notice. Dive into all depths, and explore all hidden recesses that will
render you a master of every department of any business or profession
you may engage in. The man who can render himself generally useful has
always a better chance of getting on in the world. Whatever you
thoroughly acquire will be a source of satisfaction and profit to you
throughout your future life. It will save you many an anxious hour by
day, and many a restless one by night. Remember that the whole is made
up of parts, and that the parts must be well understood before you can
master the whole. You will never be able to manage your business
successfully without a thorough knowledge of it in all its details.
Resolve, therefore, at the very commencement of your career, to acquire
such knowledge.
Young people sometimes say, "I shall never get an opportunity of showing
what is in me, for every business is now so crowded." Shakespeare has
answered this when he said, "There is a tide in the affairs of men,
which taken at the flood, leads on to fortune." As a matter of fact
opportunities come to all, but all are not ready for them when they
come. Successful men are those who prepare themselves for all
emergencies, and take advantage of the occasion when the favorable time
comes.
A good many young men excuse themselves from ever becoming anything, or
doing anything, by the fact that they always live where it is low tide.
Perhaps that is because it is always low tide where they live. At any
rate, the more we learn of the history of the men who have succeeded,
the more apparent it becomes that if they were born in low water, they
patched up their tattered circumstances, and beat out to sea on a tide
of their own making.
If you would be a success in the business world, then you must master
everything that you lay your hands upon. Bear in mind that this is your
own interest, as well as your duty toward your employer. Think nothing
below your attention; do not be afraid of drudgery. Investigate all,
comprehend all, grasp all, and master all. Business, like an ingenious
piece of machinery, is made up of many complicated parts. Analyze it,
therefore, thoroughly search all its parts, and know for yourself how
they are put together.
You may cherish the hope that you will one day be an employer yourself.
It would be very desirable if we could repose unlimited confidence in
the words and acts of our fellow-men; but, unfortunately, the condition
of the world is not as yet sufficiently advanced to enable us to do so.
Where you will find one that you can trust, you will find many that need
watching. If you should be unacquainted with some of your business
details, you must trust to others, and may in consequence be deceived. A
few months of careful attention to it at the commencement of your career
will secure you against deception throughout the whole of your life as
an employer.
Then you must also be careful to remember that dividends in life are not
paid until the investment of personal effort has been made. Sowing still
antedates reaping; and the amount sowed determines pretty closely the
size of the harvest. Whether it be young men or wheat fields the
interest can be depended upon to keep up with the capital, and empty
barns in October are the logical consequence of empty furrows in spring.
The young man may as well understand that there are no gratuities in
this life, and that success is never reached "across lots."
Success means, all the way through to the finish, a victory over
difficulties; and if the young aspirant lacks the grit to face and down
the difficulty that happens to confront him at the start, there is
little reason to expect that his valor will show to any better advantage
in his encounter with enemies that get in his way later.
Young men are apt to imitate each other. Let your conduct be such as to
bear imitation; otherwise you will lead those who are younger than you
to form injurious habits, and be the means of leading them away from the
path of duty. It is an obligation you owe your seniors. In the discharge
of their duties they will have to depend upon you to a certain extent;
and if your part is not properly performed, the whole system must
unavoidably suffer derangement.
If the mind is temperate in feeling, deliberate in choosing, and robust
in its willing, character becomes set and enduring. If, on the contrary,
feeling is volatile, choice fickle, and the will flabby, one quality
after another awakens momentary admiration and impulse; ideals succeed
each other as the vanishing visions of a dream; life is passed in a
state of perpetual inward contradiction; and failure, both for
yourselves and for your imitators, is almost sure to follow.
No young man can remain long in this unsettled or transition state; but
he must become _something_. You will therefore do well to be
careful how you tread this probationary ground; for it is really the
one great opportunity of your lives so far as concerns the formation of
your general characters. Use it thoughtfully and well, and your manhood
will be stronger, richer, and more helpful, all through your later
years.
XXVII.
ORDER.
MEMORY GEMS.
Accuracy is the twin brother of honesty.--C. Simmons
Without method, little can be done to any good purpose.--Macaulay
A place for everything, and everything in its place.--Old Proverb
Order is the law of all intelligible existence.--Blackie
Order is the sanity of the mind, the health of the body, the peace of
the city, and the security of the state.--Southey
The two words "order" and "method" are so closely akin to each other
that it is quite difficult to separate them, even in the mind. "Order is
heaven's first law," it is said; also, "Method consists in the right
choice of means to an end." Here a distinction is made; but the two
words taken together, cover the line of thought we now wish to follow.
Children nowadays do not learn to read as they once did. They go to
kindergartens; but order is the rule even in such play-schools, and it
is the one great reason why they succeed. All schools and colleges
depend upon order for successful work.
"He who every morning plans the transactions of the day," says Victor
Hugo, "and follows out that plan, carries a thread that will guide him
through the labyrinth of the most busy life. The orderly arrangement of
his time is like a ray of light which darts itself through all his
occupations. But where no plan is laid, where the disposal of time is
surrendered merely to the chance of incidents, all things lie huddled
together in one chaos, which admits of neither distribution nor
review."
There is no talent like method; and no accomplishment that man can
possess, like perseverance. These two powers will usually overcome every
obstacle; and there is no position which a young man may not hope to
secure, when, guided by these principles, he sets out upon the great
highway of life. In after years, the manners and habits of the man are
not so readily adapted to any prescribed course to which they have been
unaccustomed. But in youth habits of system, method, and industry, are
as easily formed as others; and the benefits and enjoyments which result
from them, are more than the wealth and honors which they always secure.
"Never study on speculation," says Waters; "all such study is vain. Form
a plan, have an object; then work for it, learn all you can about it,
and you will be sure to succeed. What I mean by studying on speculation,
is that aimless learning of things because they may be useful at some
time; which is like the conduct of the woman who bought at auction a
brass door-plate with the name Thompson on it, thinking it might some
day be of service."
Orderly boys and girls are fair scholars, firm friends, and good
planners; they make few mistakes, and succeed pretty well in all they
do. Order does not make a genius; but a genius without order is
exasperating when he is a man, and is only pardoned for his want of
order when he is a boy because he is expected to do better each day.
Begin with orderly _habits_; next day try order in _thought_; and then
will follow naturally order in _principles_.
"You would be the greatest man of your age, Grattan," said Curran, "if
you would buy a few yards of red tape and tie up your bills and papers."
Curran realized that methodical people are accurate as a rule, and
successful.
The celebrated Nathaniel Emmons, whose learning made him famous through
all New England, claimed that he could not work at all, unless order
reigned about him. For more than fifty years the same chairs stood in
the same places in his study; his hat hung on the same hook; the shovel
stood on the north side of the open fireplace, and the tongs on the
south side; and all his books and papers were so arranged that he
claimed to be able to find any information he needed in three or four
minutes.
The demand for perfection in the make-up of Wendell Phillips was
wonderful. Every word must express the exact shade of his thought; every
phrase must be of due length and cadence; every sentence must be
perfectly balanced before it left his lips. Exact precision
characterized his style. He was easily the first legal orator America
has produced. The rhythmical fullness and poise of his periods are
remarkable.
A. T. Stewart was extremely systematic and precise in all his
transactions. Method ruled in every department of his store, and for
every delinquency a penalty was rigidly enforced. His eye was upon his
business in all its various branches; he mastered every detail and
worked hard.
It has also been repeatedly asserted that Noah Webster never could have
prepared his dictionary in thirty-six years, unless the most exacting
method had come to the rescue. He himself claimed that his orderly
methods saved him ten or twenty years, and a vast amount of anxiety and
trouble.
Good habits are the first steps in order for children,--punctuality,
neatness, a place for everything. Yet, do not let habits master you, so
that you never can do anything except in a fixed manner at a fixed time,
and cannot give up your way of doing for the sake of something greater.
It is true, however, that there is a wonderful force in mere regularity.
A writer by the name of Bergh tells of a man beginning business, who
opened and shut his store at the same hour every day for weeks, without
selling two cents' worth of goods, yet whose application attracted
attention and paved the way to fortune.
Sir Walter Scott has also said that "When a regiment is under march, the
rear is often thrown into confusion because the front does not move
steadily and without interruption. It is the same thing with business.
If that which is first in hand be not instantly, steadily, and regularly
dispatched, other things accumulate behind, till affairs begin to press
all at once, and no human brain can stand the confusion."
The great enemy of order is laziness. It is too much trouble to do a
thing when it ought to be done, instead of doing it when you want to do
it. Young people should learn to think, talk, read in an orderly manner.
The country, the state, the town, the home, depend upon order.
Supposing each person did what he wished, without regard to the welfare
of others,--that meals, parties, lessons, came at any time; that
caucuses and elections happened when any one desired them; that prisons
and hospitals took people or not, just as superintendents felt; that
everybody was a self-constituted policeman, yet no one wanted to be
looked after himself;--what a hard time all people would have!
A very important point still remains to be noticed. It is this: Our
principles ought to be strong enough to govern our habits. Habits may
make us disagreeable and fussy; principles make us broad, far-seeing,
sympathetic, and independent. Success in life depends upon having the
_principle_ of order. Always do the _important_ thing _first_; for that
is what order means. Some boys and girls are orderly about their rooms,
but disorderly in their ways of doing things,--always in a hurry, and
always puzzled what to do next. Orderly people make plans, allow a
margin of time for carrying them out, so that they shall not overlap one
duty with another; and then, if there is any time left, they fill it
with some extra employment or enjoyment, which they have kept in the
background all ready for use.
JOHN WESLEY.
If John Wesley had not been such an orderly boy, he never could have
been the founder of Methodism. He was born at Epworth, England, in 1703,
and had nineteen brothers and sisters, though only ten of them lived
long enough to be educated.
His brother Charles was his intimate companion. When students at Oxford,
they and two other friends formed a small society, which was called the
"Holy Club" by those who laughed at it. They had sets of questions,
labeled in order for their examination. From the exact regularity of
their lives and their methods of study, they came to be called
Methodists, in allusion to some ancient physicians who were so termed.
The name was so quaint that it became immediately popular. They visited
the poor and sick, and had regular lists of inquiries and rules for
general use.
All the orderly habits of his youth guided him even when he became a
man; and the amount of work he accomplished is almost beyond belief. In
the last three years of his life, although sick nearly all the time, he
preached as many times as ever until a week before his death, in 1791.
Always anxious never to lose a moment, and to be methodical in all his
habits, he read as he traveled on horseback for forty years. He
delivered forty thousand sermons, and wrote many books and essays, and
gave away in charity one hundred and fifty thousand dollars, which was
a great sum in those days.
The secret of John Wesley's success began in his love of order, and
culminated in the wonderful, orderly discipline of the immense Methodist
denomination. At his death there were nearly eighty thousand members,
whose leaders, great and little, had definite duties to perform. Yet, in
his love for order, he never lost sight of individual poor and sick
people, but remembered to serve each one.
[Footnote: See "Lives of Wesley," by Tyerman (1876); Riss (1875); Isaac
Taylor's "Wesley and Methodism" (1868); and "Wesley's Journals," in
seven volumes.]
XXVIII.
REVERENCE.
MEMORY GEMS.
Reverence is the crown of moral manhood.--C. Kingsley
No man of sound nature ever makes a mock of reverence.--T. T. Munger
True reverence is homage tempered by love.--W. B. Pope
In the full glow of the light of our times, only the pure are really
revered.--Wilberforce
Reverence is alike indispensable to the happiness of individuals, of
families, and of nations.--Smiles
Reverence is a word by itself. It has no synonyms, nor does any other
word in the language exactly fill its place. It is not respect; it is
not regard; it is not fear; it is not honor. Perhaps awe comes nearest
to it; and yet reverence is more than awe. It is awe softened and
refined by gentleness and love.
Reverence is a condition of thought and feeling which does not paralyze
action, but kindles it; does not deaden sensibility, but quickens it.
Even when used in a religious sense, reverence does not stand for
religion itself, but as a means or aid to religious thought and life.
The presence or absence of a reverent spirit is of real importance; for
it adds to, or takes away from, our enjoyment of the world in which we
live. One person finds happiness everywhere and in every occasion;
carrying his own holiday with him. Another always appears to be
returning from a funeral. One sees beauty and harmony wherever he looks,
while another is blind to beauty; the lenses of his eyes seem to be made
of smoked glass, draping the whole world in mourning. While one man sees
only gravel, fodder, and firewood, as he looks into a richly-wooded
park; another is ravished with its beauty. One sees in a matchless rose
nothing but an ordinary flower; another penetrates its purpose, and
reads in the beauty of its blended colors and its wonderful fragrance
the very thoughts of God.
Only the truly reverent soul can catch the higher music of sentient
being, with its joys and hopes; its wealth of earnest, aspiring,
struggling souls; tolerant, serious, yet sunny; and read those larger
possibilities which lie hidden in the great deeps of the most ordinary
human life.
While it is true that only the reverent can fully appreciate nature; it
is even more true in regard to human nature. To the reverent mind an old
man or woman is an object of tender regard; while by the irreverent, the
aged are frequently treated with ingratitude, and sometimes even with
contempt.
One of the lessons most frequently and most strongly impressed upon the
Lacedaemonian youth, was to entertain great reverence and respect for
old men, and to give them proof of it on all occasions, by saluting
them; by making way for them, and giving them place in the streets; by
rising up to show them honor in all companies and public assemblies;
but, above all, by receiving their advice, and even their reproofs,
with docility and submission.
On one occasion, when there was a great play at the principal theater in
Athens, the seats set apart for strangers were filled with Spartan boys;
and other seats, not far distant, were filled with Athenian youth. The
theater was crowded, when an old man, infirm, and leaning on a staff,
entered. There was no seat for him. The Athenian youth called to the old
man to come to them, and with great difficulty he picked his way to
their benches; but not a boy rose and offered him a seat. Seeing this,
the Spartan boys beckoned to the old man to come to them, and, as he
approached their benches, every Spartan boy rose, and, with uncovered
head, stood until the old man was seated, and then all quietly resumed
their seats. Seeing this, the Athenians broke out in loud applause. The
old man rose, and, in a voice that filled the theater, said, "The
Athenians know what is right: the Spartans do it."
The great German thinker, Goethe, claimed that three kinds of reverence
should be taught to youth,--for superiors, for equals, and forinferiors.
This was an advance over the old ideas; but, in a republic
like ours, reverence is not up and down; it is not measured by class
distinctions,--it is a spirit, to be related in sympathetic ways with
all human beings as such; and especially with all whose lives are such
as to command our respect and esteem.
Reverence can be cultivated, and needs to be cultivated in our times.
There is too much mere "smartness" abroad. In society and in the world
we find a flippant, cynical tone; no doubt much of this is reaction from
old-time gloom and severity. But without a reasonable reverence we
cannot have good manners, or loyal citizens, or possessors of really
beautiful characters.
Reverence is developed by looking for the good in others; by avoiding
fault-finding; by associating with high-minded acquaintances; by reading
worthy literature; by using language unstained by vulgarity; by striving
to enter more and more into the spirit of the noblest lives that come
under our notice.
Reverence, then, is not fear; but wonder, solemnity, and veneration. "It
is to cherish a habit of looking upward, and seeing what is noble and
good in all things." Its blessings are many. By it we can win a masterly
judgment to determine the fitness of behavior and habits; it will keep
us from thoughtless words and deeds; it will make us respectful to old
age and appreciative of the past; and, in many other ways, it will prove
itself of real value to all who cultivate and cherish it.
HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW.
We select, as our special example, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, the best
known of our American poets. The great poet, whoever he may be, is
always reverential. His stanzas are crowned with a sacred seriousness.
He gives to life a "grand, true, harmonic interpretation." Longfellow
was born on the 27th of February, 1807, at Portland, Maine. In his
earlier years he displayed the same gentle, amiable spirit which filled
his after-life with sunshine and goodness.
He proved himself to be possessed of a very bright mind even as a boy,
and entered Bowdoin College when only fourteen years of age. He
afterwards served this same institution as professor of modern
languages, and in 1835 was called to fill a similar position in Harvard
University.
He visited Europe, twice at least, for purposes of study; and, on his
return from his second trip, began that illustrious career of
instruction and authorship which has been the source of so much
honorable pride on the part of his countrymen. Longfellow selected a
historic home in Cambridge; it was the house occupied by Washington
when he took command of the United States Army in 1776,--a spacious
structure, full of welcoming windows, and situated in the midst of old
elms. Here he lived till his death; and now the stretch of land, from
the estate to the river Charles, has been bought and adorned as a
memorial.
The writings of Longfellow are household possessions, fully as much in
England as in America, and we need not enumerate them. They are famous
not so much for originality, as for their calm, spiritual, purifying
messages. They are full of good-will, aspiration, trust, and real
loftiness of tone. Indeed, Longfellow "loved to make clear his
discipleship to him whose ministry was love, whose flock was all
humanity, whose kingdom was peace and righteousness."
So deep was the impression made by Mr. Longfellow's beauty of character,
that it equaled his literary fame. He always responded to callers, and
they came by hundreds; he never refused his autograph; children loved
him; his charities were manifold; young authors received his
encouragement. Modest as to his own writings, he strove to praise the
good in others. Every one who met him perceived the source of all this
rare grace and fascinating nobility of soul to be a sense of the glory
and divineness of all life. His soul stood in a reverential attitude
toward existence, and a marvelous light shone through him and his
poetry as the result.
Down to the last his pen was active. He died on the 24th of March, 1882.
Degrees and honors had been freely bestowed on him; but the highest
tributes came from his admirers on both sides of the Atlantic; and his
reverential spirit still lives in hundreds of those who read his
beautiful verses.
[Footnote: See "Life of Longfellow," and "Final Memorials" both by his
brother; Samuel Longfellow, and articles in all the best magazines.]
XXIX.
SENTIMENT.
MEMORY GEMS.
Sentiment is nothing but thought blended with feeling.--J. F. Clarke
Sentiment takes part in the shaping of all destinies.--R. Southey
A little child is the sweetest and purest thing in the world.
--J. S. White
Sentiment is the life and soul of poetry and art.--J. Flaxman
Sentiment is emotion precipitated in pretty crystals by the fancy.
--J. R. Lowell
It is quite difficult to define sentiment. This has been done, however,
by the use of the following figures. "We may think of it as color,
without which nothing in nature or art is complete. A colorless
character is as unsatisfactory as a colorless landscape. We may also
think of it as cement; for it serves to bind together the ordinary facts
and incidents of life. Just as the bricks and stones of a building are
useless until held in the places designed for them under some governing
plan, so we may say that a selfish and gross character is not bound
together by noble sentiments. Or we may say, again, that sentiment is
the wing-power of man, whereby he has ability to fly away from the
commonplace and unworthy. By it the ordinary citizen becomes a glowing
patriot; the drudging youth turns into the devoted statesman; and life
is made better in a thousand ways."
In one of our memory gems we find it asserted that "sentiment is the
life and soul of poetry and art." Perhaps this statement may help us
here. Pure poetry is the perfection of prose, or prose idealized. "It is
a dream drawn from the infinite, and portrayed to mortal sense." It
takes a great mind, a great genius to weave into a gossamer web,
complete and perfect in every part, a story, a tale, an idea, which
alike charms the mind, enthralls the sense, and enchains the spirit.
Poetry is the perfection of language. It is not a mere mechanical
contrivance of words, but a glorious picture in which the outward
execution is lost in a glory of expression.
The poet Holmes was brimful of sentiment. Listen to him as he talks
about the flowers.