THE “GOING-TO-BEES”
The chains of habit are too weak to be felt till they are too strong to be broken.—Dr. Johnson.
Suppose that some fine morn in May
A honey-bee should pause and say,
“I guess I will not work to-day,
But next week or next summer,
Or some time in the by and by,
I’ll be so diligent and spry
That all the world must see that I
Am what they call a ‘hummer’!”
Wise evolution is the sure safeguard against a revolution.—Roosevelt
Of course you’d wish to say at once,
“O bee! don’t be a little dunce,
And waste your golden days and months
In lazily reviewing
The things you’re ‘going’ to do, and how
Your hive with honey you’ll endow,
But bear in mind, O bee, that NOW
Is just the time for ‘doing.’”
The more honesty a man has, the less he affects the air of a saint.—Lavater.
Suppose a youth with idle hands
Should tell you all the splendid plans
Of which he dreams, the while the sands
Of life are flowing, flowing.
You’d wish to say to him, “O boy!
If you would reap your share of joy,
You must discerningly employ
Your morning hours in sowing.”
God sows the self-same truth in every heart.—Alicia K. Van Buren.
He who would win must work! The prize
Is for the faithful one who tries
With loyal hand and heart; whose skies
With toil-crowned hopes are sunny.
And they who hope success to find
This homely truth must bear in mind:
“The ‘going-to-bees’ are not the kind
That fill the hive with honey.”
Are you a shepherd, or one of the herded?—Edmund Vance Cooke.
“Lost, yesterday, somewhere between sunrise and sunset, two golden hours, each set with sixty diamond minutes. No reward is offered, for they are gone forever.” How clearly these words of Horace Mann set forth the experience of thousands of persons, day by day.
There is a destiny that makes us brothers.—Edwin Markham.
Channing tells us, “it is astonishing how fruitful of improvement a short season becomes when eagerly and faithfully improved. Volumes have not only been read, but written, in flying journeys. I have known a man of vigorous intellect, who has enjoyed few advantages of early education, and whose mind was almost engrossed by the details of an extensive business, but who composed a book of much original thought, in steamboats and on horseback, while visiting distant customers.”
If thou art a man, admire those who attempt great enterprises, even though they fail.—Seneca.
The thought recorded by Jeremy Taylor is well worth remembering, that he who is choice of his time will also be choice of his company, and choice of his actions; lest the first engage him in vanity and loss, and the latter, by being criminal, be throwing his time and himself away, and going back in the accounts of eternity.
No one is free who is not master of himself.—Shakespeare.
The plea, “If I had the time,” is well met by Matthew Arnold, who says: “And the plea that this or that man has no time for culture will vanish as soon as we desire culture so much that we begin to examine seriously into our present use of time.”
A thought may touch and edge our life with light.—Trowbridge.
“Oh, what wonders have been performed in ‘one hour a day,’” says Marden. “One hour a day withdrawn from frivolous pursuits, and profitably employed, would enable any man of ordinary capacity to master a complete science. One hour a day would make an ignorant man a well-informed man in ten years. One hour a day would earn enough to pay for two daily and two weekly papers, two leading magazines, and a dozen good books. In an hour a day a boy or girl could read twenty pages thoughtfully—over seven thousand pages, or eighteen large volumes, in a year. An hour a day might make all the difference between bare existence and useful, happy living. An hour a day might make—nay, has made—an unknown man a famous one, a useless man a benefactor to his race. Consider, then, the mighty possibilities of two—four—yes, six hours a day that are, on the average, thrown away by young men and women in the restless desire for fun and diversion.”
Nothing is too high for a man to reach, but he must climb with care and confidence.—Hans Andersen.
Men exist for the sake of one another. Teach them, then, or bear with them.—Marcus Aurelius.
Do good with what thou hast, or it will do thee no good.—William Penn.
There is little excuse for continued ignorance these times. If one’s time is spent at a point remote from institutions of learning, or his days are so occupied that he cannot avail himself of their advantages, he can be a pupil in an ably conducted correspondence school, that most worthy of educational means whereby the youth in the isolated rural home, the shut-ins who by force of circumstances are prisoned within narrow walls, the night-watchman whose leisure comes at a time when all other schools are closed, the seeker after knowledge of any kind, at any time and at any place reached by the great governmental postal system, can be brought into close touch with a great fountain of learning and inspiration of which one may absorb all he will. From this time forth it will ill become any man to say that he has no chance to acquire an education, or that he has no opportunity to improve upon the mental equipment he already possesses. Instruction is within the reach of all. The schoolmaster is abroad as he has never been before. Wherever the postman can deliver a letter, in cottage or mansion, in the closely packed tenements of the city or in the remote farm homes reached by the rural free delivery routes, there the trained college professor makes his daily or weekly visits, giving his “heart to heart” talks with each of his thousands of pupils. He is with the boys as they follow the plow, the men who go down into the mines, the girls who serve at the loom and the lathe, pointing out the way that leads, through self-help, to happiness.
One great cause of failure of young men in business is the lack of concentration.—Carnegie.
Better say nothing than not to the purpose.—William Penn.
Diligence is the mother of good luck.—Franklin.
It is more true to-day than ever before, that “they can who think they can.” The means are more nearly at hand if one is determined to try them. Nothing but the spirit of procrastination can keep man or boy from setting about it to help himself toward better things. When to begin is the stumbling-block in the way of most persons. There is but one time when we can do anything. That time is NOW! To delay a year, a week, a day may prove most unfortunate. Indeed, trouble lies in the way of those who are disposed to defer the doing of their duty for even