The News-Herald. [volume] (Hillsboro, Highland Co., Ohio) 1886-1973, 1900-06-07
THE AIM OF LIFE. "
The High Distinction of Man is
That He is Capable Of Liv-
ing With an Aim.
The Last and the Most Able Of the
Series of Senior Orations That
Have Appeared in This Pa
per--Written by Miss
Marie Roads.

Mazzane says, Life is a mission.
Every other definition of life is false,
and leads all who accept it astray.
Religion, science, philosophy, though
still at variance upon many points,
all agree in this,-that every exist
ence is an aim The high distinction
of man is, that he is capable of living
with an aim: for it is impossible to
creatures that have not reason. For
the young especially there is no more
serious and important matter than
this one of life's aim. More than half
the battle for true success is won in
beginning right. One may have
many minor and subordinate aims !:
he can have but one supreme end,
and from this all the others take their
real character. Our aim in life is
that object or end which draws to it.
self our highest thought and endeavor.
The real aim of life is not the ap-
parent aim; for men are often self
deceived as to their chief end, and Of
ten others are deceived by them.
What we are supremely living for de-
termines the course we are taking
year in and year out. There are only
two directions our lives may pursue.
One is toward the good, the other is
toward the evil. In the physical life
stone thrown from the hand goes
up or down: gravitation pulls it to-
ward the earth: the m moment it leaves
the hand gravitation begins to over
come the upward propulsion, and at
last is victorious. So it is with the
moral life.-gravitation toward the
evil and the attraction toward the
good. Always we are moving some
whittier, always we are becoming
somewhat: and the direction which
which we are now forming is becom-
ing fixed. The most critical and impor-
tant moment in our existence is when
we consciously and deliberately ask,
''Whither am going"
No one has a right to live aimlessly,
for we have powers that make us cap
able of some good and often great
achievement. He does not truly
live who drifts aimlessly through the
years from youth to age. He whose
aim is even lower than the highest,
less than the greatest, is nobler than
he who has no conscious purpose in
life" To aim at nothing is to hit
nothing. We must next learn how to
concentrate ourselves. Many bust
ness man has failed because his of lack
of concentration. The majority OF
men, if they wish to succeed must be
content to do one thing. MoxOm says
The main business of life is not to
do, but to become: the action itself
has its finest and most enduring fruit
in character.
We sometimes speak of character
and reputation as the same, but they
are not. Reputation is what a man
is thought to be: character is what
he is. We make our own character
everything we do leaves some trace
behind, 1t is the little things in life
that count. A friend of Michal An
gelo called ON him while he was finish,
ing a statue. A few days after he
called again and the sculptor was al
the same task. The friend looking al
the statue said, "Have you been idle
since | saw you last 2"
by no MEANS" replied Angelo, ~
have retouched this part and polished
that; | have given more expression
to the lip and more energy to the
limb
''Well, well ~ said his friend, "All
these are trifies."
0''It may be so, replied Angelo, 'but
remember that trihes make perfec.
tion, and that perfection is no trife. .
Our associations have part to play
in the formation of our characters
If our associations are good, we are
influenced by them; if evil, the in.
fuence of them is left.
There is no profession or occupat tiOn
in which we cannot be honest. We
probably know some very poor person,
who, by speaking the truth, has Sc
cured a good position and become
rich. You may have many trials and
temptations, but be the victor and not
the victim. Our own choice deter
mines, for we all have temptations
Some one may ask the worth of char
acter. Life demonstrates it. Good
men may die and pass from our sight,
but the in1uence of their good deeds
10 left behind them.
We must all form habits, and most
habits begin with one voluntary act.
After they are formed It i hard 70