DREAMING AND DOING
[Sidenote: The talent that is buried is not owned. The napkin and the
hole in the ground are far more truly the man's property.--BABCOCK.]
"Hitch your wagon to a star!"
Such is the advice Emerson gave to ambitious youth. He meant well, no
doubt, and indeed, his words are all right if taken with a pinch of
salt. A boy should dream great dreams, of course, but he ought to set
his dream-gauge so as to have it indicate a line of endeavor it will be
possible for him to follow.
[Sidenote: That which some call idleness I call the sweetest part of my
life, and that is my thinking.--FELSHAM.]
"Hitch your wagon to a star,"
Sounds eloquent, of course,
But it might prove more prudent, far,
To hitch it to a motor-car,
Or a steady-going horse.
[Sidenote: We must learn to bear and to work before we can spare
strength to dream.--PHELPS.]
The type of boy the world counts on to do it the most lasting good is
the youth that does not permit the wings of fancy to carry him so far
into the blue empyrean that he cannot touch the solid earth with at
least the tiptoes of reason.
As Wingate truly says: "There is no use in filling young people's
minds with vain hopes; not every one can make a fortune or a national
reputation, but he who possesses health, ordinary ability, honesty and
industry can at least earn a livelihood."
[Sidenote: Training is everything. The peach was once a bitter almond;
cauliflower is nothing but cabbage with a college education.--MARK
TWAIN.]
If you are striving to be a level-headed boy you will understand
that if you keep your eyes fastened on the stars all the while you
are likely to overlook a thousand opportunities lying all about your
pathway.
Let's not despise just common things,
For here's a truth there is no dodging,
The bird that soars on proudest wings
Comes down to earth for board and lodging.
[Sidenote: Success comes only to those who lead the life of
endeavour.--ROOSEVELT.]
Some of the poets and others advise you to aim at the sky or the sun or
something of that sort, for by so doing you will shoot higher than you
would if you aimed at the ground.
I would advise you to aim directly at the target you wish to hit. Don't
shoot over it or under it; shoot at it.
[Sidenote: The most certain sign of wisdom is a continued
cheerfulness.--MONTAIGNE.]
Dreaming great things is good but doing simple things may be better.
There ought to be, and there will be more dreams than deeds, just as
there are more blossoms on the tree than can mature and ripen into
perfect fruit.
[Sidenote: Wisdom is ofttimes nearer when we stoop than when we
soar.--WORDSWORTH.]
We shall always have to divide our attention between the things we can
do and the things we should like to do. Dreaming is an interesting
pastime but we should not devote too many precious moments to
THE PLEASURES OF "IFFING"
"If" this or that were thus and so,
Oh, wouldn't it be clever!
But "ifs," alas! won't make it so
Though we should "if" forever.
Yet, while "ifs" cannot help a mite,
We'd all be less contented
And life would hold far less delight
"If" "iffing" were prevented.
[Sidenote: Our business in life is not to get ahead of other people,
but to get ahead of ourselves.--BABCOCK.]
When the time arrives for a boy to cease dreaming and to begin doing
he should seize upon the highest duty that comes to his hands and
waste not a moment in dilatory uncertainties. "Thrift of time," says
Gladstone, "will repay you in after-life with a thousandfold of profit
beyond your most sanguine dreams."
[Sidenote: Have the courage to appear poor, and you disarm poverty of
its sharpest sting.--IRVING.]
Hopes are good, but patiently worked-out realities are better. Hope
is for to-morrow. Work is for to-day. The hope that lulls one into a
dreamy inactivity, with the promise that all will be well, whether or
no, is sometimes a hindrance in the path toward success. We must not
succumb too fully to
THE POWER OF HOPE
[Sidenote: Hope is the real riches, as fear is the real poverty.--HUME.]
Hope's a magical compound
To increase our strength, we've found,
It can charm our bars and barriers all away.
With its impulse, which we borrow,
We can always do to-morrow
Lots and lots of things we never do to-day.
[Sidenote: Small pleasures, depend upon it, lie about us as thick as
daisies.--JERROLD.]
Hope is the architect but brawn is the builder. An architect's most
elaborate design for a mansion, on paper, cannot protect one from
the elements as well as can the crudest little cabin actually built
by hands. Those who spend much time in dreaming wonderful plans and
waiting for a ready-made success to come and hunt them up may be
interested in learning about
HANK STREETER'S BRAIN-WAVE
[Sidenote: Go after two wolves, and you will not even catch
one.--RUSSIAN.]
Hank Streeter used to sit around the corner grocery store,
A-telling of the things he'd like to do;
"But, pshaw!" said Hank, "it ain't no use to tackle 'em before
Fate settles in her mind she'll help you through.
And 'tain't no use to waste your time on triflin' things," said he;
"The feller that secures the biggest plum
Is the one that thinks up something that's a winner, so, you see,
I'm waitin' for a brain-wave to come."
[Sidenote: In all God's creation there is no place appointed for the
idle man.--GLADSTONE.]
"The men that make the biggest hits," so Hank would often say,
"They ain't the ones, or so I calculate,
That get their everlastin' fame a-workin' by the day;
No, sir! They sort o' grab it while you wait.
They spend their time a-thinkin' till they strike some new idee
That's big enough to make the hull world hum."
"And that's my plan for winnin' out," said Hank; "and so," said he,
"I'm waitin' for a brain-wave to come."
[Sidenote: Let us endeavor so to live that when we come to die even the
undertaker will be sorry.--MARK TWAIN.]
And there he sat a-waiting: in the winter by the stove,
In summer-time he sat outside the store;
And, while his busy neighbors all about him worked and throve,
He just kept on a-talking more and more;
Kept on a-getting poorer, and, while time it hauled and tacked,
Hank had to make a meal off just a crumb,
Till death it had to take him,--caught him in the very act
Of waiting for a brain-wave to come.
[Sidenote: Labor is the genius that changes the world from ugliness to
beauty, and changes the great curse to a great blessing.--OPIE READ.]
The man that's born a genius,--well, I s'pose he's bound to win,
But most of us are born the other way;
And, after all is said and done, the man who pitches in
And works,--well he's a genius, so they say.
If he can't win a dollar, why, he tries to earn a dime;
If he can't have it all he'll capture some:
For doing just the best we can is better, every time,
Than waiting for a brain-wave to come.
[Sidenote: I have seldom known any one who deserted truth in trifles
that could be trusted in matters of importance.--PALEY.]
[Sidenote: There are many echoes in the world, but few voices.--GOETHE.]
[Sidenote: Consequences are unpitying.--GEORGE ELIOT.]
But it is to be remembered that the youth who does not think well of
himself is not likely to do well. "Ability, learning, accomplishment,
opportunity, are all well," says Mathews, "but they do not, of
themselves, insure success. Thousands have all these, and live and die
without benefiting themselves or others. On the other hand, men of
mediocre talents, often scale the dizzy steeps of excellence and fame
because they have firm faith and high resolve. It is this solid faith
in one's mission--the rooted belief that it is the one thing to which
he has been called,--this enthusiasm, attracting an Agassiz to the Alps
or the Amazon, impelling a Pliny to explore the volcano in which he
is to lose his life, and nerving a Vernet, when tossing in a fierce
tempest, to sketch the waste of waters, and even the wave that is
leaping up to devour him,--that marks the heroic spirit; and, wherever
it is found, success, sooner or later, is almost inevitable."
[Sidenote: They who wish to sing always find a song.--SWEDISH.]
The youth who will start out in life's morning with a well-defined idea
of the goal he wishes to gain, and who will keep going in the right
direction need have little fear that his journey will finally end in
THE VALLEY OF NEVER
[Sidenote: Whoever in the darkness lighteth another with a lamp,
lighteth himself also.--AUERBACH.]
The city of Is sets on top of a hill
And if you would learn of its beauty
Take Right-Away street and keep going until
You pass through the gateway of Duty.
But some miss the way, though the guide-board is plain,
And leisurely wander forever,
Sad-hearted and weary, down By-and-By lane
That leads to the Valley of Never.
[Sidenote: Every year of my life I grow more convinced that it is
wisest and best to fix our attention on the beautiful and good, and
dwell as little as possible on the dark and base.--CECIL.]
If you start in the morning and follow the sun
With a heart that is earnest and cheery,
The way is so short that your journey is done
Before you have time to be weary.
But wait till the day is beginning to wane
And then, though you rightly endeavor,
You are likely to wander down By-and-By lane
That leads to the Valley of Never.
[Sidenote: A little integrity is better than any career.--EMERSON.]
[Sidenote: Habit is habit, and not to be flung out of the window by any
man, but coaxed downstairs a step at a time.--MARK TWAIN.]
[Sidenote: Sweep first before your own door, before you sweep the
doorsteps of your neighbors.--SWEDISH.]
When we come to observe life very closely we learn that the law of
recompense is always in operation, and that when all things are
considered, one man's lot does not seem so much better or another's so
much worse than the fortune of those about him as a superficial glance
might lead us to think. Says Hamerton: "I used to believe a great deal
more in opportunities and less in application than I do now. Time and
health are needed, but with these there are always opportunities.
Rich people have a fancy for spending money very uselessly on their
culture because it seems to them more valuable when it has been costly;
but the truth is, that by the blessing of good and cheap literature,
intellectual light has become almost as accessible as daylight. I
have a rich friend who travels more, and buys more costly things
than I do, but he does not really learn more or advance farther in
the twelvemonth. If my days are fully occupied, what has he to set
against them? only other well-occupied days, no more. If he is getting
benefit at St. Petersburg he is missing the benefit I am getting
round my house, and in it. The sum of the year's benefit seems to be
surprisingly alike in both cases. So if you are reading a piece of
thoroughly good literature, Baron Rothschild may possibly be as well
occupied as you--he is certainly not better occupied. When I open a
noble volume I say to myself, 'Now the only Croesus that I envy is he
who is reading a better book than this.'"
[Sidenote: If you wish success in life, make perseverance your bosom
friend, experience your wise counsellor, caution your elder brother,
and hope your guardian genius.--ADDISON.]
There is many a boy who is quite sure the neighbor's boy has an easier
time and a better prospect of success. Grown-ups, too, are frequently
of the opinion that they could do so much better if they were in
somebody else's shoes. Between the success which others attain and that
which we achieve, we can very readily distinguish
THE DIFFERENCE
[Sidenote: Calmness is a great advantage.--HERBERT.]
When the other fellow gets rich it's luck,
Just blundering luck that brings him gains,
But when we win it's a case of pluck
With intelligent effort and lots of brains.
[Sidenote: Man becomes greater in proportion as he learns to know
himself and his faculty. Let him once become conscious of what he is,
and he will soon learn to be what he should.--SCHELLING.]
The country boy is sure that if he could get into the large city where
there are more and greater chances for doing things he would make a
great success. The city boy is quite as certain that if he could get
out into a country town where the competition is not so fierce and
where there is more room to grow he would do something worth while. In
discussing this subject, Edward Bok says: "It is the man, not the place
that counts. The magnet of worth is the drawing power in business. It
is what you are, not where you are. If a young man has the right stuff
in him, he need not fear where he lives or does his business. Many a
large man has expanded in a small place. The idea that a small place
retards a man's progress is pure nonsense. If the community does not
offer facilities for a growing business, they can be brought to it.
Proper force can do anything. All that is needed is right direction.
The vast majority of people are like sheep, they follow a leader."
[Sidenote: Men must know that in this theater of man's it remaineth
only to God and angels to be lookers-on.--BACON.]
[Sidenote: It is no man's business whether he is a genius or not; work
he must, whatever he is, but quietly and steadily.--RUSKIN.]
For the solace and enlightenment of those who think they are the
victims of an unkind fortune and that conditions are better elsewhere I
herewith offer Deacon Watts's remarks concerning
"YENDER GRASS"
[Sidenote: The talent of success is nothing more than doing what you
can do well, without a thought of fame.--LONGFELLOW.]
"This world is full of 'yender grass,'" says Deacon Watts to me;
"When I'm a-mowin' in the field, the grass close by," says he,
"Is short and thin and full of weeds; but over yender, why,
It looks to me as if the grass is thick and smooth and high.
But sakes alive! that ain't the case, for, when I mow to where
The grass I saw from far away looked all so smooth and fair,
I find it's jest as short and thin as all the rest, or wuss;
And that's the way the things of earth keep on a-foolin' us!
[Sidenote: Be not simply good, be good for something.--THOREAU.]
[Sidenote: Progress depends upon what we are, rather than upon what we
may encounter. One man is stopped by a sapling lying across the road;
another, passing that way, picks up the hindrance and converts it into
a help in crossing the brook just ahead.--TRUMBULL.]
"'Bout every day you'll hear some man complainin' of his lot,
And tellin', if he'd had a chance like other people, what
He might have been! He'd like to know how he can ever win
When all the grass that comes his way is all so short and thin.
But over in the neighbors' fields, why, he can plainly see
That they're in clover plumb knee-deep and sweet as sweet can be!
At times it's hard to tell if things are made of gold or brass;
Some men can't see them distant fields are full of 'yender grass.'
[Sidenote: Greatness lies, not in being strong, but in the right using
of strength.--BEECHER.]
[Sidenote: Great is wisdom; infinite is the value of wisdom. It cannot
be exaggerated; it is the highest achievement of man.--CARLYLE.]
"I've learned one thing in makin' hay, and that's to fill my mow
With any grass that I can get to harvest here and now.
The 'yender grass' that 'way ahead is wavin' in its pride
I find ain't very fillin' by the time it's cut and dried.
Hope springs eternal, so they say, within the human breast:
Man never is, the sayin' goes, but always to be, blest.
So my advice is, Don't you let your present chances pass,
A-thinkin' by and by you'll reap your fill of 'yender grass.'"
[Illustration: WASHINGTON AND LAFAYETTE AT MOUNT VERNON]