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Show WORK AND THRIVE. Boys cannot too soon begin to practice prac-tice the principle of industry, and energy of character. Read how a wise man speaks of such a one as is fearles and invincible In the path of duty.- I love your upright, energetic men. Pull them this way and the other, and they only bend never break. Trip them down, and in trice they are on their feet again. Bury them in the mud, and in an hour they would be out and bright. They are not ever fawning away existence, or walking about the world as if they had come into it with only half their soul; you cannot keep them down you cannot destroy them. But for these the world wrould quite soon degenerate. They are the salt of the earth. Who but they start any noble project? They build our cities and rear our manufactories; they whiten the ocean with their sail, and blacken the heavens hea-vens with the smoke of their steam vessels and furnace fires; they draw forth treasures from the mine they plow the earth. Blessings on them! Look to them, young men, and take courage; imitate their example catch the spirit of their energy. Without life, what are you good for? and what is your, life good for if it is passed idly away? We should ever measure life by life's employment." |