"But first, we will turn our minds to a strange old graveyard over in England, a burying ground where there are a good many old tomb-stones like this: [Draw [Fig. 128], complete]. If you were to walk among these old gravestones, you would find one there which would make you laugh, even though you were in a cemetery, because the epitaph, on it is the funniest you ever saw or heard of. It says:
"'Here Lies the Body of
John Blank.
He Was Born a Man
But
Died a Grocer!'
[As you speak the words slowly, draw them on the tombstone, completing [Fig. 129].]
"Did you ever hear anything to beat that? Now, that isn't anything against grocery men. A grocery man may be just as good a man as the preacher himself—and just as respectable. We can't get along in this world without groceries, and we just have to have men who will sell them to us. Then what was the matter with John? Well, just this: His business had swallowed him up! He had given it his whole time for years, and he did nothing else. It was groceries, groceries, groceries, and nothing but groceries. It was groceries on Monday, groceries on Tuesday, groceries on Wednesday, groceries on Thursday, groceries on Friday and groceries till eleven o'clock Saturday night, and if John went to church Sunday morning, sat on the front seat, and looked straight at the preacher all the time (so the preacher would say to himself, 'John seems to be very much interested in the sermon this morning, bless the Lord'). Ten to one John wasn't thinking of the preacher or his sermon at all—just only of groceries—or some big bill he had to buy or pay on the morrow.
"Now, if the epitaph had said, 'Here lies the body of John Blank; he was born a man and died a banker,' it would have been just as bad. Or, if he had died an undertaker, and buried himself, it would not have been any better.
"Now, John, Harry, Willie, if you want to be a grocer when you grow up, be a grocer and a big one—a wholesale grocer if you wish, and be a good one—the very best in town, if you can, but say—don't let your grocery business swallow you up till you are not good for anything else but to buy and sell groceries! Be a good grocer, but be a better, bigger MAN!!
"Perhaps you would like to be a lawyer; very well, be a lawyer, but see to it that you don't die a lawyer, and nothing but a lawyer. Don't let your profession swallow you up, and be bigger than you are yourself! Yes, be a lawyer, be a judge, if you will; the world doesn't seem to be able to get along without them—some of them to get people into trouble and others to get them out of it!
"Yes, but no matter how big and how good and just a judge you are, be a bigger, better, juster MAN.