OPPORTUNITY
[Sidenote: There is nothing impossible to him who will try.--ALEXANDER.]
If you just get a chance?
Oh, certainly, it would be unfair for us grown-ups to expect you, a
mere inexperienced youth, to win without giving you a fair opportunity.
But what is a fair opportunity?
[Sidenote: The winds and the waves are always on the side of the ablest
navigators.--GIBBON.]
Opinions regarding what is best for the making of a boy differ greatly.
Some assert that a child born with a silver spoon in its mouth is not
likely to breathe as deeply and develop as well as one that is born
without any such hindrance to full respiration.
[Sidenote: He that studieth revenge keepeth his own wounds
green.--BACON.]
Kind parents, a good home training, a chance to go to school,
influential friends, good health, and some one to stand between you and
the hard knocks of the world all serve to make a boy's surroundings
truly enviable. Under such conditions any boy ought to win. Yet some
boys have won without these advantages.
[Sidenote: The two noblest things are sweetness and light.--SWIFT.]
[Sidenote: The wise prove, and the foolish confess, by their conduct,
that a life of employment is the only life worth leading.--PALEY.]
[Sidenote: The world belongs to the energetic.--EMERSON.]
[Sidenote: He who hurts others injures himself; he who helps others
advances his own interests.--BUDDHA.]
[Sidenote: He that sips of many arts drinks of none.--FULLER.]
[Sidenote: There is a higher law than the constitution.--WILLIAM H.
SEWARD.]
Abraham Lincoln was born of very poor parents in a very crude cabin.
Some years later the family passed through a long, cold, Indiana
winter with no shelter but a shed built of poles, open on one side to
the frosts and snows. Even when a cabin took the place of this rude
"camp" it was left several years, we are told, without floor, doors or
windows. His biographers inform us that here in the primeval forest
Abraham Lincoln spent his boyhood. His bed of leaves was raised from
the ground by poles, resting upon one side in the interstices of the
logs of which the hut was built, and upon the other in crotches of
sticks driven into the earth. The skins of animals afforded almost the
only covering allowed this truly miserable family. Their food was of
the simplest and coarsest variety and very scarce. Here Mrs. Lincoln
died when Abraham was nine years old, and her lifeless form was placed
in a rude coffin which Abraham's father made with his own hands. The
grave was dug in a cleared space in the forest and there Nancy Hanks
Lincoln was buried. Many months passed before it was practicable to
secure a preacher who, when he came, gathered the family about him in
the woods and spoke a few words over the mound of sod. When fame had
come, Mr. Lincoln used to say that he never attended school for more
than six months in all his life--in no spirit of boastfulness, however,
like many a self-made American, but with a regret that was deeply
felt. While a boy he worked out his sums on the logs and clapboards of
the little cabin, evincing the fondness for mathematics that remained
with him through life. But even amid his dark isolation some light
found its way to his slowly expanding mind. He got hold of a copy of
"Aesop's Fables," read "Robinson Crusoe" and borrowed Weems's "Life of
Washington," filling his mind with the story of that noble character.
One night after he had climbed up the pegs, which served as a ladder to
reach his cot, which in the more finished condition of the cabin had
been placed in the attic, he hid the book under the rafters. The rain
which came in before morning soaked the leaves so that he was compelled
to go to the farmer from whom he had borrowed the book and offer to
make good the loss. That unphilanthropic neighbor exacted as its price
three days' work in the corn-field, and at the end of that time the
damaged volume came into the youthful Abraham's absolute possession. It
was a long way from those rude surroundings to the presidential chair
in the White House at Washington, but "with malice toward none, with
charity for all, with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the
right," he made the journey to the glory of himself and the American
people.
[Sidenote: He that has no cross will have no crown.--QUARLES.]
What a fine demonstration of the power and efficacy of self-help! It is
quite enough to convince any boy that there is no difficulty he cannot
overcome when once he has formed an invincible partnership between
"MYSELF AND I"
[Sidenote: A strenuous soul hates a cheap success.--EMERSON.]
Myself and I close friends have been
Since 'way back where we started.
We two, amid life's thick and thin,
Have labored single-hearted.
In every season, wet or dry,
Or fair or stormy weather,
We've joined our hands, myself and I,
And just worked on together.
[Sidenote: All that is great in man comes through work, and civilization
is its product.--SMILES.]
Though many friends have been as kind
And loving as a brother,
Myself and I have come to find
Our best friends in each other,
For while to us obscure and small
May seem the tasks they bend to,
We've learned our fellow-men have all
They and themselves can tend to.
[Sidenote: Ability and necessity dwell near each other.--PYTHAGORAS.]
Myself and I, and we alone,
You and yourself, good neighbor,
Each in his self-determined zone
Must find his field of labor.
That prize which men have called "success"
Has joy nor pleasure in it
To satisfy the soul unless
Myself and I shall win it.
[Sidenote: The only amaranthine flower is virtue.--COWPER.]
Dr. Arnold, whose long experience with youth at Rugby gave weight to
his opinion, declared that "the difference between one boy and another
consists not so much in talent as in energy." "The longer I live,"
says Sir Thomas Buxton, another student of human character, "the more
certain I am that the great difference between men, between the great
and the insignificant, is energy, invincible determination, an honest
purpose once fixed, and then death or victory. This quality will do
anything in the world; and no talents, no circumstances, will make a
two-legged creature a man without it."
[Sidenote: The secret of success is constancy to
purpose.--BEACONSFIELD.]
Says an old Latin proverb: "Opportunity has hair in front, but is bald
behind. Seize him by the forelock."
[Sidenote: The only knowledge that a man has is the knowledge he can
use.--MACAULAY.]
[Sidenote: What sculpture is to a block of marble, education is to a
human soul.--ADDISON.]
[Sidenote: There is a sufficient recompense in the very consciousness
of a noble deed.--CICERO.]
When Thomas A. Edison went out into the world to make his way, he had
received only two months' regular schooling, but his mother had early
impressed upon his mind the thought that he must atone for his lack of
school training by developing a taste for reading. His biographers tell
us that the "Penny Encyclopedia" and Ure's "History of the Sciences"
were in his hands at a time when most boys, having become acquainted
with stories of adventure, look for mystery in every bush and resolve
to become pirates and Indian fighters. There are many stories of his
early acuteness. One relates how when a boy of twelve or fourteen he
was employed in selling papers on a railroad train in Michigan, and
upon receiving advance news of a battle of the Rebellion fought at
that time he secured fifteen hundred papers on credit, telegraphed
the headlines to the stations along the route, and sold his wares at
a premium. It was after this exploit that he conceived the idea of
starting a daily paper of his own. Securing some old type from the
"Detroit Free Press," he set up his establishment in a car and began
the publication of the "Grand Trunk Herald," the first newspaper
ever published on a train. He also installed in the car a laboratory
for making experiments in chemistry, and both his newspaper and his
experiments flourished until one unlucky day when he set fire to the
car with phosphorus. This was too much for the conductor who promptly
threw the young editor and scientist with all his belongings out on
the station platform, and in addition boxed his ears so roughly as
to cause him to be ever after partly deaf. But misfortune could not
dampen his ardor. His lack of schooling was more than atoned for by
his grit, ambition and studious habits. With the possession of these
qualities and the disposition to make the most of spare moments, this
famous physicist, chemist, mechanician, and inventor has done more for
himself, and more for humanity and the advancement of civilization than
any of the college-bred workers in industrial sciences during the last
half-century.
[Sidenote: The only failure a man ought to fear is failure in cleaving
to the purpose he sees to be best.--GEORGE ELIOT.]
[Sidenote: The secret of success in life is for a man to be ready for
his opportunity when it comes.--DISRAELI.]
[Sidenote: He needs no tears who lived a noble life.--FITZ JAMES
O'BRIEN.]
"Yesterday's successes belong to yesterday with all of yesterday's
defeats and sorrows," says a present day philosopher. "The day is
here! The time is now!"
RIGHT HERE AND JUST NOW
[Sidenote: I don't think much of a man who is not wiser to-day than he
was yesterday.--ABRAHAM LINCOLN.]
"If I'd 'a' been born," says Sy Slocum to me,
"In some other far-away clime,
Or if I could 'a' had my existence," says he,
"In some other long-ago time,
I know I'd 'a' flourished in pretty fine style
And set folks a-talkin', I 'low,
But what troubles me is there's nothin' worth while
A-doin' right here and just now."
[Sidenote: Hurry not only spoils work, but spoils life also.--LUBBOCK.]
"Them folks that can dwell in a country," says Sy,
"Where they don't have no winter nor storm,
And the weather ain't ready to freeze 'em or fry,
By gettin' too cold or too warm,
Have got all the time that they want to sit down
And think out a project so great
That it's just about certain to win 'em renown
And bring 'em success while they wait."
[Sidenote: I cannot hear what you say for listening to what you
are.--EMERSON.]
Says Sy, "Folks a-livin' here ages ago,
Before all the chances had flown
For makin' a hit, wouldn't stand any show
To-day at a-holdin' their own.
Good times will come back to our planet, I 'low,
When I've faded out of the scene;
But it hurts me to think that right here and just now
Is a sorry betwixt and between."
At that I got tired a-hearin' Sy spout,
And says I, "Sy, you like to enthuse
Regardin' the marvelous work you'd turn out
If you stood in some other man's shoes;
But while all your 'might-'a'-been' praises you sing,
It's worth while recallin' as how
That no man on earth ever does the first thing
That he can't do right here and just now!"
[Sidenote: Honest labor wears a lovely face.--DECKER.]
Jean Paul Richter, who suffered greatly from poverty, said that he
would not have been rich for worlds.
"I began life with a sixpence," said Girard, "and believe that a man's
best capital is his industry."
[Sidenote: I am a part of all that I have seen.--TENNYSON.]
Thomas Ball, the sculptor, whose fine statues ornament the parks and
squares of Boston, used as a lad to sweep out the halls of the Boston
Museum. Horace Greeley, journalist and orator, was the son of a poor
New Hampshire farmer and for years earned his living by typesetting.
Thorwaldsen, the great Danish sculptor, was the son of humble Icelandic
fisher-folk, but by study and perseverance he became one of the
greatest of modern sculptors. In the Copenhagen museum alone are six
hundred examples of his art.
[Sidenote: If it is not right, do not do it; if it is not true, do not
say it.--MARCUS AURELIUS.]
Benjamin Franklin, philosopher and statesman, was the son of a
tallow-chandler, and was the fifteenth child in a family of seventeen
children. This would seem to go far toward proving that it is no
misfortune to be born into a home of many brothers and sisters. Lord
Tennyson, too, was the third child in a family of eleven children,
all born within a period of thirteen years. They formed a joyous,
lively household, amusements being agreeably mingled with their daily
tasks. They were all handsome and gifted, with marked personal traits
and imaginative temperaments. They were very fond of reading and
story-telling. At least four of the boys--Frederick, Charles, Alfred,
and Edward--were given to verse-writing.
[Sidenote: A thing is never too often repeated which is never
sufficiently learned.--SENECA.]
[Sidenote: Any man may commit a mistake, but none but a fool will
continue in it.--CICERO.]
John Bunyan, author of "Pilgrim's Progress," which is said to have
obtained a larger circulation than any other book in English except the
Bible, was a tinker. Linnaeus, the great Swedish botanist, and most
influential naturalist of the eighteenth century, was a shoemaker's
apprentice.
[Sidenote: As a matter of fact, a man's first duty is to mind his own
business.--LORIMER.]
George Stephenson, the English engineer and inventor, was in his youth
a stoker in a colliery, learning to read and write at a workingmen's
evening school. Sir Richard Arkwright, inventor of the spinning-jenny,
and founder of the great cotton industries of England, never saw the
inside of a school-house until after he was twenty years of age, having
long served as a barber's assistant.
[Sidenote: Books are lighthouses erected in the great sea of
time.--WHIPPLE.]
John Jacob Astor began life as a peddler in the streets of New York,
where his descendants now own real estate worth hundreds of millions.
[Sidenote: Civility costs nothing and buys everything.--LADY MONTAGUE.]
Shakespeare in his youth was a wool-carder.
[Sidenote: Cheerful looks make every dish a feast.--MASSINGER.]
Thousands of other examples might be mentioned to show that lowly
birth is no barrier to lofty attainment. It has been truly said that
genius ignores all social barriers and springs forth wherever heaven
has dropped the seed. The grandest characters known in art, literature,
and the useful inventions, have illustrated the axiom that "brave deeds
are the ancestors of brave men," and, as Ballou has told us, "it would
almost appear that an element of hardship is necessary to the effective
development of true genius. Indeed, when we come to the highest
achievements of the greatest minds, it seems that they were not limited
by race, condition of life, or the circumstances of their age."
[Sidenote: Character, good or bad, has a tendency to perpetuate
itself.--HODGE.]
So we see that it is something within the boy rather than conditions
about him that is to determine what he is to become. A boy with a good
mind with which to think and a determination to do, is pretty sure of
doing something worth while. The whole world knows that so much depends
on whether or not the boy cultivates a determination to
KEEP A-TRYING
[Sidenote: Do not hang a dismal picture on your wall, and do not deal
with sables and glooms in your conversations.--EMERSON.]
Say "I will!" and then stick to it--
That's the only way to do it.
Don't build up a while and then
Tear the whole thing down again.
Fix the goal you wish to gain,
Then go at it heart and brain,
And, though clouds shut out the blue,
Do not dim your purpose true
With your sighing.
Stand erect, and, like a man,
Know "They can who think they can!"
Keep a-trying.
[Sidenote: Pray for a short memory as to all unkindnesses--SPURGEON.]
[Sidenote: Do to-day thy nearest duty.--GOETHE.]
Had Columbus, half seas o'er,
Turned back to his native shore,
Men would not, to-day, proclaim
Round the world his deathless name.
So must we sail on with him
Past horizons far and dim,
Till at last we own the prize
That belongs to him who tries
With faith undying;
Own the prize that all may win
Who, with hope, through thick and thin
Keep a-trying.
[Illustration: WATT DISCOVERING THE CONDENSATION OF STEAM]