9; 8: 10, 10; 8: 10, 12; 8: 10, 13; 8: 10 14; 8: 10, 15; 8: 10, 16; 8: 10, 19; 8: 10, 20; 8: 10, 24: 8: 10, 25; 13: 8, 18. Patriotism — 8: 6, 1; 8: 6, 2; 8: 6, 3; 8: 6, 4; 8: 6, 5; 8: 6, 6; 8: 6, 7; 8: 6, 8; 8 6 9; 8: 6, 10; 8: 6, 11; 8 6 12; 8: 6, 13; 8: 6, 15; 8 6 17; 8: 6, 18; 8: 6, 19; 8 6 21; 8: 6, 16. Peace— 10: 4, 6; 12: 5, 5. Penitent— 7: 6, 18. Perfection— 8 : 12, 1; 8: 12, 8: 12, 5; 8: 12, 6; 8: 12, 8: 12, 11; 8: 12, 12; 8: 13; 8: 12, 15; 8: 12, 16; 12, 18. Perseverance — 5: 9, 15; 7: 14; 14: 7, 5; 14: 7, 9; 15 1; 15: 9, 2; 15: 9, 3; 15: 12, 9, 9. 4Q4 4; 15: 9, 5; 15: 9, 6; 15: 9 7; 15: 9, 8; 15: 9, 9; 15: 9 10; 15: 9, 11; 15: 9, 12; 15: 9. 13; 15: 9, 14; 15: 9, 15; 15: 9, 16; 15: 9, 17; 15: 9 18; 15: 9, 19. Personality — 4: 12, 17. Philanthropy— 7: 11, 13. Philosophy — 8: 11, 2; 8: 11, 5; 8: 11, 6; 11, 4; 11, 7; I: 11, 8: 11, 8; 8: 11, 9; 10. Plan— 14: 3, 1. Play— 10: 10, 7. Pleasing— 6: 2, 5. Pleasure— 9: 1, 17; 10: 10: 1, 10; 10: 1, 20; 10: 10 6; 10: 10, 21; 17: 10, 8; 17 10, 14. Pluck— 15: 11, 1; 15: 11, 2 15: 11, 3; 15: 11, 4; 15: 11 5; 15: 11, 6; 15: 11, 7; 15: 11, 8; 15: 11, 9; 15: 11, 10 15: 11, 11; 15: 11, 12; 15: 11 15; 15: 11, 16; 15: 11, 17 15: 11, 18; 15: 11, 19. Politeness— 2: 6, 2; 6: 1, 3; 6 5, 1; 6: 5, 2; 6: 5, 4; 6: 5 5; 6: 5, 6; 6; 5, 9; 6: 5, 11 6: 5, 12; 6: 5, 13; 6: 5, 15 6: 5, 22; 6: 5, 10. Poverty— 4: 2, 18; 7: 5, 25; 8 3, 9; 8: 11, 18; 9: 2, 13; 9 3, 1; 9: 3, 3; 9: 3, 4; 9: l 5; 9: 3, 9: 3. 10; 6; 9: 3, 8 9: 3, 11; ; 9: 3, 9 9: 3, 12 9: 3, 14; 9: 3, 15; 9: 3, 17 9: 3, 18; 9: 3, 19; 9: 3, 21 9: 3, 22; 17: 9, 2; 18: 5, 2 Popularity- 18: 8, 5; -7: 4, 22; 18: 8, 7; 18: 8, 4 18: 8, 11 18: 8, 12, 18: 8, 15. Popularizer — 8: 11, 11. Position— 14: 8, 21; 16: 6, 1. Possibility— 16: 2, 22. Power— 4: 1, 25; 5: 11, 5; 5: 11, 12; 5: 11, 20; 5: 11, 23: 5: 11, 24; 10: 3, 10; 11: 1, 5; 11: 3, 20; 11: 4, 23; 14: 7, 13; 15: 6, 17; 16 8, 13. Praise — 7: 2, 16; 8: Precision — 4: 10, 17. Precocity — 2: Prejudice — 9: Preparation- 2; 14: 1, £ 6, 9; 18: 12, 14. 1, 18. 12, 23. -14: 1, 1; 14: ; 14: 1, 7; 14: 9; 14: 1, 12; 14: 1, 15; 1, 16; 14: 1, 19; 14: 1, 14: 1, 21; 14: 1, 26. Present, The — 14: 12, 1; 12, 7; 14: 12, 13; 14: 12, 14: 12, 16; 14: 12, 18; 12, 19; 14: 12, 20; 14: 12, 14: 12, 24. Pretense— 5: 10, 12. Pride— 8: 7, 12; 9: 9, 1; 9: 3; 9: 9, 4; 9; 9, 5; 9; 9, 9: 9, 7; 9: 9, 8; 9: 9, 9; 9, 10; 9: 9, 11; 9: 9, 12; 9, 13: 9: 9, 14; 9: 9, 15. Principle— 4: 1, 20; 4: 3, 5: 8, 1; 5: 8, 2; 5: 8, 5: 10, 24; 8: 11, 20. Prize— 5: 11. 22. Procrastination — 3: 6, 1; 3: 2; 3: 6, 3; 3: 6, 4; 3: 6, 3: 6, 6; 3: 6, 7; 3: 6, 9; 6, 11; 3: 6, 12; 3: 6, 13; 6, 14; 3: 6, 18; 3: 6, 21; 6, 22; 3: 6, 25. Production— 14: 11, 21. Profanity— 9: 10, 18. Progress— 7: 10, 3; 8: 10, 11: 9, 2; 11: 9, 6; 11: 9, 11: 9, 17; 11: 9, 18; 11: 20; 11: 9, 24; 13: 10, 25; 7, 15. Promptness — 3: 5, 1; 3: 3: 5, 3; 3: 5, 4; 3: 5, 5, 6; 3: 5, 7; 3: 5, 8; 9; 3: 5, 10; 3: 5, 11; 12; 3: 5, 13; 3: 5, 1.5; 16; 3: 5, 17; 3: 5, 18; 20; 3: 5, 22; 3: 5, 23; 24; 3: 5, 25; 3: 5, 26; 1, 7; 15: 1, 27; 3: 5, 14 Propensity — 8: 1, 17. 1, 1, 14: 20; 14 15 14 21 14 5, 2; 5; 3: 3: 5, 3: 5, 3 5, 3: 5, 3: 5. 1 15: 405 Property— 10: 3, 16. Propriety— 6: 5, 14; 6: 5, 18. Prosperity— 7 : 8, 3; 18: 6, 1; 18: 6, 3; 18: 6, 5; 18: 6, 8; 18: 6, 9; 18: 6, 10; 18: 6, 11; 18: 6, 12; 18: 6, 13; 18: 6, 14; 18: 6, 15; 18: 6, 16; 18: 6, 17; 18: 6, 18; 18: 6, 19; 18: 6, 20; 18: 6, 21. Prudence— 4: 3, 2; 4: 3, 3; 4: 3, 5; 4: 3, 6; 4: 3, 7; 4: 3, 8; 4: 3, 9; 4: 3, 10; 4: 3, 12; 4: 3, 13; 4: 3, 14; 4: 3, 15; 4: 3, 16; 4: 3, 18; 4: 3, 23; 4: 3, 24; 4: 3, 25; 4: 3, 26; 4: 3, 28; 4: 6, 29. Purity— 4: 7, 1; 4: 7, 2; 4: 7, 3; 4: 7, 4; 4: 7, 8; 4: 7, 9; 4: 7, 11; 4: 7, 12; 4: 7, 13; 4: 7, 15; 4: 7, 16; 4: 7, 17; 4: 7, 19; 4: 7, 20; 4: 7, 21; 4: 7, 23; 4: 7, 24; 4: 7, 27; 4: 9, 25; 17: 11, 26. Punctuality — 5: 9, 7. Punishment — 2: 2. 7. Purpose— 14: 3, 2; 14: 3, 3 14: 3, 4; 14: 3, 5; 14: 3, 6 14: 3, 7; 14: 3, 8; 14: 3, 9 14: 3, 11; 14: 3, 12; 14: c 15; 14: 3, 17; 14: 3, 19; 14 3, 20; 14: 3, 21; 14: 3, 22 14: 3, 23. Quality— 16: 9, 19. Quarrels — 4: 8, 27. Radiation — 12: 5, 15. Rage— 4: 8, 8; 4: 8, 28. Rashness — 13: 9, 8; 17: 1, 11. Reaction— 10: 11, 1; 10: 11, 3; 10: 11, 4; 10: 11, 5; 10: 11, 6; 10: 11, 8; 10: 11, 9; 10: 11, 10; 10: 11, 11; 10: 11, 12; 10: 11, 13; 10: 11, 14; 10: 11, 15; 10: 11, 16; 10: 11, 17; 10: 11, 18; 10: 11, 19; 10: 11, 20; 10: 11, 21: 10: 11, 22; 10: 11, 24; 10: 11, 25; 10: 11, 26; 10: 11, 27. Reading— 11: 6, 22; 12: 6, 7; 12: 6, 9; 12: 6, 10; 12: 6, 13; 12: 6, 14; 12: 6, 15; 12: 6 21; 12: 7. 31. Reality— 5: 2, 12; 5: 10, 11. Reason— 4: 8, 1; 11: 5, 19; 12 5, 1; 12: 5, 2; 12: 5, 3; 12 5, 4; 12: 5, 6; 12: 5, 7; 12 5, 8; 12: 5, 9; 12: 5, 10; 12 5, 11; 12: 5, 12. Reciprocity — 7: 9, 7; 7: 9, 10; 7: 9, 17. Recreation — 10: 10, 15; 17: 10, 6. Rectitude— 5: 6, 1; 5: 9, 24. Refinement— 6: 6, 8; 6: 6, 17; 6: 6, 18; 10: 9. 12. Reflection— 12: 7, 1; 12: 7, 3; 12: 7, 4; 12: 7, 10; 12: 7, 15; 12: 7, 19; 12: 7, 21; 12: 7, 23. Reform— 7: 3, 1; 7: 3, 2; 7: 3, 3; 7: 3, 4; 7: 3, 5; 7: 3, 6 7: 3. 7: 7: 3, 8; 7: 3, 9; 7 3, 10; 7: 3, 11; 7: 3, 12; 7 3, 13; 7: 3, 14; 7: 3, 15; 7 3, 16; 7: 3, 17; 7: 3, 18; 7 3, 19; 7: 3, 20; 7: 3, 21: 7 3, 22; 7: 10, 3. Regularity — 10: 2, 5. Reliableness — 5: 8, 18. Religion— 6: 1,1; 12: 2, 18 18: 12, 1; 18: 12, 2; 18: 12 3; 18: 12, 4; 18: 12, 5; 18 12, 6; 18: 12, 7; 18: 12, 8; 18 12, 9; 18: 12, 10; 18: 12, 11 18: 12, 13; 18: 12, 14; 18 12, 16; 18: 12, 17; 18: 12, 18. Reputation— 4: 4, 11; IS: 7, 1; 18: 7, 2; 18: 7, 3; 18: 7, 4; 18: 7, 5; 18: 7, 6; 18: 7, 7; 18: 7, 8; 18: 7, 9; 18: 7, 10: 18: 7, 11; 18: 7, 12; 18: 7, 13; 18: 7, 14; 18: 7, 15; 18: 7, 16; 18: 7, 17; 18: 7, 18; 18: 7, 19; 18: 7, 20; 18: 7. 21; 18: 7, 22; 18: 7, 23; 18: 7, 24; 18: 7, 25; 18: 7, 26; 18: 7, 27: 18: 7. 28. 406 Resentment— 4 : 6, 30; 4: 8, 8; 4: 8, 25; 4: 8, 26; 5: 10, 25 Reserve— 14: 1, 23; 14: 1, 24; 14: 1, 25; 15: 11, 14. Resolution— 13: 12, 1; 13: 12 2; 13: 12, 3; 13: 12, 4; 13 12, 5; 13: 12, 6; 13: 12, 7 13: 12, 8; 13: 12, 9; 13: 12 10; 13: 12, 11; 13: 12, 12 13: 12, 13; 13: 12, 14; 13 12, 15; 13: 12, 16; 13: 12, 17 13: 12, 18; 13: 12, 19; 13: 12 20; 13: 12, 24; 13: 12, 26 13: 12, 27. Resources — 15: 1, 25. Respect— 5: 6, 14; 5: 6, 15; 5: 6, 16; 7: 9, 5; 13: 3, 24. Responsibility— 5 : 11, 6; 8: 9, 3; 11: 11, 3. Rest— 10: 10, 3; 10: 10, 9; 10: 10, 11; 10: 10, 12; 10: 10, 14; 10: 10, 18; 10: 10, 24; 10: 10, 25; 10: 10, 26. Restraint— 6: 8, 10; 7: 9, 28. Revenge— 4: 8, 29; 7: 8, 17. Reverence — 5: 6, 17; 5: 6, 18; 5: 6. 19. Riches— 6: 12, 22; 8: 3, 7; 10 3, 6; 10: 3, 19; 10: 3, 23 10: 3, 25; 10: 4, 2; 10: 4, 4 10: 4, 8; 10: 4, 11; 10: 4, 12 10: 4, 16. Ridicule— 7: 7, 25. Rights— 7: 8, 19; 10: 12, 2. Rules— 5: 9, 22. Sabbath, The— 1: 2, 10. Sacrifice— 3: 6, 26; 7: 10, 1 7: 10, 4; 7: 10, 6; 7: 10, 7 7: 10, 8; 7: 10, 9; 7: 10, 10 7: 10, 12; 7: 10, 13; 7: 10 22; 7: 10, 23; 7: 10, 24; 6, 21. Safety— 6: 12. 13. Sagacity— 4: 3, 17. Salary— 16: 4, 5. Satiety— 10: 7, 5. Scandal— 9: 12, 27; 9: 12, 28; 9: 12. 29. Scholarship — 6: 6, 14. Science— 11: 3, 23; 12: 5, 25. Scolding — 9: 7, 2. Scrutiny — 12: 7, 18. Self— 5: 4, 1; 5: 4, 2; 5: 4, 3; 5: 4, 4; 5: 4, 5; 5: 4, 6; 5: 4, 7; 5: 4, 8; 5: 4, 9; 5: 4, 10 5: 4, 11; 5: 4, 12; 5: 4 13 5: 4, 14; 5: 4, 15; 5: 4 16 5: 4, 17; 5: 4, 18; 5: 4 19 5: 4, 20; 5: 4, 21; 5: 4, 22 5: 4, 23; 5: 4, 24; 5: 4 25 5: 4, 26; 5: 4, 27; 5: 4, 28 8: 5, 19. Self -Control— 4: 2, 23; 5: 5, 1; 5: 5, 2; 5: 5, 3; 5: 5, 4; 5: 5, 5; 5: 5, 6; 5: 5, 7; 5: 5, 8; 5: 5, 9; 5: 5, 10; 5: 5, 11; 5: 5, 12; 5: 5, 13; 5: 5, 14; 5: 5, 15; 5: 5, 16; 5: 5, 17; 5: 5, 18; 5: 5, 19; 5: 5, 21; 5: 5, 22; 8: 8, 3. Self -Culture— 12: 1, 1; 12: 1, 2; 12: 1, 3; 12: 1, 4; 12: 1, 5; 12: 1, 6; 12: 1, 7; 12: 1, 9; 12: 1, 11; 12: 1, 12; 12: 1, 14; 12: 1, 15; 12: 1, 16; 12: 1, 17; 12: 1, 18; 12: 1, 19: 12, 1, 21. Self -Denial— 7 : 10, 14; 7: 10 15; 7: 10, 17; 7: 10, 18. Self-indulgence — 4: 6, 6. Selfishness— 3: 4, 2; 3: 4, 3 3: 4, 4; 3: 4, 5; 3: 4, 6; 3 4, 7; 3: 4, 8; 3: 4, 9; 3: 4 10; 3: 4, 11; 2: 4, 12; 3 4, 14; 3: 4, 17; 3: 4, 18; 3 4, 21; 3: 4, 22; 7: 9, 2; 7 9, 18; 7: 9, 19; 7: 11, 19; 9 8, 18. Self-Government— 12: 2, 6. Self-Help— 5: 7, 13; 5: 7, 14 5: 7, 15; 5: 7, 17; 5: 7, 18 5: 7, 19; 5: 7, 21; 5: 7, 22 5: 1, 23. Self-Possession— 3: 3, 3. Self -Reliance — 5: 7, 1; 5: 7 , 2 5: 7, 3; 5: 7, 4; 5: 7, 5; 5 7, 6; 5: 7, 10; 5: 7, 11; 5 7, 12; 5: 7, 16; 5: 7, 24; 5 407 7, 25; 5: 7, 26. Self -Respect— 5: 6, 1; 5: 6 5: 6, 3; 5: 6, 4; 5: 6, 5; 6, 6; 5: 6, 7; 5: 6, 8; 5 9; 5: 6, 10; 5: 6, 11 12; 5,: 6, 13; 9: 9, 17. Self- Seekers— 7: 10. 19. Sensitiveness — 4: 8, 23; 1 14; 9; 5, 19; 9: 9, 19. Seriousness — 17: 5, 6. Sickness — 4: 6, 16. Silence— 7: 12, 2; 7: 12, 4 12, 5; 7: 12, 9; 7: 12, 10 12, 12; 7: 12, 13; 7: 12, 7: 12, 17; 7: 12, 18; 7; 21; 7: 12, 23; 7: 12, 24 12, 26; 12: 2. 22. Simplicity — 6: 10, 1; 6 6: 10, 3; 6: 10: 4; 6 6: 10, 6; 6: 10, 7; 6 6: 10, 9; 6: 10, 10; 6: 6: 10, 12; 6: 10, 13; 14; 6: 10, 15; 6 10, 17; 6: 10, 18; 6 6: 10, 20; 6: 10, 22 23; 6: 10, 25; 6: 10, 26; 10, 27; 7: 7, 15. Sin— 3: 1, 17; 3: 1, 18; 3: 19; 9: 10, 5; 9: 10, 10; 10, 22. Sincerity— 5: 10, 1; 5: 10, 5: 10, 3; 5: 10, 4; 5: 10, 5: 10, 18; 5: 10, 20; 5: 22; 5: 10, 26. Singleness — 14: 4, 1; 14: 4, 14: 4, 4; 14: 4, 5; 14: 4, 14: 4, 7; 14: 4, 8; 14: 4, 14: 4, 10; 14: 4, 11; 14: 12; 14: 4, 13; 14: 4, 14; 4, 15; 14: 4, 16; 14: 4, 14: 4 19; 14: 4, 20; 14: 22; 14: 4, 2. Society— 2: 2, 1; 4: 2, 4; 2, 1; 6: 2, 2; 6: 2, 4; 6: 6; 6: 2, 10; 6: 2, 11; 6: 12; 6: 2, 13; 6: 2, 14; 6: 15; 6: 2, 16; 6: 2, 18; 6: 19; 6: 2, 20; 6: 2, 21; 6: 23; 6:2, 24. 5: 6, 10, 10, 10, 10, 6: 10, 16; 6: 10, 6: 7 7 14 12 7 2 5 8 11 10 6 19 10 6 3, 9: 2; 8; 10, 4; 6, 20. : 5, 9; Soldiers — 8: 6, 26. Solitude — 7: 9, 3; 7: 9, 9. Solace — 17: 3, 23. Sorrow— 7: 5, 26; 17: 3, 1 3, 2; 17: 3, 3; 17: 3, 3, 6; 17: 3, 7; 17: 3, 3, 10; 17: 3, 11; 17 17: 3, 13; 17: 3, 15; 17; 17: 3, 20; 17: 3, 21; 3, 22; 17: 3, 24. Smiles— 10: 8, 10. Slander— 9: 10, 24. Slave — 17: 8, 8. Sloth— 15: 5, 11. Shame— 2: 12, 21. Shirk— 9: 6, 23; Shyness — 9: 5, 6; 5, 10. Speech — 11: 4, 15 Spirit— 8: 1, 9; 8 18. Standard— 8: 4, 6. Start— 14: 2, 1; 14: 2, 2; 2, 3; 14: 2, 4; 14: 2, 5; 2, 6; 14: 2, 10; 14: 2, 14: 2, 12; 14: 2, 14; 14 15; 14: 2, 16; 14: 2, 17; 2, 18; 14: 2, 19; 14: 2, 14: 2, 22; 14: 2, 23; 14 17. State, The— 10: 12, 11. Steadfastness — 5: 9, 20; 5 21. Stimulation— 9 : 2, 23; 9 Stinginess — 9: 8, 17. Strength— 5: 1, 4; 5: 1, 9; 11, 2; 5: 11, 3; 5: 11, 4; 11, 6; 5: 11, 7; 5: 11, 8; 11, 9; 5: 11, 10; 5: 11, 5: 11, 13; 5: 11, 14; 5: 15; 5: 11, 16; 5: 11, 18; 11, 19; 5: 11, 21; 5: 11, 9: 1, 11; 10: 2, 18; 11 21; 11: 1, 5. Striving— 13: 10, 21. Study— 12: 4, 2; 12: 4, 12; 17 17 ; 17 3, 12; 17: 3, 17: 9: 1, 16; 8: 1, 14: 14: 11; 2, 14: 20; 9, 2, 25. 5 5 5 11; 11 5: 25 2 9, 1 9, 4 9, 7 12: 9, 2; 12: 9, 3; 12: 9, 5; 12: 9, 6 12: 9, 8; 12: 9, 9 408 9, 10; 12: 9, 11; 12: 9, 12; 12: 9, 13; 12: 9, 14; 12: 9, 15; 12: 9, 16; 12: 9, 17; 12: 9, 18; 12: 9, 19; 12: 9, 20; 14: 1, 14. Stumbling, Blocks — 14: 9, 19. Sublimity— 6 : 10, 9. Subtlety— 9: 11, 3. Success— 3: 2, 10; 4: 4, 20; 5 12, 13; 7: 9, 26; 8: 2, 2 10: 4, 18; 10: 6, 2; 9: 4, 4 9: 12, 16; 11: 2, 18; 12: 3 14; 12: 7, 6; 12: 6, 17; 13 7, 13; 13: 8, 6; 13: 9: 15; 13 9, 16; 13: 12, 25; 14: 4, 21 14: 10, 10; 14: 11, 13; 14 11, 14; 14: 11, 16; 14: 12 22; 14: 9, 7; 15: 5, 22; 15 8, 10; 16: 2, 12; 16: 5, 6 16: 6, 14; 16: 8, 2; 16: 9, 11 16: 11, 1; 16: 11, 3; 16: 11 4; 16: 11, 5; 16: 11, 6; 16 11, 7; 16: 11, 8; 16: 11, 9 16: 11, 10; 16: 11, 11; 16 11, 12; 16: 11, 13; 16: 11 14; 16: 11, 15; 16: 11, 16 16: 11, 17; 16: 11, 18; 16 11, 19; 16: 11, 20; 16: 12, 4. Suggestions — 13: 6, 5. Superstition — 18: 12, 15. Surliness — 6: 11, 17. Surroundings — 6: 6, 5; 16: 6, 2; 16: 6, 3; 16: 6, 5; 16: 6, 6; 16: 6, 7; 16: 6, 8; 16: 6, 10; 16: 6, 11; 16: 6, 12; 16: 6, 15. Suspicion— 7: 8, 4; 7: 12, 22; 9: 11, 14; 9: 11, 24; 9: 11, 30; 9: 12, 24. Sympathy— 6: 7, 4; 7: 11, 1; 7: 11, 2; 7: 11, 3; 7: 11, 4; 7: 11, 5; 7: 11, 6; 7: 11, 7; 7: 11, 8; 7: 11, 9; 7: 11, 10; 7: 11, 11; 7: 11, 14; 7: 11, 15; 7: 11, 16; 7: 11, 17; 7: 11, 18. System— 15: 1, 16; 15: 1, 24. Tact— 7: 8, 23; 11: 3, 16; 12: 11, 1; 12: 11, 2; 12: 11, 3; 12: 11, 4; 12: 11, 5; 12: 11, 6; 12: 11, 7; 12: 11, 8; 12: 11, 9; 12: 11, 10; 12: 11, 11; 12: 11, 12; 12: 11, 13; 12: 11, 14; 12: 11, 15; 12: 11, 12: 11, 17; 12: 11, 18; 11, 19. Talent— 4: 3, 13; 11: 7, 12; 11, 13; 16: 8, 1; 16: S 16 12 12 3 16: 8, 4; 16: 8, 5; 16: 8, 6 16: 8, 7; 16: 8, 9; 16: 8, 11 16: 8, 12; 16: 8, 14; 16: S 15; 16: 8, 16; 16: 8, 17; 16 8, 18; 16: 8, 19; 16: 8, 20 16: 8, 21; 16: 8, 22; 16: S 23; 16: 8, 24; 16: 8, 26; 16 8, 27; 16: 8, 29. Talkativeness — 7 : 12 12, 25. Tardiness — 3: 5, 19. Taste— 6: 6, 25. Teacher — 2: 1, 15. Temper — 3: 3, 11; 4 8, 15; 4: 8, 16; 4 8, 18: 4: 8, 19; 4 8, 21; 4: 8, 22; 8 7, 12. Temperance — 4: 2, 22; 4: € 2; 4: 6, 3; 4: 6, 7; 4: 6, 8 4: 6, 10; 4: 6, 11; 4: 6, 12 4: 6, 14; 4: 6, 16; 4: 6, 18 4: 6, 19; 4: 6, 21; 4: 6, 22 4: 6, 23; 4: 6, 24; 4: 6, 26 4: 6, 27; 4: 6, 29; 4: 6, 30 Temptation — 7: 6 20 8, 14; 8, 17; 8, 20; 9, 24; 9: 1, 4 9, 1; 17: 9, 4; 17: 9, 5 9, 6; 17: 9, 8; 17: 9, 10 9, 11; 17: 9, 12; 17: J 17: 9, 15; 17: 9, 16; 17 9, 17; 17: 9, 18; 17: 9, 19. Tenacity— 13: 12, 23; 14: 9, 14 Tenderness — 4: 5, 17; 7: 8, 16: 7: 8, 23. Thankfulness— 2: 6, 24; 8: 7 3; 8: 7, 6; 8: 7, 7. Thought— 3: 3, 28; 4: 9, 1; 4: 9 2; 4: 9, 3; 4: 9, 4; 4: 9 5; 4: 9, 6; 4: 9, 7; 4: 9, 8 4: 9, 10; 4: 9, 11; 4: 9, 12 4- 9, 13; 4: 9, 14; 4: 9, 15 4: 9, 16; 4: 9, 17; 4: 9, 18 4- 9, 19; 4: 9, 22; 4: 9, 23 409 4: 9, 24; 4: 9, 26; 4: 10, 7: 12, 11; 11: 6, 17; 12: 7, 12: 7, 3; 12: 7, 5; 12: 7, 12: 7, 8; 12: 7, 11; 12: 12; 12: 7, 13; 12: 7, 16; 7, 17; 12: 7, 20; 12: 7, 12: 10, 16. Thoughtfulness — 3: 3, 1; 3: 2; 3: 3, 4; 3: 3, 5; 3:3, 3: 3, 9; 3: 3, 10; 3, : 12; 16; 22; 25; 3: 3, 13; 3: 3, 17; 3: 3, 23; ! 3: 3, 26; 3, 31. Thoroughness — 15 : 3; 15: 7, 4; 15: 6; 15: 7, 7; 15: 9; 15: 7, 10; 15 3, 15; 3, 20; 3, 24; 3, 27 7, 2; 5; 15 7, 5; 15 7, 8; 15 7, 11; 7, 12; 15: 7, 13; 15: 7, 15: 7, 15; 15: 7, 16; 15 17; 15: 7, 19; 15: 7, 20; 7, 21; 15: 7, 22. Thrift— 9: 8, 7; 15: 10, 12; 10, 13; 18: 6, 4; 18: 6, 17 Thriftlessness — 4: 3, 27. Time— 10: 10, 2; 13: 7, 3; 6, 1; 14: 6, 2; 14: 6, 3; 6, 4; 14: 6, 5; 14: 6, 7; 6, 12; 14: 6, 13; 14: 6, 14: 6, 15; 14: 6, 17; 14 19; 14: 6, 23. Timidity — 9: 1, 7; 9: 5, 1; 5, 5; 9: 5, 7; 9: 5, 8. Today— 14: 12, 2; 14: 12, 14: 12, 10; 14: 12, 11; 12; 14: 12, 25. Toilet— 6: 9, 20. Toleration — 7: 8, 18. Tomorrow — 14 : 12, 3. Tongue', The — 7: 12, 7. Training— 2: 2, 9; 2: 2 10, 19; 5: 12, 15; 5: 5: 12, 17; 5: 12, 18; 19; 5: 12, 20; 5: 12, 21; 12, 22; 5: 12, 23; 5: 12, 12: 7, 30. Traitor— 8: 6, 14; 9: 5, 12 Transgressor — 9: 1, 12. Travel— 12: 4, 19. Trial— 17: 3, 19. 14: 11; 12, 5: 15; 2; 7; 7, 12: 22; Trifle— 3: 1, 3; 3: 1, 5; 3: 1 8; 3: 1, 21; 3: 1, 23; 8: 12 17; 17: 7, 8; 17: 8, 5. Trouble— 14: 12, 23; 17: 1, 22 Trust— 13: 10, 15. Truth— 4: 2, 23; 5:1, 16 1; 5: 2, 2; 5: 2, 3; 5 5: 2, 5; 5: 2, 6; 5: 2 2, 8; 5: 2, 9; 5: 2, 10; 5: 2, 2, 4; 7; 5, 5: 2, 5: 2, 12; 5: 2, 15; 5: 2, 20; 5: 2, 26; 8: 11, 7; 11 14 17 25 4; 21. Uncertainty — 17 : 8 2; 17: 8, 4; 17: 9; 17: 8 10; 17: 8, 12; 17: 8, 13; 17: 8, 15; 17: 8, 17; 17: 8, 19; 17 5: 2, 13; 5: 2, 5: 2, 16; 5: 2, 24; 5: 2, 27: 12, 4; 13: 3, I, 1; 17: 8, 8, 7; 17: 8, : 8, 11; 17: ; 17: 8, 14; !, 16; 17: 8, 8, 21; 17: 8, 22; 17: 8, 17: 8, 23; 17: 8, 25: 26; 17: 8, 6. 7, 25. 5: 9, 13; 5: 7, 8; 6: 7, : 3, 30; 3: 3: 4, 20; 9: 16 Uncleanness — 4 Unfaithfulness- 14. Unkindness — 6 : Unselfishness — 13; 3: 4, 19; 10; 9: 8, 18. Use— 7: 10, 2; 14: 11, 4 3, 1; 16: 3, 30. Usefulness— 16: 3, 2; 16: 3, 5; 16: 3, 6; 16: 3, 9: 16: 3, 10; 16: 3, 12; 16: 3, 15; 16: 3, 16; 16: 3, 18; 16: 3, 19; 16: 3, 22; 16: 3, : 24; 16: 3, 25; 16: 3, 28; 16: 3, 29. Usurpation— 5 : 10, 21. Vacation— 10: 10, 23. Vanity— 9: 9, 16; 9: 9, 18; 9: 9, 21; 9: 9, 24; 9: 9, 25; 9: 9, 26; 9: 9, 27; 9: 9, 28. Variety— 10: 10, 17; 10: 10, 19. Vascillation— 9: 6, 19; 14: 9, 16. Veracity— 5: 2, 23. Versatility— 10: 2, 22. 16: 3 3; 16: 3 8; 16: 3, 11; 13; 16 3 3, 17; 16: 16: 3, 20; 23; 16 3 3, 26; 16: 4io Vexation— 4: 8, 24. Vice— 2: 6, 8; 4: 2, 14; 4: 11, 4; 9: 1, 10; 9: 10, 16; 9: 10, 28; 10: 11, 2. Victory— 14: 11, 17. Villain— 9: 10, 13. Virtue— 4: 2, 1; 4: 2, 5; 4: 2, 6; 4: 2, 7; 4: 2, 4: 2, 10; 4: 2, 13; 4: 2, 16; 4: '2; 19; 4: 2, 22; 4: 3, 15; 4: 6, 8; 2, 11; 2, 14; 2, 17; 2, 20; 2, 23; 4: 5, 8; 4: 7, 4; 4 4: 2, 9 4: 2, 12 4: 2, 15 4: 2, 18 4: 2, 21 4: 3, 5 4: 6, 1 7, 6; 4 4 7, 7; 4: 7, 10; 4: 7, 18 11, 17; 5: 6, 5; 6: 2, 8; 8 5, 9; 8: 9, 26; 11: 5, 2; 11 5, 14. Vocation— 16: 4, 2; 16: 4, 6; 16: 4, 9; 16: 4, 11; 16: 4, 12; 16: 4, 14; 16: 4, 15; 16: 4, 16; 16: 4, 17; 16: 4, 18. Want— 9: 3, 2; 10: 7, 5; 16: 1, 8. Weakness— 5: 5, 20; 5: 7, 8; 5: 11, 7; 9: 1, 1; 9: 1, 2; 9: 1, 5; 9: 1, 6; 9: 1, 7; 9: 1, 8; 9: 1, 11; 9: 1, 13; 9: 1, 14; 9: 1, 15; 9: 1, 16; 10: 2, 8. Wealth— 5: 11, 9; 8: 3, 9; 8 3, 13; 8: 6, 24; 8: 11, 18 10: 3, 1; 10: 3, 2; 10: 3, 3 10: 3, 4; 10: 3, 5; 10: 3, 8 10: 3, 9; 10: 3, 12; 10, 3, 13 10: 3, 14; 10: 3, 15; 10: 3 17; 10: 3, 21; 10: 4, 5; 10 4, 9; 10: 4, 10; 10: 4, 13 18: 5, 2; 18: 5, 12. Wickedness— 8: 11, 17. Will— 4: 10, 22; 8: 2, 18; 8: 4, 12; 9: 1, 20; 10: 2, 6; 14 10, 1; 14: 10, 2; 14: 10, 3 14: 10, 4; 14: 10, 5; 14: 10 6; 14: 10, 7; 14: 10, 8; 14 10, 9; 14: 10, 11; 14: 10, 13 14: 10, 18; 14: 10, 19; 14: 10 20; 14: 10, 22; 14: 10, 23 14: 11, 8. 14: 10, 14; 14: 10 15; 14: 10, 16; 14: 10, 17 Wisdom — 4: 3, 2; 4: 3, 9; 4 3, 11; 8: 4, 21; 10, 4, 7; 11 5, 1; 11: 5, 2; 11: 5, 3; 11 5, 4; 11: 5, 5; 11: 5, 6; 11 5, 8; 11: 5, 9; 11: 5, 10; 11 5, 11; 11: 5, 13; 11: 5, 14 11: 5, 15; 11: 5, 16; 11: 5 18; 11: 5, 19; 11: 5, 20; 11 6, 3. Wishes- Wit— 4: 3, 14; 9. Wrath— 4: 8, Woman — 4 : 5, 14: 5, 22. 6: 7, 21: 11: 11, 7, 14 2 10; 4: 7, 9; 4 5: 4, 5; 6: 2, 16; 6: 4 6: 4, 6; 6: 4, 9; 4, 19; 6: 4, 20; 6: 4, 26; 18: 1, 17; 18: 2, 2; 18: 2, 6; 6: 4, 12 6: 4, 22 7: 6, 20 18: 1, 20 18: 2, 4 18: 2, 8 4: 25; 3, 21; 2, 1; 2, 5; 2, 9; 18: 2, 10; 18: 2. 11 2, 12; 18: 2, 13; 18: 2 18: 2, 15. Words— 7: 12, 16. Work— 10: 10, 7; 14: 1, 14; 15 1, 20; 16: 1, 3; 16: 1, 6; 16 1, 15; 16: 1, 20; 16: 1, 21 16: 1, 22; 16: 3, 7; 17: 10, 19; 17: 10, 20; 17: 10, 21. World— 3: 2, 25; 4: 1, 1; 8: 2, 12. Worry— 9: 4, 1 ; 9: 4, 2; 9:4, 3; 9: 4, 5; 9: 4. 6: 9: 4, 9: 4, 8; 9: 4, 9; 4, 11; 9: 4, 13; 4, 15; 9: 4, 18; 4, 20; 9: 4, 22; Worship— 1: 2, 4. Worth— 8: 4, 4. Youth— 2: 1, 15; 2 3; 10: 2, 13; 11 6, 22; 17: 9, 7. Zeal— 4: 3, 21; lb: 8, 22. 9: 4, 2; 4, 6; 9 ; 9: 4, 10; 9. 4, 14; 9: 4, 19; 9: 4, 23. 1, 17; 6, 26; 14 iflC BWiW H? RARY 0F CONGRESS 022 208 265 1