The weekly register. [volume] (Point Pleasant, Va. [W. Va.]) 1862-1909, 1881-06-29

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sity, by saying that there is openStc
the vision Of young manhood in oui
Republic an inviting world Of grand
possibilities, whose Development
crowns life with its highest honor,
and the realization of@hichibrings
its truest glory.
These possibilities are not chimer-
ical, but real; mot fourishing nbeau.
ty in the garden Of hope, but resting
under the assurance Of certainty
They even have voices, and cry alond
to all the children ofour country, and
especially to our young men, to come
and seize upon them, and they will
become the forces which will elevate
them to the high plain Of true and
noble life. There lies in the life road
| of every being a destiny which every
man, who would attain to his true
end, must carve out, and If he will, it
may be made sublime and the sub
limest destiny flows from doing that
which we may best accomplish
Many turn aside from the way which
leads to life's brightest glofies, to
satiate the promptings Of a false am
bition, and the fruits which they
gather from such a course are like
lheslimy mushroom-ofrap growth,
but Of short duration.
Dreamy humanity knows not Of
the realities of lifes possibilities, and
when she is aronsed from her sleepy
lethargy to behold some strong char.
acter in their full attainment she
starts with wonder and proclaims the
being of a genius whose star has
beamed out upon the world and
whose brillianty strikes its gazers
with astonishment and surprise. OF
these possibilities the great majority
of mankind are not aware, andwhen
they are reached and lifted from she
mystery which seems to oshreud them,
the busy jostling world almost come
to halt and often writes-down in
the history of race or nation what
men please to call a period.
Genius is but the reaching out and
laying hold upon that which lies
within the possible grasp ofmankind
and converting it into the means of
his happiness and enjoyment. 1t is
no great spirit which comes but now
and then in our midst, to puzzle and
confound with its greatness and its
splendor, but the mere assertion Of
individuality and intellectual bias.
The mythology of ancient Rome
taught that every man had his par
ticular g'nius that guided him
through life and then conducted out
of the world at the close of his career.
And so it may be said tonight,
that each man has his genils which
may lead him to strike that great
harmonic chord Of life, which alone
can vibrate with the music that fol.
lows him who reaches his true end
and aim in this world. The false no.
tons which have crept into the world
about genius, and which have in
measure poisoned the mind and
damped the spirit of youth, have
done more to bury from human eyes
the common possibilities of our exis-
tence than any other one thing since
the earliest dawn of civilization
And thus Encouragement sits upon
the throne of energy, despair runs
riot in the field Of hope and mankind
are led on without thought or action
to the humble silence of the tomb,
with their geniuses chained down by
falsehood and by ignorance. They
teach that men come into the world
with distinction and renuwh' in full
view before them, beckoning them to
come and receive a crown of laurels,
and asking them permission to write
their memories in the hearts of their
fellow men, and that others spring
up with destiny prefxed, which con
signs them to ends already shapen
trough, hew them" as they will.
Men speak us if having forgotten
or at least with disposition to ig-
more, the unity of the human family,
and its equality before all true law,
and in the estimate of the perfect
Lawgiver, as well also aE if having
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