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CHAPTER VIII
“TRIFLES”
It is ours to climb and dare. – Frederick Lawrence Knowles.
“Trifles make perfection, but perfection is no trifle.” The saying is old but the truth is ever new.
Oh, sweet is life when youth is in the blood. – Denis McCarthy.
It is the little things that count, day by day, in the forming of character. The way in which we employ our moments finally becomes the way in which we employ our years.
Down in the busy thoroughfares are boys the world shall know some day. – Samuel Ellsworth Kiser.
As a matter of course every boy will, if he can, do some big, beautiful thing out there in the years to come. But it is a foregone conclusion that every boy must do a vast number of little things before he shall do the larger things. The “trifles” are always at hand waiting to be done, day after day, year after year. And it is the way in which a boy does these little things that gives him the standing he holds in the estimation of those with whom he is intimately associated.
“As the twig is bent, the tree’s inclined.” A habit is easy to form but hard to break. Yet the strongest of habits are formed just a little at a time – a small strand is added each day until there is a mighty cable that cannot be broken except by a mighty effort. If it is a good habit, its strength makes it all the better! If it is a bad habit, its strength makes it so much the worse.
To him who presses on, at each degree new visions rise. – Julia Ward Howe.
To doubt is failure, and to dare, success. – Frederick Lawrence Knowles.
It’s nothing against you to fall down flat, but to lie there is disgrace. – Edmund Vance Cooke.
Where is the boy who cannot see the fallacy in such illogical reasoning as this: “Now, I will be careless while I am young so that I may be careful when I am older. I will remain ignorant and poorly informed while I am a boy, so that I may be wise when I am a man. I will bend one way while I am a twig so that I shall incline in another direction when I become a tree. I will do wrong things while my character is being formed so that I may do right things when my habits become fixed.” All such reasoning is very, very foolish, isn’t it? And yet there are some illogical youths who deem it will be easy to have one character and disposition as boys and quite a different one when they come to be men. By some strange hocus-pocus they hope to be able to sow a crop of “wild oats” and later on reap a harvest of good wheat. It cannot be done.
Do it right now and do it well. – John Townsend Trowbridge.
Any farmer’s boy will tell you that “as ye sow, so shall ye reap.” When the farmer wishes to harvest wheat he does not sow oats. When he wishes a crop of potatoes he does not plant gourds. He has learned that what he plants in the spring he will harvest in the autumn. It is equally as true of life. That which we sow in youth we reap in our maturer years. We must not try to deceive nature and our own consciences. We shall get back from the years what we give to the years.
Condemn no creed! Dig deep beneath the sod and at the root thou’lt find the truth of God. – Alicia K. Van Buren.
The boy who early gets into the habit of doing things right is pretty sure to go on doing them so all his life, and without much effort on his part. The will is strengthened by exercise in the same manner as are the muscles. We learn to do easily that which we do often.
It is adversity, not prosperity, which breeds men; as it is the storm, and not the calm, which makes the mariner. – Melvin L. Severy.
The slow long way may be the best. – Nathan Haskell Dole.
He who lifts his brother man in turn is lifted by him. – John Townsend Trowbridge.
As the twig is archetypal of the tree, so childhood builds the ladder up which manhood climbs. – Melvin L. Severy.
The youth who says “No” to little temptations will, later on in life, be perfectly able to say “No” to temptations of any size. And how many a man’s career has been made glorious simply because he learned, while a youth, to say “No” whenever his moral conscience told him it was the thing he should say! How true are the teachings of the wise moralist who tells us: “A very little word is ‘No.’ It is composed of but two letters and forms only one syllable. In meaning it is so definite as to defy misunderstanding. Your lips find its articulation easy. Diminutive in size, evident in import, easy of utterance, frequent in use, and necessary in ordinary speech, it seems one of the simplest and most harmless of all words. Yet there are those to whom it is almost a terror. Its sound makes them afraid. They would expurgate it from their vocabulary if they could. The little monosyllable sticks in their throat. Their pliable and easy temper inclines them to conformity, and frequently works their bane. Assailed by the solicitations of pleasure they are sure to yield, for at once and resolutely they will not repeat ‘No!’ Plied with the intoxicating cup they seldom overcome, for their facile nature refuses to express itself in ‘No!’ Encountering temptation in the hard and duteous path they are likely to falter and fall, for they have not the boldness to speak out the decided negative ‘No!’ Amid the mists of time, and involved in the labyrinthine mazes of error, they are liable to forget eternal verities and join in the ribald jest, for they have not been accustomed to utter an emphatic ‘No!’ All the noble souls and heroes of history have held themselves ready, whenever it was demanded, to say ‘No!’ The poet said ‘No!’ to the sloth and indolence which was consuming his precious hours, and wove for himself in heavenly song a garland of immortality.”
All that we send into the lives of others comes back into our own. – Edwin Markham.
The greatest, strongest, most skilled is he who knows how to wait, and wait patiently. – Charles the Ninth.
“No” might seem to be but a mere trifle of a word yet the boy who learns to say it on every right occasion has already conquered many of the foes that are likely to beset him along life’s pathway. Every boy should cultivate his will until it is strong enough for him to depend upon it at all times. With the proper amount of will he is sure to have sufficient “won’t” to resist all the temptations that wrong may offer him.
The man in whom others believe is a power, but if he believes in himself he is doubly powerful. – Willis George Emerson.
In developing a strength that enables him to say “No!” to wrong things a boy becomes strong enough to say “Yes!” to right things. His “I won’t!” with which he meets wrong suggestions engenders his “I will!” toward the wholesome and commendable undertakings in which he should be interested.
One forgives everything in him who forgives himself nothing. – Chinese.
When a boy has learned to say, and to feel the strength that is in the words, “I will!” he ceases to make use of the words, “I wish,” for his will is sufficient to make his wish a living reality. And what a world of difference there is between the involved meanings of the words,
“I WISH” AND “I WILL”
Not in rewards, but in the strength to strive, the blessing lies. – John Townsend Trowbridge.
“I Wish” and “I Will,” so my grandmother says,
Were two little boys in the long, long ago,
And “I Wish” used to sigh while “I Will” used to try
For the things he desired, at least that’s what my
Grandma tells me, and she ought to know.
“I Wish” was so weak, so my grandmother says,
That he longed to have someone to help him about,
And while he’d stand still and look up at the hill
And sigh to be there to go coasting, “I Will”
Would glide past him with many a shout.
It makes considerable difference whether a man talks bigger than he is, or is bigger than he talks. – Patrick Flynn.
They grew to be men, so my grandmother says,
And all that “I Wish” ever did was to dream —
To dream, and to sigh that life’s hill was so high,
While “I Will” went to work and soon learned, if we try,
Hills are never so steep as they seem.
“I Wish” lived in want, so my grandmother says,
But “I Will” had enough and a portion to spare:
Whatever he thought was worth winning he sought
With an earnest and patient endeavor that brought
Of blessings a bountiful share.
No man doth safely rule but he that hath learned gladly to obey. – Thomas à Kempis.
And whenever my grandma hears any one “wish,”
A method she seeks, in his mind to instill,
For increasing his joys, and she straightway employs
The lesson she learned from the two little boys
Whose names were “I Wish” and “I Will.”
By varied discipline man slowly learns his part in what the Master Mind has planned. – Nathan Haskell Dole.
“Trifles” are the beginnings of things which finally develop into all that is worth while.
The acorn is a trifle, yet within it is hidden an oak tree, and a whole forest of oak trees. The tiny little brooklet is only a trifle yet it flows on and on till it becomes a mighty river.
It is a ridiculous thing for a man not to fly from his own badness, which indeed is possible, but to fly from other men’s badness, which is impossible. – Marcus Aurelius.
The first rude little pencil sketch made by the child that has an inborn love of drawing is but a trifle, yet it may be the beginning of an art career that shall brighten the whole world.
Yet with steadfast courage that rather would die than turn back. – Nathan Haskell Dole.
The first few lines written by the embryo poet constitute but a trifle, yet with a word of encouragement it may sometime be followed by songs that shall make all mankind happier and better.
One thing we must never forget, namely: that the infinitely most important work for us is the humane education of the millions who are soon to come on the stage of action. – George T. Angell.
In every sincere and earnest man’s heart God has placed a little niche where the poetic, the spectacular, and the legendary hold full sway. – Willis George Emerson.
It was just a trifling incident that developed one of the greatest vocalists the world has ever known. We are told that Jenny Lind, at the beginning of her life, was a poor, neglected little girl, homely and uncouth, living in a single room of a tumble-down house in a narrow street at Stockholm. When the humble woman who had her in charge went out to her daily labor, she was accustomed to lock Jenny in with her sole companion, a cat. One day the little girl, who was always singing to herself like a canary-bird, “because,” as she said, “the song was in her and must come out,” sat with her dumb companion at the window warbling her sweet child-like notes. She was overheard by a passing lady, who paused and listened, struck by the trill and clearness of the untutored notes. She made careful inquiry about the child and became the patroness of the little Jenny who was at once supplied with a music-teacher. She loved the art of song, and having a true genius for it she made rapid progress, surprising both patroness and teachers, and presently, became the world’s “Queen of Song.”
The generous heart should scorn a pleasure which gives others pain. – Anonymous.
Neither education nor riches can take the place of character, yet we can all get as much character as we want. – Patrick Flynn.
A teacher who can arouse a feeling for one single good action, for one single good poem, accomplishes more than he who fills our memory with rows on rows of natural objects, classified with name and form. – Goethe.
How trifling was the incident that brought about, by a happy accident, the development of the genius which slept in the soul of the sculptor Canova! A superb banquet was being prepared in the palace of the Falieri family in Venice. The tables were already arranged, when it was discovered that a crowning ornament of some sort was required to complete the general effect of the banqueting board. Canova’s grandfather, who brought him up, was a stone-cutter, often hewing out stone ornaments for architects; and as he lived close at hand, he was hastily consulted by the steward of the Falieris. Canova chanced to go with his grandfather to view the tables, and overheard the conversation. Though but a child his quick eye and ready genius at once suggested a suitable design for the apex of the principal dishes. “Give me a plate of cold butter,” said the boy; and seating himself at a side table he rapidly moulded a lion of proper proportions, and so true to nature in its pose and detail as to astonish all present. It was put in place and proved to be the most striking ornamental feature of the feast. When the guests, on being seated, discovered the lion, they exclaimed aloud with admiration, and demanded to see at once the person who could perform such a miracle impromptu. Canova was brought before them, and his boyish person only heightened their wonder. From that hour the head of the opulent Falieri family became his kind, appreciative, liberal patron. Canova was placed under the care of the best sculptors of Venice and Rome and became a grand master of his art.
A good conscience expects to be treated with perfect confidence. – Victor Hugo.
Build new domes of thought in your mind, and presently you will find that instead of your finding the eternal life, the eternal life has found you. – Jenkin Lloyd Jones.
But it may be truthfully said that every boy does not possess some latent genius, waiting to be discovered by some one who will foster and develop it. Then there is all the more need of making the very most of the small talents one may possess. One need not be a Canova, or a Shakespeare, in order that he may become something worth while to those with whom he dwells in close association.
There is no power on earth that can enslave a man who is mentally free; no power that can free a man who is mentally enslaved. – Patrick Flynn.
Every nook and corner of the world is waiting for the fine characters that are to make it a pleasant place in which to dwell. Blest is that household, however humble, in which there are bright, manly, truthful, kind-hearted boys, ever ready to make the hours brighter, and the home dearer, by their tender thoughtfulness of those about them.
He who is plenteously provided from within, needs but little from without. – Goethe.
Are you going to win the admiration of the world, by and by?
Write it on your heart that every day is the best day in the year. No man has learned anything rightly, until he knows that every day is Doomsday. – Emerson.
Have you already won the admiration of that little, all-important world that now lies just about you? Does the mother, or father, or sister, or brother, who knows you best, hold you in the highest esteem? If you do not win the love of those who know you so well, how can you hope to be loved by the world which can never come into such close and tender relations with you?
Do not sing with a too exact correctness. Put in personality. – William Tomlins.
Do not wait for some big event out there in the years to come. Begin just here and now, by seizing upon the “trifles” that lie all about you. The great wall of solid masonry is not put into place all at once; it is laid patiently and carefully, brick by brick. So manhood must be built a “trifle” at a time until a character is established that temptation cannot totter to the earth.
Tyranny is always weakness. – James Russell Lowell.
If we see rightly and mean rightly, we shall get on, though the hand may stagger a little; but if we mean wrongly, or mean nothing, it does not matter how firm the hand is. – Ruskin.
And every boy ought to thank his lucky stars that he does not have to wait for some special occasion to offer itself before he can begin to develop the traits that shall waken the warmest regard of those about him, and bring to his own sense of well-doing the reward born of all virtue. This very day there are many “trifles” strewn in his pathway. If he shall make the most of them, larger opportunities will be vouchsafed him. The one important consideration is whether he is ready to begin to build at the present moment, and to utilize the splendid “trifles” all about him, or will procrastinate till such time as he can by some great sweep of action, establish his reputation all at once and full-born. If he has decided on the latter course he should be moved to give the most earnest and serious consideration to the startling differences that exist between
“NOW” AND “WAITAWHILE”
It is better to hold back a truth than to speak it ungraciously. – St. Francis de Sales.
Little Jimmie “Waitawhile” and little Johnnie “Now”
Grew up in homes just side by side; and that, you see, is how
I came to know them both so well, for almost every day
I used to watch them in their work and also in their play.
It is ever true that he who does nothing for others, does nothing for himself. – George Sand.
Little Jimmie “Waitawhile” was bright and steady, too,
But never ready to perform what he was asked to do;
“Wait just a minute,” he would say, “I’ll do it pretty soon,”
And tasks he should have done at morn were never done at noon.
He put off studying until his boyhood days were gone;
He put off getting him a home till age came stealing on;
He put off everything, and so his life was not a joy,
And all because he waited “just a minute” when a boy.
The artist who can realize his ideal has missed the true gain of art, as “a man’s reach should exceed his grasp, or what’s heaven for?” – Edward Dowden.
But little Johnnie “Now” would say, when he had work to do,
“There’s no time like the present time,” and gaily put it through.
And when his time for play arrived he so enjoyed the fun!
His mind was not distressed with thoughts of duties left undone.
Keep but ever looking, whether with the body’s eye or the mind’s and you will soon find something to look on. – Browning.
In boyhood he was studious and laid him out a plan
Of action to be followed when he grew to be a man;
And life was as he willed it, all because he’d not allow
His tasks to be neglected, but would always do them “now.”
Great hearts alone understand how much glory there is in being good. To be and keep so is not the gift of a happy nature alone, but it is strength and heroism. – Jules Michelet.
And so in every neighborhood are scores of growing boys
Who, by and by, must work with tools when they have done with toys.
And you know one of them, I guess, because I see you smile;
And is he little Johnnie “Now” or Jimmie “Waitawhile”?
CHAPTER IX
THE WORTH OF ADVICE
Courage is a virtue that the young cannot spare; to lose it is to grow old before the time; it is better to make a thousand mistakes and suffer a thousand reverses than to run away from the battle. – Henry Van Dyke.
Of what value is this book to you?
Perhaps there is more involved in the answer to this question than a careless consideration of it might lead one to think. Shakespeare says: “A jest’s prosperity lies in the ear of him that hears it, never in the tongue of him that makes it.”
So it is that the value of advice depends not so much upon the giver as it does upon the one who receives it.
He needs no other rosary whose thread of life is strung with beads of love and thought. – Persian.
Emerson has observed that he who makes a tour of Europe brings home from that country only as much as he takes there with him. This same truth holds good in the reading of books and in listening to sermons and lectures. He that has not eyes with which to see, will see nothing. He that has not ears with which to hear, can hear nothing.
A sign-post indicating which road to take to reach a certain destination surely ought to be of great value to a traveler in a strange land. If the traveler, having failed to cultivate the habit of observing his surroundings, passes by the sign-post without seeing it, or if he reads its directions and says to himself: “I think I know better; I shall reach my destination by whatever road I choose to travel,” then the sign-post is of no true use to him. Not that it is not a good sign-post. No, the sign-post is all right; it is the traveler who is wrong. He must go his own way and, perhaps, journey far, and fare sadly before he arrives at the place he seeks – the destination he might have reached pleasantly and in good season. Franklin tells us that experience is a dear teacher but fools will learn from no other.
Truth is a cork; it is bound to come to the top. – Willis George Emerson.
He who will not answer to the rudder must answer to the rock. – Archbishop Herve.
Now this book which you hold in your hand is only a guide-post, or perhaps we had better call it a guide-book. It is intended for the use of the boys of our land and all other persons who are not too old or too wise to learn more.
It is not erudition that makes the intellectual man, but a sort of virtue which delights in vigorous and beautiful thinking, just as moral virtue delights in vigorous and beautiful conduct. – Hammerton.
Every boy is starting out on a long, interesting, and tremendously important journey. It will lie mostly through a strange country and is a journey which must, in a very large sense, be traveled alone by each individual person. There are many partings of the ways; many perplexing forks in the road.
Give what you have. To some one it may be better than you dare to think. – Longfellow.
The thoughtful boy will ever feel called upon to ask his highest understanding: “Which is the right road for me to take?” He will not carelessly pass by the sign-posts without learning what they have to tell him, nor will he forget or refuse to be guided by their instructions and admonitions.
There are men who complain that roses have thorns. They should be grateful to know that thorns have roses. – Max O’Rell.
If a sign post says: “Danger! Go Slowly!” he will govern his movements accordingly. If the sign-post says: “Railroad Crossing. Beware of the Engine!” he will not blindly plunge ahead without waiting to see if his course is clear. He will understand that many others have traveled the way before him and have learned by experience that it is well for all to take heed and do as the sign-post directs.
I think the best way of doing good to the poor is not making them easy in poverty, but leading or driving them out of it. – Benjamin Franklin.
This life-long pathway upon which every boy is starting is a winding, intricate, interesting way, and many there are who turn into the wrong roads that are ever leading off from the main-traveled track. It is the purpose of this volume to serve as a guide-book for the boy who desires to reach Happiness and Helpfulness, Prosperity and Splendid Manhood in the most direct and efficient manner. At every turn of life’s way it will warn him from the blind paths that would bring him, by the way of Idleness, Carelessness, Ignorance, and Extravagance, to the unfortunate land of Failure, of Broken Hopes, and of Life Misspent.
Those who bring sunshine into the lives of others cannot keep it from themselves. – Barrie.
There is a certain sweetness and elegance in “little deeds of kindness,” and in letting our best impulses have free play on common occasions. – Joseph May.
“A word spoken in due season, how good is it!” In these pages over which your eye is passing are spoken the words of a large and distinguished company of the world’s best and wisest men and women. Emerson says: “Every book is a quotation; every house is a quotation out of all forests, and mines, and stone-quarries, and every man is a quotation from all his ancestors.”
The school of the intellectual man is the place where he happens to be, and his teachers are the people, books, animals, plants, stones, and earth round about him. – Hammerton.
“In the multitude of counsellors there is safety.” The value of well-selected quotations to serve as finger-posts to guide us day by day is thus set forth by the great German poet, Goethe: “Whatever may be said against such collections which present authors in a disjointed form they nevertheless bring about many excellent results. We are not always so composed, so full of wisdom, that we are able to take in at once the whole scope of a work according to its merits. Do we not mark in a book passages which seem to have a direct reference to ourselves? Young people especially, who have failed in acquiring a complete cultivation of the mind, are roused in a praiseworthy way by brilliant quotations.”
Heroism is simple and yet it is rare. Everyone who does the best he can is a hero. – Josh Billings.
One of the dearest thoughts to me is this – a real friend will never get away from me, or try to, or want to. Love does not have to be tethered. – Anna R. Brown.
And if it shall so happen that some word or sentence or sentiment contained in this book shall rouse in a praiseworthy way just one boy – the very boy whose thought is dwelling on these lines at this very moment – all of this labor of love shall have been abundantly rewarded. For just one boy roused to his best efforts can grandly gladden his own home circle and, perchance, the whole wide world.
In all situations wherein a living man has stood or can stand, there is actually a prize of quite infinite value placed within his reach – namely, a Duty for him to do. – Carlyle.
“Why, the world is at a boy’s feet,” says Burdette, “and power, conquest, and leadership slumber in his rugged arms and care-free heart. A boy sets his ambition at whatever mark he will – lofty or grovelling, as he may elect – and the boy who resolutely sets his heart on fame, on health, on power, on what he will; who consecrates every faculty of his mind and body on ambition, courage, industry, and patience, can trample on genius; for these are better and grander than genius.”
To have what we want is riches, but to be able to do without is power. – George MacDonald.
The past is gone forever; the present is so brief and fleeting we can scarcely call it our own; in the future lies our larger, better hope of a happier civilization. Not the men of yesterday, not the men of to-day, but the men of to-morrow, the boys, are the ones who are to make the world right. They are
THE WORLD’S VICTORS
Let every man be occupied in the highest employment of which his nature is capable, and die with the consciousness that he has done his best. – Sydney Smith.
Hurrah for the beacon-lights of earth, —
The brave, triumphant boys!
Hurrah for their joyous shouts of mirth,
And their blood-bestirring noise!
The bliss of being shall never die,
Nor the old world seem depressed
While a boy’s stout heart is beating high,
Like a glad drum in his breast.
Of course I know that it is better to build a cathedral than to make a boot; but I think it better actually to make a boot than only to dream about building a cathedral. – Ellen Thornycroft Fowler.
Ye wise professors of bookish things,
That burden the souls of men,
Go trade your lore for a boy’s glad wings,
And fly to the stars again.
Nor grope through a shrunken, shrivelled world
That the years have made uncouth,
But march ’neath the flaunting flags unfurled
By the valiant hands of youth.
The most enviable of all titles is the character of an honest man. – Abraham Lincoln.
Oh, never the lamp of age burns low
In its cold and empty cup.
But youth comes by with his face aglow,
And a beacon-light leaps up.
The gloomiest skies grow bright and gay,
And the whispered clouds of doubt
Are swept from the brows of the world away
By a boy’s triumphant shout.
An act of yours is not simply the thing you do, but it is also the way you do it. – Phillips Brooks.
Of the multitudes of boys who are to become the world’s victors, he will succeed best who earliest in life learns carefully to observe and to appreciate the character of his surroundings, and to build into the structure of his manhood the high and abiding influences that come to his hands. As one of our great thinkers given to deep introspection has so impressively said, life, itself, may be compared to a building in the course of construction. It rises slowly, day by day, through the years. Every new lesson we learn lays a block on the edifice which is rising silently within us. Every experience, every touch of another life on ours, every influence that impresses us, every book we read, every conversation we have, every act of our commonest days adds to the invisible building.
