1 Being told
I would be expected to talk here, I inquired what sort of talk I ought
to make. They said it should be something suitable to youth-something
didactic,
instructive, or something in the nature of good advice. Very well. I have
a few things in my mind which I have often longed to say for the instruction
of the young; for it is in one's tender early years that such things will
best take root and be most enduring and most valuable. First, then. I will
say to you my young friends-and I say it beseechingly, urgingly-
2 Always
obey your parents, when they are present. This is the best policy in the
long run, because if you don't, they will make you. Most parents think
they know better than you do, and you can generally make more by humoring
that superstition than you can by acting on your own better judgment.
3 Be respectful
to your superiors, if you have any, also to strangers, and sometimes to
others. If a person offend you, and you are in doubt as to whether it was
intentional or not, do not resort to extreme measures; simply watch your
chance and hit him with a brick. That will be sufficient. If you shall
find that he had not intended any offense, come out frankly and confess
yourself in the wrong when you struck him; acknowledge it like a man and
say you didn't mean to. Yes, always avoid violence; in this age of charity
and kindliness, the time has gone by for such things. Leave dynamite to
the low and unrefined.
4 Go to
bed early, get up early- this is wise. Some authorities say get up with
the sun; some say get up with one thing, others with another. But a lark
is really the best thing to get up with. It gives you a splendid reputation
with everybody to know that you get up with the lark; and if you get the
right kind of lark, and work at him right, you can easily train him to
get up at half past nine, every time- it's no trick at all.
5 Now as
to the matter of lying. You want to be very careful about lying; otherwise
you are nearly sure to get caught. Once caught, you can never again be
in the eyes to the good and the pure, what you were before. Many a young
person has injured himself permanently through a single clumsy and ill
finished lie, the result of carelessness born of incomplete training. Some
authorities hold that the young out not to lie at all. That of course,
is putting it rather stronger than necessary; still while I cannot go quite
so far as that, I do maintain , and I believe I am right, that the young
ought to be temperate in the use of this great art until practice
and experience shall give them that confidence, elegance, and precision
which alone can make the accomplishment graceful and profitable. Patience,
diligence, painstaking attention to detail- these are requirements;
these in time, will make the student perfect; upon these only, may he rely
as the sure foundation for future
eminence…
6 A final
word: begin your practice of this gracious and beautiful art early-begin
now. If I had begun earlier, I could have learned how…
7 But I
have said enough. I hope you will treasure up the instructions which I
have given you, and make them a guide to you feet and a light to your understanding.
Build your character thoughtfully and painstakingly upon these precepts
and by and by, when you have got it built, you will be surprised and gratified
to see how nicely and sharply it resembles everybody else's.