The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-06-27
AFATHER's ADVICE.
A Letter of Counsel to a Son Worth Every
Young Mans Attention.

| "utG AcTEtpout, fec6Htiy secretdry VI lie
American legation at Rome Mr.. Pierrepont
was young man of rare gifts and accomplish
ments, and of great promise. He was a brilliant
scholar, a close student, a thoroughly upright
Christian gentleman, and a manly fellow. His
inherited tendencies were favorable to the re-
eeption of good impressions, and he had alb
sofoed mothers graces and wisdom, and a
fathers culture and strength.
Educated at Oxford University, England, and
thereafter a law student at Columbia College, he
dies at the early age of twenty five, SCATTERING
the brilliant hopes and rainbow promises of
parents who counted not their life dear unto
them in serving their only son. Alas, what
blighted hopes! what brilliant broken plans!
To-day Mr. and Mrs. Pierrepont are Fastening
to the bedside of their boy, whose death is as yet
unknown to them. For score of years have
enjoyed the warm personal and much-valued
friendship of the father Mr.. Edwards Pierre
pont, Mr. Lowell's predecessor as United States
minister to England, and know of his solicitude,
hopes and plans for his son.
On the 8th of March, 1879, Mr. Pierrepont
wrote a private letter to his son for his future
guidance and help. intrusting me with a copy at
that time. The letter impressed me by it's
wisdom and discretion that l now offer it, upon
my own responsibility, for publication. l do
this In the conviction that many young man
who reads it will be inspired and strengthened
by its teachings, and guided by it counsels
S. L. WooDHOUSE.
203 Clinton street. Brooklyn, April II, 1885,
THE LETTER.
No. 1O3 FIFTH AVENUE, NEW YORK
March 8, 1879.
My Dear SOM would gladly save you from
much annoyance and from many sorrows by Civ
ing you the benefit of my own experience |
have been through the preparatory schools and
the university, and | know all their trials and
their temptations. 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 of life have ceased to be
the same. My son, you grow older, you will
ind 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 pre-
clsely 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 pos
sible motive 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
warning, and the faithful counsel has been dis
regarded.
Danish forever from your mind that folly
which young men so very stupidity cherish,
that 1.-THE world and the ways of the world are
essentially different nov 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 great first cause which
rules the world: a something which we can but
dimly comprehend because it is too vast for our
finite minds. 1t is the infinite. 1t is God. 1t
is fruitless to try ito find out Cod He is sour
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, and rules by equal laws, we
have every reason to believe; and that it is one
of the Creators laws that our lives may be in
fiueuced by earnest prayer for guidance in the
right way there is no doubt.
do not mean that to pray for specific things,
such as riches and honors, will bring riches and
honors as matter of course but that honest and
earnest prayer to our Father in heaven for guild
ance in the way that is for our best good is sure
to bring strength and enlightment 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 thesscientifc men of our time devote
] themselves to the study of laws OF matter and
they seem to forget that man, even while on
earth, has spiritual as we'll as a material
nature. They find nothing but matter in the
| brain which they dssect, and they jump at the
conclusion that there is nothing but matter
Their discoveries in the law of matter are won
derful and invaluable, but they utterly neglect
as certainly part of man as the grosser sub
stance. That the soul survives the body and
that it is happy 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 subjects never
do any good; you might as well argue that you
love your mother Practice what l suggest, and
you will know from conscious experience that
what tell you is true, and you will be made
much happier and Serener day by day, and far
m N world ha
| family of the Rev. Henry Seymour, at Holme
Pierrepont you saw how cheerful and serenely
happy they all were under the influence of re-
| ligious life.
Second-That truth, unfaltering integrity,
| justice and honor are never to be departed from
under any circumstances.
| Lies come from meanness, low vanity, cow
ardice and depraved nature, and they always
fail of their object and bring the liar into con-
tempt. 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 supposed Indeed, your true character
| is sure to be known, and sure to be justly APP
| precated.
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 see a fellow-student who is always
manly honorable brave and just, and who de-
votes himself to the duties before him every
day, who ressts temptations to pleasures which
interfere with his health, and hence with his
success, you cannot help admiring and respect
| ing him; and so it is with the most faded ldler
| at Christ Church. Oxford has never graduated
| a man who an indolent failure at the col
| lege who ever became an eminent success after
| ward, 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 spir-
tfanSOreSS rul ia alxy
silly. 1t requires neither brains nor courage to
| break the laws, and comes of a desire to get
cheap notoriety through cowardice 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
The great secret of making the labors of uni
versity life of other life easy is to do each duty
every day. If you let a burden of arrears accum-