The Maryville times. (Maryville, Tenn.) 1884-1944, 1886-03-03
THE POWER OF WILL.
The Gar Peter and BenJamln Franklin
A Helpful Lesson.

THE POWER OF WILL.
The Gar Peter and Benjamin. Franklin
A Helpful Lesson. a..
One of the longest-remembered 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 inn
pulses and controlling the bad. ITO
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 a 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."
II want to make a 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
l 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. 1 want to
teach Ben to get money rather than
want it or beg for 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 a capacity for en-
| durance almost insensible to suffering
and fatigue.
Young Ben had heard him discussed
in q 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 q
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 ef-
fort to keep him as ignorant as posi-
BILE 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 retineme nt from him.
This she did that she might keep hel
brother longer from the throne and
render him unfit for royal power.
| But rude and ignorant as Peter wa
at seventeen, he burst through the re.
gents control and took the very gov.
eminent into his own hands. Though
uneducated, he had what was even
better, q strong, persistent will, which
enabled him to educate himself anG
give him firm reliance upon his OWE
powers
| The mechanic King had not only al
instinct to conceive great things with
out special training, but a will tina
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 hi
country was the one all-absorbing OBJ
ject in the boys mind. .
Hardly was the crown on his hea,
than the bold young Gar determine,
to create fleets and harbors, trade an,
manufactures, arts and schools for tn
whole nation. .t...,
Peter was no ordinary youth, Uncl
Ben went on to say, and instead of sci
ting the people to work in buildin
ships he resolved to learn how to bull
: them himself, and instead of havin
: masters he went in as common shir
. wright, and worked with his ow
hands. living and faring like his fello,
mechanics. his crown laid aside for
paper cap. ..... ....
Will is the greatest power in man, a
we shall see. Peter travelled to the tw
great maritime countries of the time
first to Holland, then to England, sn
worked in the dock-yards Of Amstel
, dam and Deptford as an ordinary shil
builder. He longed in his heart
make his country . great commercis
nation, and this was the way he wa
! doing it.
"What q strange thing for King {
d." you say. and so it was. But
I you think such labor to such life wa
drudgery? No, indeed. Thele Wa
! not . hand on those docks that worke