The Richmond palladium. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1855-1875, 1865-08-17
AUG. II, 1865.


=. do you not find that, while he cannot
learn by heart any abstract maxims of
right and wrong which YOU extract from
the Spectator or Blairs Sermons,
he is as honest as if he had digested
whole library of Essays and Sermons
You leave your shillings loose on your
tab :, read, to his hand, if d TO
buy kite or trapbat; but he never
take one, does he = Certainly not
it is bad enough that he should be
Ounce; Heaven forbid that he should be
u thief"
ell. then, the boy has acquired for
himself an idea of scupulous honour
even under temptation that idea came
TO him insensibly, and without being
confused by other ideas of pain-came
to him partly through the silent influences
of your own living example, of your
ow careless talk when you are not
teaching, and partly from the uncon-
scious sentiment of pride and pleasure
in knowing that he is implicitly trusted.
gifts OF a tenacious memory and with
strong sense of the point of honour,
YOU should as little fear that your boy
will remain a Ounce as that he will be-
come thief? Lead him upward to
learning gradually, that you do not
create the necessities for blame which
are stumblingblocks in his way. You
create those necessities if you ask him
to do what you know he cannot do
Quick and brilliant ike V -. you
cannot ma can y
make him solid and judicious- Look
round the world; for one man who wins
high pt n it through quickness and
prilliamcv.-do you not count twenty
men who have achieved positions more
enviabic through solidity and judgments
Now, let me call in your boy; you shall
hear him repeat fable which he has
learned b cart in less time than he
could learn two lines Of the 'Propria
que maribus,' and you will at once, when
YOU hear him. divine the reason W ~
The boy is called in. He begins. at first
hesitating and slyly, to repeat the fable
of The Hare and the Tortoise" But
scarcely had he got throught three lines
before the friend cries out, Capital
well remembered - the boy 5 face begins
to brighten-his voice gets more ami
mated-the friend shows the iiveliest in
terest in the story, and especially in the
success of the 20 OF. e, and ut the close
exc.aims, Boy, if l had your memory,
l would master all that is worth the re-
of the hare and tortoise, and-let the
hare jeer, the tortoise will win the race.
Il don't fatter him, you see," whisp
ere the friend to the father. Il don
tell ,n hat he is the hare-I tell him
frankly that he is TIN. lo,IoI,.. and cant
afford to lose an inch of the way
(-1Ioud And now, my boy, if we are
to beat the hare, we must get through
the Propria qua naribus, but we must
get through it, like the tort 'iSe. inch by
inch: YOUR father will not set you more
than one line at a time, and VIII! give you
your own time to learn it; and as l know
that a more honest, honorable boy does
exist, so we trust to you to say when
YOU find that one line is to little-that
the pain of learning more is not equal
to the pleasure of getting on, and catch
ing up with the hare; and by the end of
a mouth we shall have you asking to learn
dozen lines. Meanwhile, fasten your
whole mind upon one line"
The boy smiled; the father saw the
smile, and embraced him. The hint
was taken-and though, certainly, the
boy never ened into wit or q poet,
+ he took honours at the University, and
now promises to become one of the saf-
est and soundest consulting lawyers at
the Chancery bar May his father, who
still lives, see his son on the road to the
Woolsack