The Jeffersonian. [volume] (Stroudsburg, Pa.) 1853-1911, 1868-03-26

| Saturday, March I4th, before the young
men attending evening school, and who
are exclusively in the employment of the
enterprising firm of Decker & Dunn We
have selected the principal parts of the
lecture -
To YOUNG Men. = And character :
What is it? Wherein are secreted all
these peculiarities that constitute, as it
were, the scientific career of man. Char
acter is nothing less than science, COM
prehensive as it is general, and identity
ing the man to be exactly what he is.
The more decisive, the more noble; the
more comprehensive, the more grand.
Man forms ideas to suit his disposition,
wants, and desires No man forms an
idea foreign to his tastes. To be great
man he must be decisive as his ideas are
original, else they are entirely useless to
himself and the rest of the world. 1t is
this decision, or frmness Of character,
which places one man far above another
in moral worth; and it is this which pre-
serves him through life from all the social
evils that beset him. 1t lifts him over
the trifing considerations of the hour,
to anticipate and finally realize great
things in the future. Such a man is a
unit, so to speak, in the great range of
civilization. He is separated from the
! crowd by strange conclusions Of thought,
strange actions, and original capacity, IF
we desire to be great men, we must not
only keep peace with the age in which
we live, but enlarge on its improvements.
There is no such thing as standing still
we must be up and doing, always de-
pending on our own resources. Help
from others only I'M ures a man, who is
not desirous to help himself; and such a
man deserves neither our commiseration
nor assistance. A boy who sits whining
over a difficult problem in arithmetic,
merely because it is difficult, is virtually
as the man who prayed the Lord to extri-
cate his wagon from the mire. He prayed
for miracle = an angel told him. TO put
his shoulder to the wheel The thought
had never struck him Scholars should
sit down with glad faces, determined to
think for themselves, and set aside one
difficulty after another Some of you, no
doubt, may become public men; but let
me tell you that it is not by your accom-
plishments you will ever become so.
/ There were braver men than Washing
ton, or Napoleon, during the revolutions
of France aud America, and yet they
never succeeded to the dictatorship.
There was pointedness in the charac-
! ters Of these men "a stern fxity of pur-
pose, which enabled them to brush their
way through opposition and difficulty.
They were suited to the times, kept pace
with their cotemporaries, and improved
what others had undertaken and left un-
/ finished. They were men of character.
We do not mean by that word that they
were moral, or industrious = that would
only imply reputation; but character is
what man really is, and his whole life
acts in conformity with it. Success is
natural. There is no exterior difficulty
to be encountered. Any opposition we
may have to contend with originates from
ourselves. There are weak and strong
men - the weak sink down under diff
/ Guilty the strong become greater as they
are opposed. Barnum is one of the
latter class, Grant, Lincoln, Stewart,
johnson and others.
The weakest Of men is the drunkard
! He is neither strong nor free, and yet if
we question him on his folly, he cannot
account for it, Let US ask ourselves,
How comes it that power fostered en-
tirely at his own choice, should serve to
press him down to career of shame and
contempt? What infatuation induces
him to calmly set aside his reason and
man hood to become slave2 His family
bear strong evidence of his dissolute ha :
bits He regrets all this, and yet he can
not summon resolution to desst from
drink. A drunkard is far below the com
mon order of human beings. He is not
guided by reason, or any honorable mo-
tive whatever. So much for a man like
this. There is nothing honorable in
strong drink. Most men glory in charac-
ter; but the drunkard had always better
conceal his.
Entirely opposite to this is the man
! characteristic Of himself How many
might we mention who commenced life
mparatively poor, aud yet secured a
standing in their profession that has as
tonished the world? How many sit in
the Legislature to-day who had not one
advantage in early life, or never enjoyed
one half the opportunities that you have
Franklin walked the streets of New York
barefooted and hungry; but, gentlemen,
he knew his day of greatness was to come,
and marked out the road upon which he
was to travel. Self-taught and self made
men are found everywhere. There is
not a prominent man mentioned in his
tory, but whose character illustrates one
particular endowment 1t is decision of
character = frmness of will There is
always striking popularity in their story.
Not that they were braver, or more ac-
complished, or more enterprising than
their fellows. No, but the original way in
which they brought these into effect. They