Belding banner. (Belding, Mich.) 1889-1918, 1914-06-17
DACCALAUREATE
ADDRESS GIVEN LAST
SUNDAY EVENING
(continued from page onel

"A few months ago" said Rev
Doty, II spent two days talking with
a pessimist. partly because IL was ne
cessary and partly because | wanted
10 talk 10 that sort of a genius before
discussing subjects of this sort How
depressing a pessimist is He cannot
see anything to encourage him; the
country is on it's way TO destruction
everybody but himself is a hypocrite:
the people and the times, generally,
are wrong and he is the only one who
can see the situation as il really is. In
contrast To this man | want 10 tell
YOU about a man with whom | rode
about fifty miles, 'on train one day.
1t was inspiring To look at him and
listen TO him. After while / dis
and only one foot that he could use.
lie was trying to make the best pos
sible out OF what ability he had and
was hopeful in spite of his handicap.
Along this same line Chas Good
ell has said. All ages and all life fur
nish incentive for the heroic We
are very apt Go overlook the most
fruitful fields We have all. read the
account of great battles on land and
on seas We have read with intense
interest the debates Of the ages which
have made and ruined men and govern
ments; but, after all, we are coming
To understand that the greatest dis
play Of the heroic is in private life,
and the victories that men have
plucked from the steel hand OF mis-
fortune are greater than those which
have been won amid the lannon's
roar, The greatest army that the
world ever saw is the grand army
Of the faithful who have fought their
battles without notice or praise.
Every man is interested i'm his own
struggles. The truth or achievement
which lie at the end Of every effort or
prayer is the only truth or achieve
ment worth our while
Young people should challenge
their obstacles; face with full courage
their defeats, il. they have any, being
confident that there is no such thing
as final defeat for the earnest enquir-
ing, truth-loving, active man
There is victory in toll. 1t is
great thing to conquer. Matthew
Arnold used To say, There are three
tokens of genius; Extraordinary un-
derstanding, extraordinary conduct
and extraordinary eXertion.' The
greatest gift man can have is the
gift OF continuance-the. purpose to
toll necessarily until the object sought
is won-and how some men have
toiled.
';As an Illustration Of this we are
told that once when Audubon had a
collection of two hundred drawings
as result of his researches in or
anthology. he left them i'm "A wooden
box in the care of a friend and went
into the woods Upon his return he
found that mice had gained entrance
to the box and made of the drawings
only a mass of paper pulp. After
sleeping for several nights he says,
Il took my gun, my note book and my
pencils and went back into the woods
as gaily as If nothing had happened
Ere "a period not exceeding three years
had passed my portfolio was again
i'm the best Of order
Sir Isaac Newton tells how his lit
tie dog, Diamond, upset a lighted ta-
crate calculations of many years
which were replaced only by extra
ordinary eXertion.
Many of us have read how Thomas
Carlyle loaned the manuscript Of the
first volume Of his French Revolution
To a lady. She carelessly left il ly-
ing in the kitchen Of her home and
the maid, thinking il was only bit
of old paper. used the manuscript to
kindle the fire. lie had no draft of
the work and had to rely wholly
upon his memory for the facts, ideas
and expressions. but he re-wrote it,
that is what persistence does
Daniel Webster said, Work has
made me what l am, l never ate
bit of idle bread in my life
said Dickens. My imagination
would never have served me as ii
has but for the habit Of commonplace,
humble. patient and daily toll,
Drudgery has been to me the gray
angel Of success. Gladstone, at the
close of his life testified: 1 have
found nay greatest happiness in labor.
| early formed the habit of indus
try and il has been my own reward
inventors quite generally are past
masters of toll.
Edison says: I continue to find my
greatest pleasure and so my greatest
reward in the work which precedes
the invention. We are told that Tesla
tolls necessarily with only occasional
intervals for food or sleep, From all
of these Illustrations surely ii would
seem as IL we are willing to pay the
price OF development we all have
that the world needs
Many claim that the greatest han
dicap that "a man can have is TO in