The Corvallis gazette. [volume] (Corvallis, Or.) 1862-1899, 1883-11-23

10 COIue III. Dut Wndt matter ue
creditor can wait. Meanwhile other
nice things invite; other debts are con-
tracted; they come due and there is
nothing with which to pay them; the
habit of lying is formed to make ex-
cuses; self respect is lost and SO is the
respect of others; life is one continual
worry; sleep is drove from the pillow,
peace from the heart; he cannot look
men in the face when he meets them;
the hope of being able to pay is at
last given up; and to retrieve his fallen
fortunes he tries a scheme the success
or failure of which is alike disgraceful;
he is ruined and like other human ru-
ins it involves the ruin of others.
An uncontrolled ambition is often
the cause of human ruin. Not con-
tent to climb with arduous labors to
the topmost heights, the ambitious
aspirant would by some means leap to
the very highest pinnacle. 1t is a law
oflabor that, taken in a general sense,
nothing is rightfully ours except what
We pay for by requisite amount Of
toll, and everyone who wishes to sue
ceed must begin at foothills and man
fully climb to the top. 1t is as impos-
sible for anyone to acquire true great
ness without long and arduous toll
as it is for the child to attain the
strength of man in a single night.
This is wise provision, forif we had
greatness suddenly thrust upon us we
would know how to use it but little
better than a child would know the
duties of man. Many attempt to
acquire greatness by the seeming,
rather than the real. Their honor is
but a cloak, their hearts a whited
sepulcher. Such one usually rises
suddenly upon our vision. He pro-
crosses rapidly, he lives in ease and
luxury; he has money in abundance
and lives literally on the fat of the
land; he gets into Office and rides up
on the topmost wave of public favor,
and his state or nation rings with his
praise. Friendship is to him but a
means of his own aggrandizement and
he would not hesitate to grasp new
honors though to do so he must step
over the PROSTATE body of a friend.
But ere long there is crash; he has
lived beyond his means; he has won
popularity by schemes and intrigues
and people realize that without he has
been ''fair to look upon but within
was filed with dead mems bones and
all uncleanness."
Many a human ruin has been
wrought by very trivial thing. We
are wont to hold an hour or a day as
a very trihing possession, yet every
hour decides a thousand destinies.
Habits which causes so many human
ruins are acquired by individual yield
ing to temptation. Habit may sur.
ound us until like the imprisoned fly
in the spiders web the victim wakes
only to find himself in tolls from which
he can never get free. We are crea-
lures of growth and many of those
startling crimes that blot the pages OF
history and cause our very blood to
run cold began with very little things.
A single vote has ere this turned the
fate of nations and an uninI entional
slight of an ambassador has ktndled a
furious war.
The lack Of energy has worked
many a human ruin. Many who
might have been great and successful
have failed from lack of energy. Men
uniformly overrate money and under.
rate their own strength. The former
will do far less than we suppose, the
latter far more. "The longer I live
says an illustrious writer "the more !
am convinced that the great di ference
between men, between the feeble ane
the powerful, the great and the insig
nifcant, is energy invincible deter
mination, purpose once fixed ther
death or victory. Energy will dc
anything that can be done in thi.
world and no circumstance, no talent
no opportunity will be worth much
without ii.
There are many other causes Of
human r. in, love of money, vanity
selfshness, idleness and many others.
A ruin was never wrought by circum-
stances alone, but always from some
r IL e IL