Always express confidence, faith, courage, and cheer thoughts, whether
you feel them or not. Do this heroically and persistently, and soon the
fear shadows and weakness feelings will leave you, and you will be in
reality strong, courageous, active, and will do things you never thought
possible.
"As a man thinketh, so is he." Always remember that.
Get hold of your thoughts; make yourself think up, and have faith and
courage. Hold to your resolve, and the whole world will change. You
will prosper, you will have poise, and every once in a while happiness
will come as a reward.
No man will be more surprised at your complete change of attitude and
character than yourself.
Your problems can only be solved by yourself. Friends can advise, _I_
can suggest, but YOU must act.
Henceforth, never accuse yourself, never feel sorry for your condition
or position, cut out fear thoughts,--be strong.
Think faith, courage, cheer, confidence, and strength, and by-and-by the
habit will be fixed and natural.
This is as certain truth as I have ever experienced. I know it. I've
tried it. I've watched others and the results are always good.
Don't be passive and forget this chapter. Start right this minute to
THINK RIGHT.
And you will never regret and never forget this chapter on
Self-accusation.
24.
[Sidenote: Dare to Dream.]
The great colleges turn out thousands of graduates each year, and the
great newspapers have much sport ridiculing them in funny pictures.
Every great man was once a boy with a dream, and that dream came true
because the boy had pep that made him stick to his ambition and kept him
from being discouraged because of ridicule or obstacles.
Thomas Carlyle, the poor Scotch tutor, dreamed he wanted to be a great
author. His clothes were threadbare, his poverty apparent. Friends
taunted and ridiculed him until, goaded to indignation, he cried: "I
have better books in me than you have ever read." The crowd laughed
incredulously and said: "Poor fellow, he's batty."
Carlyle stuck to his dream and the world has the "History of Frederick
the Great" and the "French Revolution" and "Sartor Resartus." When he
had finished the manuscript of the "French Revolution," a careless maid
built a fire with it. He wasn't discouraged, but went to work and wrote
it over again and very likely better than he wrote it the first time.
Bonaparte in the garden of his military school dreamed of being a great
general. He stuck to his dream and he realized his hopes.
Joseph Pulitzer, a poor emigrant, crawled in a cellar way in New York to
sleep, and he dreamed of owning a great newspaper. His dream came true,
and the newspaper is printed in a building erected on the spot where he
dreamed in the cellar way.
Livingston dreamed of exploring darkest Africa; his dream came true.
Edison dreamed of great electrical discoveries. His monument is Menlo
Park with its great laboratories.
Ford dreamed of making an automobile for the purse-limited masses--he
was jeered; to-day the world cheers him.
My friend, Bert Perrine, was chucked off a stage in the middle of
Idaho's great sage brush desert. He said to the driver, "Some day I'll
own that stage and I'll use it for a chicken house."
He dreamed and schemed, and to-day the desert is the famous Twin Falls
country, blossoming like a rose. And on his beautiful ranch at Blue
Lakes, that old stage is used for a chicken house.
Rockefeller dreamed, Lincoln dreamed--so did Garfield, Wilson, Grant,
Clay, Webster, Marshall Field, Richard W. Sears and all the other men
who have done things worth while in the world.
The great West is the result of dreams come true.
Dream on, my boy; hitch your wagon to a star and stay hitched. That
dream and that determination are the things that are to carry you over
obstacles, past thorny ways, and through criticism, jeers and ridicule.
Your time will come. Dream and scheme, and make your ideals materialize
into living, pulsating realities.
25.
There are many persons who act and advocate ideals merely for
effect--they are hypocrites.
Here's a little true heart story that probably passed unnoticed except
to a very few persons.
[Sidenote: Real Charity.]
Little Spencer Nelson, a poor boy, eight years old, recently died in a
hospital with a little bank clasped to his breast. The bank held $3.41
in pennies which the boy had saved to buy presents for the poor children
in his city.
The little hero had fought manfully through three months' suffering,
enduring the torture of five lacerating operations. The pain failed to
dim the spirit of unselfishness which burned brightly and clearly in his
tired, fever-racked body.
After each operation his mind became more securely fixed on his project
to help bring cheer to poor children.
The little savings bank was his companion, and each visitor was asked to
contribute to his fund.
Three hours before he died, a smile beautified his thin wasted face as
the nurse dropped a dime in his bank. His last words--a message to his
mother--were in a scarcely audible whisper, asking her to remember to
use the money to make poor children happy.
That was real charity; that boy had no hypocrisy in his heart.
[Sidenote: Seek and You Will Find.]
The daily paper chronicles instances of sensational charity, where men
vie with each other to see who can give most and get the most
advertising. These men overlook the wonderful opportunities at their
door--they do not realize the beautiful love and charity that would stir
in their hearts if they would but look into the out-of-the-way places
and get direct connection with pain and suffering.
Little Spencer looked from his cot and saw the suffering of other little
children and he wanted to help them, and the very resolve and impulse
made him forget his own pain and misery.
In the Book of Good Deeds, the name of Spencer Nelson will be recorded
as a sweeter act of charity than any million-dollar gift to a great
institution.
What one of you who read these lines can read the story of that little
hero and not be touched by the generous love and beautiful conception of
charity he possessed.