MY BOYHOOD DREAMS
If you do not scale the mountain, you cannot view the plain.—Chinese.
I remember, I remember
When I was seventeen;
I was the cleverest young man
The world had ever seen.
The universe seemed simple then,
But now ’tis little joy
To know I don’t know lots of things
I did know when a boy.
There is no substitute for thorough-going, ardent, sincere earnestness.—Dickens.
I remember, I remember
This old world seemed so slow;
I’d teach it how to conquer things
When once I got a show!
’Twas such a charming fairy tale!
But now ’tis sorry play
To find how hard I have to work
To get three meals a day.
To leave undone those things which we ought to do, to leave unspoken the word of recognition or appreciation that we should have said, is perhaps as positive a wrong as it is to do the thing we should not have done.—Lillian Whiting.
I remember, I remember
The things I planned to do;
I meant to take this poor old earth
And make it over new.
It was a most delightful dream;
But now ’tis little cheer
To know the world when I am gone
Won’t know that I was here.
Those who can take the lead are given the lead.—Arthur T. Hadley.
When a family rises early in the morning, conclude the house to be well governed.—Chinese.
This somewhat overdrawn picture of human conceit and egotism holds a lesson for each and all of us. He who knows it all can learn no more, and he who can learn no more is likely to die ignorant. There are guide-posts all along our ways which if heeded will direct us toward the very destinations we should reach. And nothing else is so full of suggestion and inspiration as is a good book. In it we can enter the very heart of a man without being abashed by the author’s august presence.
Duty determines destiny. Destiny which results from duty performed may bring anxiety and perils, but never failure and dishonor.—William McKinley.
When quite young, the poet, Cowley, happened upon a copy of Spenser’s “Faerie Queen”, which chanced to be nearly the only book at hand, and becoming interested he read it carefully and often, until, enchanted thereby, he irrevocably determined to be a poet. The effect this same poem had upon the Earl of Southampton when he first read it is worth remembering. As soon as the book was finished Spenser took it to this noble patron of poets and sent it up to him. The earl read a few pages and said to a servant, “Take the writer twenty pounds.” Still he read on, and presently he cried in rapture, “Carry that man twenty pounds more.” Entranced he continued to read, but presently he shouted: “Go turn that fellow out of the house, for if I read further I shall be ruined!”
Laziness travels so slowly that poverty soon overtakes him.—Franklin.
Dr. Franklin tells us that the chance perusal of De Foe’s “Essay on Projects” influenced the principal events and course of his life. The reading of the “Lives of the Saints” caused Ignatius Loyola to form the purpose of creating a new religious order,—which purpose eventuated in the powerful society of the Jesuits.
It is faith in something and enthusiasm for something that makes a life worth looking at.—Oliver Wendell Holmes.
Dickens’s earliest and best literary work, the “Pickwick Papers,” was begun at the suggestion of a publisher of a magazine for whom Dickens was doing some job-work at the time. He was asked to write a serial story to fit some comic pictures which chanced to be in the publisher’s possession.
Blessed is he who has found his work. From the heart of the worker rises the celestial force, awakening him to all nobleness, to all knowledge.—Thomas Carlyle.
While yet a mere boy Scott chanced upon a copy of Percy’s “Reliques of Ancient Poetry,” which he read and re-read with great interest. He purchased a copy as soon as he could get the necessary sum of money and thus was early instilled into his soul a taste for poetry in the writing of which he was destined to attain such eminence. The translation of “Götz von Berlichingen” was Scott’s first literary effort and this work, Carlyle says, had a very large and lasting influence on the great novelist’s future career. In his opinion this translation was “the prime cause of ‘Marmion’ and the ‘Lady of the Lake,’ with all that has followed from the same creative hand. Truly a grain of seed that had lighted in the right soil. For if not firmer and fairer, it has grown to be taller and broader than any other tree; and all nations of the earth are still yearly gathering of its fruit.”
Nothing that is excellent can be wrought suddenly.—Jeremy Taylor.
Character is centrality, the impossibility of being displaced or overset.—Emerson.
A good book is the precious life-blood of a master spirit embalmed and treasured up on purpose to a life beyond life.—Milton.
Thus we see how much there is in life for those who observe their surroundings, who read the directions on the guide-posts, who study the guidebooks and who are wise enough to receive and to utilize the advice and suggestions that are everywhere offered them, and which their reason tells them are good.
[CHAPTER X]
REAL SUCCESS
Resolve to cultivate a cheerful spirit, a smiling countenance, and a soothing voice. The sweet smile, the subdued speech, the hopeful mind, are earth’s most potent conquerors, and he who cultivates them becomes a very master among men.—Hubbard.
“Boy Wanted”
Are you the boy?
If you have carefully read and digested the foregoing chapters you have a pretty clear understanding of the sort of boy the world prefers for a life partner. You have learned that you must
Ask no favors of “luck,”—win your way like a man;
Be active and earnest and plucky;
Then your work will come out just about as you plan
And the world will exclaim, “Oh, how lucky!”
They also serve who only stand and wait.—Milton.
In studying the history of the lives of successful men we are constantly being impressed with the thought that they make the most out of their surroundings, whatever their surroundings may be. They do not wait for a good chance to succeed; they take such chances as they can get and make them good. We very soon learn that
Two things fill me with awe: the starry heavens above, and the moral sense within.—Kant.
The ones who shall win are the ones who will toil;
The future is all in our keeping;
Though fortune may give us the seed and the soil,
We must still do the sowing and reaping.
The realities of to-day surpass the ideals of yesterday.—Frothingham.
The person who considers everything will never decide on anything.—Italian.
We learn, also, that one may achieve a full measure of success without accumulating much money, and may accumulate much money without achieving success. “Mere wealth is no more success than fools’ gold is real gold,” says one of our wise essayists. “Collaterals do not take the place of character. A man obtains thousands or millions of dollars by legal or illegal thieving, and society, instead of sending him to prison, receives him in its parlors. Men bow low when he passes, as in the fable the people bowed to the golden idols that were strapped on the back of a donkey, who was ass enough to swell with pride in the thought that all this reverence was for him. The man who puts his trust in gold and deposits his heart in the bank, and thinks money means success, is like the starving traveler in the desert, who, seeing a bag in the distance, found in it, instead of food which he sought, nothing but gold, and flung it from him in disappointment, and died for want of something that could save his life. The soul will starve if gold alone administers to its needs. Better to be a man than merely a millionaire. Better to have a head and heart than merely houses and lands.”
Nobody can carry three watermelons under one arm.—Spanish.
It is along such lines of thinking that I offer these thoughts