“Labor to keep alive in your heart that spark of heavenly fire called conscience.”
Such are some of those rules that Washington wrote out in a fair hand at thirteen. Most of these rules turn on one great principle, which is, that you treat others with respect; that you are tender of the feelings, and rights, and characters of others; that you do to others as you would have others do to you.
But another thing, also, is to be considered, which is, that Washington not only had a set of good rules of behavior, all written out in a fair hand and committed to memory, but he was in the habit of observing them; and he not only observed them when a child, but after he became a man. He got into the habit of obeying every one of these rules, and every one of them became a rail-road track to him, and he therefore followed them; and thus it was that his manners were always so dignified, kind, and noble; thus it was that his character and conduct became so great and good.
Now, I would not have my readers suppose that Washington was always a man; on the contrary, when he was a boy, he loved fun as well as anybody. He liked to run, to leap, to wrestle, and play at games. He had a soldierly turn, even in boyhood, and was fond of heading a troop of boys, and marching them about with a tin kettle for a drum.
Washington, too, was quick-tempered and passionate when a boy; but the beauty of his story in this point is, that by adopting good habits and principles he overcame these tendencies of his nature, and he showed that all quick-tempered boys can do the same, if they please. They can govern their tempers; they can adopt good rules of conduct; they can get into the habit of being calm, patient, and just, and thus grow up to honor and usefulness.
There are many other traits of character belonging to Washington that are interesting and worthy of imitation. He was accurate and just in all his dealings; he was punctual in the performance of promises; he was a man of prayer, and an observer of the Sabbath. And the point here to be noticed by youth, is, that all these qualities which we have been noticing appear to be the fruit of seed sown in his youth. They appear all to have taken root in one great principle—OBEDIENCE—obedience to his mother, obedience to his teachers—obedience to a sense of duty, formed into habit in early life. This is the real source of Washington’s greatness. He was not made greater or better than most others, but he adopted good habits, and under their influence he became great.
Another thing to be observed is, that in adopting good habits, Washington rejected bad ones. He was guilty of no profanity; no rudeness or harshness of speech; he was not addicted to sprees; he was no haunter of bar-rooms or taverns; he had no vulgar love of eccentricity; he affected not that kind of smartness which displays itself in irregularity or excess; he did not think it clever to disobey teachers or parents; he was no lover of scandal, or of profane and rude society.
The teaching, then, of Washington’s example is this: study obedience, patience, industry, thoroughness, accuracy, neatness, respect to the rights and feelings of others, and make these things habitual—rail-tracks in the mind. The path of obedience is the path to glory; the path of disobedience is the path of failure and disappointment in the race of life.
The Poet and the Child.
There is a man in England by the name of Thomas Campbell. He is a poet, and wrote two famous pieces, “The Pleasures of Hope,” and “Gertrude of Wyoming,”—besides many other smaller poems, which are among the most beautiful in our language. A short time since he was passing through one of the parks of London, which are extensive fields ornamented with fine trees, and he there saw a beautiful girl, four years old, led along by a woman. Mr. Campbell seems to be a lover of children, and so he wrote the following lines about this little girl. They are very pleasing lines; and I introduce them here that my fair young readers may see how kindly a famous poet looks on the face of a child, which bespeaks goodness.