Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1868-02-26
Holding On.

Professor Hart, in his little volume,
Mistakes Of Educated Men," says the
following excellent things to young men
who meet with discouragements in their
early beginnings of professional life:
Another point on which young men
make mistake is in not holding on TO
the calling or profession aOhich he chooses.
Of course, one may make SO foolish a
choice, may err so egregiouslyin the first
step, that to retrace it, and begin anew
at something else, is Indispensable. The
tendency however, is very strongly in
one direction. When one man persevers
in calling that he ought to abandon, q
dozen men abandon their calling who
ought to stick to it. 1t is not difficult to
account for this. All'those kinds of bu-
siness which are surest in the end, which
pay best in the long run, are slowest in
beginning to yield a return. The young
lawyer or physician has to creep along at
first at a most discouraging pace. In
those early years of professional proba-
tion, when the man is hardly earning his
salt, some, other business opens before
him that promises an. immediate income
something that will bring him at once
two or three times what he is receiving.
The temptation is strong indeed. In the
eagerness for immediate results he is apt
to forget one essential point of difference
between the two prospects. The one is n
little rill which is destined to flow on,
with ever increasing volume, till it be.
comes the brook, the majestic river, the
other as canal, no bigger or deeper at
the end of its course than ct the begin.
ming. In determining the question, then
whether to hold on to the profession or
business which you have chosen, think
not of the present size of the rill, but
whether-itis likely to expand as it pro-
ceeds. And be not easily disheartened.
Let me say for your encouragement. if
it be needed, that four thousand young
men who have been under my care as
an educator, and whose career in life it
has been my privilege more or less to
observe, have very rarely known one to
fail who industriously persevered in the
calling which he chose. Tenar propo,
sitii," is the commentator of the Roman
moralists. Stick to your purpose. 1t
is most valuable habit Of mind to cult
vate. You need not carry it to obstinacy
Though even that error is better than
its opposite. Do not shrink from the
reputation of being plodder. 1t is a
better sugury of young man than to
hear of him Us being prematurely bril-
liant-as starting off in the career Of
life with q grand dash.
Look into your own minds now, while
just pausing upon the Threshold of your
career, and see if there is within you this
vacillating disposition. Sec if you are
disposed to begin study or an enter
prise of any kind, and after chasing it
awhile, butterAy-like to- give it up for
some new fancy. Its a most common
habit of the mind with the young. 1t is,
however, haoit which at your age can
be overcome. have known hundreds of
instances of young men who, being un-
steady and tickle Of purpose, have become
steadfast, unwayering, tenacious. What
is needed to bring about such a chance is
an honest deliberate review of ones
character in this respect, and firm re-
solve to amend what IS found amiss. 1t
is with view to do for you what thirty
years ago was done for me, that | now
place this point so distinctly before you.
Tenacitv of purpose is the indispensable
condition of success in whatever you un-
dertake. You must learn to hold on.