useful, are cardinal elements of success. It is a trumpet call that duty sounds, at which all the nobler attributes of manhood spring into life.

Smiles says, "Duty is the end and aim of the highest life; it alone is true;" and George Herbert says, "The consciousness of duty performed 'gives us music at midnight.'

Closely allied with duty is the choice of permanent values. It is a waste of time to seek a good thing that will last only a day or a year. A transient blessing may be desirable in itself, but if a permanent one can be secured by like effort in its stead, it is a very unwise use of time to try for the former instead of the latter. We ought to measure good things by the length of time they will be good. What will help us far away in manhood, as well as now, is surely more desirable than what will help us only now. Its real worth must be altogether greater. Four years in college may be of some service to a young man who means to be a trader or manufacturer, but if the same four years in actual business will be a better preparation for his life work, the latter is worth more than the former to him, and he ought to choose it.

Education is a good thing for anyone, for it lasts through life, and even serves manhood better than it does boyhood. Hence it is of the highest value, valuable for what it is to-day, more valuable for what it is to-morrow, and most valuable for what it is through life. Permanent values are always far more desirable than transient ones; and in seeking them there is higher discipline and more character.

Robert Bloomfield was a poor boy, but he kept his eye on manhood. He was apprenticed to a shoemaker when he was quite young, but he expected to enjoy something better than that when he became a man. He wanted an education; it was the dream of his early life, but if he acquired it, his own persistent efforts must do it. Reading might lead to it; he would try it. His leisure moments became his most valuable time, a book being his constant companion. One was placed on a frame beside his work-bench, that he might read a sentence now and then when he could look away from his work for a moment. Evenings until late at night, and early in the morning before going to his daily task, reading was his pastime. Here was all the seminary and college he could ever enjoy. He must make the most of his spare hours now, or he

Thus

could never realize the fulfillment of his hopes in manhood. He was after what was not only a good thing now, but something that would be vastly better for his mature life. animated by a lofty aim, he applied himself to self-improvement year after year, and at forty years of age he was a famous scholar. The fulfillment of his hopes was realized, and his soul was satisfied, for he had secured what would be to him the richest boon through the remainder of his life. Before his death he ranked among the most learned men of his day.

Robert Bloomfield sought and found what was good at the start, and what continued to be good to the end of his life. Such should be the aim of every youth - choosing things permanent rather than those of transient value. Herein lies the great worth of honesty, industry, benevolence, punctuality, and kindred virtues: time does not limit their practical use, for they are just as practical and valuable in age as they are in youth. It is not so with wealth. Riches take to themselves wings and fly away. They often vanish when men least expect it, and even if they remain, they may prove a snare and a curse. And the same is true of honor and fame; they are uncertain possessions. Unlike honesty, and the train of virtues mentioned, they may sadly disappoint us. Honesty is never disappointing, and it always stays where it is really wanted. Its market value is never fluctuating; it is always at par, or above — never below. We can say of it as the apostle did of charity, "it never faileth." If we could. say the same of money and fame, their values would be vastly augmented. But we cannot, and so their real worth is materially impaired.

Stephen Girard placed the highest value upon wealth. Neither learning nor a "good name" were of much account to him in comparison with money. All things were appraised according to their fitness to produce riches. That which would yield the most dollars in the shortest time was the most valuable to him. Wealth poured into his coffers, of course, under this régime. Fortune was piled upon fortune. The more he got, the more he wanted. The passion for getting increased to a mania. The use of money was scarcely thought of only its possession; it was valued for its own sake. And, after a long life of drudgery, with none of that

peace and sweetness that should have been infused into it, he was forced to quit this world without a till in his coffin, or a pocket in his shroud. It must have been a sore disappointment to leave these earthly conveniences on this side of the grave, but such is the way with acquisitions that do not last. The folly of choosing the transient instead of the permanent is finally manifest.

Youth is the period of discipline; and discipline, true and thorough, is a blessing that lasts beyond this life. Whether it be an education that is sought, or a trade, or an art, discipline is the blessing that should result-discipline of the threefold nature, physical, mental, and moral. This pays well for the most self-sacrificing and persistent effort in any and every pursuit; nobler manhood and womanhood is surer to be. It is this thought and aim that should be uppermost, whether a person be engaged in manual labor, reading, study, or other necessary effort; discipline should be the one grand acquisition sought, because, like the charity of inspiration, it will last forever. Charity never faileth; but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away."

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Horace Greeley possessed so many attributes of the successful man that frequent reference to him is indispensable. Few men illustrate the subject in hand so well as he. From his boyhood, he had an eye upon permanent values. through his life that which was of general utility for the longest time won his support, whether it was a book, utensil, machine, coat, daily paper, or a virtue. He was a stalwart foe to pretentious display, the spirit of caste, fashion, and the undue deference paid to wealth and position.. These were transitory things, and, therefore, comparatively valueless.

He once wrote of the man who has run the race of life : "Ask not whether he has or has not been successful, according to the vulgar standard of success. What matters it now whether the multitude has dragged his chariot, rending the air with idolizing acclamations, or howled like wolves on his track, as he fled by night from the fury of those he had wasted his vigor to serve? What avails it that broad lands have rewarded his toils, or that all has, at the last moment been stricken from his grasp? Ask not whether he brings into

retirement the wealth of the Indies, or the poverty of the bankrupt, whether his couch be of down or of rushes, his dwelling a hut or a mansion. He has lived to little purpose, indeed, if he has not long since realized that wealth and renown are not the true ends of exertion, nor their absence the conclusive proof of ill fortune. Whoever seeks to know if his career has been prosperous and brightening from its outset to its close, if the evening of his days shall be genial and blissful, should ask not for broad acres, nor towering edifices, nor laden coffers. Perverted old age may grasp these with the unyielding clutch of insanity, but they add to his cares and anxieties, not to his enjoyments. Ask, rather, Has he mastered and harmonized his erring passions? Has he lived a true life?"

These words indicate the trend of the writer's life,- to permanent values. That he may have carried his views to an extreme will not be denied. He might have selected a handsome coat instead of a homely one, when he chose the most durable; his manners might have been simple, sincere, and polite, without being awkward or odd. There is a permanent value with grace, as there is a transient value with it. The first should be sought and found.

CHAPTER XV.

EDWARD EVERETT HALE.

ON WHAT CAREER

PART IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY CELEBRADIVISIONS OF HIS CAREER AS A JOURNALISTAS A

TION IN BOSTON

It is better to do one thing well than two things by halves; better to learn one thing thoroughly than to get a smattering

of two; better to stick to one duty till it is finished than to make two beginnings.

When the occupation is chosen, and prepared for, consecrate yourself to it that its work shall be well done. "Be ye perfect, even as your Father which is in Heaven is perfect." That is the rule. Whatever you do, do that work well. Do it as a leader does it, and, above all, do not blow your own trumpets; nor, which is the same thing, ask other people to blow them. No trumpeter ever rose to be a general. If the power to lead is in you, other men will follow. If it is not in you, nothing will make them follow. It is for you to find the eternal law of the universe and to put yourself in harmony with that law.

It is not simply the training of the voice to speak; it is not simply training the eye to see; far less is it the training of the fingers to this service or that toil. It is that we may come unto a perfect man, trained in faith, hope, and love,— in faith to look above the world; in hope to look beyond time; in love to look outside the lesser life into that communion in which we are one with all God's children, one even with himself.

Eamend & Ance