So long thy power hath blessed me, sure it still
Will lead me on
O’er moor and fen, o’er crag and torrent, till
The night is gone.
He is confident, too, that the same power will lead him through the dark night of doubt till the angels of love and faith, in whom he once trusted but whom he has doubted for a time, will come about him and smile their welcome to the light:
And with the morn those angel faces smile
Which I have loved long since, and lost the while.
Poor Richard’s Almanac
It is doubtful if Journeys Through Bookland contains any other selection so full of meat as this extract (Volume VI, page 407) from the writings of Benjamin Franklin; in fact, it is so full of wisdom on so many homely subjects and contains so much practical advice that no one can master it in a single reading.
It is condensed to the utmost limit and every sentence should be weighed and considered. The wise maxims and old saws need to be expanded in thought, illustrated by example and applied to the reader’s personal experience.
As a whole it is not particularly attractive to young people, but every child can be attracted to parts of it. A little of it to-day, more of it next week, a third part some time in the future, and in time the whole will be assimilated.
If the truths in this one selection are thoroughly embedded in the mind of a boy, if the traits of character here taught are made a part of him, he will be a sound man of business, a sensible head of a family and a valuable citizen in a community.
Poor Richard’s Almanac contains the religion of work, of economy, of prosperity. It is a manly doctrine, a clear-cut, respectable philosophy, a reasonable rule of business activity. Never more than today were the precepts needed. The whole tendency of our modern activities is against its precepts. Disaster and ruin may be seen on every hand and traced directly to the neglect or violation of those sound principles which the wise old Franklin put in such homely words.
These maxims of life and policy are not those which it is the special province of the school to teach. They are the elementary law which a boy or girl must learn in his home and see exemplified therein if they are ever to become a practical part of life’s equipment.