not be so very long till all of these men will be old enough to retire from active service, and then you and the other boys, who in the meantime have grown to man’s estate, will be called upon to perform every one of the tasks these men are now doing. Doesn’t it look as if there would be plenty of honest, earnest, wholesome toil for hand and head in store for you as soon as you are ready to undertake it? You cannot wonder that the busy old world is ever and always hanging out its notice—
“BOY WANTED”
People do not lack strength; they lack will.—Victor Hugo.
“Wanted—A Boy.” How often we
This quite familiar notice see.
Wanted—a boy for every kind
Of task that a busy world can find.
He is wanted—wanted now and here;
There are towns to build; there are paths to clear;
There are seas to sail; there are gulfs to span,
In the ever onward march of man.
You cannot dream yourself into a character; you must hammer and forge one yourself.—Froude.
Wanted—the world wants boys to-day
And it offers them all it has for pay.
’Twill grant them wealth, position, fame,
A useful life, and an honored name.
Boys who will guide the plow and pen;
Boys who will shape the ways for men;
Boys who will forward the tasks begun,
For the world’s great work is never done.
The truest wisdom is a resolute determination.—Napoleon.
The world is eager to employ
Not just one, but every boy
Who, with a purpose stanch and true,
Will greet the work he finds to do.
Honest, faithful, earnest, kind,—
To good, awake; to evil, blind,—
A heart of gold without alloy,—
Wanted—the world wants such a boy.
While we are considering when to begin, it is often too late to act.—Quintilian.
No, the world does not insist that you are to accept a position and begin work with your hands at once, but it wishes you to begin to think right things. “As he thinketh in his heart, so is he.” What you think will have much to do in determining what you are to become.
The mind is master of the man,
And so “they can who think they can.”
Where boasting ends, there dignity begins.—Young.
Impossible is a word found only in the dictionary of fools.—Napoleon.
This influence of the mind in thus shaping the man is very well set forth by James Allen, who says: “A man’s mind may be likened to a garden, which may be intelligently cultivated or allowed to run wild; but whether cultivated or neglected, it must, and will, bring forth. If no useful seeds are put into it, then an abundance of useless weed-seeds will fall therein, and will continue to produce their kind. Just as a gardener cultivates his plot, keeping it free from weeds, and growing the flowers and fruits which he requires, so may a man tend the garden of his mind, weeding out all the wrong, useless, and impure thoughts, and cultivating toward perfection the flowers and fruits of right, useful, and pure thoughts. By pursuing this process, a man sooner or later discovers that he is the master-gardener of his soul, the director of his life. He also reveals, within himself, the laws of thought, and understands, with ever-increasing accuracy, how the thought-forces and mind-elements operate in the shaping of his character, circumstances, and destiny.”
I am in earnest. I will not equivocate. I will not excuse. I will not retreat a single inch; and I will be heard.—Garrison.
So it is not too early for you to begin to think bravely and resolutely and hopefully upon the life you intend to live, and to cultivate the mental and physical strength that shall help you later on to put your good thoughts into permanent good deeds. Certainty of victory goes far toward winning battles before they are fought. The boy who thinks “I can” is much more likely to succeed in life than is the one who thinks “I can’t.”
“COULDN’T” AND “COULD”
While you stand deliberating which book your son shall read first, another boy has read both.—Dr. Johnson.
“Couldn’t” and “Could” were two promising boys
Who lived not a great while ago.
They had just the same playmates and just the same toys,
And just the same chances for winning life’s joys
And all that the years may bestow.
Dost thou love life? Then do not squander time, for that is the stuff life is made of.—Franklin.
And “Could” soon found out he could fashion his life
On lines very much as he planned;
He could cultivate goodness and guard against strife;
He could have all his deeds with good cheer to be rife,
And build him a name that would stand.
When passion is on the throne, reason is out of doors.—Matthew Henry.
But poor little “Couldn’t” just couldn’t pull through
All the trials he met with a sigh;
When a task needed doing, he couldn’t, he knew;
And hence, when he couldn’t, how could he? Could you,
If you couldn’t determine you’d try?
I wasted time, and now time doth waste me.—Shakespeare.
So “Could” just kept building his way to success,
Nor clouding his sky with a doubt,
But “Couldn’t” strayed into the slough of Distress,
Alas! and his end it is easy to guess—
Strayed in, but he couldn’t get out.
And that was the difference ’twixt “Couldn’t” and “Could”;
Each followed his own chosen plan;
And where “Couldn’t” just wouldn’t “Could” earnestly would,
And where one of them weakened the other “made good,”
And won with his watchword, “I can!”
Weak men wait for opportunities, strong men make them.—Marden.
By reading between the lines we can infer from the foregoing that what the world really wants is men—good men. But the world is old enough and wise enough to know that if it does not train up some good boys, there will be no good men, by and by. “As the twig is bent
