The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1881-12-07
8aluaiialt 6azGttF.
EST MoDus IN MINUS.
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER !, 1881
ND Late President's Maxim.

In illustration of the late Presidents in
tellectual character, the following extracts
have been taken from a work recently pub
lished at Philadelphia by Mr.. William R.
Balch, containing collection Of General Gar
fields maxims, rules Of conduct, and judgments
on society: al would rather be beaten in
right than succeed in wrong. ] feel a pro-
founder reverence for boy than for man. l
never met a ragged boy in the street without
feeling that | may owe him a salute, for
know not what possibilities may be hnitoned
up under his coat. Poverty is uncomfortable,
as can testify; but nine times out Of ten the
best thing that can happen to young man is
TO be tossed overheard and compelled 20 sink
or swim for himself. In ali my acquaintance
never new a man to be drowned who was
worth the saving. 1.-THE power to do hard work
is not talent, it is the best possible substitute
for it. We cannot study nature profoundly
without bringing ourselves into communion
with the spirit Of art, which pervades and Ellis
the universe. II there be one thing upon this
earth that mankind love and admire better than
another it is brave man; it is a man
who dares TO look tho devil in the face
and tell him he is a devil. 1t is one Of the
precious mysteries of sorrow that it finds
solace in unscl6sh thought. Every character
is the Joint product of nature and nurture. IL
has been fortunate that most of our greatest
men have left no descendants to shine in the
borrowed lustre Of a great name. An I'M
certain currency, that goes up and Gown, hits
the laborer, and hits him hard. Ii helps him
last and hurts him first. We no longer at
tribute the untimely death of infants to the
sins of Adam, but TO bad nursing and ignorance.
The granite hills are not so changeless and
abiding as tho restless sea. In their struggle
with the forces OF nature, the ability to Ia
Dor was the richest palTimony of the colonists.
Coercion is The basis Of every law in the
universe, human or Divine. A law is no law
without coercion behind it. Foo the nohlest
man who lives there still remains a conflict
We hold reunions, not for the dead, for there
is nothing in all the earth that you and l can
do for the dead. They are past our help and
past our praise. We can add to them no glory,
We can give to them no immortality. They
do not need us, but Cor ever and for evermore
we need them. Throughout the whole web of
national existence we trace the golden thread
of human progress toward higher and better
estate. Heroes did not make our liberties, but
they reflected and illustrated them. The life
and light of a nation are iuseparable. After
all, territory is bnt the body of nation. The
people who iuhabit its hills and valleys are lis
soul, its spirit its life. In them dwells its
hope of immortality. Among them, if any
where, are TO be found it's chief elements of
destruction. 1t matters little what may be the
forms Of national institutions of the life, free
dom, and growth of society are secured.
Finally. our great hope for the future, our
great safeguard against danger, is TO be found
in the general aud thorough education Of onr
people, and in the virtue which accompanies
such education. The germ of our political in
situations, the primary cell from which they
were evolved, was in The New England town,
and the vital force, the forming soul of the
town was the town meeting, which, for all 10
cal concerns, was King, Lords aud Commons
in all. Il is as much the duty of all good men
to protect and defend the reputation Of worthy
publlc servants as to detect public rascals. Be
fit for more than the thing you are now doing.
II you are not too large for the place YOU are
too small for it. Young men talk of trusting
TO the spur Of the occasion. That trust is vain.
Occasions cannot make spurs. If you expect
TO wear spurs you must win them. II you wish
10 use them you must buckle them 10 your
own heels before You go into the fight. Greek
is perhaps the most perfect instrument Of
thought ever invented by man, and its literature
has never been equalled in purity of style and
bolduess of expression. Great ideas travel
slowly and for time noiselessly, as the gods
whose feet were shod with wool. What the
arts are to the world Of matter, literature is
10 the world of mind History is but the I'M
rolled scroll of prophesy. The worlds his
tory is divine poem, of which the history of
every nation is a caulo and every man a word
Its strains have been pealing along down The
centuries, and though there have been mingled
the discords of warning cannon and dying
men, yet TO the Christian, to the philosopher,
and historian, the humble listener, there has
been divine melody running through the
song which speaks of hope and halcyon DAYS
to come. Light itself is a great corrective. A
Thousand wrongs and aliases that are grown
in darkness disappear like owls and bats be-
fore the light of day. Liberty can be safe only
where suffrage is illuminated by education.
Parties have organic life and spirit of their
own, and individuality and character which
ouilive the men who compose them; and the
spirit and traditions of party should be con-
sidered in determining their fitness for man
aging the affairs Of the nation. daily Ieie-
graph