West Virginia argus. [volume] (Kingwood, W. Va.) 1877-1946, 1908-12-31
SELF.RELIANCR.
Its Practice the Secret OF All Indiyid.
ual Growth.

Written for The Argus.
OF all the elements that go to make
success Of this life there is none more inn
portant than self-reliance-a determine
ton 10 be ones own helper. 1t is the Sc
cret Of all individual growth. Well hath
the sage remarked, "IIelp thyself and
God will help thee" Sluggards will find
that they are Of but little use here or else
where. They will be briskly showed aside
and displaced by the man of energy.
One OF the direst curses that can fall
to man, in the majority of cases, is in
heritcd wealth. The recipient OF an
amassed fortune il frequently nothing
more than cell of condensed slothful-
ness. 1t has been well said that erich
young men who begin their fortunes
where their fathers left of usually leave
oil where their fathers began" The only
money that benefits man is that which
he has earned ms "A reward for his own
labor The ready-madc fortune OF an an
cestor, like his ready-made clothes, rare
ly fit thc'man to whom they fall
The man who has not an Independent
judgment of his own, but runs perpetual
ly 10 Others for advice, becomes in the
end q moral wcakling-an intellectual
dwarf. God never created man for such
purposc-to be reared 10y clinging 10
others. The difficulties, hardships, and
trials OF life; the obstacles one encounters
on the road TO fortune; are positive bless
ings. Peril is the very element in which
power is developed. Ability and neccs-
sity dwell near each other. Gle who
has battled,' says Carlyle, "werc it only
with poverty and hard toll, will be found
stronger and more expert than he who
could stay at home from the battle con-
ccalod among the provision wagons"
Great statesmen of all lands owe their
sagacity, tact, and foresight more TO their
failures than 10 their successes. Every
time they are checkmated they acquire a
proiounder knowledge OF their political
game and make their succeeding combin-
atoms with increased skill and better
chances of success.
Hardly greater than the mental degcn-
eracy which wealth usually causes is the
physical, which has reached such point
that in our hotels elevators are employed
to lift our spindlc-legged dandies and Ian
guild females from the dining table TO the
rooms above 1t has been well suggested
that the next contrivance by which the
human package OF dinner is borne i'm a
few seconds TO the top of the house, will
be some machine for putting lazy folks to
| bed and n crank mill through which they
will he run in the morning and come out
washed, brushed, cravatcd, ready for the
| breakfast table
1t was saying of the late Sir Thomas
| POWELL Buxton that "no man ought to-
be convinced by anything short of assid-
uous and long-continued labors, issuing
in absolute failure, that he is meant to do
much for the honor of God and the good
of mankind" This is gem which all
men, especially all young men, should
take deeply 10 heart. Every individual
mind may contain some germ, some seed
OF latent principle, the development of
which may sooner or later exert an in
| tiuence over the whole world.
| There are some men who, instead OF
making the best use of the facilities they
have for achievement, are always telling
what they might do "under better circum-
stances" Under better circumstances (!
AS if the very seal and sign of greatness
were not precisely the regal superiority
to circumstances which makes them aids
and ministers to success instead of becom-
ing their slave.