Warren sheaf., 1899-06-08

getting on in the world he dares
not throw his whole attention upon
his purpose, but moves along hesitat-
ingly, glancing anxiously from right
to left, looking for danger, and diff
Guilty, and when he meets them he
turns his back and fees, without
stopping to consider their character
and strength. The brave conquers
them by looking them straight in
the face, and pressing on, wins the
spurs.
''Heaven helps those who help
themselyes,'' is an old and well-tried
maxim which embodies in a small
compass the results of vast human
experience. And it has been the
motto of many hero who has carved
his name upon the pillar of success.
The spirit of self-help is the root of
all genuine growth; it constitutes the
true source of vigor and strength in
man. The help which we get from
within ourselves is the help which
adds to our validity as it is derived
by the exercising, and hence
Strengthening of our own faculties.
He who will not enter upon any pur-
pose without calling upon others to
bear the brunts of it's accomplish
ment, enfeebles himself, as his own
faculties are thereby left in an mac
tive and dormant state, and he must
invariably sink into a moral pygmy,
an intellectual dwarf. He is like the
musician who can play only second
fiddle, he must have a leader. He
has no self within him on which he
can rely, and is carried along in the
world as an insignificant cipher.
Have faith in yourself; believe your
self able; take hold of life with the
grim grip of desperation. Be the
imperative mood instead of one of
those heroic subjunctives who always
might have been, could have been, or
should have been somebody, but
there was always some monstrous
''if'' in the way. Remember that as
Horace Greeley said, they are look
ing through the wrong end of the
telescope; that if they were some
body those all-overturning ''ifs"
would not be..ss'IfI I had place to
stand,'' said Archimedes, ''I could
move the world.'' But since all de-
pended upon the standing place, let
us rather say with Goethe, make
good thy standing-place, and move
the world"
Let no one complain OF his feeble
abilities. Every individual mind
may have some germ, some seed,
or latent faculty whose development
may exert ponderous influence up
on the world. 1t may seem small,
but therefore push it not aside; it
may become great in time. Rome
was not built in a day, nor the pyra-
mids OF Egypt in a week. Behold
the mighty oak-forests! They were
once contained in a single acorn!
He was only camel-driver who
founded new religion and altered
the face OF empires! He was only an
obscure monk who split in twain the
Catholic church; and still more OBJ.
scure was he who revolutionized the
whole intellectual aspect of society
by the invention of the printing
press! History is replete with such
examples, where gigantic deeds have
been accomplished by apparent
pygmies.
We must expose these embryonic
faculties OF ours if they shall assert
themselves and become potent.
They must be tempered by the
struggle for existence. 1t is their
constant activity that strengthens
them; as Vergil says OF Rumor, it
gathers strength in it's progress.
They may be compared to a plant,
which becomes weak and sickly when
confined in a close-shut room, but
grows rugged and strong when ex-
posed on the hillside.
We find in the biographies of near
ly all those whose career has been
one OF success, that they are charac-
terized by a seemingly all-powerful
will, to which, in vast degree, they
owe their final triumph. The
achievements which often have been
executed solely by tremendous ef-
forts OF the will, are SO great as to
almost stagger belief. Look at De-
mosthenes, the greatest orator the
world has known - His first ora tion