1. MORAL PRINCIPLE.--"Edgar Allen Poe, Lord Byron, and Robert Burns,"
says Dr. Geo. F. Hall, "were men of marvelous strength intellectually.
But measured by the true rule of high moral principle, they were very
weak. Superior endowment in a single direction--physical, mental, or
spiritual--is not of itself sufficient to make one strong in all that
that heroic word means.
2. INSANE ASYLUM.--many a good man spiritually has gone to an untimely
grave because of impaired physical powers. Many a good man spiritually
has gone to the insane asylum because of bodily and mental weaknesses.
Many a good man spiritually has fallen from virtue in an evil moment
because of a weakened will, or a too demanding fleshly passion, or,
worse than either, too lax views on the subject of personal chastity."
3. BOYS LEARNING VICES.--some ignorant and timid people argue that
boys and young men in reading a work of this character will learn
vices concerning which they had never so much as dreamed of before.
This is, however, certain, that vices cannot be condemned unless they
are mentioned; and if the condemnation is strong enough it surely will
be a source of strength and of security. If light and education, on
these important subjects, does injury, then all knowledge likewise
must do more wrong than good. Knowledge is power, and the only hope of
the race is enlightenment on all subjects pertaining to their being.
4. MORAL MANHOOD.--it is clearly visible that the American manhood
is rotting down--decaying at the center. The present generation shows
many men of a small body and weak principles, and men and women
of this kind are becoming more and more prevalent. Dissipation
and indiscretions of all kind are working ruin. Purity of life and
temperate habits are being too generally disregarded.
5. YOUNG WOMEN.--the vast majority of graduates from the schools and
colleges of our land to-day, and two-thirds of the membership of our
churches, and three-fourths of the charitable workers, are females.
Everywhere girls are carrying off most of the prizes in competitive
examinations, because women, as a sex, naturally maintain a better
character, take better care of their bodies, and are less addicted
to bad and injurious habits. While all this is true in reference to
females, you will find that the male sex furnishes almost the entire
number of criminals. The saloons, gambling dens, the brothels, and bad
literature are drawing down all that the public schools can build
up. Seventy per cent. Of the young men of this land do not darken the
church door. They are not interested in moral improvement or moral
education. Eighty-five per cent. Leave school under 15 years of age;
prefer the loafer's honors to the benefit of school.
6. PROMOTION.--the world is full of good places for good young men,
and all the positions of trust now occupied by the present generation
will soon be filled by the competent young men of the coming
generation; and he that keeps his record clean, lives a pure life, and
avoids excesses or dissipations of all kinds, and fortifies his life
with good habits, is the young man who will be heard from, and a
thousand places will be open for his services.
7. PERSONAL PURITY.--Dr. George F. Hall says: "why not pay careful
attention to man in all his elements of strength, physical, mental,
and moral? Why not make personal purity a fixed principle in the
manhood of the present and coming generation, and thus insure the best
men the world has ever seen? It can be done. Let every reader of these
lines resolve that he will be one to help do it."
[Illustration: Charles Dickens' chair and desk.]
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