Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1884-08-01
NO. 81.


Plan your own life. Do not suffer your
self to be bullied by society or tho general
opinion Of your friends. If you want worry
much to do something, and II is right and
honest, 60 ahead and do IL. You may fail at
it you may have judged unwisely but, at
any rate, you will have strengthened your
will you will have been yourself, and not
tho creature of other peoples advice and
you will have earned in experience more than
your moneys worth.
This does not moan that you are sofshly
to avoid or reject your duty to others, right
fully dependent on you. II may be your
part to deny yourself tho qualification Of
even very strong impulse toward favorite
career or occupation, to give up your own
will and wishes for the sake of those depend
ent on you. Do that with q cheerful and
manly spirit count yourself the happier. az
you will be the better man, for having your
duty so plainly marked out for you.
With men, as with machines, it is never
economical to work up 10 the full power. II
is strain to do 80. Hence ii is an unwise,
though a common ambition which carries
mon into work which they can only do with
difficulty Seek a career where you can do
your best easily. It is better that the man
should be too big for the place than the place
for tho man. Better, in part, because he
needs leisure he ought 10 be many-sided;
he cannot hope to know any one thing we'll,
unless he has had leisure and desire to know
many Others
Try, however, to learn some one thing
thoroughly. No matter what II is, you will
fiud that, when you do know that one thing
thoroughly, you will have satisfactory
knowledge of many otheIs. All knowledge
is closely inter-related. The mischief is that
80 many people only know a little some
thing"
Thoroughness of work is honesty, and
honesty is the best policy, even for this life.
II God had made it otherwise, he would
have introduced constant confusion into our
lives. Hence, what you do, do with will !;
put your best thought and skill into your
work, and try early to acquire the habit Of
doing this. 1t is not easy to fix yourself in
that but nothing is more worth your while.
The cheapest thing you can do is to pay your
debts and do good work. Your best is what
you owe to the world, and to yourself even
more, no matter what the work may be.
Therefore, value your work for the works
sake, and not for the reward or success it is
to bring you. The laborer is worthy Of his
hire, but he is a poor creature IL he works
only for the wages he is to get and he will
never do good work on that condition alone.
man, If he is really man, values and hon.
ors his work, takes pride in it, and does it
well and thoroughly for its own sake, and
not for tho wages Hence, a good mechanic
or farmer is always an intelligent man-very
often the most intelligent and the wisest man
in tho community. He has found 1t needful
for his own satisfaction to know one thing
thoroughly and, to do that, he has necesss-
rily to know something of a good many 9th
ers. No kind of work is so low that this is
not true of 1t. knew a gardeners laborer
who earned his daily bread with a spade, but
who had made himself good florist, and no
mean botanist.
Nor is any work 80 high in the scale but
that he who does it for the reward alono, be
this money, or place, or power, will become
narrow and stupid soul.-Ohas. N0rdho6' in
Col and tie Future Life.