The Highland weekly news. [volume] (Hillsborough [Hillsboro], Highland County, Ohio) 1853-1886, 1867-12-26
For the News.
To the Young Men Of Highland
County.
by c. L. STR.

BY c. L. STR.
Young men are very apt to at
tribute want Ofsuccess in their various
undertakings to "ill-luck," and con-
slider it entirely accidental, or a stroke
of "good luck" when some man rises
from an humble to lofty position in
life. This is q great mistake. The
fall ofan apple is often quoted as the
accident by which Newton discover
ed the law of gravitatiOn; and the
cpnvulsed frogs legs, first observed by
GaIvani, are in like manner quoted as
an instance of accidental discovery
But nothing an be mole unfOunded.
Newton had been studying in retire.
ment the laws of matter and motion,
and his head was full, and his brain
beating with the toll of thinking on
the subject, when the apple fell. The
train was already laid long before,
and the significance of the apples fall
was suddenly apprehended as only
genius could apprehend it and the
discovery which he had long before
been celebrating, suddenly burst upon
the philosophers mind. So with
GaIvani, Jenner, Franklin, Watt,
Davy, and all other philosophers ;
their discoveries were invariably the
result of patient labor, Of long study,
and of earnest investigation.
NeUer t,gcst to accident, or ''aCaH for
something to turn up." A man of
earnest purpose proceeds to make Op-
portunities for himself-he looks for
helps everywhere. There are many
roads in nature, and if determined to
find a path, man need not to wait
long.
DIR. Lee, Professor of Hebrew and
Greek at Cambridge, pursued his trade
of bricklayer up to twenty eight
years of age, and was first led to
study Hebrew by becoming interested
in Hebrew Bible which fell in his
way, when engaged in the repairs Of
a synagogue.
Ferguson, the astronomer, Cultiva-
ted the opportunity afforded him by
the nights occupied by him in watch
ing his focks on the Highland hills,
sfstudying astronomy in the heavens.
The sheepsEin in which ne wrapped
himself, became him as well as the
gown of the Oxford Professor.
Osgood, the American painter
when a boy, practised drawing on tho
sand of the riverside.
Clifford, late editor Of the Edinbure
Quarterly Review, worked his frs
problems in mathematics, when Z
cObbler's apprentice, upon small scrap:
of leather, which he beat smooth, fol
that purpose. Bewick first practised
his genius on the cottege-walls of his
native village with chalk and char.
coal. RittenhOuse, the astronomer
calculated his first eclipses of the
moon and sun, on the plow-handle
and Benjamin West, the painter
made his first brushes out of the cats
tail
1t is not accident then, that helps &
man on in the world, but purpose
and persistent industry. To the in
dOlent and sluggish, the happiest op
portunities avail nothing. Difficult
ties serve only to draw forth the en-
ergies of an industrious character.
DIR. Kitto was a pauper, and com
posed his first essays in a "wOrk.
house." Hugh Miller worked in a
stone quarry; Prof. Faraday was a
carpenter George Stephenson was a
trapper-boy in a coal-pit and John
Hunter, the greatest of English sur,
geons, served his apprenticeship as a
carpenter.
Young men, we must 1COrk mentally
as well as physica!ly-fOr a man may
get another to do his 10Orb for him,
but not to do his thinking. The bat,
tie cannot be fought by proxy-man
must mould his own stuff, quarry his
own nature, and form his own char.
acter.
What if a man fails in one-in q
dozen efforts ? Let him try again
try hard, try often, and he cannot fail
ultimately to succeed.
These winter evenings are long
and books are everywhere to be had
why not spend at least part of such
an evening in the study of mathe-
matics, that fundamental of almost
all other studies? or penmanship,
grammar, history, or some foreign
language, either French or German
the first unavoidable in Europe, and the
latter the most important in America
Don't wait for "something to turr
up" but pitch right in and do some
thing for yourselves.
Not chance but labor, is the great
lever !!
The whisky distiIlers throughout the
country met at Washington last week t,
unite their influence upon Congress il
favor of a repeal of the tax upon whisky
They want the tax reduced to twenty
cents on a gallon. We have not heard
but we suppose the Hon. James Emmitt i
/ IL.