The new dominion. [volume] (Morgantown, W. Va.) 1876-1904, 1897-12-08
THE ROAD OF LIFE.


The sign-postof our duty
Is pointing up the hill,
Above the valleys beauty.
That stretches soft and still.
| The upward path is dented,
Where heroes feet have trod;
Yet we would lie contented
Upon the flower strewn sod.
'Tis ill to stay repining,
Because the way is long;
For vigor comes with climbing,
And effort makes us strong.
And though it be not given
To us to reach the skies;
To know how we have striven
May help another rise.
-
Effort overcometh the world, for
effort is faith-in oneself, and in the
value Of life, and in the right of the
world to the best we can accomplish.
Effort well-sustained and well-directed
this is the victory But would you
seek shorter way? Then use s'Long-
ingsh as your guide-post. 1t leads by
dream paths to golden glories that
vanish when you awake. 1t woos
you with dazzled eyes out into a
dreary desert and leaves you to enjoy
the substance Of mirage. 1t weak
ems your manliness; for action, not
longing, is life. Far better TO toll
1 the path that has been proved by all
the ages.
The strong are those who make the
| n,ast pf fa IL pnpuac 10 III at,. ~
spurn Incidence as they would scorp-
ions; who turn the defeats of life in
to more certain victories by strug-
CLING on when all seems lost; who
yield to neither difficulties nor disap-
pointments, not because they stop to
argue out advantages, but because
the spirit of a true man despises
yielding-cannot yield These are
the ones who stand serene after grea [
resistings, whose deeds-no matter
about mems names!-are 4cven into
every progress, and whose freely spent
effort are the secret of human tri-
umphs. They are goodly company,
whom no perishable book shall ever
fully record, but whose works live
though the hands that wrought be
dead.
| Herein is your hope and mine,
humble men of purpose. Shall we
credit Luther with the Reformation?
No. rather he merely voiced feeling
that was moving resistlessly through
the awakening European giant,
Without that dumb cry for freedom
of Thought cry that was not solely
a religious protest, he might well have
fingered within the scholastic walls
of Wittenberg Shall we paint the
signers of our Declaration as heroes?
Yes, ifyou will. Yet surely they came
to the front because there was a
public opinion back Of them, and
this was made up of those nameless
yet conscientious elements of a coun-
try's life that are the substratum
and the very subtance also of all great
forward movements. And-on the
other hand-shall we credit Alaric with
disrupting the Roman Empire? mol
his strength consisted in the weak
ness of his enemies, who, raised to
Heaven by their privileges brought
themselves down to destruction; not
by the wickedness cf any one man,
but by the general unrighteousness
and consequent feebleness of the
many.
Alas! the strong and the weak to-
gether make up a nation, and its
continuous power is possible only by
an increase OF the strong and decrease
of the weak. The weak are those
who do not utilize life to the full;
who loving the comfort of the hot
house, perish at the sincere chidings
of the north wind; who crumble like
sand ramparts at the first touch of
the ocean of testing that all charac-
tiers must endure if they would be true;
who seek for themselves the quiet
inches of life, satisfied to forego the
honors if only they can escape the
strivings that precede honors; who,
like tropic savages, are content with
food secured without labor and
much sleep with late awakenings;
who being weak are selfish, and shut
away their compassion from strug-
Cling, eager humanity whose efforts
they scorn, but whose shoe-strings
they are not worthy to unloose; who
have the forms Of men but the viru-
lent softness of jelly-fsh; who have
the outer appearance Of manly gran
deur but the attributes of internal
parasites, hidden, despised, inverte-
brate, yet ever fed by others labor.
CHOOSE YE THIS DAY YOUR CLASS.