Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1885-05-27
FATHERS ADVICE TO HIS SON.
Worthy Every Young Mans Attention

be read with much interest by as many
households:
TO the Editor OF the Brooklyn Eagle:
Your issue of yesterday conveys the sad intel
ligence of the death by Roman fever of NJ. Ed
ward Pierrepont,> recently secretary of the
American legation at Rome. Mr. Pierrepont
was young man of rare gifts and accomplish
ments and of great promise. He was brilliant
scholar, close student. Thoroughly upright
Christian gentleman and a manly fellow. His
Inherited tendencies were favorable to the re-
ception of good impressions. and he had alb
sorbed mothers graces and wisdom and
fathers culture and strength.
Educated at Oxford University. England. and
thereafter a law student III 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
hlighted hopes what brilliant, broken plans :
To-day Mr.. and Mrs. Pierrepont are fastening
to the bedside of their boy, whose death Is vet
unknown to them. For a score of years / have
enjoyed the warm personal and much-vaiued
friendship of the father, MI Edwards Pierre
pont. Mr.. LowelIs predecessor as United States
minister to Englaud,and know of his sOlicitude
hopes and plans for his son.
On the sth of March. 1879, Mr. Pierrepont
wrote a private letter To his for his future
guidance and help. intruSting me with a copy
at that time. This letter So Impressed me by its
wisdom and discretion that now offer it, uDon
my own responsibility, for qualifications do
this in the conviction that many Il young man
who reads il will be inspired and sfrenrfhened
by its teachings and guided by its counSeis.
=. l.. WOODHOUSE
2O3 Clinton street, Brooklyn, April IT, 1885.
THE LETTER.
No. 1O3 FIFTH AVENUE. NEW YORK,
MY DEAR SoS-I would gladly 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
the university. and / know all their trials and
their temptations 1 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 lite have ceased to be
the same. My son. you grow older YOU will
find that from the time Of solomon 10 this hour
human nature has not changed ut all. and that
the guide to prosperous anu happy life is
precisely the same aS il 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 Dos
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 have
been diSregarded.
Danish forever from your mind that folly
which young men very stupidity cherish.
that 1.-THE world and the ways of the world are
essentially different now from what they
forty years ago, and settle forever i'll your
mind certain principles which You never to
doubt, and never to sWerye from i'll your course
of life
First-That there is a great first cause which
rules the world a something which we can but
dmly comprehend. because it is too vast for our
finite minds. 1t is the infinite. Ii i God. II
IS frutless to try "to find out God" He is "otlr
Father in heaven this is all that the simple
child can know: ii is ali 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
Influenced by earnest prayer tor guidance in
the right way, there is doubt.
do not mean that TO pray for specific things.
such as riches and honors. Will bring riches and
hohors as matter OF course. but that honest and
earnest prayer to Father in heaven for
guidance in the way that is for orr best good is
pure 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 i'll the way which is
right, and you will not go wrong.
Most OF the scientific men time devote
themselves to the study OF the laws OF matter
and they seem 10 forget that man. even while
on earth, has spiritual well aS a material
nature They find nothing but matter in the
conclusion that there i nothing but matter
Their discoveries in the laws OF matter are Won
derful and invaluable but they utterly neglect
the study of spiritual laws, which are real
ana as certainly part OF man as the grOSScr
substance mat the soul survives the body, and
mat IL Is happy or miserable according To the
deeds done in the body never allow yourself
10 doubt. II skeptcs wish to talk to YOU about
IT, don't argue: arguments ON these subjects
never do any good; You might well argue
that you love your mother. Practice what |
suggest and You will know from conscious ex-
perience that what | 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. Henry
Seymour, at HOlme PierrepOnt, you saw how
cheerful and serenely happy they all We're
Second-That truth. unfaltering integrity
Justice and honor are never to be departed
from under any circumstances.
Lies come from meanneSS. low vanity. cow
Rrd1ce and of deprdVed nature. and they al
ways fail OF their object and bring the liar into
contempt without strict integrity. justice and
honor, no one can have continued success in
anything, or lasting respect from anybody.
Every one Is found out sooner later, and
much sooner than he suppoSeS. Indeed Your
true character is sure TO be known, and sure to
be justly appreciated.
i m. ron
about popularity. Do right. the best you can
have it.
If you see fellow-student who is always
manly, honorable, brave and just. and who de-
votes himself to the duties before him every
day, who resists temptations to pleasures
which interfere with his health and hence
aud respecting him and so is it With thn nmli
jaded idler at Christ Church. Oxford has never
graduated man who was an indolent failure
al the college who ever became an eminent
success afterward, and she never Will.
Attend 10 the duties and obey the laws of the
university. 1t sometimes enters the shallow
heads OF young men that ii is cleverand spirited
TO transgreSs the rules. It is supremacy silly
II requires neither brains mr. courage TO break
the laws, and comes of a desire to get cheap
notority 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 Iabors of uni
Verslty life or of other lie easy is to do each
DUTY every day. II you let a burden of arrears
accumulate il will discourage YOU. Ifvou have
Things 10 each gay they easily done
but II you put them off with the idea that YOU
fail ~
Mind not what others do: they NAV he able
10 waste more time than you can afford: more
nkely. however, that they will fail Many i'm
1hrist Cnurch do not expect To make any
inquire In the world and have no ambition but
10 pass through; and many affect to despise the
diligent-
IfyOu have not a determined purpose TO take
Il stand as a scholar, and to lead an earnest
manly life after you leave Oxford then leave il
W. he fpn tif...tf
penSe, and yourself the reprOach and scOrn
which your cOuntrymen beStOw upon wasted
opportunities. Do well. and there is nothing i'm
my power which would not do 10 advance
YOU BE a failure, through your own Incidence
weakness and indulgence, and though YOU are
my only son, should feel that l had one too
many.
success comes not Of spasmOdc effort but of
continued everyday work
Read the fable of the hare and the tortoise
ana proht by It's teachings, and remember that
success, with honor. Is one =. the highest pIea-
sures OF NE i nave many fears lest in com
PaIlonshlp with so many young men of easy
fortune, and no ambition beyond that of the
easy lie OF an English gentleman, YOU lose the
sturdy purpose which should animate Won
daily. Remember that America is not England
No one is born To titled greatness or to any
Other greatness here: ne vino gets il must
achieve IL, and he who cannot achieve If i'm
some form Is of small consideration. We have
no idle class, and trust that we NAV never
nave. An idle life is a worthless and unhappy
life. 'FP'
Never go to balls or parties in term time. and
tHOIu late wines ana suppers at all times: they
always injure the health and without health
a