Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1885-08-09
STAND UP STRAIGHT.
FATHERS LETTER or ADVICE

| Act Ike One Words OF Wisdom 10 mn Alb
| sens son.
The death Of Edward Pierrepont,
secretary OF the American legation at
Rome, has resulted in the publication
| OF the following letter Of advice. writ
ten him while at college by his father,
Hon. Edwards Pierrepont, late Minis
ter to England
No. l03 FIFTH AVENUE, NEW
YoRK.--My Dear Son. would glad
ly save you from much annoyance and
from many sorrows by giving you the
benefit Of my own experience. have
been through the preparatory schools
and university, and know all their
trials and their temptations. l also
know how prone boys are to think that
the times have changed since their
fathers were young, and that the true
rules for the conduct oflife have ceased
to be the same. My son, as you grow
older you will find that from the
time of Solomon to this hour human
nature has not changed at all, and that
the guide to prosperous and happy
life is precisely the same as it was when
that wise man wrote. The boy who is
fortunate enough TO have father whose
experience is large and varied, and who
communicates it with no possible mo-
tive but the best good Of his child, has
great advantage if he will heed what is
told him, but will suffer all the more
deeply in the end if he comes to
see that the care and the earnest warn
ing and the faithful counsel have been
disregarded.
Danish forever from your mind that
folly which young men so very stupidity
cherish, that "the world and the ways
Of the world are essentially different
now from what they were forty years
ago." and settle forever in your mind
certain principles which you are never
to doubt, and never to swerve from in
your course Of life.
First. That there is a great first
cause which rules the world--a some
thing which we can but dimly compre-
bend, because it is too vast for our
finite minds. 1t is the infinite. 1t is
God. 1t is fruitless to try "to find
out God" He is "our Father in
Heaven "; this is all that the simple
child can know; it is all that the most
learned man can ever know. That this
Great Creator is just and merciful, aud
rules by equal laws, we have every
reason to believe, and that it is one Of
the Creators laws that our lives may
be influenced by earnest prayer for
guidance in the right way there is no
doubt.
do not mean that to pray for speci-
fic things, such as riches and honors,
will bring riches and honors as a mat
ter Of course, but that honest and earn
est prayer to our Father in Heaven for
guidance in the way that is for our best
good is sure to bring strength and en-
lightenment to the mind, and thus to
aid us in the affairs Of life.
Every day ask your Heavenly Father
to guide you in all things in the way
which is right, and you will not go
wrong.
Most Of the scientific men Of our
time devote themselves to the study Of
the laws Of matter, and they seem to
forget that man, even while on earth,
has q spiritual as well as material
nature. They find nothing but matter
in the brain which they dissect, and
they jump at the conclusion that there
is nothing but matter. Their discov-
cries in the laws of matter are wonder
full and invaluable, but they utterly ne
elect the study Of spiritual laws, which
are as real. and as certainly
part Of man as the grossor sub
stance. That the soul survives the
body, and that it ishappy or miserable,
according to the deeds done in the
body" never allow yourself to doubt.
If skeptics wish to talk to you about it,
don't argue; arguments on these SUBJ
jects never do any good; you might as
well argue that you love your mother.
Practice what suggest, and you will
know from conscious experience that
what l tell you is true, and you will be
made much happier and serener day by
day, and far more prosperous in this
world. When in the family of the
Rev. Mr.. Seymour, at Holme, Pierre
pont, you saw how cheerful and serene
ly happy they all were under the influ-
ence of religious life.
Second. That truth, unfaltering in
tegrity, justice, and honor are never to
be departed from under any circum-
stances.
Lies come from meanneSs, low vanity,
cowardice, and OF depraved nature,
and they always fail of their object and
bring the liar into contempt. Without
strict integrity, justice, and honor no
one can have continued success in any,
thing, or lasting respect from anybody.
Every one is found out sooner or later,
and much sooner than he supposes. In
deed, your true character is sure to be
known, and sure to be justly appre-
ciated.
| pray you, my son, never trouble
yourself about popularity. Do right,
the best you can deserve respect, and
you will be certain to have it.
If you sec 8 fellow-student who is
always manly, honorable, brave, and
just, and who devotes himself to the
duties before him every day, who re-
sists temptations to pleasures which in
terfere with his health, and hence with
his success, you cannot help admiring
and respecting him; and so it is with
the most jaded idler at Christ church.
Oxford has never graduated man who
was an indolent failure at the college
who ever became an eminent success
afterward, and she never will.
Attend TO the duties and obey the
laws Of the university. 1t sometimes
enters the shallow heads Of young men
that it is clever and spirited to trans
gress the rules. 1t is supremely silly.
1t requires neither brains nor courage
to break the laws, and comes Of a de-
sire to get cheap notoriety through
cowarsice or vice, and the aspiring
idiot always fails in the end. Thieves
and burglars break laws; true men
keep them; they are made for good.
| Tho 0roat cacraf &c N, l. ,cc- ~ . l.. L -.