Show STUDENT LIFE 156 noble purpose and high endeavor An artist friend painted his portrait and from the canvas the face of the boy shone in all its innocence purity and beauty The picture stood covered upon an easel in the studio of the artist who was accustomed from daw to day to draw the drapery from his masterpiece that he might enjoy its beauty For a time the picture presented the same bright and beautiful face with the same sweet and inocent expression And friends came and looked and went away filled with admiration for the artist and the subject By and by a change appeared The face in the picture seemed to be taking on a new expression Strange and new lines were seen and gradually the face grew hard and cold until it began to take on an evil lcHc and day by day the artist uncovered the picture only to wonder and to grieve The boy had withdrawn gradually and almost imperceptibly day by day from the associations of his early life His friend knew that he was yielding to temptations which under varied and attractive forms were leading him from the paths of honor and rectitude he saw that his nature was becoming coarse and hard and that the former purity of his mind and character had become And so he watched the boy and gazed upon the picture and day by day he saw the impress of each wicked act of every evil thought plainly visible on the face in the portrait When the end came and for the last time he looked upon the picture he saw in the distorted and hideous face looking from the canvass a recital of all the sin and wrong of an life And the artist turned the portrait to the wall and would not be comforted Thus does nature’s law of compensation affect our lives and thus is the record of all our acts and thoughts made never evil-stain- ed ill-spe- nt to be erased A knowledge of this law then impresses us with the necessity as well as the duty of living which includes all of our purposes as well as acts The effects of a violation of natural laws are not confifined alone to ourselves for they are felt by our innocent fellows also Nature makes no allowances for ignorance or inadvertence where her commands are not obeyed What is done is done and mistakes are not rectified It is of the most signal importance then that we begin rightly and continue to the end with a fixed and steady purpose to employ all of our faculties in aid of those laws If you would know things and be useful first and above all the lode star of your ambition and your hope must be Truth Your purpose is to attain knowledge and knowledge is the knowing of It is impossible that error or things falsehood can become a part of knowledge since to know things is to see and understand the truth There is no deception in nature and where there appears to be such it is because our vision is obscured and we cannot see the hidden truth In thepursuit of knowledge opinions as such have no place as facts alone are to be considered Since a search for undisclosed or unknown facts is inconsistent with the employment of falsehood which must tend to disturb the inquiry and to surely produce erroneous results it follows that falsehood if exerted to deceive ourselves is inadmissible and falsehood purposed for the deception and injury of others is an added iniquity sure to react upon ourselves and if nothing more will but serve to diminish our capacities for discerning the truth No man ever was truly great w'ho was not animated by a love of truth because greatness cannot be achieved except upon |