The record-union., 1896-09-06
SOME RAMBLING THOUGHTS.
BY MEMO.
(Copyrighted.l

varied opportunities
NOW, young men, strong young men,
but lacking in purpose, as a second ar
t.cle based upon the silver certificate
engraving, History Teaching Youth. y
let me spread out before you the vista
| OF opportunity that is as much your
heritage as anyones. If l be foolish
enough to be impractical in my sugges-
tlons, you Will know it immediately
Tor common sense is not entirely dead
WITHIN you, though you have frittered
away your time in things that are
worse than play. You know. lust as
| we'll as l, that no amount of thrashings
will ever cause the heavy legs Of q
Percheron to become light and delicate
like those of Maud S. So | shall not
insult your intelligence by saying that
all of us may equal in fame those
names that are already written high in
our country's history.
| But L want you to open wide your
MIND, your hitherto purposeless mind.
to a great thought the uncommon
grandeur Of common lives that are up
rightly lived, even though they be OBJ
scure, unknown, unchronicled.
| Go to the weed that forces its way up
| through the chinks of your pavement
and learn from it. You crush it with
your heel and it is gone. 1t dies and
| you think of it no more. Yet that weed
| has surrendered it's contribution of ef-
| fort and justified it's existence. Its little
| lungs U may so designate theml have
been taking in the poisonous gases that
\ VOL nd oil 1o,.
| hale, and it has been breathing forth
It's tiny share of the oxygen that sus-
talns you. More than that, it has
changed some few particles of inorganic
clay and rock and dirt into a living
plant, and death can never return
those particles to their original state.
| The material it leaves behind when
you trample on it, passes to the nour-
| ishment of other plants, and the hum
blest, feebleSt, most worthless weed NAV
thus serve ultimately to sustain the
greatest thing in creation-you
| Go to some South Sea island, and
amid the palms and sunshine of one of
these gems of the Pacific, think of its
origin. Ages ago far below the surface,
the coral insect gathered around him
his calcareouS cyst. He passed away,
but his work endured, and upon it
others in an interminable series built
their tiny, but everlasting cells, until
at last the surface of the ocean was
reached and another island was born.
In what respect was that pioneer insect
inferior to those who completed the
work? In nothing. He is unknown.
however. yet absolutely essential to all
those who worked with him and fol-
lowed him.
60 out on the ocean and look around
you. 1t is a type Of our humanity Only
the surface of it is broken into waves
Beneath them, to it's most abyssmal
depths, unruffled, even unlighted,
waters slowly move hither and thither
No matter how beauteous the waves.
they would no longer be ocean if the
underlying mass were lacking Those
waves are the great leaders in the
world. But the waters above are as
| naught save for the waters beneath.
and you and I, if our spirits are true
and our motives clean, will rejoice at
any hight our race may reach for we
are essential to it. We, in our hidden
sphere, are holding it up.
Do these things teach you nothing. or
are your ears eternally deaf to truth?
To me the impershable testimony of
the coral reef; the STILL small voice of
the humble flower, the gruff music of
the waves, come not merely to teach
but to satisfy. They convince us that
the life properly lived and at last
snuffed out in obscurity may yet, by
0f
for good in those we happen against,
have its essential share in great deeds,
vast accomplishments and moral vic
tories. You, in your little place, which
you must fill to the best of your ability.
are as essential to the we'll being of our
country as the best man in it, You are
flesh and blood No more than that is
he. You can influence strongly those
around you. Less than that can he. for
the higher he gets the less of personal
contact does he enjoy. What greater
breadth to a narrow life could YOU de-
sire? In the world God has ordered
that matter, though it may change it's
form thousand times, is yet in itself
indeStructible. 1 believe it is also de-
creed that the deeds and acts and
thoughts that pass from us to others
are surely as enduring as the elements
of a plant. Here, then, is the grandeur
of a good life and the very horror of a
bad one, acting and reacting through
generations to come. Be not alarmed
because the world knows you not: be
alarmed because you have not hereto
fore understood, or cared to under
stand, the glory of that manhood where
unto you were called when your mother
gave you birth.
We are nearing the point where we
part company for a week. This silent
printed page has possibly stirred that
soul of yours with a new determination
to be and to do. Read it over a second
time, and then ask the one in whose
judgment you most trust whether it is
right or whether it is wrong. 1 have
not written regarding daily employ
ment, but rather regarding the con-
scious and unconscious influences YOU
may daily exert. 1 am satisfied that
the vista stretched out before you thus
far is wide enough for the one most