The Middlebury register. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1850-1882, 1881-10-21
A High sch.ooi Scholars l,eport.

AItCr INC us VA opening UXcfClscS ana
| few declamatohs by the scholars,
Mr.. Spearc took the floor and spoke as
ollows:
l wish to address few words to you
IN the importance of right foundations
If character in early life.
When your teacher came TO me few
weeks ago and asked me to address
you some Friday afternoon, was very
ready to say, eyes, should be happy
to-" One day this week he came TO me
and said that this was the Friday after
noon on which it would be convenient
for the school to hear me, and so here
| am.
Now friends q feel justified in call
ing you friends, though l have not the
pleasure of knowing very many of you
personality l do not imagine that this
is pulpit and am preaching TO you,
but l am here TO have little friendly
chat with you.
A few years ago was down in Nova
Scotia. l have friend down there who
IS sea captain. lie took me all
around, and among other places, we
visited the ship yard. There were
several large ships in the harbor which
made quite an impression on me as
being wonderful structures, but /
was more impressed by large steam
ship which the workmen were building
because i could see how the monster
was constructed. The men were nail
ing on the planks. What if some care
less workman should insecurity nail
one of these planks, and when the ship
was at sea, perhaps hundred miles
from shore, the plank should become
loosened, the water rush In and the
ship go down with all on board. What
would be the causep 1t was that little
defect in the foundation which caused
such loss of valuable life.
AS came up the walk this afternoon
| could not help noticing what a mag
nificent building this was. The foun-
dation as far MS | could sec them were
level. They had been laid with an in
strument known as the spirit level.
If the workman had put poor stone at
the bottom of those foundations, and
then attempted to build the structure
upon them those stones would give
way, the walls wonld be scanned and
cracked in all directions, and possibly
the whole structure would fall in
ruins.
One more illustration before l pro-
coed: when l was boy / used to have
to hoe corn. Sometimes in the midst
of whole field of waving green corn,
one hill or one stock would appear dry
and wilted. We pulled it up and
found at The very roots the cause of its
looking SO, worm or grub which had
eaten its way entirely through the seed.
We ended his usefulness right away.
Now what is character | don't
know of any better definition for il
than this; character is quality of soul,
not the soul itself, but the quality OF
that soul.
If we should be so careful in con.
structiDg a ship or house which will
not last many years at least, how much
more carefully should we look to build
ing our character which will last al
ways.
Let us look for q moment to see OF
the ways in which bad foundations OF
character may be laid. One is by
carclessness of truth. Many persons
often say things which they do not
mean, but is it right ON that account
Is it the truth? No not at all; then
such things should not be said.
My young friends, you cannot be too
careful about tho truth.
There are some persons, to be sure,
who, when children, were regardless
of the truth, as they grew mp reformed
and arc now very truthful people, but
such cases arc seldom met with. There
are also persons, who as children were
truthful and as they grew up IOsJ mat
precious stone, truthfulness, from the
foundation of their character, but these
cases are equally rare. Generally when
man is truthful in childhood and
youth he will be in age. Let us re-
member this and SO guard our words
that no untrue ones may escape our
lips,
Truthfulncss makes one of the best
foundation stones in the world. Now
let us try while we are building the
foundations of our character to have
this stone in il and so securely laid that
it may not become loosened and fall
away.
Another good stone to have in
your foundation of character is in
dustry. Some take life easily and phil
osophically, but that is not the way to
enjoy it at all.
If you have nothing else to do, read +;
but read good books and papers read
"Tom Brown at Rugby" ii Won have
not. read it quito often, about once
year, aud enjoy it too.
"Keep we'll mp to the collar" as the
old English proverb is. Now how
many can tell me the meaning of that
proverb? / see Professor Mead thinks
he knows what it means. Well, I'll
tell you. In blowing. we use part
of the harness called a collar. This
goes on the horses head and helps him
draw. Well when he pulls hard il is
said, "He keeps well up to the collar"
Now friends there is class of read
ing that you ought not to touch, it is
the class known as dime novels, half
dime novels and flashy story papers.
They are printed in our large cities by
the thousands of tons every week.
Don't touch them. They will make
bad foundation stones. Many who
nave tried them are serving long terms
in our prisons or under sentence of
death for killing their fellow men.
A man can't run away from his shad-
dow and the worst thing in the world
is to hold ones self in contempt, to try
to run away from ones self. Remem-
Der, you can't do it.
Another of the best foundation stones
is freedom of thought.
| was chaplain of prison once and
it was my lot TO talk with some very
bad men. One young man said to me,
chaplain, we think too much. | wish
we could stop thinking.
What mistake. Oh, my young
friends we do not think too much, but
let us make our thoughts pleasant to us
and not be ashamed of them, and like
this unhappy young man, try to run
away from our own shadows.
l will only take few more minutes
of your time. You know now the
most important foundation stones, and