Thomas County cat. [volume] (Colby, Kan.) 1885-1891, 1886-03-04
THE POWER OF WILL.

The Gar Peter and Benjamin franklin
A Helpful Lesson.
One of the longest-remembcredl lessons
that the great Benjamin Franklin ever
received from his uncle, who was also his
tutor, and which helped to make him the
man he afterward became, was the
showing what might be done by the
untiring energy of the will in the right
direction, Strengthening the good i'm
pulses and controlling the bad. ''To
do thing at all times and seasons be-
cause our consciences tell us that it is
right, whether it suits our inclination
or not, is matter of stern duty; and
duty" he said to the boy, always de-
mands more or less sacrifice on our
part
He told him also how to make work
pleasant and how to be rich, how to
get money and how to spend it, and.
above all, about the ''still, small voice
Il want to make man of my name
sake" he said to his mother one day,
and L have first taught him that he
must either work, beg, or starve! Then
/ showed him how to make work pleas
ant, that the produce of his work be
the means OF future comfort to him.
and how, by putting his heart into la
Dor, he would Tighten the slavery of
work, and above all how to put his will
into every good impulse. | want to
teach Ben to get money rather than
want it or beg Cor it. To get it with
honor and dignity, to husband it with
honor and dignity, and, what is more,
to spend it with honor and dignity"
Each day Uncle Benjamin drew his
lesson from some occurrence of life
around him, and upon this occasion he
spoke of the life of Peter. once Emper-
or of Russia, whose untiring energy of
the will working in unison with the
heart, rendered the heaviest labor
light, and gave him capacity for en-
durance almost inSenSible to suffering
and fatigue.
Young Ben had heard him discussed
in a general way before, when the
chapel deacons had dropped in to talk
with his father, but as yet he had never
dreamed that that same Peter was a
King, who somewhere had worked as a
common shipwright. OF course ut the
mention of his name the lad was all
attention as his uncle proposed to mar
rate the story of his marvellous will and
purpose.
The old man began by telling him
that at ten years of age Peter came to
the crown OF Russia, but Sophia, Queen
regent, his half sister. made every eff
fort to keep him as ignorant as posi-
bic rs well as to make him idle and
vicious, by putting the worst tempta-
tons in his way and keeping all means
of instruction and reiinem ent from him.
This she did that she might keep her
brother longer from the throne and
render him unfit for royal power.
But rude ana ignorant as Peter was
at seventeen, he burst through the re-
gents control and took the very gov
cnment into his own hands. Though
uneducated. he had what was even
better, a strong. persistent will, which
enabled him to educate himself and
give him firm reliance upon his own
powers
The mechanic King had not only an
instinct to conceive great things with
out special training, but a will that
gave him zeal to undertake them, en-
durance to labor for them and cOur-
age enough, come what might. to mas
ter them.
When Peter accended the throne Rus
STA had no seaport but that of Archan-
gel, on the banks of the White Sea,
and to give ships and commerce to his
al. oh IL
ject in the boys mind.
Hardly was the crown on his head
than the bold young Gar determined
to create fleets and harbors, trade and
manufactures. arts and schools for the
whole nation.
6 Peter was no ordinary youth, Uncle
Ben went on TO say. and instead of set
ting the people to work in building
ships he resolved TO learn how to build
them himself, and instead of having
masters he went in as a common ship
wright. and worked with his own
hands. living and faring like his fellow
mechanics, his crown laid aside for
paper cap.
Will is the greatest power in man, as
we shall see. Peter travelled to the two
great maritime countries of the time,
first to Holland, then to England, and
worked in the dock-yards of Amster-
dam and Deptford as an ordinary ship
builder. He longed in his heart to
make his country a great commercial
nation, and this was the way he was
doing it.
"What a strange thing for King to
a1O,H YOU say. and SO it was. But do
YOU think such labor to such life was
drudgery? No, indeed. There was
not hand on those docks that worked