Abbeville press. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1860-1869, 1866-08-10
From the Saturday Reciev.
YOUTHFUL, PROMISE.

rs IL WAS 10 tne lltlle Shl ol tne story
where on earth all the bad people we're bu.
ried. Most parents have at one time or
another congratulated themselves on pos
sessing child of remarkable promise, and
then been awakened to sec most ordinary
and commonplace fulfil|ment. Fortunate
ly they have, rs rule, acquired sense
enough in the Internal to enable them to
bear the disappointment with proper resig-
nation. For the ambition Of parents for
their children, like lh6 ambition on their
own behalf, undergoes wonderful changes
as their experience Of tho world grows wi
der. The father who gives top to bis
boy for getting to the top OF his class is
apt to entertain vague and complacent
convention that he is rearing an archbishop,
or chancellor, or great author, just as
his own tastes may happen to lie.
But ten years later he is amazingly pleas
ed TO lean that his led evinccs a genius
for bookkeeping by doubIc--entry, and for
mounting his high stool with puncuali,y.
Just in the same way, the lads ambition
gets gradually modified. M::at at first
would have seemed pitiful aim indeed
slowly assumes the proportions Of crown.
ing success.
One great secret Of The exaggerated no
tions entertained about promising youths
is the confusion Of conduct with capacity,
OF goodness with rover. The grounds on
which lad earns reputation for promise
are, in au ordinary way, exclusively moral
grounds. He is industrious, persevering,
doci!e, weI!.-mannercd. TIE always knows
his lesson, and is neve, insoient or quar-
relsome. And this sort Of good boy may
very we'll be called a boy of promise, and
it is probable that lis life will be one Of
more even happiness than that Of tho boy
Of iulGilment. But then the results which
he is likely to achieve, satisfactory as they
may be in themselves, are not at all those
which his too partial fr:cais delight TO an
ticirate for him.
Punctua'ty and conformity to discipline.
and An aversion 10 blots and dog cared
books and tho ruder tastes of his comrcers,
are very excellent things, and certainly
promise tombstone on which the cl:arac-
teristics OF tender Husband, good faith
or, and just citizen will have more than
their conventional significance. .Jti!I, friends
ambitious by proxy, aspire to something
more than unusually truthful tombstoucs.
An immortal poem, or series, of unlival-
ed oratiors, or history which shall live as
long as our language, Or a olitical wisdom
and beneliccnce Which shall win. the indy.
ing gratitude Of the poor-this is the kind
of object which they expect their promis-
ing favorite to propose to himself and to
attain. The most sanity adherence of
blots, unfortunately, is not the only rcauis
ite at all. The youth who has never in his
life dlsobeyed master, or neglected the
smallest mouition of Ls college tutor, or
once missed attendance at chapel, may still
not be eloquent or profound. Charles
James Fox, as he appeared at the gaming
table with his coat turned inside out fer
luck, or lying in the hot weather pretty
nearly stark naked on the sofa, would
scarcely have thought young man Of
promise. Yet he was man of fulflment
for all that. He would have done a great
deal more if he had not frcqnenled the ta-
bles, no doubt; hut he is one out of ten
thousand illustrations of tho commonplace
that man may make great mark in
spite of almost every vice that hum an ma
ture can fall into.
And it is This making n great mark
which is predicted when young man is
said to be Of wonderful promise. OF course
the converse error is much more pernicious
and stupid, though it is not at all rare, OF
arguing that he must be genius who dis
plays and habitual disregard of the propri
eties Of conduct.
It is impossible to be quite sure how
boy or ayoung man will turn out after he
has looked out upon the world beyond the
classroom. Thisuncertainly is notorious,
even in respect Of the moral half of char
aeter. Lads who have been angels with
pure white wings up to one.and.twenty not
seldom, develop-by. a process, we suppose
OF natural selection-in,o imps with hor-
lid horns and hoofs before they have left
]lome'a twelvenonth. But the influence
OF the demads Of life upon the Intellectual
part OF men is often still more extraodina-
~ and still more foresecable. Some
whom on aono,,pt -c ~