The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-06-03
E. E. BROWN SPEAKS
 TO THE GRADUATES
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 5.)

hopeless admiration on the man who has a boundless store of fact at his easy command? I shall remember this at least, that omniscience is not altogether seemly in a man who Is less than a god. There are those who appear be- fore their fellows as being preternatural- ly informed. They, too, suffer a disad- vantage of their own.
 Ut may be that my purse is withered and shrunken. with little hope of smooth ing out it's wrinkles from within. Let me. then, consider the man who has been rich from his birth. Poor fellow" I shall find myself saying again. He cannot loos back upon that long, exhilarating fight with poverty. He may never know the relish of resourceful and triumphant lit tie economies. Poor fellow. who has never known the good of being poor!
 Defect, disadvantage, foes without and foes within-such, indeed, is the common lot of men. He who has not learned this lesson does not yet know how un- fathomaby interesting Is the problem of human life. But to be reminded of this fact so familiar to all men of wisdom and experience, is to be told that the question we are considering touches upon the fundamental philosophy of human affairs. What shall we do with ,ou. disadvantages? It Is one good half of the question, What shall we do with our life in this world?
 Metaphor of Kite String
 ''Now, just at this point I have use for the comparison of the kite string. Who it was that first employed that comparison I have been unable to de- termine. I pay my respects and ac- Acknowledgements to the unknown author and proceed to utilize his metaphor. That which holds the kite down is the thing by which 1t rises It makes its way towards heaven by that which draws it to the earth. The wind bloweth, and the kite tugs at it's holding to go the way of the wind. The hard and fast tether gives a little and again little, but it holds, and does not let go. If it should give way the poor kite. relieved of all restraint would not fly away with the untrammeled wind. It would only drop to the earth, a helpless and broken thing The wind blows and the string gives little. but not too easily, and the kite fol- lows neither course, but sails away safely and triumphantly into the blue, as good and capable kite should do.
 Now, let us learn our lesson from the kite. Every man among us, because he is man and neither angel nor brute nor demon, every man is to succeed in his proper life as a man by that which he shall do as regards his hindrances and handicaps. It is his duty to strive against them and not let them simply check and dominate his career. Some of them may indeed be conquered utterly. But some of them will continue to the end making his course other than what he thinks it might have been. Unless he overcomes them in some degree he cannot hope, indeed, to rise. Unless he strive perpetually for the mastery he cannot hope to rise. Not that he should keep trying and trying as against evils that he can finish and be done with. For heavens sake let him bring some things to an end. But when he Is doing what he can do, let him not beat frantically and desperately against the Limitations which his destiny has imposed. While those limitations were undoubtedly meant to call out the fighting spirit within him and keep him struggling without rest. they all serve to mark out for him diff ferent course from that which mere, un- thinking self-wll and determination might have pursued. If he will react upon them cheerfully and intellgently they may indeed direct him into better and higher ways