MAKING A MAN
The elect are those who will, and the non-elect are those who won’t.—Beecher.
Hurry the baby as fast as you can,
Hurry him, worry him, make him a man.
Off with his baby-clothes, get him in pants,
Feed him on brain-foods and make him advance.
Hustle him, soon as he’s able to walk,
Into a grammar school; cram him with talk.
Fill his poor head full of figures and facts,
Keep on a-jamming them in till it cracks.
Once boys grew up at a rational rate,
Now we develop a man while you wait.
Rush him through college, compel him to grab
Of every known subject a dip and a dab.
Get him in business and after the cash
All by the time he can grow a mustache.
Let him forget he was ever a boy,
Make gold his god and its jingle his joy.
Keep him a-hustling and clear out of breath,
Until he wins—Nervous Prostration and Death!
Much talent is often lost for want of a little courage.—George Eliot.
A sorry picture, isn’t it? No doubt it sets forth, in an extreme manner, the evils that arise from crowding a child into boyhood, and a boy into manhood; still, no one who observes carefully will doubt that such wrongs are constantly being committed by hundreds of ambitious parents and well-meaning teachers.
The crowning fortune of a man is to be born with a bias to some pursuit, which finds him in employment and happiness.—Emerson.
Yet, I think you have little to fear along the lines of over-study. You must train your mind to grapple with tasks while you are young, for if you do not begin now you may not, later on, be able to summon that concentration of thought that is necessary for winning success along any line of endeavor.
“Difficulties are the best stimulant. Trouble is a tonic,” says one of our wise essayists.
No one is useless in the world who lightens the burden of it for any one else.—Charles Dickens.
“He that wrestles with us strengthens our nerves, and sharpens our skill, our antagonist is our helper,” says Edmund Burke. “This conflict with difficulty makes us acquainted with our object, and compels us to consider it in all its relations. It will not suffer us to be superficial.”
The fewer the words the better the prayer.—Luther.
Life is a grind; a sorry few
Are blunted in their aim,
And some are sharpened, keen and true,
And carve their way to fame.
“Don’t take too much advice—keep at the helm and steer your own ship,” says Noah Porter. All of which is very good advice.
Next to excellence is the appreciation of it.—Thackeray.
The boy that the world wants most is the one who will think for himself at the same time he is hearing words of wisdom from others. A boy who tried to follow all the advice given him would probably find himself unable to do anything at all. Everyone and everything seems eager to give him the short cut to fortune, as I have endeavored to set forth in a bit of nonsense rhyme which I call the secret of