PLAIN WORDS
TO
YOUNG
BY AUGUSTUS WOODBURY.
CONCORD:
EDSON C. EASTMAN.
1 85 8.
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Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1858,
BY  EDSON  C. EASTMAN,
In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of New-Hampshire.
CONCORD, N. H.:
PRINTED BY McFARLAND & JENKS. 
INTR O DUCTION.
THE substance of this volume consists of a series
of Practical Lectures, delivered in the Westminster
Church, Providence, R. I., during the winter months
of 1857-8. They were intended more particularly for
the young men who were connected with the congregation worshipping in that church. I have thought it
best, at the solicitation of friends, to give them a
wider circulation, by embodying them in the present
volume. The young men of Lowell, Mass., will doubtless recognize a portion of these Lectures as delivered
in the Lee Street Church, in that city, a few years
ago. I trust, also, that I may not appeal in vain to
the friendship of the young men of Concord, N. H.,
who have afforded me many pleasant associations. So,
with the hope that these "Plain Words" will be read
with favor and profit by those for whom they were
written, I send out my little book, to meet with whatever fate it may deserve.
I have also added to the Lectures an Address delivered at North Granville, N.Y., July 29, 1857, on the
"Position, Duties and Claims of Woman." 
CONTENTS.
Page.
INTRODUCTORY.................................. 5
THE YOUNG MAN AT IHIOME................... 25
THE YOUNG MAN IN SOCIET     Y..................48
THE YOUNG MAN IN BUSINE SS..................80
CONVERSATION - READING- AMUSEMENTS..112
THE YOUNG )IAN IN THE STATE................ 151
THE YOUNG 1IAN IN THE CHURCH,............186
ADDRESS AT NORTH GRANVILLE, i. Y........221
I.
III.
III.
IV.
V.
VI.
VII.
VIII. 
LEC TU R E S.
I. INTRODUCTORY.
IN introducing a course of Practical Lectures to
Young Men, I wish to bear in mind, and to have it
borne in mind, that I speak as a friend and counsellor,
more than as a preacher. I would address myself as
a young man to young men; one who knows their
temptations, who has felt the pressure of their needs,
and who understands their position. The main purpose which I have in view is, to turn the faculties of
youth in the right direction -that they may engage
themselves on the side of justice, of right, of liberty,
and of religion, and that they may be occupied in the
furtherance of all the best and noblest objects of life.
The Lectures are designed to be thoroughly practical
in their nature, dealing with the subjects proposed in
the simplest and plainest way.
The Lecture this evening, as preliminary, will be
devoted to the consideration of the Duty which a
Young Man owes to himself, in the Use of the Opportunitie-s which he possesses, in our Age and Country,
and the Demands which are now made upon him.
1* 
PLAIN WORDS.
Let us consider, briefly, the position of young men
at the present day  It is not too much to say, that
the present generation of young men occupy a position
most important, as being those who are to determine
the history of the future. There are great events at
hand in the life of mankind, greater than any which
the fathers knew. Old ideas are passing away; new
ideas are coming on, to affect the whole condition of
the human race. They apply themselves to all the various departments of human thought and labor; they enter into every scheme of business and government, and,
in their development, affect all ranks of men. For the
application of these ideas, the young men are the instruments. The old are gradually yielding their places,
and retiring from active life. The young are coming
forward to do the work which remains. The young,
fresh, vigorous life which they infuse into social forces
is needed to give new and stronger power to those
forces, and employ them for the welfare of the race.
"Old men for counsel," says the proverb, "young men
for action!" The sage experience which has tested
the various influences and powers of life, and knows
what they are all worth, must come to give its counsel.
We would not by any means disparage it. It tempers
and restrains; it is prudent and cautious.  But we
need something more.  Prudence is not the only virtue, and caution oftentimes loses the advantage.  A
railroad train furnished only with brakes would make
but little progress, though brakes are very necessary
6 
INTRODUCTORY.
articles. We should never despise the teachings of
experience. But there are daily exigences arising, for
which experience furnishes no rules, and we have to
take counsel of the present rather than of the past,
as we do the work we have in hand with all our
might, as it demands of us to-day. Young men for
action, in the stirring scenes of the present, taking the
opportunity as it comnes, using it faithfully and righteously, and leaving the result with a wise Providence!
It is evident that no grander opportunities have ever
been given to any generation than those which belong to the present time. The general diffusion of
intelligence - the application of knowledge to the useful arts- the quickened activity of the human mind,
arising from the various influences of easier communication-of freedom from the drudgery of labor-of the
accelerated speed of our material progress - and of
the continual increase of material good, all have their
effect, not only upon the condition but also upon the
character. We are obliged to think faster, to feel more
fervently, to comprehend more rapidly, as well as to
work more swiftly. If we delay; if we hang back at
all; if we stop to consider and carefully weigh what
we shall do, we are left behind. The world passes by
us. We are forced to think at the moment, and act
as we think, or we lose our place in the general movement, and are soon forgotten.   This  is inevitable,
as we go forward and take the place of action that
belongs to us. The period of youth, therefore, becomes
7 
PLAIN WORDS.
the period of preparation. We must, as young men,
make ourselves ready, by daily cultivation of our best
faculties, for that which the future has for us to do.
We have to learn what is just and true, that, when the
emergency demands it, we may take our position at
once, and maintain it with that confidence in the
righteousness of our convictions, which is one of the
best assurances of success. There may be danger, it
is true, that we shall form our opinions hastily. But
even that danger will be obviated if we keep our loyalty to the great spirit of Truth unswerving, and are
never false to what we firmly believe to be right. We
have to keep our eyes open to see, and our ears open to
hear, what the world is doing, that we may lose nothing
by our neglect or indolence, but that we may be completely furnished for every work that may come. It is
true, that now young men have a secondary place; but
it will not be so long. Soon the first place will be
theirs. And it will be so the sooner, the more faithful
they are in their preparation for it. Into all the various
questions that disturb the surface, or even reach into the
depths of social life, we may bring the fresh enthusiasm of youth, and decide them by the infusion into
them of a better spirit. The old prejudices, the ancient wrongs, that even now seek to perpetuate themselves at the cost of all things dear to human welfare,
may receive their death-blow at the hands of the true
and earnest men of to-day, who join, with the strength
of youth, the wisdom of righteous principle and the
courage of a noble soul!
8 
INTRODUCTORY.
We should not, it is true, forget our indebtedness to
the past for much of what we now have and enjoy.
It is because of the faithful labors, the victorious struggles, the willing sacrifices, and the heroic self-devotion
of men in the past, that we rejoice to-day in the secure
possession of our manifold benefits. It is because, in
the great exigencies of the past, when truth and righteousness, justice and liberty, trembled on the verge of
defeat, there have been men who loved truth and
righteousness, justice and liberty, better than their own
advantage and their own lives, that the triumph was
gained, and that we enjoy the fruits of the victory.
Other men have labored, and we are always entering
into their labors. They have sowed the seed, and we
gather in the harvest, now whitening all the fields.
We can not look upon the lives of those good and true
men who have gone before us with disrespect, without
losing a portion of the best part of ourselves. The
reverence for nobleness which has been exhibited in
any man's life, is a grand incitement to nobleness in
one's own life.
And this, indeed, is the spirit with which young
men should look back to the past; not to perpetuate
its evil and wrong; still less to seek apologies for inaction and indifference toward the good and right; but,
rather and always to feel inspired to better and nobler lives in the present, than any that have yet been
lived. We should not look back upon those ages,
which we call sacred, as though they never could be
9 
PLAIN WORDS.
repeated, but try to understand and thoroughly believe that we can make our own age sacred. It is not
the time, in history, but the men of history, that
make the time heroic, and in all ages duty has been
the' real basis of heroism. And we ourselves, to-day,
having the same nature, heart, conscience, soul, that
have lived in man in the best age of history, may
make the present as full of real nobility as the past,
add our contribution to the sum of human welfare,
and our names to the honored list of the world's true
men.
There is a kind of conservatism which is timid
and fearful; which looks backward instead of forward; which has no hope and no cheerful faith. It
refuses to engage in the movements of the times, because they are revolutionary. It is content to let the
world go on its way, and raises no hand to help its
necessities; for why should the existing order be disturbed? It is tenacious of all things old, and would
touch no prevailing wrong, if it have the sanction of
antiquity. It excuses every evil that curses the race,
because it has existed; and, in the midst of its ancestral comfort, pride and place, it refuses to reach down
to the struggling, perishing classes of men below it, or
give them the aid and sympathy which they require.
Like Old M3ortality, it gropes about among the tombs
of a buried past, to renew their useless inscriptions, and
re-build the monuments of men whom the world would
be very glad to forget.
10 
INTRODUCTORY.
Such is not the conservatism which should dwell in
a young man's life. He should look back upon the
past to be incited by the noble examples which it furnishes; to have his love of liberty fired by the remembrance of the martyrs to the cause of the world's
freedom; to have duty made more honorable by its
connection with all the honored sons of men; to have
the flame of religion kindled by contact with the divine fire that burns upon the world's altars of devotion! He should desire to preserve and enlarge the
good which the past has wrought; while the whole
energy of his nature should be employed in diminishing and putting an end to the evil which the past has
left. He should be bold, laying hold upon life with a
firm, strong hand. Hie should be courageous, throwing himself into the breach, where assaulting parties
march on to victory over the beleaguered wrong of
centuries. Hie should take counsel of his hopes and
not of his fears, and press forward to the triumph
which awaits all right endeavor. Or, if failure comes,
it will be a failure which loses every sting of defeat by
reason of the courage with which and the noble end
for which the battle has been waged. This is the
young man's true conservatism- not of falsehood,
though it be ever so respectable -but of all genuine
righteousness and all truthful honor!
The present has its responsibilities, which it is
always laying upon young men. If we are indebted
to the past for any good, we are responsible to the
11 
PLAIN WORDS.
present for its right use. Hiere and now are duties to
be done, which can not possibly be neglected with
safety.  They come up to us from all the places of
human life, demanding of us a faithful attention and
a faithful work. The time which is allowed any of
us must of necessity be short, even at the longest.  So
much the more imperative become the duties of the
time. It is not to be wasted. It is not to be squandered in useless extravagance, nor dissipated in destructive pleasures. It is not to be abused in petty
tyranny over the weak, nor is it to be lost in servile
sycophancy before the strong. It is not to be allowed
to run away in shallow streams, affording no fruitful
resource, or in idle pursuits, accomplishing no worthy
object. It is to be used for good results and worthy
ends. It is to be preserved from every moth and rust.
It is to be filled with the best and truest deeds. It is
to be like the deep and mighty river, bearing the
wealth of states upon its surface, and, in the bosom of
its waters, the fertilizing influence which covers all the
fields along its course with plenty, and fills a continent with blessing! And, over all, shall be the smiling
heavens, bright with the benedictions of God!
There are obligations to the future as well as responsibilities to the present and indebtedness to the past.
No  man  takes  a wise, judicious, or even  proper
view of life, who does not include in it a prospect of
the future. He must take into the account the consequences of his actions, as well as the actions them
12 
INTRODUCTORY.
selves. ie must understand that he is under the great
law of cause and effect, and that what he does to-day
will have the widest results in all the days to come.
It is not simply that the days of early life are passing
over him with their sweet, bright influence. It is not
simply that life is all fresh and new, and the sun is
bright, and the sky has no cloud. It is, that there
are other days and other years, flowing out of these;
that the time is coming when the face of the sky will
be clouded over, and the sun will be darkened. It is
well that these bright days should pass with such trusty
faithfulness, that they shall leave behind, in memory,
nothing to make the dark days darker; every thing
which shall send rays of blessed sunshine into the
cloudy years that are before us. We may, even noaw,
store away in our souls such precious and bright possessions, as will enrich our lives through their whole
course -as shall strengthen us in all time to come.
He who works for the future in the present hour,
is working well. He who knows that every faithful
work in the present is a work for the future, has a
wise understanding of life. The engineer builds a
bridge, not simply to span a placid, Summer stream,
but strong enough to withstand the greatest force of
the Spring-time freshet. Every stone which he lays,
in raising the massive piers, is laid for the future exigency, and the greater his faithfulness in the present
work, the more secure will be the structure for its
future needs. The ultimate and the final are kept in
2
13 
PLAIN WORDS.
view equally with the immediate and original. Let
the young man so live and work in the present, as not
to be ashamed of what he has done, when, by and by,
he looks back upon his accomplishment. Sad enough
will it be, if he shall add to the weakness of his future
years the shame of conscious neglect and unworthiness in the present days, and if, in the midst of the
ruins of his manhood, he shall weep over the unrepented follies and sins of a misspent youth.
The demand thus made upon young men is, in the
highest sense, connected with all goodness and greatness of character. All that the past furnishes, all that
the present possesses, and all that the future may have
in it, unite in calling upon the young man of our times
to be faithful to what he already has, and to what
may, by diligence, obtain. This appeal is made, not
that he may add to his outward acquirements, so much
as to those accomplishments of character, which will
make him truly wise and truly wealthy; that he may
augment the worth of his manhood, more than the value
of his property, and that he may become more manly,
honest and true, as he grows in years. There is no one
of us so poor as to be deprived of real enjoyment in
the use of his mental and spiritual faculties, or to suffer
destitution of the best things of life. We all are rich
in the possession of the noblest examples. We all
may run our course of life parallel with the worthiest
of our race. The possibilities of our manhood are of
the highest kind, and there is no attainment of per
14 
INTRODUCTORY.
sonal excellence that we should allow ourselves to dispair of. We must not disappoint the future of its
expected triumphs. We must not allow any thing
good to be lost by our indifference, or selfishness, or
neglect, but go forward with unwearied step, fulfilling the promise which we have given, and more than
meeting the expectation which the age awaits. We
can if we will. If we will not, we are faithless to our
trust.
I think, too, we owe something to the land in
which we live, and to the glories of its history. We
ought to change the meaning of that term, given us
too often as a reproach, and make our "Young American" manhood the type of all that is noble and worthy
of ourselves and our origin. We have too long suffered under the opprobrium which the vices and indulgences, the dishonesty and crime, the recklessness and
bravado, the rioting and debauchery of many of our
young men have brought upon the American character. We ought not to allow ourselves to suffer under
the contempt of the world, because our young men go
abroad, and, neglecting the highest and best things of
the old civilization, return with the worst part of European customs; because we repudiate the payment of
our debts, and fail of meeting our engagements; because we pour out hordes of piratical adventurers to
steal a weaker neighbor's property; because we palliate the existence of the worst oppression, in the midst
of our boasts of republicanism and democracy. It
15 
PLAIN WORDS.
belongs to us, in part, my brothers, to put a new meaning to the phrase, "Young America;"  to make it
expressive of all that is true, just, honest, honorable
and manly; to give the world assurance that this new
continent rears a nation of free men, who are distinguLished for all the virtues of a Christian civilization.
Let us cast off our reproach, and be true to the great
ideas of our national life - that the fathers of our republic may not have lived in vain, or that we ourselves
may not subsist upon the honor of a noble ancestry.
Let uLs make it abundantly manifest that we are living,
rot wholly for trade and dishonest speculation, and the
exercise of power over the weak, and the accumulations of our gains at the expense of others; but for all
graceful yet manly culture, for all upright and generoub enterprise, for all noble and heroic adventure, for
all eminence in true national greatness, crowning the
w-lhole with a genuine religion! This must be most
especially true as it regards us of New-England, who
have so bright a record in the past and such hopes of
glory in the future. Hiere would we work for truth,
and liberty, and God!
"It concerneth New-England men always to remember," said the celebrated  Iigginson, in 1663, "that
they are a plantation religious, and not a plantation of
trade. Let merchants, and such others as are increasing cent. per cent., remember this, that worldly gain
was not the end and design of the people of New-England, but religion.  And if any man among us make
16 
INTRODUCTORY.
religion as twelve and the world as thirteen, such an
one has not the spirit of a true New-England man."
Have we the ability thus to work? There are certain
qualities of character, as it were, natural to young
men, which, if rightly directed, are capable of accomplishing all this and more. Let me briefly recount
them:
1. FRESHNESS. The young man brings to the work
of life a fresh strength. His opinions are newly formed.
He is not affected by prejudice.  He is not bound by
the fetters of custom and convention. The subjects
which appeal to his attention, and ask for discussion,
come to him as new subjects, without the influence of
old associations. Unhampered by precedent, independent in thought, and free in mind, he approaches his
task, and if it is not readily accomplished, his endeavors in it are worthy of all commendation. It is a
great advantage to have this fresh element of youth
continually pouring in upon the movements of human
thought. It is like the breath of Spring upon the cold
WVinter of the year. It is like the pure breezes of the
open country upon the close and deadened atmosphere of the crowded city. Old men sometimes smile,
and perhaps oftener rebuke the extravagance of
young men's opinions. But it is a healthy extravagance, if it is honestly held, and it serves to prevent
that stagnation of thought which is most of all to be
dreaded. It is a good thing to have the discussion and
the work of life freshened by our young men!
2*
17 
PLAIN WORDS.
2. GENEROsITY.  A young man is usually generous
in his estimate of life. Hle looks out upon the world
with a wide view. Hle is free from the narrowness
which the selfish policy of subsequent years produces;
and, in the high spirit of generous resolution, he goes
forth to the duty before him. This generosity of character may be perverted and abused; yet, in its true
exercise, it is an admirable quality. We are glad that
it is characteristic of youth.   Selfishness comes on
speedily enough at the latest, and it is fortunate for us
that there is one season of life comparatively free from
its destructive presence; when the soul looks out with
healthy and generous eyes upon the objects around it;
is willing to believe and trust; rejoices in the liberal
thought of life, and is grateful for the promise which
it makes!
3. ENTRUSIASM.  Young men are generally full of
this feeling.  Nothing seems to be difficult.   Every
thing is easy. The way is clear before the mind. The
obstructions and hindrances are not perceived, or, if
regarded at all, are deemed of slight importance.  For
with all this generous power of heart, and mind, and
soul, there can hardly be a doubt of success. Indeed,
enthusiasm is always requisite for success. We have
little faith in a cool, calculating, indifferent man, who
is never astonished at any thing, however wonderful;
who is more disposed to reason than to act, and who
receives every proposition with a doubting hesitancy,
and by his excessive caution loses the opportunity of
18 
INTRODUCTORY.
striking the decisive blow at the decisive time. We
know how such men as these throw a dampening and
chilling influence over every worthy enterprise, and
freeze it into complete inertion. We dread to meet such
men. How much better and more encouraging to meet
a man who inspires our own enthusiasm by his cheering cooperation and his ready confidence!
" There is," says Bacon, "surely no greater wisdom
than well to time the beginning and onset of things.
Dangers are no more light, if they once seem light. It
were better to meet some dangers half way, than to
keep too long a watch upon their approaches. The ripeness and unripeness of the occasion must ever be well
weighed; and generally it is good to commit the beginnings of all great actions to Argus, with his hundred
eyes, and to Briareus, with his hundred arms-first to
watch and then to speed.  There is no seeing comparable to celerity  like the motion of a bullet in the air,
which flieth so swvift as it outruns the eye."
4. HOPE. This belongs to the early part of life in
an eminent degree. The young man has no retrospect. It is all prospect. HIe has nothing to do but
to look forward; and in that forward view he sees
every thing pertaining to a successful life. He rarely
thinks of disappointment. It seldom enters into his
calculations. There are no clouds. It is all sunshine,
happiness and joy; and he hastens forward, never
doubting that the prize which he seeks will speedily
be in his grasp, and the mark at which he aims com
19 
PLAIN WORDS.
pletely attained. Soon, he meets with defeat and disappointment. But his hope is still strong that every
loss will be retrieved and the victory will be gained at
last. Is not this better than to sit down weakened
and despairing, and refuse to labor, supposing it useless? No true man is he, who allows a single failure
or defeat to overcome his purpose. It is cowardly to
fall prostrate before misfortune. It is unmanly, and
more cowardly still to seek an escape from trouble by
an escape from life. It is more manly, brave and true,
to live through and over misfortune, and in the most
disheartening circumstances, "never say, die!"
5. ENERGY. The young man joins, with all the other
qualities of character, a prompt energy. iHe takes
hold with an energetic grasp. Hie goes to his work with
a will. So general is this characteristic, that it is an
exception and a matter of remark to find a young man
who prefers indolence to exertion, and is more willing
to waste his time in utter idleness, than to improve it
by active energy. We look upon him, not only as a man
who forfeits our respect, but as one who is untrue to
q~
his own nature and the best qualities of his character.
It is not in accordance with our feelings or our
thoughts respecting the true worth of young manhood, to see idleness preferred to useful work, and the
best part of life misused in folly and indulgence, preparing for a manhood of bitter regrets and an old age
of sorrowful memories! "The glory of young men is
their strength," says the iebrew moralist. But when
20 
INTRODUCTORY.
that glory has been changed into shame, by their own
folly, it is a sad thing for the whole life. Such clouds
as this will bring are not cleared away. They settle
down in darkness over the life forever.
We can not shut our eyes to the fact that there is a
well grounded apprehension that these qualities of
character may be perverted and abused. To escape this
danger, to make it certain that they shall be used as
they ought, it is needful that they should be consecrated
to right and truth, by a spirit of loyalty to religious
principle. There is no danger to a young man, with all
his restless activity, if he can keep himself true to his
own convictions of duty.   The natural qualities of
character which he possesses, are the most effective
for accomplishing the best results for himself and for
all the race. Hie can, if he will, make the whole world
debtor to him. He can, if he will, grow a manhood
which shall be the reality of beauty and nobility, such
as the world has never witnessed. When we look
upon the noblest works of art, the almost breathing
marble, the almost speaking canvas, we are stirred
with emotions of admiration.   Our own  souls are
moved to action. We, too, would wish to possess and
use the genius which has planned, the skill which
has produced the sculpture or painting that attracts
our gaze. Ah! believe me, we are engaged upon a
work far transcending any such production, great
though it be. We are engaged in carving out a
sculpture  more  enduring  than  marble.   We  are
21 
PLAIN WORDS.
engaged in depicting what shall be bright and fresh
when the colors of the artist have faded, and the canvas has crumbled- a nobler work than the genius of
sculptor or painter has yet devised!
Let us, then, be faithful to what we have inherited
from the past, faithful to the duties which the present
hour brings, faithful to the expectations which the
future waits for; faithful to the age in which we live,
and the land we are proud and glad to call our own!
Let our fresh vigor be kept unstained and unpolluted.
If there is an object most to be pitied, it is that of a
young man who professes to be sick and tired of life;
who finds nothing around him to awaken his ambition,
or call out his energies, and passes his days in listlessness and sloth. Let him arouse himself to the work
of life, and be true to his own soul and its necessities
of exertion!  Let our generosity pour out its treasures for the benefit of the world.  That is the truest
life which lives for others' good. Let it be as the
Divine and Christly generosity, which continually
flows out upon mankind in true benevolence and unselfish charity. Let our enthusiasm be employed to the
furtherance of the highest and purest ends. In the
old language of the past, enthusiasm meant the inspiration of the gods. So, in our day, the enthusiasm of
youth may be like the inspired presence of a Deityfilled with a divine purpose, and acting upon all human life with an almost divine power.
Finally, let hope and energy have their consecration
22 
INTRODUCTORY.
to the prosecution of the worthiest enterprises. It is a
grand sight, that of a man pursuing some great plan
with an enthusiasm that is never quenched, with a
hope that never falters, and an energy that is never
wearied; like Columbus, seeking a new world- like
Newton, searching the depths of space for the wonders
of the universe -like Wilberforce, freeing whole tribes
of men from cruel servitude- like Luther, leading
out the faculties of the mind from a bondage worse
than Egyptian slavery. We, too, have a great plan
to follow - a great end to secure. Let us, too, with
enthusiastic energy and with buoyant hope, live and
work for liberty and truth. There are triumphs yet to
be achieved by all true and earnest men. Heaven's roll
is never full of the names of the just. Let our names,
too, be written on that eternal record, which bears the
story of immortal virtue!
"I know that age to age succeeds,
Blowing a noise of tongues and deeds,
A dust of systems and of creeds.
"I can not hide that some have striven,
Achieving calm, to whom is given
The joy that mixes man with Heaven 
"Who, rowing hard against the stream,
Saw distant gates of Eden gleam,
And did not dream it was a dream;
23 
PLAIN WORDS.
"But heard, by secret transport led,
Even in the charnels of the dead,
The murmur of the fountain-head
"Which did accomplish their desire,
Bore and forebore, and did not tire;
Like Stephen an unquenched fire.
"He heeded not reviling tones,
Nor sold his heart to idle moans,
Though cursed and scorned and bruised with stones:
"But, looking upward, full of grace,
He prayed, and from a happy place,
God's glory smote him on the face."
24 
II. THE YOUNG MAN AT HOME.
IN my last Lecture I spoke sufficiently of the
young man's duties to himself to prepare him for the
work of a man in the present age. We saw him to be
rich in the examples of nobleness which the past has
furnished-earnest in his fidelity to the present and the
future, and consecrating the fresh energy, enthusiasm,
vigor and hope of his early days to the purest and
highest purposes.  By such means he becomes capable
of accomplishing the best and most glorious results.
But there are relations to others which demand consideration. As no man liveth, and no man can live to
himself alone-as his own happiness and good must depend, in a great measure, upon those around him, and
theirs, too, reciprocally, upon him-it becomes a matter
of considerable importance to understand how best the
relations to others can be improved for the good of the
whole.
First in time, if not the first in rank, come forward
the duties which the young man owes at home - to
his family and kindred. So I have decided to ask
your attention this evening to a consideration of the
Domestic Duties of Young Men.
Those of you who have been constant attendants
upon the weekly service in this place, know that our
8 
IPLAIN WORtDS,
thoughts have frequently been directed to the contemplation of home duties, because, I have no doubt in
my own mind, the institution of the family has,
under Providence, a vast influence, not only upon individual character, but also upon the progress of civilization and religion. Had we time to devote to it, the
power of home and its influence upon the character of
the human race, would be a subject well worthy our investigation I think it can be shown that those nations
have the truest theory of civilization, and the truest
practice, also, which have the most regard to home and
its duties, and among which home holds a high and
sacred place. We, of the Anglo Saxon race, are accustomed to think of ourselves as standing in the van; as
holding the front rank in the onward march of mankind. It is not without reason that we are accustomed
thus to think. There can be no question that in energy, in perseverance, in skill in the useful arts, in
ideas of government and theories of religion, we do
stand in the front rank. Let us once understand what
can be done by man, and there will always be found
enough among us willing and able to do it. And it will
not be difficult to determine how much of all this is due
to the influence of home; for home is peculiarly an
Anglo Saxon word, with a peculiar Anglo Saxon meaning. Just so it is. With us, home is the grand though
quiet theater of our noblest and. purest duties, and in
its true character becomes to us not only an educating
influence, exerted upon one's own manhood, but also
26 
THE YOUNG MAN AT HOME.
the educating influence of society. It has been called,
and not unjustly, the conscience of society; for it
certainly is the regulating principle of social forces.
It is but necessary that there should be a right home
education to produce a state of society which would be,
so far as possible, perfect. So convinced am I of this
fact, that there is nothing which I would wish to
guard with more sacred and constant vigilance than
the home affections; nothing which I would oppose
with a more strenuous resistance than that which in
any way attacks, or undervalues, or seeks to undermine
them. All social evils find their worst result in the
destruction of these; in the rupture of domestic ties;
in the overthrow of that institution of the family, on
which, as a foundation, the fabric of society rests most
securely. What gives intemperance such a dreadful
character is, in most part, that it degrades and destroys home.  What is one of the worst features of
Slavery is, that it separates families, makes the marriage tie depend simply upon custom, and caprice, and
ownership, and stains the holiest afections of human
nature with a vile concupiscence. What seems to me
the most dangerous as well as the most revolting aspect of Alormonism is, not the slavish subjection of the
mind to a priestly domination -for that is a characteristic of other communities;- but  the sanctioned
practice of polygamy debasing, uncivilized, and fatal
as it must be to all the best interests of human life.
It is true, that this feeling respecting home may de
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PLAIN WORDS.
generate into a selfish love of home comforts and ease;
and that it may so completely engross the heart as to
shut out the recollection of those who are homeless.
One may be so fully occupied with his own home as
to forget the claims of those outside of its walls, and
be unmindful of his duties toward them. But that is
by no means a legitimate result. A right home education always takes into account that the pure and warm
affections which expand amid the quickening influences
of domestic life, are not narrow or exclusive in their
embrace. One soon learns that under the truth of
what Jesus has taught respecting God and man, all
mankind form one great family, and that it is none
other than a brother or a sister whom we are called
upon to love and labor for. One soon learns that the
tics of kindred connect all human life together, and,
as they extend, invisibly, but every where, throughout
the world of human effort and human labor, join us
all in one grand unity, to promote and strengthen
which is the great object of our earthly existence.
I think, then, I do not over-estimate the domestic
duties of young men when I bring forward their consideration as of prime importance.   Is it necessary
that I should urge you to love your homes?  That
love is even now in all our hearts.  We can not wholly
eradicate, indeed vwe would not wish to do it, the love
we feel for the home we have quitted; nor can we
break the ties which bind us to it. It belongs to the
human heart to cast a retrospective eye upon the
28 
THE YOUNG MAN AT HOME.
scenes of early life, and recall again the affections
which were its first blessing. When a man goes out,
in early life, from the home which sheltered him, to
contend, as best he may, with the world about him, he
may burrow in the golden mine, he may plunge into
the heart of the primeval forest, he may trust his fortune upon the treacherous ocean, or mingle in the strife
of the city's busy crowds, but still, in every lull of the
boisterous elements of his life, there come stealing in
upon him thoughts of home and early days. The
scenes through which he wandered in childhood's
heedless innocence, or boyhood's daring play- the old
school-house, which had witnessed his first attempts to
find his way to knowledge - the sunny hill-side and
the plain, on whose soft carpet of springing grass he
had spent many an hour of careless enjoyment - the
wild flowers that grew upon the banks of the murmuring brook - the woods and the rocky rills- all are
there upon the memory; no one faded, and none lost.
And in the center stands the dear old homestead -
some low-browed cottage, under the hill or on the river
bank, or by the shore of the sea, or some ancestral
mansion, with its family histories to make it venerable.
And as he thinks of all this, in delightful reverie, he
seems to feel once more around him the father's strong
arm, and hear once more his words of manly counsel; a
mother's tear wets his cheek, and her gentle kiss is felt
upon his lips! The needle of his being may have many
variations, as it becomes subjected to various influences;
3*
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PLAIN WORDS.
yet it is still true to one place, and that place is where
he spent his early days, or where his fathers dwelt. Almost imperceptibly to himself, he is filled with longing
for a return to these scenes whose memory has so
lightened his toils. The successful business man looks
forward to the time when he can lay aside his cares,
and go quietly home to rest. The soldier, amid war's
alarms, dreams, in the nightly bivouacs of his distant
campaigns, of
"The pleasant fields traversed so oft,
In life's morning, march, when his bosom was young!"
The professional man would retire from the exhausting labors of his work, and, closing peacefully a life of
graceful culture, pass the evening of his days in literary leisure, among the scenes where his first lessons
had been learned.   The statesman wearies  of the
strifes of partnd  the forum, and the applause of the
seinte house, and sighs for some quiet retreat among
the old friends and neighbors that have watched his
aspiring career, and felt an honest pride in his triumphs.  And those who are compelled to spend their
whole lives away from home, and can not hope to return, still desire that at the last their dust will mingle
with th% ashes of their fathers, in the old churchyard which contains the mortal part of those whom
they have once known and loved.
"Fresh as the first beam glittering on a sail,
That brings our friends up from the under world,
30 
THE YOUNG MAN AT HOME.
Sad as the last, which reddens over one,
That sinks, with all we love, below the verge:
So sad, so fresh the days that are no more!"
Believe me, these remembrances are to all of us a
saving power in this heated and exciting city life- a
saving power-for the thought, that your wrong and sin
will not spend the force of its blow till it has reached
and shattered those hearts at home which are always
turned toward you, and are most tenderly sensible of
every thing you are now and here doing, will be a
restraint between you and the wickedness you would
commit, and will stay the hand which is lifted to do a
deed of sin. It will become a strengthening power,
too, for the remembrance of the fact that there are
others watching your course with anxious and loving
solicitude, and whose life you will make brighter and
more joyful by your fidelity, will impel you to be faithful, both to your own manhood and their fond ekpectations.  Never, then, my friend, allow your love of
home to be weakened or in any way lessened. Cherish
it as among the best affections, and as among those
powers which are the choicest treasures of your manhood. It is a power and it is a treasure which will
most essentially weaken and impoverish you to lose.
It is a sad thing for a man when the influences
and recollections of early life cease to have power over
him. It is a sad thing for a man when he becomes
ashamed of them; when, in the midst of school, or
college, or business life, he allows himself to forget his
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early days and the friends who have cherished him.
It is a terrible thing for those who love hirn to trace
the marks which sensuality and dissipation make upon
the features that they have loved to look upon, and to
see how the freshness and purity of home life is lost
under the brutalizing influence of self-indulgence and
vice. No! we can not afford to lose the remembrances of early days, and the power of home affections!
For the sake of greater directness and clearness, let
me be a little more particular and specific. To speak
in general terms of domestic duties, does not appear to
me sufficiently explicit; and so I divide the subject
into its appropriate heads.
1. Of course the most obvious and the first must be
the filial duties of young men- those which are owed
to parents. A good son - one who remembers that
parents expect much from his fidelity, and who is anxious not to disappoint the expectation; who remembers that the joy of those who reared him in infancy,
is now dependent upon him, and who wishes to be
their support and solace in the years of weakness;
who feels that obedience and respect and honor are
not only their due, but his imperative obligation, and
whose great business it is to be obedient and respectful, is almost morally certain of being a good and honorable and upright man. And this duty of his is one
of gratitude.  For who was it that watched over your
infancy with such a tender care; who helped your
helplessness, who strengthened your weakness, and
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THE YOUNG MAN AT HOME.
guarded your earliest years with such a watchful
vigilance? Who was the best and most faithful counselor of your youth and early manhood, with that
disinterested friendship and love which only a parent
can feel?  Who but the father, whose manly love was
given in its fullness for your good? Who but the
mother, in whose heart of hearts there was always a
choice place reserved for you; who first forgave your
faults; who first encouraged you to faithfulness; of
whose love, in all your wanderings and errors, you are
most sure, and whose approbation of your success is
always most welcome? Is it possible that all this
can be forgotten, and that the young man in his folly
should turn away from the recollection or the counsels
of those friends who have always been true and most
constant, to hearken to the solicitations and listen to
the allurements of those whose best professions of
friendship are a falsehood? It is not simply empty
protestations of regard and esteem, which a man
should make in return for the fullness of parental love
which is poured on him. Words are but very little
and very weak. They who are most really contentious in families are generally those who are most profuse in words of affection. But it is the act of fidelity
to right convictions. It is not even the fear of parents' displeasure that should be the restraint from the
contemplated sin, nor the expectation of parental approval, that should be the encouragement to virtue
But it is the reflection that a course of wrong will be
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PLAIN WORDS.
for a parent's unspeakable grief and pain; that a
course of right and truthfulness for a parent's unspeakable happiness and joy. It is the remembrance
that your failure injures not yourself alone, but will
also bring gray hairs in sorrow to the grave; that
your success will not only give you joy, but will make
the burden of years lighter, and give a quicker buoyancy to all the life of those at home. There is not a
parent within the hearing of my voice to-night but is
proud of a faithful son- but is ashamed and sad for a
foolish and unfaithful one. And is it not sufficient for
you, young men, to understand this as most unquestionably true in the case of your own parents? I
trust that there is no one of us who does not appreciate the value of genuine parental love; which spends
itself and knows no weariness for the good of those
dependent upon its power.  Life is more full of joy for
all its influence of good. Hie that has a parent's life
to look upon, which has been always faithful and true,
has something rich and full, which he can not be deprived of without great injury. It is a blessing from
heaven that such a life is given him. I-ow beautifully
Tennyson describes a mother! One
Not learned, save in gracious household ways;
Not perfect, nay, but full of tender wants;
No angel, but a dearer being,.all dipt
In angel instincts, breathing Paradise,Interpreter between the gods and men.
Who looked all native to her place, and yet
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TnlE YOUNG MAN AT  HOM.E.
On tiptoe seemed to touch upon a sphere
Too gross to tread, and all male minds perforce
Swayed to her from their orbits as they moved,
And girdled her with music. Happy he
With such a mother! Trust in all things high
Comes easy to him, and though he trip and fall,
He shall not blind his soul with clay.
It may be that there are exceptions to all this.
There may be unfaithfulness in parents. Their duties
may not be performed as they should be. But even
where this is the case, the obligation is not wholly
wanting. For it may be the means, if it is truly met,
of exercising a beneficial influence upon the parent's
life, and even the means, as it has been in some
instances, of its salvation. I do not see, then, any
way in which filial duties can be avoided; and I
know of nothing nobler or more beautiful than the
fidelity to such duties -where the manliness of opening life furnishes a support for the declining vigor of
old age; where the debt of early years is repaid
with grateful constancy; where tottering steps are
guided with tenderness, and weakening years are
strengthened with ready help; where a successful and
useful life is made more honorable by the knowledge
that its success and usefulness will make the heart of
age rejoice, and send the blood with quicker flow
through all its sluggish course.
2. Brotherly duties, there are - to gladden a sister's life, to aid in unfolding a brother's character.
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PLAIN WORIDS
There can be no doubt that brothers' influence upon
each other and upon sisters is of the strongest kind.
It is a singular tie, this of family relationship, and the
influence that is exercised upon its connections is of
a wonderful nature. It is a mysterious union, and
one having most momentous consequences. Between
brothers and sisters there is generally more confidence
than between parents and children; and the reason is
obvious. A nearer equality of age, a freer intercourse,
a unity of pursuits, all conduce to less restraint and
more open deportment toward each other. Where
there are, as there should be, a regard always for each
other's happiness and welfare, a constant remembrance
of the claims of each upon the other, and a fidelity
in answering those claims; where the intercourse is
always of the most kindly sort, there can be no question of its excellent influence in shaping the character
and increasing the good of all. Most especially is this
true of an elder brother. And where, as happens not
seldom, the head of the family may be removed by
death, and a widowed mother leans upon him for support, and younger brothers and sisters look up to him
for example, while the responsibility is increased, the
mceans of good are likewise increased.   The elder
brother then becomes, as he deserves to be, the most
important, as he is the most privileged member of the
household circle.  We  all understand that there is
nothing more conducive to one's happiness in after
life, and not only that, but also to his real good and
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THE YOUNG MAN AT HOME.
usefulness, than a happy home with its excellent
educating influences. We all ought to understand that
in producing that happiness and promoting that good,
each one has his or her part to do. The art of living
happily with others may be a very difficult one to
acquire, but it is so, because there is a forgetfulness on
the part of the different persons, that each one has
somewhat of happiness and good to contribute as well
as to receive, and that each one should see that the
contribution is always generously made. Every one
indeed has very much to learn-how mutual forbearance- a control of temper —self-forgetfulness-and a
true love for others' good, are the means of filling one's
home with happiness-and I know of none who can
teach it better by a continual example, than a generous, true, manly elder brother.
3. The time comes to every one, when the affections
pass beyond the home walls-when the love of brother
and sister, of father and mother, does not satisfy-and
the heart must find some one who shall be dearer to it
than all others. Hiere I am aware that we are coming
to exceedingly delicate ground, and it is with careful
step that we must pursue our way. In affairs of the
heart, no one can give advice. Yet a few suggestions
may not be altogether out of place. Indeed, so far as
these matters are concerned, I am confident that no
subject becomes more worthy the young man's attention, involving as it does, oftentimes, the whole happiness of his after life- and not his own happiness
4
37 
PLAIN WORDS.
alone, but that of another whose welfare should be
nearest his heart. So, too, there are dangers which
environ this time of life, which demand a word of
caution-dangers lest passion should be master and
not a real affection-lest love should degenerate into
lust- lest a too hasty preference, founded on no substantial qualities of mind or heart, should take the
place of a profound regard which only grows deeper
and stronger as the years of married life move on.
There are too many ill-conditioned and wrongly advised marriages now embittering human life to allow
me to pass over a matter fraught with such consequences of joy or sorrow, in silence or without heed.
God has so created us, that a union of the sexes is
almost a necessity of our nature for its proper development, and there is no question that when that union
takes place under the influence of a genuine mutual
affection, the best and happiest results to one's self
-and all human life will be its issue. The best and
gentlest part of our nature becomes developed and
becomes active. The most beautifying graces of character blossom out even from the rudest natures. Over
the life spreads a new glory and brightness. Love, of
which poets have sung, and which every true man and
woman feels, at some time in his or her life, with a
thrill of heart and soul, which shows that human
nature is not all lost in the depths of a sinful selfishness-is indeed not alone the master spirit of life, but
is also the good genius of life.  He who gives it free
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THE YOUNG MAN AT HOME.
and generous scope, and keeps it pure and warm
within him, gives himself nobility. He who debases
it into a wicked passion, and makes himself its victim,
is doing himself immeasurable wrong- is losing his
best possession, and is abusing one of the divinest gifts
ever bestowed upon man by the mercy of the Father.
Of what blessed and blissful humanities has true love
been the source! What scorching flames, devouring
with insatiate greed body, mind and soul, have been
kindled by a shameless lust!
So I would ask you not to abuse this blessing of
your life.  But I fear it is abused in various ways.
One too common way is that mischievous, thoughtless,
and heartless conduct, which, in the language of the
day, is called flirtation. A female coquette is indeed
contemptible, but a male flirt is far more so. The
man who, in his careless selfishness will give himself,
perhaps in amusement or from caprice, to trifling with
the best  affections of another-and that other a
woman- who will refuse in his willfulness to understand how much pain and sorrow, perhaps for a lifetime he is causing-who is ever seeking in his foolish
dalliance for some new companion to please his fancy
-false and faithless as he is-is despicable and worthless. Let no young man who hears me ever put himself into such a position. While it is one of dishonor
to himself, it is one of misery to others, and the
thought of that, at least, should operate as a restraint.
True, indeed, there is much foolish sentimentalism in
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PLAIN WORDS.
this matter-which it is not for me to indulge in
but aside from that, it is a matter of exceeding seriousness, which we should all do well to heed.
Out of it too often grows that character- the worst
embodiment of human wickedness — the avowed and
acknowledged libertine. The language does not furnish terms for expressing the just abhorrence of him,
whose cruel desires are never satisfied -whose life is
one continued sin -whose systematic course is that
of ruin to himself and others -who plays with the
unsuspecting victims of his wiles with utter heartlessness-and leaves them at last to a bitter and wretched
destruction. There is many a course of shamue, and of
shamelessness-of that peculiar crime of great citieswhich had its beginning in the first destruction of
womanly innocence and purity at the hands of the
seducer. I am not blind to the fact that there are
persons of this class belonging to both sexes; but even
when this is so, it is because the honor and virtue of
the woman have been first destroyed by man. The
general opinion of society is in part censurable for
this. For while the woman finds herself devoid of
sympathy, even from her own sex, and is shut out from
the use of the means of reformation, the man who has
done all the mischief still retains his social position,
is as much caressed and smiled on as before, finds
himself no less respectable, and, though every step he
takes mercilessly crushes hearts that have been too
confiding, there is no one to shudder at his baseness
40 
THE YOUNG MAN AT HOME.
no one to deny him friendship. Till but very lately,
there was no law in all the land by which he could be
punished for his crime. We have yet to learn pity and
compassion for the tempted one; we have yet to learn
abhorrence of the tempter-that there is no punishment too severe for him-no word too expressive to
declare his guilt! Do not abuse, young man, oh do
not abuse this blessing of the Father's love; this mysterious power of attraction which draws human hearts
toward each other, that each may find its complement
and enjoy its full satisfaction of affection.
4. Avoiding these dangers then, when the time
comes for building up a new home, let its foundations
be laid in that true affection which is the blessing of
life-in that mutual confidence and high regard which
can alone insure happiness -in that spirit of religion,
of dependence upon God, of piety and trust, which
throws its beauty round about the household, and
spreads over it a glory which is born of Heaven itself.
Marriage is a Divine institution, full of good to man.
It is full of responsibility too, and of duty-never to
be entered except with a profound understanding of
what there is of duty and of good in it - never in
heedlessness and thoughtlessness and haste. If entered upon aright, there is no question that married
life, consecrated by the spirit of religion and pursued
with mutual forbearance, has a fullness of happiness
and good in all its course. It is a discipline, too, of
man's nobler powers, and of his highest virtues. There
4*
41 
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are consequences of the most important moment to
individual happiness and good, and to social welfare in
the habitual intercourse of men and women with each
other. It is not safe, even in the smallest degree, to
blunt the keenest edge, or dim the finest temper of
principle. There can be no such thing as security in
trifling with the most sacred obligations of life. There
is great danger that youthful purity will become corrupted, and that which should be the crown of virtue
in woman and honor in man be made a by-word and
reproach! No one can thus live with a constant feeling that there is another depending upon him for
support, for protection, for welfare; no one can live
with a surety of help given him in all his hours of
weariness, of encouragement in the enterprise of his
life, of rest after his conflicts with the world, of safe
and secure refuge within home walls from the ills of
outside life, where the noise and din and toil of life
may be shut out, and peace shall dwell forever, without
being a better and more manly man, in every way. His
manhood grows into larger and fuller proportions.
And, if to the duties of a husband are added the duties
of a parent, and the young man finds a new life given
him to tend and care for and unfold into beauty and
power, the added responsibility gives a new meaning
and,importance to his life. So the home duties of the
young man culminate in these.  These are the highest
to which he will be called. Here, too, he must share
the labor of education and training with the mother
42 
THE YOUNG MAN AT HOME.
and the wife. lIe can not afford to give to his business
what belongs to his children. To become the head of
a family of his own -to watch over lives with the
anxiety and affection by which his own early years
were attended-to aid in the formation of a character
moulding for eternal results-to help the growth of an
immortal soul ripening for the everlasting fruitage of
heaven-to walk the way of life so faithfully and so
carefully that those who look to him for an example to
copy shall not wander from the right- to bring out
and forward before God and man a noble manhood
from amid the circumstances of life, that so the generation coming on shall take pattern by it and produce
a nobler still -all this is a work for the young man to
do; and if faithfully done, it shall be for the benefit of
many generations. There is a new solemnity and dignity given to one's life by the knowledge of duties of
such a character. One can not but be taken out of
much that is mean and small and trifling, and made to
feel that there is more in human life than he had ever
dreamed of- that his own life has a higher character,
because others' lives are bound up with it for their
weal or woe. So we would accept all these various
things as sacred trusts given to our hands and hearts
by Providence. So we would try to be faithful to
them, making good returns for what we have received
by an unfailing and rightful use of powers and privi leges, and so doing our duties to our fellow-men by
constancy at home.
43 
PLAIN WORDS.
I think it is a mistake to suppose that upon the wife
falls all the responsibility of making home what it
should be. It belongs to the husband as well. He is
apt to think that when he has been absent through the
day, diligent in his work and harassed by the cares of
business, his duty is done. He expects a ready and
loving smile to welcome him, a warm and cordial
greeting - and he should have it. But he must remember that the wife has had her cares too. If of a
different character, they may be equally harassing.
The wife has had her labor to perform as well, and
when the night comes, she may be as weary too. Does
she not deserve as much consideration and kindness?
No toils of business and no cares of life should be
allowed to come in to prevent that kind and grateful
intercourse which makes up the good of life. The
burden should be equally borne. The joy should be
shared together, and the quiet rest of domestic life
should belong to both alike.
If all these matters are as I have declared them to
be, I think I have by no means erred in urging them
upon your attention at this early stage of our considerations. Anld so I conclude as I commenced by pressing upon your minds and hearts the obligation of fidelity to home- its various lessons and its various
duties. They are at the bottom of all true success in
life; they are the soul of all social blessing; they are
the spirit of all true patriotism. Good homes make
good communities. And the influences that go out
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THE YOUNG MAN AT HOME.
from good homes build up a noble, manly people into
a nationality, which shall be strong and enduring,
filled with justice and freedom, righteousness and
truth. It is fortunate for us, friends, that we have in
our Anglo Saxon speech the word - that in our Anglo
Saxon hearts we love it, with a love never to be
broken. Ah! let the power in the heart be a power
on the tongue, and in the hand, to stop every word
and deed of anger and strife; to make all our life a
practical obedience to one great lesson, the helping of
each other in our lifetime's work; to fit us for usefulness and make us grow in manliness abroad; to help
us to fidelity to society; that we strive in our feeble
way, satisfied, however, that no good effort of ours is
ever lost, to solve those social problems that so vex
men's minds, and do our part toward destroying
those that cause so much misery and wretchedness;
to help us to fidelity to the state, to love liberty,
to hate oppression, to abhor injustice, to raise here a
national structure, which shall be the asylum for the
unfortunate, that they may learn of manhood; the
refuge of the oppressed, that they may learn of freedom; the grand theatre of noblest national virtues,
and loftiest national character, wherein all mankind
shall evermore rejoice. We must be faithful to our
homes. Out of these homes shall go Christian mechanics, who shall do their work in life with a manly
Christian love for God and for mankind, finding in it
the greatest power for advancing the progress of the
45 
PLAIN WORDS.
race; Christain teachers, filled and inspired with the
wisdom that comes from above, and  showing the
way to a higher and nobler life; Christian reformers,
all alive to the great responsibility of remoulding the
character of social life and building up the social fabric in the spirit of a Christian love; Christian merchants, of unswerving and upright integrity, teaching
all the nations of the world, as they meet in the
course of trade, that commerce is the great force
of civilization, and the unity of mankind the great
truth of human life; Christian statesmen, of manly
integrity, fearless for the right, working for all future
time, and not merely for the present exigency - not
sacrificing to party what was meant for mankindspending and being spent in the work of raising a
Christian commonwealth, to be the leader of the nations, the herald of the coming of the kingdom of God.
There is nothing of good within the range of possibility which can not be accomplished by the influence
of Christian homes!
Think of what we have now. The blessings of NewEngland -her thrift, her advanced civilization, her
popular education, her freedom of thought, conscience,
religion- came in a great measure from the homes of
her early days. It was because the Pilgrims brought
their homes with them, that they have made so deep
an impress upon the character and history of the
nation. It is because now of the homes that cluster
beneath the shadow of her mountains, around the bor
46 
THE YOUNG MAN AT HOME.
ders of her beautiful lakes, upon the slopes of her free
hills, along the shores of her sounding sea; it is because now of the true men and women that are raised
in those homes that she has produced a community
that conquers her sterile soil and her unequal climate,
and makes her name respected and honored through
all the earth!
Let us see to it, my brothers, that we bequeath this
honored home and the blessings of which it is the
synonym to the future, stained by no wrong, sullied
by no deed of wicked infidelity or dark iniquity, but
brightened and enriched by our constancy and loyalty
and truth.
47 
III. THE YOUNG MAN IN SOCIETY.
THE subject, which follows in natural course from
that to which we last gave our attention, is The Social
Duties of Young Men, or The Young Man in Society.
Society, in all civilized communities, has two senses.
One is the narrow sense, which has reference to one's
association with friends and acquaintances; the other,
the wider sense, which belongs to the great combination of individual thoughts, emotions, purposes, plans,
principles, words and deeds. That combination is not
limited to one's familiar circle, but embraces all persons in the community. The thought and deed of
each one contribute to or detract from the general
good. When they have the character of evil, they
become social evils, which affect more or less every
man, woman and child, to their harm.  When they
have the character of good, they benefit every man,
woman and child, and produce what we call the
peace and good order of society. When they become
criminal, they array against themselves the power of
the state, and become amenable to the law. So we
have all the paraphernalia of justice to protect society
from all its dangerous classes, Against a petty theft, 
THS YOUtNG MAN IN SOCIETYi
as against a terrible murder, the whole power of the
state is evoked, and must inflict punishment, because
the rights of property and the protection of life are
matters in which not one man alone but all persons
are interested
The first thing which each one of us learns is, that
we are dependent upon one another. This is the fact
which is at the basis of society; namely, mutual dependence. It becomes, therefore, impossible to separate ourselves from social influences. There is not a
single person, of whatever condition, character or
class, that we may see at our homes, or meet in the
street, with whom we are not in some way connected;
fro       m v whom  we do not receive or to whom we do not
impart some good or ill. There is a kindred nature
in us all, which we can not deny without injury to ourselves and to all others with whom we have intercourse.        Our social distinctions, our regard for birth
and caste, are in a great measure conventional and
artificial. WVhen we elevate them to a position and
give them a character which do not really belong to
them; when by them we attempt to cut off our connection with human life around us, we do violence to
that humanity which is common to us all. When we
u se  them, as we may, for accomplishing the benefit of
those who are dependent upon us; when we acknowl
edge the family relationship which unites us with all
God's children, and are faithful to it, we are giving
a wider scope and a loftier stature to our man            5
49 
PLAIN WORlDS
hood. We grow more generous and worthy by resolutely combatting every prejudice, which we find gov
erning our action toward those of a different social position from our own, and by remembering, and always
living as though we remembered it, that "of one
blood, God created all nations of men to dwell on the
face of the earth." We become selfish and unworthy
of ourselves when we attempt to isolate our sympathies
and contract the feelings of our soul; when from any
unwillingness, or from any moral cowardice, we refuse
to grant to others that meed of commendation, or that
common interest which is their due. We must always
acknowledge, we must always be faithful to, the bonds
which join us. If God has made us brethren, we can
not with impunity sever the connection.
Indeed, no man, however determined upon independence he may be, lives, or can live to himself. I
have read of one who was so persistent in his determination of individual independence as to refuse the very
simplest office of kindness from every one about him.
Yet this man, suffering from some accident that befell
him in the street, was carried to his home upon a shutter by an Irish hod-carrier, from whom, least of all,
would he have received a helpful service. The most
lonely and solitary position is by no means beyond the
reach of providential and human companionship.
Not one, even, of those old Christian devotees, in the
early times of the church, who fled from the haunts of
men, and sought the caves amid the distant crags of
50 
THE YOUNG MAN IN SOCIETY.
Sinai, or dwelt in the vast solitudes of African deserts;
of those monks of a later time, who shut themselves in cloistered convents to say their prayers and
count their beads, and pass their lives in unbroken
and devout meditation, thinking to do God service and grow to holiness of soul; of those of our
own day, who leave their fellows and build their
dwellings in the depth of the forest, but has found it
impossible to free himself from his dependence upon
others -a dependence, which, while it taught him his
weakness, taught him also his manhood, and that he
best serves himself who serves his fellow-men. Whittier, in his matchless verse, tells a story of a Theban
monlk, who, one day, at his meditations, near his desert
cell, found a little child by his side, asking him what he
did in the drear wilderness. At the hermit's answer,
that here he worshipped God -
"Alone with him, in this great calm
I live, not by the outward sense -
MIy will his love, my sheltering palmn
His providence,
"The child gazed round him.'Does God live
Here only? Where the desert's rim
Is green with corn - at noon and eve,
We worship him.'"
And then he tells the lonely man of his quiet home by
the bank of the Nile, and so impresses him with the tale
that he leads him away from his solitude to an humble
51 
PLAIN WORDS.
cottage by the river-side and shows him his motherstrange to relate-the anchorite's own sister. Taught
by thy child, says the monk
"Taught by thy child, whom God has sent,
That love is more than fast or prayer,
I come- toil, care and pain, content
With thee to share.
"Even as his foot the threshold crossed,
The hermit's better life began;
Its holiest saint the Thebaid lost,
And found a man."
True, indeed, solitude has its uses. WVe must sometimes be alone. Our own deepest experiences are
only for ourselves to know. We need to go away
from the noise and bustle of the world, to seek in
quiet self-communings, and in lonely meditation that
rest and peace which we do not find amid the public
excitements of life. Every earnest life is impelled at
times into solitude. Every true man feels himself at
times alone. It is no fiction, that of the education of
the desert, which the prophets had in Hebrew timeswhich strengthened the rugged spirit of John the Baptist- which taught Christ himself to resist and overcome temptation. We have to learn to stand by ourselves, and, by the spiritual energy of our own souls,
work out our salvation and learn how to be really men.
Yet this is so, or should be so, not from any morbid
repugnance to the society of our fellow-men, but that
we may more truly do our duty toward them, grow
52 
THE YOUNG MAN IN SOCIETY.
ing to the very best character by ourselves; making
the most of what we have, and educating ourselves to
the greatest possible extent, in order that by so doing,
we may be better and more efficient workers upon
society. We must never allow the opinions of others
to control us; but we must form our opinions by ourselves and for ourselves, and give them voice and currency in the world, if they are of value enough to be
received as the pure coin of origina thought. The
celebrated Zimnmerman, writing upon this subject, truly
says: "The pleasures of society, though they may be
attended with unhappy effect and pernicious consequences to men of weak heads and corrupted
hearts, who only follow them for the purpose of indulging the follies and gratifying the vices to which they
have given birth, are yet capable of affording to the
wise and virtuous a high, rational, sublime and satisfactory enjoyment. The world is the only theater
upon which great and noble actions can be performed,
or the heights of moral and intellectual excellence usefully attained." Hie declares the design of his book
upon solitude to be "to exhibit the necessity of combining the uses of solitude with those of society; to
show in the strongest light the advantages they mutually derive from each other; to caution mankind of
the danger of running into either extreme; to teach
the advocate of uninterrupted society how highly all
the social virtues may be improved and its vices easily
abandoned by habits of solitary abstraction; and the
5*
63 
PLAIN WORDS.
advocate for continual solitude, how much that indocility and arrogance of character, which is contracted
by a total absence from the world, may be corrected
by the urbanity of society."
Beginning, therefore, at the young man's connection
with society in its more limited sense, the first subject
which is to be considered is, Manners.  It is a word
which can hardly be defined, yet it is always upon our
lips, and from the difficulty of definition, it is only
incumbent upon me to present a few suggestions.
Manners and morals are said to be derived from the
same original word. And as good morals are not
merely outside acts of goodness, but must spring from
good principles in the soul, so good manners are not
the mere external adornments which a man or woman
puts on simply to please, but must have their source
in a true and loving heart. A gentleman is by no
means made up of fashionable dress, and correct deportment, and faultless carriage in the drawing-room
or at the table, though these are all matters which
he would not wish to neglect. But there is something
underneath the dress and the behavior -a manly and
generous heart. In mere appearance, a fop can do as
well as, or perhaps better than, a gentleman, and yet
be nothing but a fop. Put him into any thing else but
fine clothes, and you soon discover the difference. lHe
can not behave properly, except when he is, so to
speak, "got up" properly.   Shakspeare gives a good
description of a fop of his day, which, with one or two
54 
THE YOUTNG MAN IN SOCIETY.
exceptions will answer well for a description of the
same creature in our day.  Hotspur describes him  as
they met after a battle
"A certain lord, neat, trimly dressed,
Fresh as a bridegroom; and his chin new reaped,
Showed like a stubble land at harvest-home.
lHe was perfumed like a milliner;
And'twixt his finger and his thumb he held
A pouncet-box, which, ever and anon,
lie gave his nose.... And still he smiled and talked.
And as the soldiers bore dead bodies by,
He called them,- untaught knaves, unmannerly,
To bring a slovenly, unhandsome corse
Betwixt the wind and his nobility.
lie made me mad
To see him shine so brisk and smell so sweet,
And talk so like a waiting gentlewoman;
And that it was great pity, so it was,
That villainous saltpetre should be digged
Out of the bowels of the harmless earth,
Which many a good tall fellow had destroyed,
So cowardly; and, but for these vile guns,
He would himself have been a soldier."'
Put a gentleman into a homespun frock, and set him
to work upon the farm or on the highway, and he is
just as much a gentleman as ever, because his gentlemanliness belongs to his soul, not to his dress. IHis
apparel is suited to the business he has in hand, and if
we should go to see him, he will not apologize for his
dress, nor bid us wait till he has changed it, for we do
55 
PLAIN WORDSE
not wish to see and converse with the fine coat, but
the brave heart and the gentle soul. Genuine polite
ness, too, can not be learned from books. It is not
made of formalism and ceremonial proprieties, for
these are outside, while real politeness is inward, not
outward. Even fashion itself has to succumb sometimes to real manliness, and to confess that all its rules
of behavior are good for nothing beside the simplicity
and gentleness of truth. "A sainted soul," says Emerson, "is always elegant, and, it will pass unchallenged into the most guarded ring.  But so will Jock
the teamster pass, in some crisis, that brings him
thither, and find favor, so long as his head is not giddy
with the new circumstance, and the iron shoes do not
wish to dance in waltzes and cotillons. The laws of
behavior yield to the energy of the individual. The
maiden at her first ball, the countryman at a city
dinner, believes that there is a ritual, according to
which every act and compliment must be performed,
or the failing party must be cast out of this presence.
ILater, they learn, that good sense and character make
their own forms every moment, and speak, or abstain,
take wine or refuse it, stay or go, sit in a chair, or
sprawl on the floor with the children, or stand on their
head, or what else soever, in a new and aboriginal
way; and that they will be always in fashion, let who
will be unfashionable." Of course, it must always be
understood that it is the character of the man that is
able to support and make up for any deficiency in
56 
THE YOUNG MAN IN SOCIETY.
dress.  Benjamin Franklin astonished the courtiers of
Louis XVI. by appearing at court in the plain civilian's dress which he was accustomed to wear at home.
Hle did not choose to bedizen himself with gold lace
and embroidery, but dressed simply and naturally, as
became himself and the land to which he belonged.
But then it was Benjamin Franklin who did this.  A
man of less soul could not have done it. There are
some men, and women too, indeed, who need fine
clothes, and gold lace, and the display of barbaric
jewels; and if they find that it makes up for internal
deficiencies of character, we must be willing to grant
them the harmless display without envy. Meantime,
the true man can eat from wood or plain delf, and sit
upon a hard bench, and dress in plain garments, and
be no less true on that account. And, we are to
remember, too,-for I would dojustice to both sidesthat while dress does not make a gentleman, so it does
not unmake one.  Because a man is finely and elegantly dressed, it does not follow that he is nothing
more than a fop. A true and manly heart may beat
beneath broadcloth and gay trimmings as beneath
homespun and linsey-woolsey. At any rate, a man
must not dress shabbily for the sake of showing that
he is not a fop, but he must always dress as richly and
elegantly as he can afford. The best dressed man or
woman is he or she who occasions no remark but
commendation for simplicity and neatness. We can
not, therefore, lay down any law. Each man must act
57 
PLAIN WORDS.
out his own feelings and convictions, taking care that
these shall be truthful and just, and never allow his
own distinctiveness and personality of character to be
lost.  "Some men's behavior," says Lord Bacon, "is
like a verse wherein every syllable is measured; how
can a man comprehend great matters that breaketh
his mind too much to small observations? Not to use
ceremonies at all is to teach others not to use them
again, and so diminisheth respect to himself; but the
dwelling upon them and exalting them above the
moon is not only tedious, but doth diminish the faith
and credit of him that speaks."
As good manners are not altogether subject to rule,
nor to be learned except by practice, they become the
result of intercourse with the world-with cultivated
and noble men and women - with generous thought
and pure purposes, as expressed in actual life. They
become, also, the result of self-culture in the best moral
and spiritual accomplishments.
1. First of all, it is evident, good manners can only
be the outgrowth of good minds and souls. Even
uncouthness and ignorance of the ways of the world
may be glorified by a really good heart, as dull and
unpleasant places often shine out in beauty beneath
the influence of summer sunbeams. Incorrectness of
speech even, does not obscure the radiant loveliness
which gleams from a pure spirit, and we need have
little fear that a gentle and loving heart will not show
itself in gentle and loving ways. Such ways can never
58 
THE YOUNG MAN IN SOCIETY.
be indications of ill-breeding. They rather are the
substance of all true politeness. A morose, sullen, illtempered, passionate man is never a gentleman, and
no contact with society, or intercourse with the world,
or practice of pretty and complimentary phrases, can
make him any thing but ill-bred. Self-control is
among the first requisites of good manners. Just as
surely as temper comes out in the quick, passionate,
profane word, and the eye flashing with resentment
upon any petty provocation, just so surely does illmannerliness come out with them. For anger and
profanity are always vulgar. First of all, the movements of the heart and soul should be conducted gently
and lovingly, if you wish to acquire good manners.
2. Truthfulness of soul is essential to good manners.
A falsehood is always impolite, because falsehood is
unmanly and immoral. If our intercourse rests on
such a basis, and we call it politeness, we are dealing
in shams and lies. We must learn always to tell the
truth in a manly and open way.   No young man
should ever be a sneak or a coward. If he has any
thing to say to a friend, let him do it, as one man
should to another. If he chooses to write his thoughts,
let him append his name in full, and never resort to
those most cowardly of all things-anonymous letters.
This does not diminish any obligation of courtesy or
civility. The most searching and truthful words can
always be spoken politely and courteously. This rule,
indeed, we should provide, "that our truthfulness be full
59 
ItAIN WORDS,
of kindness and our kindness full of truth." Then eavery
man should be true to himself, and never attempt to
seem what he manifestly is not. We are too apt, I
think, to give ourselves "airs," as we call them, which
we can not support, and become affected where we
should be natural and true.  And this, I think, is not
a peculiarity of one sex alone.  Let every man  and
woman be simply true to his and her own thoughts,
and express them naturally, and the ease and composure which belong to good manners will certainly be
attained. Then every one should have self-respect,
One reason why we make so many mistakes in life, is
because we do not respect ourselves enough. We have
not a genuine, hearty regard for the manhood within
us. Self-respect always represses boldness and rude.
ness; will not permit us to do aught that is unmanly or
mean, nor aught that is unworthy of our manhood
What we are is greater than what we do, and we
should ever remember that, wherever we may be.
3. Another requisite of good manners is a deep rev
erence for God and a genuine regard for every man's
humanity. True religion is true politeness, because it
prevents vulgarity; it teaches that there is a reverent
attitude of the soul which is always gentlemanly; it
teaches us to revere that immortal character of hu.
man life which makes us akin to angels and to God.
A true gentleman is kind and civil and courteous to
every body, rich or poor, and never forgets that he is
addressing one to whom belongs a power of spiritual
60 
THE YOUNG MAN IN SOCIETY.
energy which all the influences of time and earth can
not conquer. Washington, than whom no manlier
man ever lived in America, while President, was walking one day through the streets of Philadelphia, with
a friend, and met a poor black man, who, recognizing
him, raised his hat, with a polite bow. The chief immediately returned the salutation.   "Do you touch
your hat to a negro?" asked his companion.  "Certainly, sir," replied the General; "I should not wish to
have him outdo me in politeness." There are some
men who think politeness thrown away upon the poor
and unfortunate. There can be no greater mistake.
A kind and civil word is never thrown away, and the
very poorest man knows when he is treated politely,
and will be thankful for the kindness. There are
some men, too, who think that politeness is not needed
so much at home as abroad. They dress for strangers
and are courteous to strangers, but when they are at
home they change their politeness into harshness and
severity, as they change their dress; thinking that
the fact of kindred gives them a license to make all
around them as uncomfortable as possible. "There is
no place," says some English writer, "where real politeness is of more value than where we mostly think
it would be superfluous."
There is a false politeness which is simply on the
outside, and is an assumption, without any sincerity of
character. Some hide behind their manners a false
and       black and deceitful heart.  George IV., of Eng            6
6.1 
PLAIN WORDS.
land, was called, in his time, the "first gentleman of
Europe," yet nevertheless was he the greatest debauchee in Europe. We all know how a man can
"smile and murder while" he smiles. And Shakspeare
declares that the Prince of Darkness himself was "a
fine gentleman."
One has to learn, too, in this respect, that too much
politeness of this kind is oftentimes as bad as too little.
One can be overbred, and, by constant formality and
ceremony, put all who come in contact with him as ill
at ease and discomposed as though he had treated
them in a rude and brusque way. Superfluous ceremony
is far from polite. The true gentleman is he, the true
lady is she, who takes the middle course; who puts
every one at ease with whom he or she converses or
deals; is affable, without familiarity; kind, without
formality; dignified, without stiffness; cordial, frank
and friendly always: - who always remembers, too,
that each man and woman, whatever their position
or condition, are to be treated in a gentle and Christian way, and this because they all belong to the same
great family.
Montaigne, a famous French essayist, says very
truly: "I have seen some men rude by being over civil,
and troublesome by their courtesy, though, these excesses excepted, the knowledge of courtesy and good
manners is a very necessary study. It is, like grace
and beauty, that which begets liking and inclination
to love one another at the first sight, and in the very
62 
THE YOUNG MAN IN SOCIETY.
beginning of an acquaintance and familiarity; and
consequently, that which first opens the door for us to
better ourselves by the example of others, if there be
any thing in society worth our notice."
But to leave this part of my subject, let us consider
the young man's relations to society in a wider sense.
There are duties to perform, as well as pleasures to
enjoy, in social life. God made no one of us for a
selfish indolence. He did not bestow upon us these
noble powers without giving us also noble opportunities for using them. If we have strength, it is that we
should help the weak; knowledge, that we should use
it for the benefit of our fellow-creatures; wealth, that
we should be faithful to it, as stewards of his bounty;
position and power, that we should occupy them for
the welfare of all who are dependent upon us for
happiness. Thus, mutually dependent, we must be
mutually helpful. Being members one of another, we
should bear one another's burdens. This is no less a
duty of social life than of the Christian religion. Our
limited sense of society is joined to our wider sense.
For we have to learn not only to be true gentlemen in
the parlor and the drawing-room, but also to be true
Christian men in the street, and among those ranks of
social life which are to be uplifted and blessed by our
fidelity. In the times of chivalry, he who would wear
the honors of knighthood was obliged, as the champion
of God and woman, to devote himself "to speak the
truth, to maintain the right, to protect the distressed,
63 
PLAIN WORDS.
to practice courtesy, to despise the allurements of ease
and safety, and to vindicate in every perilous adventure the honor of his character." And the knight of
old was no less brave in the field, because he was gallant and courteous in lady's bower. He who would
be chivalric and knightly now, may well take a lesson
from those old times, and practice the same virtues
which made them heroic.
Looking out, then, upon social life as it exists beyond
the immediate circle of one's own acquaintance, what
do we see?  Society is by no means pervaded by a
Christian sentiment, or entirely governed by it, though
it is so in a great measure. Mankind, though in the
way of progress, have not attained in any direction to
a complete control over their circumstances. Here, in
our own country, with millions upon millions of acres
of the most fruitful land waiting for the husbandman,
there is poverty to freezing and starving. Here, where
there is but comparatively little to stimulate the appetite, and where innocent pleasures are within the reach
of all, there are self-indulgence and intemperance unparalleled in any country on the face of the globe.
Hiere, with our free institutions, with the best system
of government ever devised by man, and the grandest
opportunity for applying it to national life, with our
democratic theory of the equality of mankind, there
is slavery, staining the fair fame of the republic, corrupting the national character, and defiling and debasing us all.
64
6 
THE YOUNG MAN IN SOCIETY.
To every young man entering life these questions
inevitably present themselves- how to relieve and
prevent poverty, how to put an effectual check to the
terrible evils of intemperance, how to hasten the day
when the fetters shall be stricken from the limbs of
the slave, and the genuine democratic American idea
of justice for all, liberty for all, shall be realized. I
say, inevitably present themselves, because, being mutually dependent upon each other, the good or evil of
one class and condition of men affects all classes and
conditions. No one escapes. As soon as we enter into
active life, we are compelled, from the very nature of
the case, to give our influence and work to one side or
the other of these questions, and to be either for or
against. Evil does not simply affect those alone who
are its immediate victims-it touches us all with its
deadly hand. There is no such thing as localizing evil.
Its influence is in the air, and poisons it; it is in the
earth, and makes it sterile; it is a shadow in every
sunbeam; it is a blasting influence upon every labor.
Industry is weakened. Thought, conscience, religion,
are paralyzed by it. How quickly does it taint and
envenom the fresh life of youth, quenching its generous
emotion, and with iron hand crushing its love for truth,
and liberty, and God!
On the other hand, how quick and vitalizing is the
influence of good. Fill the social state with benevolence, with self-control, with noble thoughts and aims,
with humanity and truthfulness; let the air be all
6*
65 
PLAIN WORDS.
electric with ideas of right, with an unconquerable
regard for justice, with an unwavering love of freedom,
and what blessings and happiness belong to it. Public
opinion on the right side is omnipotent. "It is able,"
said Mr. Webster once, "to oppose the most formidable
obstruction to the progress of injustice and oppression;
and as it grows more intelligent and more intense, it
will be more and more formidable. It may be silenced
by military power, but it can not be conquered. It is
elastic, irrepressible, and invulnerable to the weapons
of ordinary warfare. It is that impassible, unextinguishable enemy to mere violence and arbitrary rule,
which, like Milton's angels,'vital in every part, can not
but by annihilation die."' Nothing is more true, or
could be more forcefully put than this. Yet are we
not too ready to separate ourselves from this public
opinion, and speak of it as some power outside of us?
We forget that public opinion is nothing more than the
combination of individual opinions. My opinion, and
your opinion, what we think and say individually, all
go to make up public opinions, and so we ourselves are
personally responsible to a great degree for the character of public opinion. Only let us think truly and
correctly, and say what we think boldly!
1. As the young man goes out, then, to grapple with
the evils of life, to determine his position and decide
where he will stand, and whether manfully or cowardly he will do his work there, the first and most
obvious duty is, that he should go out with well
66 
THE YOUNG MAN IN SOCIETY.
established principles and strong convictions of duty.
Fully convinced of his responsibility, and always remembering that the welfare of others, as well as his
own, is depending upon his fidelity, let him go with
fearlessness, fully resolved that, so far as he is concerned, society shall in no wise suffer from his neglect
and wrong. In regard to these questions of social
wrong, every young man is disposed at first to be a
reformer. Hie looks out upon social life with the generosity that is natural to his time of life, and devotes
himself at once to the work of relief and reform.
There are, indeed, exceptions to this, for instances may
be found where the fresh impulses of youth are bound
in the stiffness of a formal conservatism, and the
young man looks with scorn upon all attempts to realize a better state of things. But these are the results
either of a false education, or a surrender of the soul
to wrong principles, or a subjection to that heartless
system which subordinates what is right to what is
respectable. But, as a general thing, we can rely upon
the young men. If uncorrupted by vice, and unaffected by false ideas of life, and unbought by venal
ambition, we can rely upon the young men for an
advocacy and support of those causes which have for
their object an improvement in the condition of our
social life. There is hardly one of you now here who
does not feel that slavery, intemperance and vice are
grievous wrongs, and that you have something to do
with their correction. You would not be a drunkard,
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an oppressor, a tyrant.  Thackeray well says: "A
young man begins the world with some aspirations at
least; he will try to be good, and follow the truth; he
will strive to win honors for himself, and never do a
base action; he will pass nights over his books, and
forego ease and pleasure, that he may achieve a name.
Many a poor wretch, who is worn out now, and old,
and bankrupt of fame and money too, has commenced
life at any rate with noble views and generous schemes,
from which weakness, idleness, passion, or overpower ing hostile fortune has turned him away." Thus it
certainly is with most of us. But worldliness, vice,
evil associations, and the influence of selfish maxims,
check the impulse and erase the impression.  Ma ture life comes on, and the man sinks down into his
comforts and ease, content to let the evil go on and
make its conquests, over himself as well as his fellow men. The heartless and selfish principles of life have
carried the day. What we must do, my brothers, is to
carry first generous feelings with us through our
whole lives; never to allow ourselves to grow old in our
hearts; to resist the chilling influences of worldliness;
to deepen our impulses to principles, and strengthen our
early impressions, stamping them into our souls till
they become convictions. True, we may see dishonesty
and insincerity in the advocacy of the best enterprise,
and find men playing the demagogue in the holiest of
causes. Nevertheless is it our duty to see to it that
we remain true to our principles; nevertheless must
68 
THE YOUNG MAN IN SOCIETY.
we approach these questions, and discuss them earnestly and fearlessly. We must not be cowards here,
or we must not be elsewhere. We must be brave and
true, "without fear and without reproach." Moral
cowardice is the unmanliest of all things, and no
attainment of learning, eloquence, position, can supply
the deficiency which it causes in the soul. We must
calmly and steadily stand against all wrong, faithfully
performing the duty which we know we ought. Nevertheless, remembering what large results wait upon
our faithful action, must we carry our fresh and vigorous life into the stagnant and corrupted ways of social
life, and infuse a new vitality into the sluggish current,
in which the old opinions too often run. We will not
suffer ourselves to be deceived by the falsehoods of the
hour.  We will understand what is true and manly in
human life, and make it greater by the addition to it
of our own truth and manliness! This is our duty.
I)uty?  It is our privilege!  Let us use it well!
2. The young man must exercise care in the choice
of his companions and friends. As he desires to save
himself from evil and grow in virtue, he finds that he
is drawn to others, or that he draws them to himself,
to help him in the work. And so the question, who his
associates shall be, is a very important one. The influ ence of companions, though not always perceptible, is
yet most powerful.  "As iron sharpeneth iron," says a
lebrew proverb, "so a man  sharpeneth the counte nance of his friend." It is said that different persons
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who live together gradually come into resemblance to
each other, not only in mind and character, but also in
physical features. We all know how easily thoughts,
feelings, language, tones of voice, become contagious.
This is an influence which all exert and receive, and
none resist. And thus we are all affected, more or less,
by the company we keep. The difference between
well and ill bred men -though some allowance is to
be given to that natural refinement which shines out
from the rags of poverty, or that natural vulgarity
which no amount of wealth can conceal, yet -is created to a great degree by the difference of associations.
And in other respects the same result is perceptible.
The society of the good purifies, the society of the evil
corrupts, the moral nature. A really good man sends
out from himself virtue; surrounds himself with a
warm, and genial, and kindly atmosphere.  When you
come within the reach of his influence, you can not
help receiving a benefit; when you go away from it,
you can nriot but carry a blessing. An evil man sends
out a vicious influence; surrounds himself with an
atmosphere of evil, to which it is dangerous to be
exposed. As we need preventives and antidotes when
we go into an atmosphere infectious with disease, so
we need moral preventives and antidotes against the
contagion of evil association.   It is said that some
soldiers have worn a shirt of mail beneath their ordinary uniforms, of so fine a texture and of so exquisite
a temper, as to be impervious to bullet and impenetra
70 
THE YOUNG MAN IN SOCIETY.
ble by sword, while it in no wise impeded the slightest
movement of limb or body. I think we need some.
thing like this in our moral conflicts - an armor of
righteous principle, which shall never obstruct our
action in any good enterprise, while it shall insure our
safety in the warmest part of the battle.
What may give importance to what I have just said,
is the fact that the most dangerous temptations which
a young man has to deal with are those which allure,
not drive him to destruction. They come in the guise
of what is called good fellowship. The open and generous temperament, which, if rightly directed, would
make a noble man, is moved by them and is ruined by
them. They appeal to one's sympathy, and sensibilities,
and love of companionship. Hie listens to their seductive tones. The harmonies of their song fall pleasantly
upon the ear. Hie sinks before he is aware into the
soft embraces of pleasure, which kill out the energy of
his soul. In the old mythology, three Siren sisters
inhabited an island near the south-western coast of
Italy, where, by their singing, they caught the attention of the passing mariners. No voices in the world
but one so potent and so sweet as theirs; no songs but
those of Orpheus so ravishing in their delightful measures.   No one who heard them could resist their fascinating strains. But they sang to allure the hapless
sailor to a swift destruction. Even the' brave Ulysses,
returning from the siege of Troy, though he met
unarmed all other dangers, and conquered them, did
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not dare to pass the enchanting spot without some
precautions. Hie stopped the ears of his rowers with
wax, that they could not hear, and then commanded
them to bind him with strongest chains to the mast of
his galley, that he, though hearing, might not be able
to break away from the restraint.
"Then the sweet charmers warbled o'er the main;
My soul takes wing to meet the heavenly strain,
I give the sign, and struggle to be free,
Swift row my mates and shoot along the sea;
New chains they add, and rapid urge the way,
Till, dying off, the distant sounds decay;
Then, scudding swiftly from the dangerous ground,
The deafened ear unlocked- the chains unbound."
This was effectual, but it was not the bravest way.
That way was found by Orpheus, who, when the Argonauts, in whose company he was, sailed over that sea,
drowned the Sirens' musie by a sweeter song, and
saved his companions by filling their ears with purer
melody. And so the young man of the present day,
as he hears the strains of pleasure and of vice, and
their alluring voices, should be ready with a better and
more enchanting music -the music of a soul which is
filled with the pure affection of a Divine love, and
the power of a manly purpose. He, too, sails over the
sea. Guided by a true principle, and laying his course
by the chart of duty, he shall be able to shuin the
many dangers that will meet him, and seize at last the
Golden Fleece of virtue!
72 
THIE YOUNG MAN IN SO(tETY.
I think the most dangerous associate for a young
man is what is called a companionable man, of loose
principles, or no principles at all. Hie is a man of wit,
fascinating in conversation, full of soft flatterings, calls
himself a gentleman, is proficient in all the mysteries
of the gaming table, borrows your money, if you are
foolish enough to lend it, or cheats you out of it, if you
are silly enough to play. Hie knows all your weak
points, is ready with just the right word at the right
moment to entice you to indulgence, and garnishes his
wickedness with the proprieties and even the graces of
life. Hle is all things to all men, that he may ruin
some. He will talk religion with saintly decorousness
to a clergyman, politics to a lawyer, literature to a
scholar, scandal to a gossip, agreeable nonsense and
empty compliment to a coquette, general news to a
man of the world, and unspeakable vileness to the vile.
The whole vocabulary of pleasure is at his command.
But he is a knave, a drunkard, a libertine, a scoundrel.
Never let us allow ourselves to be deceived by the
external adornments which this man puts on. Judge
his character for what it is worth, and shun his company as you would the most poisonous of reptiles.
Many a young man, aye, many a young woman, has
fallen a victim to the enticements of such a man.
Many a course of infamy dates back for its beginning
to such companionship. Do not trust in his proposals,
for he has nothing to offer but the momentary gratification of convivial  enjoyment  and  the  unhealthy
7
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carousal. Nothing more? Ah yes-sadly a great deal
more.  The listless stupidity that follows the revel
the terrible void of a want unsatisfied- the bitter
reproaches of an injured and violated conscience -the
awful voice of self-condemnation echoing through the
empty chambers of the soul -and the consciousness
of ruin and despair! And all this must be borne in
secret and alone; for it is not the man who has accomplished the work of destruction, who relieves when
calamity comes, who whispers consolation in distress,
who attempts to comfort the weary heart, who would
smooth the way to the grave. Hie has nothing to give
then. iHe has done his work, and seeks new victims.
There is every thing to lose, and nothing to gain, in
such association!
But, it may be said, one must go into the company
of others for the sake of benefiting them. I agree to
that. It is a real missionary work to go among the
fallen and raise them up; to go among the abandoned,
and reclaim them. It is true philanthropy to lift up
the helpless and weak, and give them power worthily
to do their work in the world. Let it be the motive,
and let young men go to this work with a strong and
right principle, and with such a pure purpose that no
contact with impurity shall defile them, and undoubtedly the best results would follow.  Social duties
would be faithfully performed, and the world made
better.
Avoiding evil associations, let the young man seek
74 
THE YOUNG MAN IN SOCIETY.
the company of the wise, the virtuous, and the good.
There is something noble in an association of young
men for mutual improvement; that, by so educating
themselves, they may do their work faithfully to those
around them; that they may grow in mental and
moral power; that they may repel those influences of
evil which repress their enthusiasm and deaden their
sympathies; that, by helping each other, they may
learn to help those of different association and condition. Improvement-that is the word -improvement
of one's self, that others may be improved; that your
love of all things true and just may be quickened;
that your compassion for the poor, the unfortunate,
the destitute, the slave, may be made stronger; that
you may never become heartless, selfish, worldly, and
false; that your souls may be enlarged to all right
endeavor and all worthy enterprise; and that you
may be chivalric and brave in the service of humanity,
for helping the distressed, for encouraging the feeble,
for being manly, Christly and godly, in this present
world.
And here we find that the man who is faithful to
society, as we view it in its widest and highest sense,
is faithful to society in its lower sense. He is the true
gentleman.  If he has polish and refinement and cultivation, it is that he may the better serve the welfare of his fellow-men. Hle shows that a man may
bear himself no less gracefully in the saloons of fashion, because he keeps himself true to virtue - because
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he has anl ear quick to hear the cry of sorrowbecause lie has a hand ready to relieve the wanting
and the weak. The polish of his nature is not the
hard enamel which spreads its flinty gloss over every
fine emotion, but that process which brings out the
hidden beauties and virtues of the soul. I protest
against that nomenclature which attempts to dignify
any vice by calling it gentlemanly, and that would
give it a currency and importance by introducing it
into polite society. It is no less a vice because it is
fashionable; and, however fashionable it may be, it
never  can  become  gentlemanly.  Vice is always
vice; though you may dress it in fine clothes, and
put pretty words upon its lips, and teach it graceful attitudes, it is no less vice.  You can not  redeem it thus from its innate and vicious vulgarity.
To become intoxicated at an evening party, or in a
college society room, is no more respectable than in a
drinking cellar. Gambling at Baden-Baden, though
the table be surrounded by blase European noblemen,
and unsophisticated young Americans, seeing the world,
is no more noble nor less disgraceful than at a NewYork "hell."  Licentiousness and domestic infidelity
are always vulgar and never gentlemanly, though they
may happen to be importations direct from Paris.
Slavery is never chivalric, never generous, and never
civilized. It is always mean, and cowardly, and brutal,
and barbarous, whatever airs of assumption, and breeding, and exclusiveness, plantation manners at Washing
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THE YOUNG MAN IN SOCIETY.
ton and elsewhere may put on. Let us call things by
their right names, and then we shall know that the
true gentleman is a man of stainless honor, of unsullied virtue, of knightly generosity, of delicate sensibility, of pure purpose, and of Christly compassion.
St. Paul was a gentleman when he said, "Be  not
drunk with wine, wherein is excess;" and, "Bear ye one
another's burdens." And the old writers with noless
reverence than truth called Christ the truest gentleman that ever lived.  And he said, "Inasmuch as ye
give bread to the hungry, and clothes to the naked, ye
do it unto me." Let us not be deceived. A true Christian man, who keeps himself from all things vile, and
gives himself to the service of all things just, is the
true gentleman!
Let each one of us be that brave and true Christian
man. Let us have firm convictions of duty and of
right, and fixed principles of action. Then what we
know to be just and true, let us speak it, let us do it,
come whatever may. Do we not need some of that
spirit of self-devotion which was in the martyrs and
the Apostles? that we, as they, may face all obloquy
and persecution, and death, if that be necessary, without the quiver of an eyelid, without the blanching of
a cheek, or the trembling of a lip -true in all things
and through all things to our honest thought? Do we
not need more of that moral courage which dares be
right when wrong is popular- which dares be true
when falsehood prevails in high places and low           7*
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which dares pursue the straightforward course of rectitude through conflicts and agitations, when the world
cries out in approval of a crooked policy, and bravely
hold one's own position when men demand a selfish
surrender to wrong for the sake of quiet and peace?
Be not pretentious and forward, but calmly and resolutely faithful to righteous convictions, allowing no
power to move you from them; and thus persistently
fight the battle which must be fought, and patiently
wait till the popular power comes, and the world
comes round to you, to aid in the hour of victory!
This we do need-this we can have.   Keep, then,
young man, your sympathies warm, fresh, and living.
Remember that others' good is depending upon your
fidelity to principle, and true in all things and through
all things, be the member of society which you know
you can be, and which you know you should be!
Need I say more?  Let not my words speak, but
listen to the voices which come up from the world's
dark places of misery and woe. Hear the lamentations of the poor- hear the cries that come for help
from sad and broken hearts -hear what comes from
the drunkard's wretched home -from the cabin of the
slave, from the abodes of wretchedness and want, asking for sympathy and relief. Ask your own warm
heart, and listen to the answer which it gives. Is it
one of indolence, of heartlessness, and selfishness?
Oh no, not that, but an answer of work, manly, steady,
vigorous work, for the benefit of God's children -your
brothers and mine 
78 
THE YOUNG MAN IN SOCIETY.
A sense of an earnest will
To help the lowly-living    And a terrible heart-thrill
If you have no power of giving:
An arm of aid to the weak,
A friendly hand to the friendless,
Kind words, so short to speak,
But whose echo is endless:The world is wide -these things are small,
They may be nothing, but they are all!"
"Let us go forth, and resolutely dare
With sweat of brow to toil our little day -
Our hearts to God! To brother-man,
Aid, blessing, labor, prayer!"
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IV. THE YOUNG MAN IN BUISINESS.
TEE subject which I have proposed for this evening's consideration, is The Young Man in Business.
I use the word Business here to denote all the various branches of labor to which the young man is
called, as he goes out into life. God has so ordered
our life as to make it evident that he intended us to arrive at the development of our various faculties by means
of labor. Indolence and idleness are found by actual
experience to be full of mischievous results. With vacant mind and soul, superadded to vacant hands, the
life of a man becomes worthless and inefficient. He is a
consumer and no producer, and inasmuch as he refuses
thus to do his part toward adding to the possessions or
fruits of human industry - he becomes a cumberer of
the ground. I can conceive of nothing more miserable than a fruitless and unproductive life, with nothing in the retrospect to give satisfaction, and nothing
in the prospect to inspire hope. It is also contrary to
the course of human progress. All advancement in
all ages has been accomplished only by unceasing
labor. We now rejoice in myriads of blissful results. 
THE YOUNG MAN IN BUSINESS.
It is because through all the past men have faithfully
worked - worked in unselfish and generous spirit -
worked with persevering constancy - worked with
high and true aims. We now have entered into their
labors and enjoy the fruits of their faithfulness. Hiad
they folded their hands in listless idleness, or despairingly fled from the field of human labor, we should have
been poor, and miserable, and naked.  We owe it to
the future, as, indeed, it is the only way in which we
can pay our debt of gratitude to the past -we owe it
to the future to work as bravely and manfully in our
generation as the fathers did in theirs, with the same
high ideals and the same abundant successes.
Indeed, labor is a necessity. We are compelled to
work. No good thing has ever been obtained without it, and no good can be obtained without it. If to
be wise we must study, to be strong we must labor.
If God has given us minds and bodies, if he has given
us heads and hands, he undoubtedly intended that we
should accomplish some result by means of them.
They were not given in vain, or without a purpose.
We have the whole earth before us to conquer.  Nature has forces, which we are to bring into use for supplying our necessities. The sky and the air are full of
powers, which, by proper diligence and labor, we may
secure for our wants; and there is no one of us but may
add something to the sum of the world's good, by
fidelity to the world's great laws of productive industry. Shall we ever be idle consumers? Look around
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us. God works and has worked through all ages
for us. Nature works, never ceasing her ever wonderful though familiar processes.  And if our fellowmen discontinued any of their labors we should be
poor indeed. We can not eat a single meal of the
the very simplest food, without calling into requisition the labors of many men in various parts of the
earth. The clothes we wear were fashioned by a
thousand hands. The books we read were produced
by the intensest labor. There is no single object which
we see that does not teach us a lesson of industrious
toil, that does not rebuke our indolence, and that ought
not to shame us out of our idle indulgence.  In all
this vast universe there is no man, however privileged
he may be, that has a right to be a drone or a dependent!
To one's natural idleness is added a prejudice against
labor, which is censurable. Young men sometimes
think that it is not respectable to be at work. They
imagine that there is some character of disgrace
or degradation belonging to toil. No greater mistake
could possibly be made. Instead of being disgraceful
to engage in work, it is especially honorable. It is the
useless man, not the useful man, who is in a condition
of disgrace. It is the man who will do nothing; who
eats the bread he does not earn; who relies upon others
to support his life; it is he who is not respectable, because he is doing nothing to command respect. It is
surprising to see how many young men there are at
82 
THE YOUNG MAN IN BUSINESS.
the present day who are growing up to habits of constant idleness.  They are not always among the poor.
They are to be found among the rich and fortunate
classes.  They are young men without business; giv
ing no indications of preparation for a good or useful
life; but rather preparing themselves for a manhood
of sorrow, and an old age - if their habits of life will
permit them to reach it- an old age of unavailing regrets, with its burden of remembered follies added to
the infirmities of years. Their days and nights are
spent in places of ill repute. Their object seems to be
to kill time, not to use it. To them come the temptations which always belong to idleness. They must
spend the weary hours in some way. They have no
healthful stimulant of labor, no good occupation, to fill
the day with satisfaction. They seek the excitements
of the gaming table. They find a stimulant in intoxicating drink. Their moral life is corrupted. They
are bankrupt in character. They are insolvent in soul.
So lived not their fathers before them.   They gained
their position of competence by dint of untiring
industry. They rose from humble places by unwearied
industry. They now have the satisfaction of looking
back upon an honorable course of life, and of enjoying
the results which they have attained. But, unfortunately,they do not teach their children to follow in their
footsteps. They allow them to look upon labor with
aversion, at least, if not with absolute repugnance,
and so train them, perhaps unwittingly, to courses
so 
P>LAIN WORDS,
which end only in shame. There is many a man,
doubtless, now in middle life, who sorrowfully looks
back upon his early days, which he has permitted to slip
away without any good endeavors; who regrets the
insufficiency of his early training; who laments that
he has nothing to do; that he has learned no useful
trade; that he has followed no honorable profession,
and that his life is now wasted beyond retrieval. Now
is the time, young man, to provide against such a sorro wful period. Do not allow yourself to grow up
without any thing to do. Believe that a condition of
idleness is the worst for you, and that any labor, that
will furnish occupation for your mind and your hands,
is better than a life which accomplishes nothing, and
which will, by and by, be full of misery. Shun the
gaming  table.   Break  every bottle of wine  you
can find, and pour its contents into the sewer, which is
a better place for it than your own stomach. Do not
make yourself a slave to your horse, and go to
work! I think you will find such a course better for
you than the fortune which you expect to inherit by
and by!
There is a little incident in the life of Plutarch, the
famous biographer of the heroes of classic times, which
in this connection is worth relating. It will show, I
think, in what manner the loftiest souls regard the
labors of life, and find no useful occupation without
honor and dignity.  It may seem menial to some, but
useful and honest toil is never menial, and the smallest
84 
THE YOUNG MAN IN BUSINESS.
duty may be performed in such a spirit of genuine
manhood as to make it noble. Plutarch, having acquired an enviable and indeed an immortal fame, as a
philosopher and a man of consummate wisdom, left
the polished and cultivated circles of Rome, in which
he shone as a most brilliant member, where he had
received the most distinguished honors, and even educated an emperor in wisdom and virtue, and returned
to his native city of Chcaronea, among the rude Bceotians. Hiere his townsmen elected him to fill many
offices, among which was that of commissioner of
sewers and public buildings. Upon such offices he is
said to have looked "in the same light as the great
Epaminondas had done, who, when he was appointed
to a commission beneath his rank, observed,'that no
office could give dignity to him that held it, but that
he who held it might give dignity to it."' In regard
to the particular office which I have just mentioned,
Plutarch himself says: "I make no doubt that the
citizens of Chmronea often smile when they see me
employed in such offices as these. On such occasions
I generally call to mind what is said of Antisthenes.
When he was bringing home a dirty fish from the
market, some who observed it expressed their surprise.
' It is for myself,' said he,' that I carry this fish.' On
the contrary, for my own part, when I am rallied for
measuring tiles, and calculating a quantity of stones or
mortar, I answer, that it is not for myself I do these
things, but for my country. For in all things of this
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8 
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nature, the public utility takes off the disgrace; and
the meaner the office you sustain, the greater is the
compliment you pay to the public."
"The public utility takes off the disgrace," says the
old philosopher. It is worth remembering. Whatever
is useful to the public is honorable, and no man ought
to be ashamed of his toil, if it is for the public benefit.
One occupation is no more honorable than another,
unless it produces larger and more beneficial results.
The force and honor of character do not depend by
any means upon occupation. John Pounds, a poor
shoemaker in an English city, gathered poor children
about him as he sat at work, and taught them to read,
and that shoemaker's bench became prouder than an
imperial throne. It is true manhood that always gives
honor. Because I work with my head, and my neighbor with his hands, it by no means follows that I am
more honorably employed than he.  If I am of more
public benefit than he, I amn to be honored more. If
he is of more public benefit than I, he is to be honored
more. It is not a question as to who has the most
money, who has the widest reputation, or who holds
the highest office, but who accomplishes the most
public good. And so the criterion of honor is usefulness. I think we all have to learn that we each have
a place in God's universe, and that each in his place is
able to work with benefit to God's universe. I think
we have to learn, too, that where a man, in his place,
is doing his work as A MAN, he is to be respected
86 
THE YOUNG MAN IN BUSINESS.
therefor, because he is doing it for the good of all
mankind.  When he refuses to do his work, as a man,
hlie deserves to lose respect. Let no working man ever
allow himself to despise his work, or allow others to
despise it. God placed him where he is, and gave him
the faculties which he has. Hlis duty is, with selfrespect and faithfulness, to do his work there as a
child of God. An old Persian poet once well sang:
"I saw some handfuls of the rose in bloom,
With bands of grass suspended from a dome,
I said -' What means this worthless grass, that it
Should in the rose's fairy circle sit?'
Then wept the grass and said,' Be still, and know
The kind their old associates ne'er forego;
Mine is no beauty, hue, or fragrance, true,
But in the garden of my Lord I grew."'
Another reason why honest labor is to be honored,
is, that it is connected with all human progress. As I
endeavored to show in my last lecture, we are all
dependent upon one another in the social state; so, in
this matter of labor, it is equally true that we never
can be independent of each other. We help each other
in our labors. It is because I do one kind of work,
and my neighbor another, and this man still a different
one, and that man another still, that so much is done
on the whole. All the different interests of life are
cared for, some by one body of men, and some by
another, but all by some. Many men have many
minds, and the many minds combined produce the
great result desired. You have seen how, in a child's
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puzzle, there are numerous pieces, each unshapely and
irregular in itself, but each fitting into the other; and
all, brought together, as they should be, forming a
complete and perfect geometrical figure, as a square,
or circle, or triangle, or what not. In this mighty
frame of things-to illustrate great things by small -
where Providential plans of vastest extent come to
their fulfillment by human agency, Providence, with
infinite forecast, has given to each man a peculiar
genius and skill, which, if exerted aright, will accomplish the best results. And all the different labors of
men, though they may be dissimilar and various, fit
into each other, and, in their proper combination,
make up a complete and beautiful whole, and God's
plans come to their fruition through the faithfulness
and variety of human labor!
I. If these things are so, it becomes a duty, which
the young man owes no less to society than to God and
his own good, that he should adopt a business of some
kind-that he should do something which will be of
use and benefit to his fellow-men. To sustain himselfto be true to his God-to be faithful to the human life
about him, he must have a fixed and settled vocation,
and he must be industrious. This is the first thing.
The Jews had one or two excellent maxims respecting
this.  One was: "What is commanded of a father toward a son?  To circumcise him, to teach him the law;
to teach him a trade." Another was: "He that hath
a trade in his hand, is like a vineyard that is fenced."
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And St. Paul said something of this kind: "If any
would not work, neither should he eat; for we hear that
there are some who walk among you disorderly, working not at all, but are busy-bodies. Now, them that
are such, we command and exhort, by our Lord Jesus
Christ, that with quietness they work and eat their
own bread."
I was glad to find, not many months since, in one of
the journals of the city of Providence, the following
sensible remarks. They deserve to be written in letters of gold, and carried in the mind as a vade mecum
by every young man, as he enters into active life:
"The benefit of a good mechanical trade, even to
those whose fortunate position places them above the
necessity of daily labor, can hardly be over estimated.
The use of tools, the practice of planning and designing,
the ability to work, are all sure to come into use, in a
great variety of ways, and are pretty certain never to
do a man any harm. An educated mechanic, a young
man who has faithfully gone through the course of instruction in our public schools, and has learned a good
trade, has in his head and in his hands a capital that no
reverse of fortune can take away from him. There is
no young man so favored by fortune, entering upon life
with such high expectations, that the knowledge of a
mechanical trade, at least so far as the use of tools and
the ability to plan, should be a matter of indifference to
him. The rich and the poor in our country are constantly interchanging, and passing from one class to
8*
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the other. There is no security for retaining wealth,
except the same habits and qualities that are necessary to its acquisition."
II. The young man, having thus observed the necessity of labor, the question comes to him in relation to
the choice of his occupation. What particular trade
shall he learn?  What profession shall he study? What
branch of business shall he undertake? It is evident, I
think, that each one has some peculiar genius for some
peculiar work. One has mechanical skill, another mental ability, another commercial genius. Plato, in his
Republic, declares that "No two persons are born exactly alike, but each differs from the other in natural
endowments, one being suited for one occupation and
another for another; and all things will be produced in
superior quantity and quality, and with greater ease,
when each man works at a single occupation, in accordance with his natural gifts." This is true, and I think
it is also true, that he will be successful in his occupation who pursues it faithfully, and being so successful,
he thus best serves the State. The country loses a
great many excellent farmers, and mechanics, and
tradesmen, and suffers from an excess of poor professional men, and politicians, because the man in the first
place has not ascertained for what he is best fitted. He
thinks there is honor in the position, rather than in
his own manhood, and so he seeks to fill the position
rather than to be a man in all positions. He makes a
great mistake; for the world generally judges a man
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by what he is, rather than by what he does. If he is
manly and true he will receive respect, be his occupation what it may. If he is not manly or true, he will
be despised as he deserves, whatever his position. Every man has justice done him sooner or later, and if he
does a true and manly service, which benefits the world,
he may be assured the world will not forget him. Let
him do what he knows best, and do it in the best
way he knows, and he need have little fear of a want
of appreciation by his fellow-men. I have seen an account of a slight but very significant incident, which is
said to have taken place during one of the annual sessions of the Methodist Conference of Maine.  "On one
of the evenings during the week of assembly, there was
a good old-fashioned sermon preached by an old minister from the' upper Kennebec country.' The preacher,
in the dialect of his sect, evidently felt the' reformation
spirit,' and had a' free utterance.' At the close of his
stirring address he made an earnest appeal to those
who were anxious to receive the mercy proffered, to
come forward and take the front seats. While the
members of the congregation were obeying his summons, he desired the brethren to sing a hymn. Accordingly one was started.  Unfortunately, it was not
familiar, and it dragged heavily. Few voices joined to
swell its notes, and those were timid and weak. One
wretched stanza was at last finished. Another was
commenced with diminished vigor, if possible, the
preacher all the while urging the anxious ones forward.
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At last, however, he stopped, for the singing was growing fainter and fainter, so ill adapted was it to the occasion and his own feelings, gazed around upon the congregation for a moment, and then exclaimed from a full
heart,'Sing what you know, brethren! sing what you
know!' A woman, with the quick perception of her
sex, immediately struck up a more familiar tune, full of
spirit and devotion. iHearts were touched all over the
crowded house; scores joined in, the church was filled
with melody and praise; and at the close a venerable
minister, with a head as white as Mt. Washington in
mid-winter, a kindly face, and a great warm heart,
bowed before the altar, and offered up a prayer such as
one only hears at a Methodist meeting." I apprehend
it is a common cause of failure with us, that we try
to sing what we do not know. The old minister gives
us all excellent counsel; simply to sing what we
know. Let us heed it well, and be successful in our
heeding!
Another element here comes in to direct us in the
choice of an occupation, besides peculiar genius which
we have for a peculiar branch of industry. There
must be something more than inclination entering into
our purposes. There is the end, which we desire to secure. That end, of course, is success, and we are led at
once into the inquiry as to the results involved in what
we call a successful life. These results are almost as
various as the different classes of occupations. A successful business man is generally a man who accumu
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lates a fortune, and becomes rich; and, as we call it,
independent. A successful politician is he who, by
means of political management, obtains political preferment, and holds high office. A successful professional man is he who achieves a wide extended reputation and fame. But when we come fully to understand what is really meant by genuine manhood, and
how much belongs to the fact of being a man; when
we consider the wide extent and the vast power of the
soul's faculties, we are led to think that success means
somewhat more than the collection of wealth, the acquirement of office, or the achieval of reputation. When
we have gained these, we have not gained every thing,
and there must be something more than these to be
regarded as the end of a true man's life. These are but
means to a greater end. They find their value in their
right use, and they become mischievous, and wrong,
and wicked, when they are solely ends, and the powers
of our manhood are devoted to their acquisition and
to nothing more.
For, 1st, to become rich is not the best thing which
a man can do. Sometimes the pursuit of wealth is
accompanied by meanness, by fraud, by dishonesty, and
then the man becomes miserly and loses his manhood.
Sometimes it is accompanied by generosity, uprightness, and a true manly energy, and then wealth is honorable, for its accumulation has not overpowered the
best faculties of the soul, but rather has developed them.
For it requires industry, it requires perseverance, it
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requires vigilance, it requires a bold use of favorable
opportunity, to acquire a competence. A lazy man, a
vacillating anid weak man, a sleepy man, a timid man
can not become rich. He has not the power of moulding
and controlling circumstances, and of seizing upon
events, and using them with a strong and firm purpose.
And so far as it does require the qualities which I have
mentioned, the acquisition of property becomes an education of character; for the relations of business are
wide and cosmopolitan, and train a man to thought and
action. The remark of a wealthy citizen when asked
how he made his money, is an illustration of the force
of character which many rich men possess.  "Sir, I
understood my business and attended to it, and if I
were to become poor again to-morrow, I could commence as an ash-man and make another fortune, if God
spared my life and health to work." Yet, when virtue
and integrity are sacrificed to the selfish acquisition of
money, and the highest interests of human life are put
in jeopardy in the labor, we very soon come to understand that there are other and better faculties of our
nature, which such acquisition does not develop, and
which it even endangers. And the fact that any particular business has in its result an ample fortune, is
not the sole reason why a young man should choose
to follow it.  One of the most, or perhaps the most
profitable business in our day is the manufacture of
quack medicines.  Yet, it does not follow that we should
all engage in it, though we can do so, and be no less
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THE YOUNG MAN IN BUSINESS.,
true and honest in that than in others.  We may become quacks in many other kinds of business beside
that. Our duty is in all business to be true and just,
and do our work as just men should.
We must remember, also, that it is not altogether true
that riches confer happiness on their possessor. iappiness comes from inward and not outward possessions.
The late Stephen Girard, of Philadelphia, when surrounded with immense wealth, and supposed to be
taking supreme delight in its accumulation, wrote thus
to a friend:
"As to myself, I live like a galley slave, constantly
occupied, and often passing the night without sleeping.
I am wrapped uip in a labyrinth of affairs, and worn out
with cares."
2. The acquisition of office does not, I think, constitute the chief end of a young man's endeavors; for
though it may be an honorable thing, in a country like
ours, to receive the tokens of confidence which our fellow-men thus show us, it is far more  honorable to
our character that the office seeks us, because we are
thought the best to fill it, than that we should seek the
office.  Then it comes to us from no desire of our own,
but rather through a sense of our fitness which pervades the community, and the position becomes full of
honor, only because we fill it with mlaliness.  When
we are not equal to it, or when we seek it because we
are ambitious, or because of the consideration which we
think it brings, or because it is a position a little above
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the level of life about us, as we think, we do injustice
to ourselves, and become objects of contempt rather
than of regard.
"Man, proud man!
Drest in a little brief authority;
Most ignorant of what he's most assured,
His glassy essence, -like an angry ape,
Plays such fantastic tricks before high heaven,
As make the angels weep; who, with our spleens,
Would all themselves laugh mortal."
But it is not so much the loss of respect in the estimation of others, which too ambitious office-seeking
imposes upon us, as it is loss of real manhood to ourselves. As a general rule, I think it will be found that
politics, as a business, has ruined more men than it
has benefited; for beside the precarious nature of that
occupation which depends upon the fickle popular breath
for sustenance, there is a manifest loss of self respect in
the possession of power which has been acquired by
ignoble and contemptible means, by servility to party
interests, and a sacrifice of personal independence to
fidelity to party obligations. If office comes, let it
come because of one's own worth and capacity.   If it
does not come, let no one long for it or hanker after it.
There are many things joined with it which are full of
unhappiness, and even misery.  Power has its dangers
as well as its delights, and its trials as well as its triumphs. Itow much better faithfully to work and man
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fully to live, independent of popular applause, caring
nothing for popular condemnation and favor, and, by
this very independence and this manful life, to secure
a popular approval, the approbation of one's own conscience, and the commending favor of God! Even in
its best estate power is unsatisfying, because the soul
feels that it needs something more for its nutriment
than any of the rewards of ambition, though they be
the greatest that the earth can afford.
"By Grecian annals it remained untold,
But may be read in Eastern legend old,
Hiow, when great Alexander died, he bade
That his two hands uncovered might be laid
Outside the bier, for men therewith to see
Men who had seen him in his majesty -
That he had gone the common way of all,
And nothing now his own in death might call;
Nor of the treasures of two empires aught
Within those empty hands unto the grave had brought."
3. A good reputation is a better thing than money
or power for a young man to strive for.  "A good
name," says the Hebrew proverb, "is better than great
riches." It is a noble object of search to seek a reputation which shall have no stain upon it, and which
shall make one famous in the recollection of men. To
be at the head of one's class in whatever calling; to be
known as the best mechanic, the most gifted poet, the
most eloquent orator, the ablest statesman, is a good
thing to possess -nay, it is a great possession. If it
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is sought without selfishness, if it is obtained without
dishonor, if it is borne with modesty, it becomes something better than reputation, and is the natural outgrowth of character. Character is the main thing,
and to be the best man is better than to have the name
of it. There are many manufactured reputations. We
can not doubt that when we examine the list of
famous men. We wonder what has made them famous, when we reflect how weak and poor their man.
hood is.  How many men we find who seem to be
constantly itching for notoriety; who seem to think
that the world will forget them, unless they make
themselves prominent upon every opportunity, and are
constantly on the alert to find a place in which they
can introduce their flux of words, that attention may
be drawn to themselves. It is not well for any young
man to look out upon life as only the stage on
which he is to play his part, and catch the applauses of
his fellows. It is his duty to be true and manly
wherever he may be, let applause come or not, as they
will. The world is not so near-sighted or so forgetful
as it seems. It has a keen eye and a tenacious mnemory for every true thing that is done and every true
word that is spoken, and it will never let die what is
worthy to live. It may not do justly at first, but it
does not neglect to have justice done at the last. Let
no one think that his life is unappreciated, or complain.
that he is neglected. No man ever will be neglected
who gives his fellow-men any thing worth taking care
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of, and the very humblest virtue will be preserved as
a    blessing.  It is wrell, sometimes, that the world may
seem to forget, and it may be that a man is so just and
true as to be above the world's commendation.  When
Cato the censor lived, many ignoble persons had statues erected to their memory. To those who expressed
their wonder to the virtuous old Roman that he had
none, he said, "lie would much rather it should be asked
why he had not a statue, than whiy he had one."  Yet
it must be remembered that a man must be a Cato to
say that with becoming truthfulness!
This rich boon of life, with its unnumbered privileges, was not given any man that he might make
his manhood subservient to the uses of any worldly
pursuit; but that he might, by the opportunities which
an earthly life affords, make his manhood true, firm,
brave and perfect.:Not that he might be rich, or
powerful, or famous, but that by the proper use of his
money, power and reputation, he might be a useful and
true man.  Ile that is the most useful man is the most
successful man; who is simply and truly himself;
who takes what God gives him and makes the most of
it; who fills his life with deeds of beneficence and
good, and leaves the world richer and better than he
found it. It may be much, it may be little, that he
has to give, but the gift shall mark the giver as a genuine and successful man.  lie may have wealth, and
use it as a faithful steward for the good of all human
life. He may have none, and yet cause the hearts of
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many to bless him. He may have power, and exercise
it justly for helping the weak and lifting up the feeble.
He may be in obscure and humble life, and yet make
every day the witness of some generous and heroic
self-denial.  He may have knowledge, and give it with
unsparing hand for the benefit of mankind. He may
be unlettered, and yet have a wisdom that is born of
Heaven.  He may have fame, and it may be so stainless and so irreproachable that it shall be for a perpetual incitement to others for achievement. He may not
be known beyond the limits of his own neighborhood,
yet be known by every man around him for love and
charity and truthfulness.  And when it comes to pass
that this world is to be left behind, it will have one
true life the more whose accomplishments are to be
rejoiced in, and whose departure is to be lamented.
Amnid the dust and toil of life, w-ill remain a memory,
fragrant as the morning, to breathe through long
years to come.  When -as indeed there maybe an
instance in your own remembrance now-this humble,
truthful, manful, generous life is that of a young man,
taken away in the flush of his early strength, there is
an unfading record left of it, if not on any page of
earthly chronicle, certainly on the inmost substance of
your own hearts. Who would not rather leave such
pleasant memories than enjoy all the worldly successes
which a more pretentious life may gain?  An Eng,lish
preacher well and truly says:  "The  honor, fame,
respect, obsequious homage that attend worldly great   eG....oo. 
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ness up to the grave's brink, will not follow it one step
beyond. These advantages are not to be despised;
but if these be all that, by the toil of our hand, or the
swveat of our brow, we have gained, the hour is fast
coming when we shall discover that we have labored
in vain and spent our strength for naught. But while
these pass, there are other things that remain. The
world's gains and losses may soon cease to affect us,
but not the gratitude or the patience, the kindness or
the resignation, they drew forth from our hearts. The
world's scenes of business may fade on our sight, the
noise of its restless pursuits may fall no more upon our
ear, when we pass to meet our God; but not one unselfish thought, not one kind and gentle word, not one
act of self-sacrificing love done for Jesus' sake, in the
midst of our common work, but will have left an indelible impress on the soul, which will go out with it to
its eternal destiny."
III. iaving chosen one's business or profession, the
young man  should strive to ascertain what there really
is in it.  There is something more than a dull routine of manual or mental labor in every man's work.
It has a science. It is based upon eternal principles,
and he who does not understand these, but is contented with the simple art of his business, has not
learned half his trade. It is a great advantage to a
young man to mingle study with work; and he will
find, when once he begins, that the objects of study
which are connected with his business are almost num            9* 
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berless. Hiugh Miller was a stone mason, engaged in
early life in quarrying red sandstone, in Scotland, for
building purposes. Hie became a student of this formation, using, for want of better advantages, the light
of the fire which was kindled in the rude cabin of his
nightly lodging, and by his habits of study became
most eminent as a geologist. George Stephenson was,
at seventeen years of age, a fireman in an English colliery. iHe became a student of the properties and capacities of the steam engine, taking to pieces the one
which he tended, and putting it together again, that
he might understand its construction, and he became
the father of the railway system of Europe and America. Not a man that travels by rail but is indebted to
the studious perseverance and the perceptive genius of
the English engineer. The art of printing is due to
the studies of Guttenburg.  There are the most numerous illustrations, which show that the progress
of the mechanic arts has depended, and still depends
upon the studious habits of worlking men. It is a
great mistake to suppose that professional men are
the only persons who need to spend their lives in
the pursuit of historical, scientific, biographical and
other studies. There is no young man before me, in
whatever business he may be engaged, who does not
absolutely need the influence of study and mental cultivation to make him not only a better man but a better workman; that he may mingle with his every day
toil the refining and humanizing influence of culture;
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that his work may be the easier for it, and that he
may be more skillful and better in every possible direction.
Cicero, in his oration in behalf of the poet Archias,
mentions some of the great men of Roman history,
and declares that they became great, partly at least
on account of their attention to liberal studies. And
hle goes on to say that even if this result is not obtained, and if "pleasure alone is sought from these
studies, this relaxation of mind is most huimnane and
liberal. For while other things belong to certain
places and times, these belong to all times and seasons.
They nourish youth; they cheer old age; they adorn
prosperity; they afford a refuge and solace for adversity.
They delight us at home; they do not impede our acts
abroad. They are with us in the night; they travel with
us; they go into the country with us," and are always
and every where a source of the highest satisfaction. We
may learn something, I think, fromn the Roman orator.
There is another most absurd mistake which deserves notice. Some there are who say that laboring
men are not to be educated, because they may be educated above their station. God gave to every man a
mind and soul, and the gift implies an obligation to
cultivate and develop that mind and soul. And God
help that man to understand life better who can not,
in his foolish pride, see that the station which he fills,
who is faithful to his spiritual and intellectual nature,
though his hands may be hard with toil, and his face
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bronzed with exposure, and his frame sturdy through
his honest industry, is better and higher than any station in the whole universe, though it be filled with all
the comforts of wealth, and the pomps of power, and
the delicacies of fashion. Station! Let a man stand
upon his own manly integrity, whatever his business
may be, and he stands high enough! There is no station that does not demand that the man who is in it
should be educated!  Every working man should feel
that he has always something to learn, and each day
should find him better informed than he was on the
day preceding.
Why, for the sake of illustration, should not a house
carpenter learn to be an architect as well?  Let him
study to be so, and he will find himself connected with
all history, ancient and modern; with all the sciences,
too.  Hie would learn how gradually grew ideas of
beauty into facts, and the magnificent temple and
shrine were raised, not only to give men an opportunity for worship, but to express religious thought and
feeling; every aisle the oratory of prayer, every springing arch the aspiration of devotion. Would he be any
less a workman for all this? Not at all, but always
more of a workman, for then he would find that he
was doing something more than driving nails, and
hewing timbers, and wearily shoving the plane; that
he was giving form to ideas; that he was growing into
a love of the beautiful and true, and that every day's
labor was aiding in the noiseless but certain work of
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building up the structure of a manly and noble character! The farmer has a close connection with all that
is best in life and that is purest in nature. His daily
business puts him into the closest interest with the
physical sciences. Botany, geology, chemistry, natural
philosophy, astronomy, all belong to agriculture. H:e
has something more to do than to turn the clods of his
soil, to sow the seed and gather in the harvest. There
is a mental power in his work; and if he rightly understands the science of his business, he will find that
in the earth which he looked not for.  "The farmer
who sits on his plow-beam," says Emerson, "and discovers the remedy for the potato rot, by pains-taking
research and experiment, has the right to say to the
professor of botany,' Come down from your chair, I am
a better botanist than thou!"' And he would be. And
what a man he might become as he walks over the
fragrant earth, and finds pleasure and delight in the
soft grass, and the delicate flowers, and the genial air,
and the blossoming or fruitful trees, and the pure,
fresh, breezy winds, laden with health and strength!
With the cultivation of his soil would go on the cultivation of himself, and he would be constantly gathering in from the broad acres of his life a harvest of
blessed fruits. Independence, manliness, thrift, would
grow up, and the science of agriculture would become
a part of the noblest of all sciences-, the culture of
manhood.   These are familiar instances, and I take
them to show that even the most familiar occupations
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can be dignified by intelligence and manliness. It is
not true, as we sometimes carelessly say, that any body
can be a mechanic or farmer.  It requires genius, and
skill, and superior knowledge, to become eminent in
these as in other matters.
WThat is true of these labors is true of all. Commerce,
what a world-wide influence that has! Hlow many
and howv important faculties it calls into action! It is
not the mere buying and selling -the interchange of
commodities.  It is the interchange of thought, and feelings, and principles.  Ships go freighted with somewhat
more than merchandize and gold. They carry with
them, into all quarters of the globe, liberty, religion,
civilization. The little caraval Santa )laria, as she
made her way across the unknown sea, three centuries
and a half ago, had on board not simply a crew of discontented Spanish sailors, with their high-souled admiral. The destinies of Hiumanity were in the little hold.
And the Mayflower brought in a cargo, the invoice of
which has not yet been written! Who shall say that
the merchant or the trader really understands his
business, when he thinkls of it only as the means of increasing his gains, and not as carrying to their completion Providential plans for the welfare of the whole
human race? Or that the sailor really navigates his
vessel, if he does not think upon the vast interests which
Providence has intrusted to his fidelity? The ledger
and the log-book contain not the accounts of trade and
the vessel's course alone, but, side by side with these,
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in invisible characters, are kept the accounts of Humanity, and the course of Progressive History!  Be
not content, then, 0 young man, with the mere routine
and drudgery of your business, but try to understand
what really belongs to it as a part of God's great plans
of good!
IV. And so learn the responsibility that belongs to
business. We can by no means free ourselves from the
sanctions that belong to our present life, reaching over
it frorm the life to come. For the right use of what we
have, we must ever be responsible; for the skill, the
energy, the enterprise, the strength and vigor which
belong to our minds and hands, were given us for God's
service, and the service of our fellow-men, and not
wholly for our own advantage. We must be true, honest, upright, religious in our business, as in every thing
else.  We must be careful lest worldliness, avarice, and
the selfish love of gain, blunt and deaden our moral
principles and our religious feelings. We must scorn
to do a mean action. We must despise all dishonesty.
We must wage unceasing warfare against every form
of business iniquity. How feeble and false the plea
which a man raises to excuse his wrong doing, that it
is a business transaction, and that he gets his living by
it. The slave trader sells human flesh and blood, and
speculates in men and women. Of what avail before
Him whose clear eye penetrates the flimsiness of human
sophistries, and the quibblings of human law, that this
is a matter of property and business between man and
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man?  Such property is not recognized at that tribunal, where divine  justice holds its court, and  the
Almighty never yet has given a bill of sale for any hu.
man creature! Of what avail the plea of business,
when the sorrows of the poor and wronged cry out
against him, to that man who fills all social life with
wretchedness and crime, and scatters all around him
firebrands and death? Shall the man who deals in
intemperance and the woes it brings, be shielded by the
cry of business and property?  Do not say that these
are extreme cases! All cases are subject to the same
law. Injustice, falsehood, wrong can not be allowed in
any business, and there is no act of work that a man
may do which is exempt from the principles of equity
and right. And this, not because honesty is the best
policy in the long run, but because honesty.is manly
and just, and because there is nothing in all the universe
which can serve the stead of truth!
What I have said in relation to business applies
equally well to professional life. There, too, are needed
industry; a thorough understanding of one's calling,
and a complete fitness for it; manliness, truth, honesty and an upright life. If professional men are tihe
leaders of thought and action, it is especially necessary
that they should be true, firm, brave and generous;
stooping to no false or ignoble action; having a generous sympathy with all humane movements; earnest, independent, liberal and free; working with all
their powers, and using all their gifts in the service of
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THE YOUNG MAN IN BUSINESS.
truth and human good.  Says Lord Bacon: "He that
seeketh to be eminent among able men hath a great
task; but that is ever good for the public. But he
that plots to be the only figure among ciphers, is the
decay of a whole age. Honor hath three things in itthe vantage-ground to do good, the approach to kings
and principal persons, and the raising of a man's own
fortunes.  He that hath the best of these intentions
when he aspireth is an honest man."
I feel that I am hardly nearer the conclusion of my
address than when I commenced it, so numerous are
the connections of the subject with human life. But
the time warns me not to weary your patience farther.
There is but a single point more which I touch, because I cannot pass it by.  It is the relation of business to growth of character. Side by side, and in intimate union, are each man's daily toil and his spiritual
advancement. The school of labor is educating us
unto eternal results of good or ill, and our daily, familiar experiences are indications of our manhood. We
are producing spiritual as well as material things. The
manufacturer is weaving a texture to endure when all
mechanical products are forgotten, and has to do with
the wvarp and woof of an eternal life. The mechanic
is building a structure which shall outlast the stars.
The agriculturist has no farm so broad as that, on
which he sows the daily virtue or the daily sin.  The
merchant is extending his commerce into regions remoter than the farthest corner of the earth, and has
10
109 
PLAIN WORDS.
intercourse with a world beyond the skies. The sailor
is navigating a sea more dangerous than any he has
yet sailed over, and is embarked upon a voyage whose
haven of destination has a name not down on any of
his charts; while the man of thought and study is at
school to solve the great problems for which the
sciences of numbers furnish no rules. All perception,
all action, all life, is converted into character, and no
hour passes which does not add to or diminish the
depth and power of our moral being.
Let us then go to all our various work, with the
assurance that it is for the constant unfolding of Providential plans, and that we are laboring together with
God. Let us feel that every hour passed in honest,
faithful toil, in counting-house and ware-room, in mill
and workshop, over all the land and all the sea-no act
lost, and none ineffectual in whatever station, since all
stations belong to humanity- is so much accomplished
for the real advancement of mankind. It is not
merely the products of his skill and work that the
faithful man is gathering to himself, but a better product with them -a noble manhood, to cheer and bless
all human life. ie who fails in doing that, though
he may be successful, as men generally count success,
is really bankrupt at the last, and dies in that saddest
insolvency, where one owes a debt he can not pay to
humanity and God!
"0 rich man's son! There is a toil,
That with all others level stands;
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THE YOUNG MAN IN BUSINESS.
Large charity doth never soil,
But only whiten soft, white hands;
This is the best crop from thy lands;
A heritage, it seems to me,
Worth being rich to hold in fee.
" 0 poor man's son! scorn not thy state,
There is worse weariness than thine,
In merely being rich and great;
Toil only gives the soul to shine,
And makes rest fragrant and benign;
A heritage, it seems to me,
Worth being poor to hold in fee.
"Both, heirs to some six feet of sod,
Are equal in the earth at last;
Both, children of the same dear God,
Prove title to your heirship vast,
By record of a well-filled past:
A heritage, it seems to me,
Well worth a life to hold in fee!"
111 
V. CONVERSATION-READING-AIMUSEMENTS.
IN every man's life there are many things which,
though manifestly belonging to his life, are yet in a
measure separate from its active courses. They are
not particularly prominent, yet they never cease to
affect the whole course of thought and action; and
though they belong more to private experience than
to public history, are yet by no means uninfluential
in the formation of habits and character. On the
contrary, they are especially powerful in their influence, and sometimes sway the whole course of life.
In a series of Lectures like this, I could not pass over
the subjects which I have announced for this evening
in silence. I could have wished to devote more time
to their separate consideration, had the limits of the
course permitted. I am compelled, somewhat against
my will, to combine them, hoping to find a line of unity
connecting them with each other, and with the train
of thought which we have hitherto pursued.
The first part'of this evening's address will be devoted to a consideration of the subject of CONVERSATION. You say this is very common-place. So it is. 
CONVERSATION -READING -AMUSEMENTS.   113
So has all been that I have said until now. So it will
be to the end. M3fy object has been to be just as common-place as it is possible to be. For it is these very
common-place and familiar things which enter most
largely into our practical life, and in regard to which
it is necessary that we should think clearly and act
justly. I think, too, we ought to understand that
it is by fidelity to the familiar and common-place
affairs of life that we arrive at success in the greatest
and most important matters; and thus the familiarity
and seeming triviality of our subject give it all the
more interest to us, as we are now endeavoring to ascertain how to lead a manful and honest life.
Without question, much of the happiness or grief of
life arises from the character of our social intercourse.
The gift of speech is a great blessing to us; how great
we may not understand till we become deprived of it;
and, like all other blessings, it may be abused and become a curse. By it, we communicate our thoughts
and feelings to one another, and we could not well be
deprived of the intercourse of friendship, the social
converse, and the kindly, cheerful talk which we enjoy.
We show ourselves, we see others in words; in the
tones of voice with which they are spoken, and the
spirit that breathes through them. If a man's words
to us, as we meet him at our homes or in the street,
are hearty, cheerful, manly, full of good and truthful
spirit, he challenges and receives our respect and confidence. If his language is coarse, mean, low, vile and
10 * 
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false, we are repelled from him, and shun his society.
We are strengthened by a free and full communion of
thought with a frank, generous, and honest man. We
feel weakened and degraded by our companionship
with a false, and wicked, and dishonest man. The
relief given us is like escaping from a dark and narrow cavern into the free, and fresh, and open sunlight.
There are some men that drive us into ourselves, and
shut up all the avenues of communication. We can
not answer them except by monosyllables, and we wish
that the interview was over, that their departure may
relieve us of the pressure which they impose upon us.
There are other men who draw us out almost involuntarily on our part, and we are surprised, as we remember how open we have been in our conversation and
confidence. How often does it happen, too, that a
conversation with friends is full of the most delightful
enjoyment to us, though the words spoken may be few
and feeble. Even the commonest word from those we
love is better for us, and does more to encourage and
help us, than a stranger's wisest speech! It has
been well said by an English writer: "One could take
a book from his shelf ten times more wise and witty
than almost any man's conversation. Bacon is wiser,
Swift more humorous, than any person one is likely to
meet with. But they can not chime in with the exact frame of thought in which we happen to take them
down from our shelves. Therein lies the luxury of
conversation; and when a living speaker does not
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CONVERSATION- READING -AMUSEMENTS.   115
yield us that luxury, he becomes only a book, standing
on two legs." I presume we have all met with persons who talk as though they were thinking how their
words would appear in print. Then we have to confess, that however intelligent and even learned their
conversation may be, it is still wearisome and uninteresting, because it does not chime in with our thoughts,
and also because the persons talking are thinking not
so much of us as their own importance, and for all
purposes might as well be talking to themselves.
Conversation, however, is something more than a
luxury. The voice we have, and the manner in which
we use it, is a powerful instrument for good or evil.
So it becomes a duty with us to make our conversation
not only agreeable for purposes of pleasure, but instructive as an influence of good to others. Every
man has something to communicate to his fellow-man,
beside needless information about the weather, the
state of the money-market, or the trifling gossip
that floats about the neighborhood. So our conversation should have for its object the promotion of the
welfare of those with whom we talk. It should be
filled with truth, with kindness, with encouragement,
with consolation. Thus filled, it becomes an important influence which we exert upon all social life, as
we confer a benefit upon the whole community when
we free our social intercourse from all vicious and false
things, and make it full of all good and true things.
"A word fitly spoken," says the proverb, "is like ap 
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pies of gold in pictures of silver;" and there is no
one of us so humble and poor but may make another's
life happier by some kind and cheerful word. Scientific men tell us that every sound upon the surface of
our own and other planets circulates in endless and
ceaseless waves through the infinite space. Certainly
not less subtle is the influence of our words upon the
life and character of the world.
But, say some, talking is of little good; action is
the main thing. You say of a man, that he is "all talk."
True, there are just such men; men of great wind;
who "speak great swelling words of vanity, and are
puffed up by their own conceits; wells without water,
and clouds carried by a tempest." These are false and
foolish men. But there are true men, who sway the
world by the influence of speech. The gifted orator
moves the multitude at will. Who shall gainsay his
power? The quiet fireside discussion, what a power
it has over the life! In the early times of conflict in
which the Republic was born, who shall say that the
eloquence of Otis, and Adams, and Henry, or the
quiet, earnest and resolute conversation in patriot
homes, did not conduce as much to our triumph, as the
actions of Gates, and Greene, and Washington, on the
battle-field? And now there are men, whose instruments are mainly words, and who by them are moulding public opinion and educating a people fit to make
a state!
Such being the power of words, it becomes a ques
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CONVERSATION - READING - AMUSEMENTS.    117
tion of some importance as to how we shall regulate
that sometimes unruly rnember, the tongue.
I. What shall be avoided?
1. Thoughtless and idle words. I suppose that
much harm is done by thoughtlessness. We are not
careful enough in what we say, and words will slip
from us sometimes which we would give worlds to
recall. We need to think before we speak, lest by our
thoughtlessness, our spoken word becomes the master
of our lives. There are some proverbs which in their
sententious wisdom speak volumes to us; such as that
English maxim: "He that says what he likes, shall
hear what he does not like." Or perhaps the thought
is better expressed by the Spanish proverb: "The evil
which isues from thy mouth falls into thy bosom."
And the Chinese have a saying which shows us that
we make ourselves partakers in the thoughtless words
of others:  " tle  who laughs at an  impertinence
makes himself its accomplice." And there is a Persian proverb, which it would be well for young men
and women to remember in concert rooms, lecture halls, and the like; "Speech is silvern, silence
is golden."   You  should remember  that the majority of the audience go for the purpose of hearing
the speaker or the performer, and not you, and it is
particularly impertinent and offensive to disturb them
by any thoughtless, impolite, and ridiculous behavior.
There is a great deal of heedless gossip, too, which is
to be avoided. No community would wish to be 
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known as scandal-mongers, and the conversation which
is made up of detraction, calumny and slander, is especially injurious. Have we not something else to talk
about but a neighbor's weaknesses?
2. Cruel and unkind words are not to be spoken.
We should not wish to cherish ungenerous and unkind
thoughts of any person; much less would we give
these thoughts expression. Wounds are inflicted so,
that are impossible of cure, and will rankle for years,
producing misery and pain. Of this character is the
habit of sneering, which is most unlovely in woman
and ugly in man, and is evermore to be avoided by all
who would be generous and frank. We must try to
think the best of every one we meet, and to speak to
him or her in a kind and considerate way, remembering that the rudest nature is susceptible to kindness,
and may be wounded by a harsh word from us; while
we certainly would not be so cruel as to pierce a sensitive soul by our selfish and cutting speech. We must
remember that we can injure by our tongue as much as
by our hand, and the violence of language may be as
harmful as the violence of action.
3. Profane and obscene words are to be avoided.
Lewdness of speech is an indication of impurity of soul,
and profanity is as vulgar as it is irreverent. Such
words are always unchaste, indelicate, improper, and
ungentlemanly. Nay, worse than these, they are really vicious; for they have a reflex influence upon the
mind and soul, and degrade and weaken the character.
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CONVERSATION - READING - AMUSEMENTS.   119
They are demoralizing in their effects, as they are immoral in their character. Let no young man ever
allow his tongue to be polluted in this filthy way.
Oaths and impurity do not become lips which have been
formed in beauty by their Creator to utter words of
blessing and good. Hie that really feels what his language expresses, must have lost all reverence for what
is best and purest; while he whose words involuntarily
and habitually shape themselves into such forms, must
have a hardened heart and a vicious soul. The habit
is coarse and disgusting; ungentlemanly, too, as every
thing low and disgusting is, and wicked and wrong in
all its various aspects. By all means, let it be avoided!
II. 1. On the other hand, conversation should be free,
generous, manly, honest, and truthful. What we have
to say must be said truthfully; for truth here is as
much a duty as elsewhere, and he that is false and
dissembling in his words will generally be found false
in every thing. The man of faithless and dishonest
speech, who conceals the truth, or utters it so as to
make it equivalent to falsehood, deserves from us
nothing but contempt. The demagogue in public is a
despicable man. But there are men of the same character, who never mount the platform, and may not
emerge from private life; men of no independence of
character, and no moral courage, and full of lies to
themselves and all men around them, and if possible to
God!   Have we a true word to say? let us say it
without reserve and freely; say it earnestly, say it 
]PLAIN WORDS.
lovingly, but say it faithfully! If it shall do good to
any human soul, let it go forth, and it shall bear a
blessing on its wings; and when it is gone let us be
faithful to it, for it is a pledge given by us to the
world, which we should be careful to redeem. So
when a promise is made, if made in good faith and
with full knowledge of its influence, it must be kept
and faithfully fulfilled. We sometimes say of an honest man, as though it were creditable to him, "His
word is as good as his bond." Is it not discreditable
to any man, that his bond should be better than his
word? So we take oaths in courts of justice to tell
the truth. We do not always remember that we
are continually on oath before a tribunal higher than
any earthly court; on oath to tell the truth, before the tribunal of our own conscience and our God.
I know that we do not always think in this way. I
know that the young man, as he goes out into life,
expecting truth, uprightness, patriotism, is wofully
disappointed. I know how he finds deceit in social
intercourse, dishonesty in business, mean and low
intrigue for office in politics. I know how soon his
high sense of honor is degraded, as he sees, even in the
very loftiest positions, falseness and contempt for
pledges and professions; sycophancy instead of inde pendence; meanness instead of generosity; hypocrisy instead of religion; how soon he learns the maxims of the world. How soon he falls in with the ways
of the hour; how soon he becomes as mean and false
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CONVERSATION -READING - AMUSEMENTS.   121
and dishonest as the rest! How grand and noble it is,
when he remains faithful among the faithless; resolved, come what may- poverty or wealth, reputation or obscurity, success or defeat - there shall be at
least one true man!
2. Conversation should be cheerful. What contributes most to the happiness of home is the cheerfulness
which fills the little offices of kindness that belong to
it. Fretfulness and ill-humor always are destructive
to that calmness of enjoyment which makes home the
best place in all the world. A passionate, scolding
woman is certainly no very pleasant companion for
any one. A morose, sullen, angry man is certainly no
pleasanter. If such persons are not companionable at
home, they would not be very likely to be so abroad.
What gives zest and relish to our social enjoyments is
the cheerful spirit which fills the observance of the
little things, that constitute the charm of social life.
How are we drawn to the man whose words are full of
cheerfulness! His conversation may not be instructive; he may say nothing but the most common-place
things; he may not be witty or brilliant; but every
word may be thoroughly brightened by the cheerful
spirit which shines through it. It is not so much what
he says, as the manner in which he says it; and we
bask in his kindly smile and his genial, sunshiny companionship, as we lie on grassy banks on a summer's
day, and fill ourselves with joy.
3. Conversation should be religious. By this I do not
11 
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mean that unmeaning and insincere canlt, which some.
times passes for religious conversation, and which is as
husks to the hungry soul. It is not necessary to say
specifically religious words, or frame our sentences into
religious forms; but there may be a religious spirit of
charity and love -love for God, and man, and every
thing just and true -- which shall breathe through
every word, and be the soul of every sentence. When
you go into the woods, the sweetest fragrance comes
from the delicate and invisible flowers that hide
among the underbrush or beneath the leaves, and in
social intercourse there may be a spirit, unseen and
hiding itself away, and yet be the quickening and animating beauty to every look and all the speech. Religious speech is not always solemn and serious, but
may be full of all cheerfulness and gentle ways, and
devotion itself may take upon it such a character and
aspect of good.
"To worship rightly is to love each other;
Each smile a hymn, each kindly deed a prayer!"
II. Leaving now the conversation by the living voice,
we come to the conversation on a higher plane, viz.,
with books- READING.
It has been said that a man is known by the company he keeps. I think he may be better known by
the books he reads. Hie may sometimes be thrown
into company which he does not select for himself,
but his books are matters of choice. So prolific is the
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CONVERSATION - READING - AMUSEMENTS.   123
press in our day, and so inexpensive are its products,
that every one has the widest choice of the best books;
every taste may be gratified, and every shade of
thought finds ample opportunity for expression. Nothing is so abundant as are books.  "Consider," says
Emerson, "what you have  in the smallest chosen
library. A company of the wisest and wittiest men
that could be picked out of all civilized countries, in a
thousand years, have set in best order the results of
their learning and wisdom. The men themselves were
hid, inaccessible, solitary, impatient of interruption,
fenced by etiquette; but the thought which they did
not uncover to their bosom friend is here written out
in transparent words to us, the strangers of another
age."
Think what an influence books have and exert!
Bad books are mischievous in the extreme, for they
excite the worst part of our natures, and make our
life, while reading them, shameful and  wicked.  We
may be ashamed to be seen in company with a bad
man, but we allow ourselves to read his book almost
without compunction. The influence is invisible, and
it rmay even be imperceptible, but it is insidious and
sure.  We may be unable to see the danger which lies
concealed beneath the surface, and, ahlmost before one
is aware, the character may be corrupted and the
structure of manhood undermined. This is particularly the case with the young; for at the ductile time
of life when habits are forming, and character is grow 
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ing, a corrupt book may lead into ways of wrong, and
sin and vice, filled with a lifelong misery.  We  regard
as a murderer, and justly so, the man who puts poison into the food which we use for the nourishment
of the body; but what shall we call the man who poisons the food which we take for the nourishment of
the mind and souLl? And we, ourselves, become moral
suicides if we take the poison that is offered.
On the other hand, who can estimate the influence
of a good book? It is as though we were admitted
into the familiar intimacy with a wise and good man,
who talks to us with all confidence and friendship.
His intercourse with us soothes, encourages, inspires
us. Conversation with books, says Montaigne, "goes
side by side with me in my whole course, and every
where is assisting me; it comforts me in age and solitude; it eases nme of a troublesome weight of idleness,
and delivers me at all hours from company that I dislike; and it blunts the point of griefs, if they are not
extreme." We know how true this is, and how the
books of good and true men come to us with their
"medicine for the mind."  What society in solitude!
What comfort in pain and grief!  What a high and
holy friendship with the most gifted minds of the
world! They share their best thoughts with us; they
tell us of their joys and sorrows; they introduce us
into the experience of life, and show us what we ourselves are, so that he who has a well chosen library,
though it be not above a hundred volumes, has, in llis
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CONVERSATION - READING -AMUSEMENTS   125
own home, beneath his own roof-tree, and at his own
fireside, the poet, the historian, the scholar, the philosopher, the wide traveler, the deepest thinker; and
with themir all may hold the sweetest converse, as the
dearest friends, and learn of them how to live, and be
a man. Who that has ]Nilton, Shlakspeare, Plato, Socrates, and the best writers of the age, for his daily
compalnions can be mean, and base, and unworthy?
iHow can he be otherwise than  brave and noble?
" Books," says an old English writer, "are the masters
who instruct us without rods and ferules, without hard
words and anger, without clothes or money. If you
approach them, they are not asleep; if investigating,
you interrogate themn, they conceal nothing; if you
mistake them, they never grumble; if you are ignorant, they never laugh at you."
Books have two uses for us. They serve either as a
relaxation from our severe physical toils, giving us the
pleasures which belong to intellectual activity, or they
become to us the means of self-improvement.  There
are few men whose occupations are such as wholly to
deprive them of the opportunity of reading. There is
no young man who can not find time for improving
himself in this way. Even a single hour, thus spent
each day, will be found to amount to a vast deal in a
lifetime, and will be the means of instruction hardly
appreciable by those who have not made the experi ment. One would be astonished to find how great an
accumulation of the most useful and gratifying knowl            11 * 
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edge might thus be made, and how valuable would be
such a furniture of the mind. Sir Edward Lytton
Bulwer, one of the most active of the literary men in
our times, the author of numerous books of fiction, and
a man of great learning, is said to have spent but three
hours each day in reading, writing and study; but during these three hours he paid the closest attention to
his work. In a country like ours, it is impossible for
any one to say what position he will be called upon to
fill. It is needful that each one qualify himself to fill
it worthily. A very little time saved each day from
places of idle resort, or from hours of indolence, and
spent in useful reading, would suffice to fit young men
for almost any station in life. It is also for the utmost
advantage for every one to pursue a line of study a
little apart from his daily toil. Instances are by no
means wanting of courses of study pursued by working men, who have, by diligent husbandry of time,
become eminent in their calling, and in whatever position the circumstances of their after life may have
placed them. Franklin, a man of great industry,
found time, amid the plays of boyhood and the toils
of manly life, to read. Hie was a student from his
very infancy. A tallow-chandler and a printer, he yet
did not neglect the cultivation of his mind, nor think
that because he was a working man he did not need
the fruits of study. The candle, which possibly he
had moulded himself, furnished him the light he
needed in his little garret, for perusing some well
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CONVERSATION - READING- AMUSEMENTS.   127
worn volume, into the small hours of the night. The
habits of early life never forsook him, and he was
always a student. He was a working-man by necessity. iHe was a student by choice, and his study and
work never clashed with each other. He was no less
studious because he was a workman, and he was no
less industrious because he was a student. Robert
Burns was a poor plowman in Scotland. Hie tells us
that his verses were generally composed in the fields,
while he was at work upon the various labors of the
farm, and afterward transcribed at home. But he
was no less good as a farmer because he was so glorious
a poet. Nor was Hugh Miller less faithful in the
stone quarry, because he was learning to be a geolo gist. We ought to understand that this intellectual
and spiritual nature, which is so active beneath the
surface of our working life, craves its food as much as
the physical nature which we have. The arm is no
less brawny, the hand no less strong, the fingers no
less skillful, because the mind has its proper aliment,
and grows strong day by day by what it feeds upon.
And we ought also to bear in mind that the cultiva tion of this nature has a tendency "to refine the work day life and adorn it; to disengage it from the contacts
of matter;" to elevate it to a connection with ideas,
truths and principles, and fill it with objects of beauty
and of love. Is there any young man who complains
of a want of time or opportunity? If he has no
money to buy books of his own, there are libraries to 
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which he can have ready access, and there is no
young man who can not find both time and opportunity to improve them, if he only has the inclination.
It is an excellent practice for a young man to select
some subject and write upon it, that he may learn to
think and express his thoughts with clearness and correctness. Thus he makes his reading useful to some
good end. It may be difficult, but it will be found
exceedingly serviceable; and in our community the
facilities for both reading and writing are so numerous
that the young man is blamable if he does not use
them.
But you ask, What shall we read?  First, I answer,
read the best books which you can find upon the subjects to which your inclination or desire for improvement leads you.  If possible, never read a poor book
upon any subject.  You can soon find, generally in the
first few pages, whether the book helps or inspires you,
and whether the author has any soul in him, or only
the semblance of one. If there is any exhibition of insincerity or a desire to write for effect, or attempts at
fine composition, without regard to the vigor and purity of thought, the book is better let alone.  Your time
can be better employed. This rule, I think, is worth
following in regard to works of fiction and poetry.
Those are to be read which belong to the first rank in
their respective class. I am very far from indulging
in an indiscriminate abuse of novel reading, because I
think that no one's reading is complete which does not
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CONVERSATION - READING -- AMUSEMENTS.   129
embrace this. The creations of the imagination are
necessary and beneficial to be understood. We do not
find our happiness and good in continually remaining
in the practical, prosaic world. We need sometimes to
go out of ourselves into the ideal world of poet and
dramatist, and the writer of fiction. The imagination
is an important faculty of our nature, and every young
man should cultivate it.  It is well for us to rise above
our daily toil, and rejoice in the beauty and gladness
which the imagination creates.  Fiction is not necessarily false, because it is fictitious. It has been used many
times for the purpose of illustrating and enforcing the
best truth. Our childhood's reading is mostly of a fictitious kind, and yet we are seldom the worse for it. The
parables of the New Testament are fictitious, although
they are far from being untrue; and there was many a
precept which Jesus gave under the form of a parable,
that became more forceful by the garb with which his
imagination clothed it. In our day the novel is made
the vehicle of philosophy and religion, and many an
abuse and many a falsehood receive their death blow
from the genial humor of Dickens, and the pungent sat ire of Thackeray. I think we have much to be grateful
for, and indeed there is a gratifying indication of pro  gress, in the fact that the tone of our fiction is generally
so manly and true. The taste of the people is improv  ing. We are learning to read rightly and well, and no
book can pass current among us, or enjoy any extended
circulation, unless it has the ring of the true metal in 
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it. I do not know that I need to mention what authors
are to be read in this department. The two whom I
have just referred to, Scott, and Bulwer in his later
works, our own countrymen, Cooper and Irving, the
old English poets, dramatists and writers, Shakspeare
and his cotemporaries, Addison, with his associates,
Goldsmith, and the galaxy of literary men who adorned
his times, Charles Lamb, with his coterie of friends, are
by no means unworthy of the young man's attention.
To these may be added a few female writers of our own
day, like Mary Itlowitt, Charlotte Bronte 3, Mrs. Gaskell,
Miss MIartineau, in her earlier and better years, and Mrs.
Stowe, whose large humanity gives them claims to our
regard.  The young man and woman who makes the
acquaintance of these noble inon and high-souled women, will not be satisfied with those namby-pamby and
flimsy love stories, desecrating the noble passion by
their feeble imitation, which I am glad to feel are passing out of existence. They are fit for only love-sick
damsels and swains, who make the heroes and heroines
-save the mark!- of these novels the representatives of their own cases.  But, as love-sickness is a
kind of disease similar to those which sometimes attack
children, and generally as harmless; and to which
perhaps we are all more or less exposed, it is to be
hoped that the popularity of these books will be as
evanescent as the feeling that gives them interest.
2. There is a better kind of reading than that of fiction. Biography and history should never be neglected
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CONVERSATION  - READING - AMUSEMENTS.   131
by a young man.  When we read the biographies of
noble men we are introduced at once into the society
of heroes, and the earth is better and more sacred to
us, because it has borne such grand and honorable persons.  We need to know how human life has been caried on in the past. We need to see how the volume
of time has rolled through the ages, and what it has
carried upon its surface, and in its depths; how God
has revealed himself through the life of men. We need
to see, too, how the same great capacities have dwelt in
the human soul through all the centuries of its life;
that it has been swayed by the same passions; that it
has been moved by the same aspirations; that it has
been carried forward through the same struggles, and
gained the same victories by the same unwearied fidelity. Whether beneath an Oriental or an Occidental
sun; whether on the banks of the Ganges, along the
shores of the Jordan and the Nile, or where our Western waters roll their course to either sea; there have
been the same human nature and the same human life.
People and empires rise, and fall, and die. The wave of
oblivion may sweep away some of the ancient landmarks of the race, but the line of continuity remains
unbroken, and the truth of the unity of mankind
declares itself through all past and present time! Let
the young man then study history; particularly that
part which is called the essence of history, the biography of those men whose lives have made history, with
the hope, as Carlyle says, "of gaining some acquaint 
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ance with our fellow-creatures -though dead and van.
ished, still dear to us; how they got along in those old
days, suffering and doing; to what extent and under
what circumstances they resisted the devil and triumphed over him, or struck their colors, and were trodden under foot by him; how, in short, the perennial battle went, which men call life, which we also, in these new
days, with indifferent fortune, have to fight, and must
bequeath to our sons and daughters to go on fighting,
till the enemy be one day vanquished and abolished,
or the great night come down and separate the combatants." Shall not the examples which the men of old
have set before us, as they fought the enemy and conquered, inspire uLs to fight the good fight, and achieve
the victory as faithfully and as gloriously as they did.?
We may inherit their valor and their gentleness. We
may emulate their bravery and their generosity. We
may surpass them, if we will, in manly heroism.
"I know not that the men of old
Were better than men now,
Of heart more kind, of hand more bold,
Of more ingenuous brow;
I heed not those who pine for force
A ghost of Time to raise,
As if they thus could check the course
Of these appointed days.
Still, it is true, and over true,
That I delight to close
This book of life, self-wise and new,
And let my thoughts repose
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CONVERSATION - READING - AMUSEMENTS.  133
On all that humble happiness
The world has since foregoneThe daylight of contentedness
That on those faces shone!"
So far as the young man of our day can do, he
ought to enter into the exploration of the vast field
of study, which lies open in the biography of those
who have been the heroes of the race. I think there
is scarcely a more fascinating book in this respect
than Plutarch's Lives. The Christian Fathers, too,
have a biography well worth studying. The founders
of religion, like Mahomet -the great men of the Papal Church, like Hildebrand -the Reformers of the
sixteenth century, like Luther, shaking the world by
the force of liberty and truth-are all necessary to be
known; while no young American should be ignorant
of the lives of those men of our own history whose
heroism is the birthright of us all - Washington and
his compatriots- the old Puritans and the Fathers of
New-England; of old England's worthies too, for English history belongs to us as well as our own-Cromwell- Htampden-the Sydneys- Milton-Howard,
and such women as Elizabeth Fry, and those others
whom I have already mentioned, and many more,
" Not widely known, but widely blessing human life."
I mention these English books, because, as a general
thing, we have not time to go beyond an understanding of our own tongue, and because, too, that brave
12 
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old English-Saxon speech is the best for us to learn.
It may be rugged, it may be rude, it may want the
flexibility of other languages, but it is our mothertongue -spoken by dear friends now in heaven-spoken by the noblest men that ever lived; and it is a
manly tongue, a grand and noble language. Let us
never be unfaithful to its service. If we have time,
indeed, we should extend our knowledge, that we may
read the masterpieces of classic times, and the beautiful productions of other climes; but we must be faithful to our own speech first!
3. The young man should read science and philosophy, that he may understand how the great facts of
the earth's life have come to be what they are, and
how human life is carried on and by what principles.
Hie may not become a philosopher or a scientific man,
but he ought to investigate thoroughly and think correctly.
4. There is, too, one book which the young man
ought never to neglect, and that is the grand old
book-the  Bible.  This should be  his guide, his
counsellor, his friend. It contains poetry, romance,
history, biography, philosophy, all of the very highest kind, and no one has learned of life and its great
aims, unless he has studied the Bible earnestly and
reverently. The profound wisdom of those old Hiebrew sages -the words of Christ- the Apostles' wondrous speech, as with cloven tongues —we can not
afford to lose the inspiration which their teachings
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CONVERSATION-  READING - AMUSEMENTS.   135
give. All things are there that he needs -help in
temptation, encouragement in duty, consolation in sorrow, cheering words in difficulty, and a stay in all his
weakness.   Through present dangers, and through
present joys, this Book of books leads him with safe
and glad step, and at the last, when the shadows of
death are closing round his way, it shows him the
light of eternal glory which beams beyond the tomb!
Young man! never neglect the reading of the Bible!
Take that book as the lamp of your feet, the guide of
all your way. You will find that it does not lead you
wrong. Its paths are by the side of still waters, and
in the green pastures of a Divine Love!
III. I am obliged to touch lightly upon the third part
of this Address, or to risk the wearying of your patience.
Still, I can not but think that the subject of Amusements is one of the most important which we shall consider in our whole course of thought. It is a much
more serious question than we are apt to suppose, what
are suitable amusements for a young man.   liow shall
he employ his hours of recreation? They may be so
employed as to leave behind them the sting of unavailing regrets for misspent time, or those feelings of satis faction which belong to the substantial pleasures of
moral and intellectual enjoyment.
Certainly the necessity of recreation of some kind is
apparent. It would be useless for me to attempt to
show that the young demand amusement. God made
us not altogether for serious employment. We were 
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not created wholly for toilsome work, useful as it may
be for the development of our faculties. We have no
right, in the provision which we make for mental and
religious education, to push aside those portions of our
being which require play for their complete growth and
maturity. It is as much a part of our lives to give
occasion and opportunity to ourselves for enjoyment, as
it is to make ourselves useful. Nay, we may be as useful in making others happy, as in supplying their necessities. It is as imperative on a Christian community
to furnish proper amusements, as it is to furnish religious instruction.  Well arranged gymnastic exercises
are fully as important to every school-house, as proper
accommodations for study and recitation.
Taking human nature as we find it, and as God in
his infinite wisdom saw fit to create it, it is more the
work of the Christian thinker to try to discover the
true relation between the work and play of life, and
unite them in an harmonious whole, than to condemn
the play of life as altogether irreligious and sinful,
and by all means to be avoided. Hiere is the simple
fact, that man has the playful element in his nature
which will express itself in some way, either innocently
or harmfully. If those amusements which are harmless fall under condemnation, those which are injurious
will certainly be found. Then there will be one of
three things accomplished-a severe asceticism, utterly
crushing all expressions of gay and joyous feeling,
with a certain reaction; or a full, unrestrained and de
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CONVERSATION -READING - AMUSEMENTS.   137
fiant course of sensual and debasing pleasures; or a
secret pursuit of these pleasures, beneath a hypocritical
seeming of rigid propriety. Neither of these can be
a beneficial influence upon character. Asceticism is
hurtful; gross sensuality is wicked; hypocrisy is worse
than both. It has been thought by some that the strict
Puritanism of early days has been the prolific source of
the license and intemperance of these latter times.
Whether this be so or not, this much is unquestionably
true, that there is always a force in the human mind
which reacts against undue restraint. If the bonds are
too tightly fastened they will be broken, and the danger is that the resistance may become insane, and the
liberty which is obtained will go beyond itself and becomlue the freest license. We are accustomed to think
of ourselves as a nation of plodders, always and feverishly at work, with occasional remissions of toil, when
we either express our playfulness in the most unparalleled noise and overwhelming din-as on Independence
day-or give ourselves lup to the worst indulgences,
and call them relaxation and rest, instead of so combining the light with the heavy duties of life in such
excellent and harmonious proportion, that each may
temper and relieve the other, and both combined
produce a full, rounded, and complete character.
For the sake of convenience, I class amusements as
follows: 1. Those which are positively injurious. 2.
Those wvhich are innocent in themselves, but liable to
abuse. 3. Those which are innocent and beneficial.
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1. Amusements which are positively injurious. They
are, in general, those which stimulate our worst pas
sions and appetites. Whatever helps the evil within
us to overcome the good, weakens the power of our
moral convictions and undermines our religious principles, is harmful to us. What was begun as a
relaxation becomes a vice, and allying itself with its
kindred vices, makes the last state of the man worse
than the first. Such is gambling in its various forms.
There is, without doubt, a pleasurable excitement in
gaming. There may be some mental exercise too. But
when we think of its demoralizing influence upon the
character, and the disgraceful end to which it directly
leads, we are furnished with an inducement which
would cause us to avoid exposure to its fascination.
Never does any course of conduct lead more directly to
misery and woe, the destruction of all true happiness,
and the vitiation of all manly energy. Little by little
is its victim drawn by its allurements within the
charmed circle of its influence. Like the fabled maelstrom, its outer circle may move slowly and weakly.
But within that is a narrower, and stronger and swifter;
and within that a stronger and swifter still, till at last
in the vortex of the whirlpool, the waters rush down
with irresistible force. A gallant ship, with rich freight
of passengers and merchandize, by the negligence or
boldness of her commander, is steered within the influence of the current. Suffered to go too far, she is driven
with resistless power. iHer sails may be full. Favor
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CONVERSATION - READING - AMUSEMENTS.   139
able winds may be blowing. The man who walks her
quarter-deck may have no equal in the art of navigation.  But she will not answer to her helm.  Not the
strength of her timbers, not the value of her cargo, not
the character of her passengers, not the skill of her
master can be now of any avail, and she is hurried into
the abyss amid cries of agony and despair. It is but
a feeble picture of the danger into which the young
man falls who trusts himself to this most terrible temptation. Playing for small sums leads to playing for
large ones. The game is seductive. Nights are sleeplessly spent. Daily business is neglected. Family and
friends are deserted, and absolute ruin is in the prospect. The apprentice, the clerk or the student is soon
debauched; finds his wages or his allowance insufficient
to support such an extravagant amusement; is tempted
to defraud his employer, or guardian; yields to the
temptation; theft, dishonesty, perhaps forgery, crime
follows; small sins lead to great ones, and if the prison
or the penitentiary is escaped, it is only by some
fortunate combination of circumstances. But be as sured the man can not escape from himself.  His consciousness of iniquity goes with him, and there is no
foreign country and no community of strangers which
can afford an asylum for the man who is driven round
the world by the goadings of an evil conscience, and
the fear of detection and exposure of his guilt. The
mechanic, the business or the professional man, is
equally subject to such temptation; the danger is equal, 
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the result is similar. Then, too, the gambling-house is
always next door to the drinking room, and next the
brothel, and next the jail, and next the gallowvs, and
next the dread realities of Eternity! Step by step,
each leads to the other! By a singular felicity of expression, gambling-houses are called HELLS. It is the
appropriate name. Is a young man safe within their
walls?
What I have said respecting this matter, applies
equally well to betting at horse races and elections,
lottery selling and buying, gambling in fancy stocks,
and other similar proceedings. They all lead to the
neglect of business, the desertion of home, fraud,
depravation of character, the poisoning of life, the
debasement of manhood. All sensual pleasures are of
the same class. The ruin of manly virtue and of womanly beauty, by what has been called "the crime of
great cities," belongs with these. They are not properly amusements. They are vices, and vice is always
ruinous. As I write this address, I have before me
the account of a man,* once an eminent politician,
well descended, educated and honored; a member of
the New-York State Constitutional Convention, and a
candidate of a powerful party for the office of Secretary of State, he had every inducement to keep true
to the line of integrity. But the account goes on to say,
"He gave way to a passion for gaming, became involved, and undertook to extricate himself by raising
* James C. Forsyth.
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CONVERSATION - READING - AMUSEMENTS.   141
money with the forged signatures of his father and
his father-in-law.  Exposed he fled, and was a wanderer over the earth until life became an intolerable
burden. Hie has died ere he has seen forty years, a
blasted, ruined man." And of how many might there
be made a similar record.
2. I pass to the second class of amusements; those
which are innocent in themselves, but are liable to
abuse. These are of a social nature, and of a physical
and intellectual character.  Among these I mention
only those which are most common.
Dancing is perhaps the most popular amusement
now practiced by the young of both sexes, and enters
into every thorough scheme of education.   It is a
practice common to all ages and countries, and has
been used to express various emotions.  It has not
been deemed unworthy to hold a place among even
religious exercises. Among the early IIaytiens it partook of a serious and mystic character. In civilized
countries it is regarded more in the light of a pastime,
and has become a most popular amusement. Under
proper regulations, and in a company of friends, it can
be pursued not only without injury, but to great physical advantage.  The exercise is healthful, the movement graceful, and the excitement pleasurable and
harmless. It is accompanied with inspiring music,
and belongs even to the domain of art; but it is liable
to great abuse, and becomes injurious when accompanied by late hours, insufficient clothing, untimely sunk 
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pers, and the like. In instances where the vile and
the virtuous are mingled indiscriminately, the association of dancing, particularly in the voluptuous waltz,
is exceedingly harmful.  Manry a young woman has
sown the seeds of premature disease and death in
the heated atmosphere, and many a young man has
learned his first lesson in vice among the temptations
of the ball-room. Especially should children be saved
from all such stimulations. Their health should not
be sacrificed, nor their character put in jeopardy by the
too indulgent fondness of parents. Precocity is excited by irregularities in this respect; and precocity
is particularly dangerous in every possible respect.
There should be a wise discrimination exercised in
regard to this amusement, and where this is properly
exercised there need be little fear for the result.  It
may degenerate into frivolity, and become little more
than foppishness, but it may also be made one of the
pleasantest and healthiest of recreations. It is said of
Air. Webster-and there is a moral in the story which
I leave with youa to discover- that being one evening
at a ball, he was asked by a young man present, " Do
you dance, M1r. Webster?"   "No, sir," replied the
statesman, "I never had any capacity for dancing!"
Another popular amusement, and about which there
has been much recent discussion, is the Theatre. The
drama has always been cherished among cultivated
nations, not only as an intellectual recreation of a high
order, but also as an intellectual accomplishment of
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CONVERSATION - READING- AMUSEMENTS.   143
the very highest class. Among all nations the greatest writers have expressed their best thoughts in this
form. In the Bible the book of Job has ever been
considered as the most profound and grand piece of
sacred writing in the Old Testament, and this book is
the dramatic book of the Hiebrew Scriptures. It is a
drama of the very loftiest kind. Among the ancient
iindoos, the drama became the medium of teaching
both philosophy and religion.  Among the Greeks and
Romans the drama was esteemed in exceeding honor,
and the gems of classic literature are to be found in
the productions of the dramatists belonging to those
refined and powerful peoples. Among nations of a later
time the drama has held a high position. Modern literature has expended its treasures upon it. Shakspeare
is the great poet of human nature, and the great philosopher, too. It has not been, however, because of the
dramatic form into which the greatest writers have
thrown their thoughts, so much as the substance of
the thoughts, which have given the drama its immortality as an intellectual master-piece. It is because
something more than amusement has been aimed at,
namely, instruction and intellectual excitement.
This being so, it would hardly be supposed that
there could arise so strenuous an objection to dramatic
representations as our times have developed —-not
among those least capable of appreciating the excellence of the drama, so much as among the cultivated
and scholarly, who know all the power and beauty of 
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its character -unless there was something to justify
their censure. Certainly, there could hardly seem to
be any more injury in listening to the recital of a play,
than in reading it from a book. Certainly, if Shakspeare should occupy so prominent a place in every
thoughtful man's library, it would hardly seem just
that he should be condemned when he appears upon
the boards of a theatre. The objection, therefore, can
not be to the drama itself, and no man can make
such objection without stultifying himself. It must
lie against the manner of its representation. I can
hardly think that any one could object to such representation among a party of friends, desirous of pleasing and being pleased, provided the play is well selected and properly performed. There must be, of
course, a choice in the plays. There are some productions of this kind, which are neither suitable for
reading, or for presentation before a virtuous and intelligent audience. They are low and vulgar in their
character, with a more than occasional profanity and
obscenity; of feeble wit, presenting foolish views of
life, making a mock of the holiest affections of our
nature, and the highest institutions of society; disrespectful to woman and unjust to man. And, I think,
this is the character of too many of the plays that are
put upon the stage. This is the reason why there is
so much iniquity connected with the stage; for no
person can engage in the performances of such plays
without having the purity of their nature corrupted,
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CONVERSATION - READING -AMUSEMENTS.   145
and their best affections blunted and poisoned by the
influence of simulated passions.
This is what makes theatre-going unsatisfactory and
injurious. It may be all true that dramatic representations are but pictures of real life.  "All the
world's a stage, and all the men and women merely
players. They have their exits and their entrances.
And one man in his time plays many parts." It may
be that there are actors in the pulpit and the forum, as
well as on the stage, who pretend what they do not
feel. It may be that much of the denunciation of the
theatre is aimless and unjust. Still, there are many
points in which it is open to the gravest censure; for
the character of its representations; for the wickedness that finds an uncensured shelter within its walls,
and about its purlieus, and for the undoubted harmful
influence which it exercises upon its habitual attendants, and the general influence which it exerts upon
the community. Let it not be claimed that the theatre is the handmaid and promoter of virtue, for we all
know that it is not; that it is the educator of the people, for there are better agencies for such education;
that it is the delineator of human nature, the tragedy
and comedy of life, for we do not need to go within
its walls to witness that. The real tragedy of lifeits poverty, wretchedness, misery and woe, which is to
be seen daily in all our streets, far exceeds the mimic
which is shown in its unmeaning emptiness before the
foot-lights of the stage. I very much question the
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depth of that nature which floods the cheeks with
tears before the fictitious sufferings of the theatre, but
can look with unmoved countenance and the very
dryest eye upon the real sorrow and pain that fill a
thousand homes with woe. I know it has been
argued that religious men should attend the theatre
for the sake of reforming it, and that if the best portion  of  the  community  would  support it, there
would soon be a change for the better. The manager
presents the plays which suit the audience. The argument would be equally valid in another direction. It
might be, that if the customers of a drinking-shop
should only call for a glass of cold water or innocent
lemonade, in their daily visits, and be willing to pay
the usual price for their tipplings, such an establishment would become, if not a public benefit, a very
harmless place of resort.  But it by no means follows
that you and I should go there and buy the water and
the lemonade in order to produce such a result. Let
the theatre rest on its own merits or demerits as a
place of amusement. It may be made inoffensive, if
the public demand that it should be made so. It may
become, and, indeed, I think it is now, injurious in
many respects. There are other amusements which a
young man will find far more beneficial and satisfactory.
3. These, I pass now to consider. They are generally to be found in the open air, and are healthful,
physically and morally.   The greatest need of our
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CONVERSATION - READING —- AMUSEMENT.   147
people now, is of stalwart and strong men, and healthy
women.   To supply this need we must have more
out-of-door recreations.   In the winter, skating and
coasting are capital exercises for both sexes; through
the whole year, horse-back riding, if one can afford
the expense; or gymnastic performances of some kind.
In the summer, excursions in the woods or on the sea,
halcyon days snatched from the dull routine of toil, to
rest the body and the mind; communion with nature
in her various moods; hunting; fishing; not so much
for wanton destruction of life, as for the exercise which
they produce, and the acquaintance with nature which
they furnish; music, with its charms to soothe and
please us -' these are all good for us, and least liable
to be abused. AlIanly sports, in the fresh air, are not
to be despised or condemned. Could the games of Old
England be continued in New-England, they would
make us as a people more powerful, more robust and
more athletic. "Children's plays," says some one, "are
nonsense, but they are very educative nonsense." There
is boy enough in almost every man to enable him to enjoy, and profit by even the games of his boyhood.
They would be much better for him than some of the
amusements in which he indulges; would give him a
sounder body and a sounder mind, a fresher and younger
heart, and a more generous soul. Could he engage in
them without a remembrance or consciousness of his
conventional dignity, he would find them very profitable in every manner. I-ow much better to breathe the 
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pure air of the open country than the close and poisoned atmosphere of the ball-room; to enjoy the glorious sunshine, and all the scenes of nrature's beauty,
and the great life action continually going on, than
the paltry daubs of the theatre; to go out into the
cool shades of the forest, and the light of warm hillsides, by the side of murmuring brooks and the placid
lake, and revel in the calm enjoyment of genial suns
and breezy airs, underneath the continually varying
beauty of the sky, than to share the excitements of
the gaming table and the billiard room, or with vile
associates waste the hours in ribaldry and vice!
Izaak Walton, in his charming book, The Complete
Angler, says of the influences of nature: "As a pious
man advised his friend that to beget mortification he
should frequent churches, and view monuments and
charnel-houses, and then and there consider how many
dead bones time had piled up at the gates of death;
so, when I would beget content and increase confidence in the power, and wisdom, and providence of
Almighty God, I will walk the meadows, by some gliding stream, and there contemplate the lilies that take
no care, and those very many other various little living creatures that are not only created, but fed — man
knows not how- by the goodness of the God of Na.
ture, and therefore trust in him."
It is true that among the best scenes some evil may
dwell, and young men not satisfied with calm delights
seek their excitement in artificial stimulus.  I do not
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CONVERSATION - READING - AMUSEMENTS.   149
understand why a water excursion can not be made
without the companionship of spirituous liquors; and
it is something for a young man especially to avoid,
that he may not contaminate the purity of nature
by the indulgence of a selfish appetite.
But in all things we are to remember that our periods of rest and relaxation, whether we spend them
in conversation with friends, or in agreeable intercourse of books, or in healthful amusements, are to be
used by us for strengthening ourselves for the better
performance of the duties of life. Life is not a play.
It is a serious work, and our play must be more delightful, that our work may be more faithful and effective. The true secret of enjoyment of any pleasure is
moderation and content. Let us be grateful for the
many sources of happiness which God has opened.
Let us enjoy these with a fresh, and loving, and religious spirit. A true religion never frowns upon any
innocent amusement. Nay, a truly religious man finds
the purest happiness in such, for he is filled with every
thing that can make life blessed, and depending upon
himself and God, finds in every scene something to
make him happier. Religion has a joy, too, which
is never taken from us; the joy of devoted worship of God; the joy of disinterested service to the
welfare of our fellow-men.   There  is no pleasure
which earth can afford so satisfying as this. Finally,
then, let us so live that our conversation may be as
becometh the gospel of Christ; that the book of life
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which writes down our deeds may be read by us at
last with entire satisfaction; and that all our hours
may be spent, whether we work or play, to fit us for
the unending blessedness of the life hereafter.
"Alas! our time is here so short,
That in what state soe'er't is spent,
Of joy or woe, does not import,
Provided it be innocent.
But we may make it pleasant, too,
If we will take our measures right,
And not what Heaven has done, undo
By an unruly appetite."
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VI. THE YOUNG MAN IN THE STATE.
THus far in our course we have considered to such
length as our limits have allowed, the position and
duties of a young man in the various conditions of life
-at home, in business, and in society. It becomes
necessary to consider him in his political relations; to
ascertain his connection with his country, and to see
what duties grow out of such connection. So our subject, this evening, is Patriotism, or the Young Man in
the State.
In a certain degree, the train of our thoughts hitherto has been related to the subject now under consideration. For a genuine patriotism would demand that
a young man should be faithful to all individual, family, social and business duties, that he might make the
best contribution possible to his country. The faithful, honest, generous and energetic man, building up a
good home, remembering his dependence upon others
in society, and diligent in his business is conferring a
benefit upon his country no less than upon himself.
Though this be so, it is still not unprofitable to devote
our thoughits more particularly to a subject like this, 
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which brings us in direct contact with one of the
noblest human virtues.
We define Patriotism, in general terms, as a love of
one's own country. We recognize its existence in the
hearts of the people of every clime and every nation.
The most sterile regions of the earth, and the most unpromising circumstances can not quench in the hearts
of men a love of the land which gave them birth. It
is at once their happiness and their pride. It now incites them to heroic action, it now gives to them a
consciousness of secure repose; it now fills them with
aspirations for their country's highest welfare; it now
sends them out to achieve that welfare at the cost of
all earthly possessions and good. Now it makes them
forget all things for the land they love the best; and
now, it leads them with a self-devotion that inspires
admiration, to willingly give up life itself, and all that
makes life blessed, if their country demands the sacrifice. What the old Latin proverb said, " I)ulce et decorum est pro patria morin," -Sweet and honorable is it for
one's country to die -is the expression of every true
man's best feeling. Whatever may be its source, and
whatever elements combine to produce it, whether
love of home, of neighborhood, of State, community
of language or community of interests, or whether
there is something deeper than all these, here is the
feeling, and I, for one, thank God that he has put it
into men's hearts. However poor, or weak, or insignificant one's country may be, still that love does not die
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THE YOUNG MAN IN THE STATE.
out. The Irish emigrant, whose beautiful land has
been cursed for ages by cruel oppression on one hand,
and fierce and bloody vindictiveness on the other;
which God has made so bright, but selfish man has
so cruelly darkened over by his sin, never forgets the
" old country," to which his hopes return, and in
which his memories are buried; where are the graves
of his fathers, and where he hopes some day himself
to die. The German's eyes are strangely moistened
when he thinks of the Fatherland - dear still, though
its oppression drove him forth. The bosom of the
Hungarian swells with honest pride when he remembers the glories of his country's history, or weeps over
her sad fate, as she lies bleeding beneath the tyrant's
foot. And France and Italy are held in affectionate
remembrance by their exiled sons, though the perfidious
usurper holds both within his merciless grasp. The
Swiss recounts the story of Tell; the Norwegian and
the Swede do not weary in their reminiscence of Northern Skaild and Saga. There can scarcely be a heavier
grief-next to that of the bereavement of dear friends
- than that which is caused by a forced expatriation.
Other lands may be better and more fruitful, may
have a brighter sky and a warmer sun, may be filled
with more plenty, more happiness, and more of earthly
good, but however much may be said of these, there is
still no land like the land one calls his own.
Still, notwithstanding the strength and depth of this
feeling, it does not express the entire meaning of the
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word Patriotism. The love of country, merely as such,
is a comparatively weak sentiment. There is something stronger and far more profound, and that is, the
love of the idea which the cou?try ought to embody.  The
love of what is on the outside is a superficial feeling.
That which should engross the soul is the love of what
is internal, what gives beauty and vigor to the outward life.  When we love a friend, we love the beauty
and purity of the inward life, whatever may  be the
character of the outward condition and circumstances.
True love does not join itself to a handsome exterior,
but to a beautiful heart; for within the outside beauty
there may be an unlovely spirit, while a plain and
homely exterior may be the guise of an angelic soul.
Just so it is with a genuine patriotism. It is not the
love of the country's name, nor of its material greatness, prosperity, or wealth; nor of its rocks and hills,
its rivers, lakes, plains, and mountains; nor even of its
position among the nations; perhaps not altogether of
the grand achievements of its history -but the love
of what is pure and true and right and noble in the
national life - of what is lovely, great, glorious in the
national idea - the love of what is found to be the
design which God meant the nation should accomplish.
And as no true love concerns itself with fond endearments and professions of attachment and protestations
of affection, but in a real desire to accomplish the
loved one's good and the real labor for the
loved one's benefit, so a real love of country by no
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THiE YOUNG MAN IN THE STATE.
means is to be guaged by professions of devotion and
patriotism, but is to be known and shown by downright, effective labor for the country's highest good,
and an unshaken fidelity to the country's design and
idea. If patriotism is to be measured by words, the
most wily politician is the purest patriot. It is easy
to make professions; but he that manfully and modestly labors where God has placed him for the country's good, is more effectual than a host of ambitious,
time-serving, venal politicians, who only flatter the
prejudices of the people in order to betray their interests. However loud and however numerous may
be one's professions of patriotism, we all should know
that he only is really patriotic who is trying to do for
his country what he is conscious God meant his country to be!
With this definition, then, we begin -that patriotismn is the love of the country's soul, the national idea,
as expressed in a constant attempt to make the idea
real. Do I say, "I love liberty, truth, justice, righteousness?" Then it is my duty to make liberty, truth,
justice, righteousness actual facts, and not mere words.
Do I say, "I love my country?"  Then it is my duty
so to live that all my acts shall conduce to my country's good; making a contribution of my best powers
of mind and soul to my country's benefit. If power
or place is given me, then I must use the advantages
which this affords for laboring for my country's welfare.  If I use them for my own self-aggrandizement
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and my own gain, I am no patriot, but a false and
perjured man. If power and place do not come, and I
continue in humble life, no less is it my duty to be the
most of a man I am able to be, that so I may
serve my country faithfully in whatever station God
sees fit I should fill. I am to seek no office, I am
to ask no favor of any government, I am to be no dependent upon the public treasury, I am simply to do
my duty as a man, and give myself thus to my country's service. Otherwise I lose my independence, and
being merely a slave to party, I put myself on a level
with the beasts of whom the iHebrew prophet once
spoke: "Verily, the ox knoweth his owner, and the
ass his master's crib!"
There are one or two popular mistakes concerning
patriotism, which it may be necessary to consider.
One is, that patriotism consists in fealty to party.
Party organizations are always transient. They are
based upon some particular phase of public sentiment,
and their end is success in a popular election for the
purpose of gaining power. As a matter of course,
partisan views are narrow. They embrace a very
small portion of that which belongs to national greatness and the national good. As a consequence, they
narrow the mind of him who adopts them, and belittle
the character of his manhood. Ilis thoughts pass in a
narrow channel, and his soul is contracted in all its
action. All his principles of morality are comprised
in devotion to partisan objects. Even his religion is
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THE YOUNG MAN IN THE STATE.
stained by his idolatry to the party gods, so that there
can be no more deplorable sight than that of a man
who sacrifices all his best and purest feelings at this
unholy shrine, and, becoming infatuated by his long
servitude, denies the principles upon which the life of
his country rests, repudiates the sentiments for which
the fathers fought and suffered, and at the voice of
party dictation, makes truth and conscience and a
righteous will nothing but empty names! When a
political organization departs from the national idea, it
is essentially unpatriotic, whatever its name and whatever its professions, and they who serve it to the neglect of other things, are no true patriots. A man
must be independent of party trammels, and rebellious
against party drill, and act out his own convictions,
letting the party take care of itself. Parties shift with
the changing circumstances of the times, and the prospects of victory; but the national idea remains the
same, and he that would best serve his country must
be faithful only to that!
2. Another mistake which men are liable to fall
into is, that subservience to the existing government is
patriotism. Good citizens must of course obey the
laws, or if they find that the laws are contrary to conscience, they must be willing to suffer the consequences
of disobedience; or if laws are so oppressive as not to
be obeyed without the grossest injustice, and there can
be no remedy except by resistance, they have the reserved right of revolution. In every nation there are
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157 
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certain principles, established and sure, which are understood and agreed upon by all the people, or a majority of the people.  But the government may be, and,
in all countries, at some time, is opposed to and contrary to these principles. Written constitutions are
the fundamental principles; if the government is opposed to these, then subservience to the government is
not patriotism. It is patriotic then to oppose the government, that itself may be brought back to obedience
to the Constitution, which is its master, as it is the
people's master. This then is the use of the Constitution, to restrain the government from usurpation and
protect the people in their rights; and sometimes, it
may be, as it was in the case of Sir Thomas More, as it
was in the case of Cromwell and his associates, as it
was in the case of our Revolutionary Fathers, the highest duty of patriotism to oppose, to the very death, the
existing government. If success come, the government is brought back to its allegiance; if defeat, the
true patriot dies at his post, with his harness on.
3. Another mistaken idea of patriotism is that which
connects it with an advocacy of all that is done within
the boundaries of the country, whatever may be its
character. Human nature is the same in all men, and
in all countries many deeds are done which no true man
can approve. Because there may be a foul wrong done
by those who bear the same national name with one's
own, and because it may have grown to an institution,
and be recognized and supported by the law, it does
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THE YOUNG MAN IN THE STATE.
not follow that one must yield it his commendation, as
a duty of patriotism. Nay, there may be a whole section of the country engaged in the sustentation of a
social state, which the whole civilized world rebukes
and denounces, and which all moral law and religious
truth condemn, yet it by no means follows that an attempt to rid the country of such wrong is sectional and
disorganizing. On the contrary, that is the best and
purest patriotism which directs all the action of those
who love truth and justice, and the interests of mankind to the overthrow of such an institution, that the
national reproach may be removed, and the country no
longer bear the censure of civilization, and the law of
human progress. Shall we say that our country can
do no wrong? It is foolish, as well as wicked, to claim
to be immaculate, and refuse to be penitent. It is better, more manly and more brave, to acknowledge our
faults and seek their remedy.
"Our country 1 right or wrong!
That were a traitor's song.
Let no true patriot's pen such words indite!
Who loves his native land,
Let him with heart, voice, hand,
Say,' country or no country, speed the right!'
"Our country! right or wrong!
0, man of God! be strong!
Take God's whole armor for the holy fray.
Gird thee with truth! make right
Thy breast-plate; in the might
Of God, stand steadfast in the evil day!
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PILAIN WORDS
" Our country! right or wrong!
Each image of the throng
Of ghastly woes, that rise upon thy sight;
0, let it move thy heart
Man! man! whoe'er thou art,
To say,' God guide our struggling country right! "
II. Accepting these propositions as true, our next
inquiry is: How do they apply to us as American
young men, and what are the duties that belong to us
as patriots? Our first task, in this respect, is to ascertain, if possible, what is the American idea? what is
the soul of our national life? Is there any particular
design which Providence had in the production and
continuance of our national life? In this matter it is
especially necessary, situated as we are with respect to
suffrage and its exercise, and the personal relation in
which each one of us stands to the government which
we sustain, and the power we organize for the support of our political state, that we should know what
we ought to do. We ought to know it, too, beyond the
possibility of mistake.
What then is the American idea? That is the main
question. We must go to American history to find its
answer. So far as we know what that history is, I am
convinced that there was a great Providential design
in the discovery and settlement of this country. Regard
the time! Not till the old world had grown really old
in civilization, not till true ideas of religion and government had become known in Europe, did the Western
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THE YOUNG MAN IN THE STATE.
continent rise out of its long slumber beneath the
waves. The latest to appear upon the stage of history,
it did not appear before its time. Thousands of years
passed away before the world was ready for the birth
of America. This was the last and fairest child of time.
All unknown it lay beyond the waste of waters, across
whose bosom no adventurous navigator had passed, till
Providence inspired Columbus with hope and longings
for a land beyond the sea. I use the word inspired, for
that idea which haunted his mind was an inspiration.
It was something more than a love of adventure. It
was something more than a desire for novelty, or even
a love of fame. The various traditions which spoke of
a land in the West, as they floated about the popular mind, might have led his thoughts in the direction
of the truth. But others beside Columbus knew these
traditions. God selected his agent with infinite wisdom, and led him by successive steps to the formation
of the opinion that "there was undiscovered land in
the western part of the ocean; that it was attainable;
that it was fertile; and, finally, that it was inhabited."
When he "had formed his theory," says his biogra.
pher, "it became fixed in his mind with singular firm.
ness, and influenced his entire character and conduct.
He never spoke in doubt or hesitation, but with as
much certainty as if his eyes had beheld the promised
land. No trial or disappointment could divert him
from the steady pursuit of his object. A deep religious sentiment mingled with his meditations, and
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161 
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gave them, at times, a tinge of superstition, but it was
of a sublime and lofty kind; he looked upon himself
as standing in the hand of Heaven, chosen from among
men for the accomplishment of its high purpose; he
read, as he supposed, his contemplated discovery foretold in holy writ, and shadowed forth darkly in the
mystic revelations of the prophets. The ends of the
earth were to be brought together, and all nations, and
tongues, and languages, united under the banners of
the Redeemer." Such an idea as was this of Columbus
sent  him through Europe
" One faith against a whole earth's unbelief,
One soul against the flesh of all mankind."
He laid his prospects before kings; he treated with
them as an equal. Through many discouragements
and many failures, sufficient to discourage a less hopeful man, he followed his purpose till he found a woman
willing to listen to his proposal, and willing to risk her
personal property upon the issue of the undertaking.
He was successful, and his great success has made the
name of Isabella of Castile a household word in all the
homes of the New World. His great enterprise was
at last consummated, and a new continent was given
to humanity and civilization. Before his time, indeed,
the shores of America had been reached by the brave
sailors of Northern Europe.   The green clad hills
which overlook the waters of the beautiful Narraganset were trod by the foot of the Worsemen, nearly a
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THE YOUNG MAN IN THE STATE.
thousand years ago; and so beautiful then were the
islands and the surrounding coasts, and so fruitful in
grapes and vines, that they were called Vinland. But
the visits of these hardy navigators were of little consequence, and had no great results. Dissensions and
strifes, even to bloodshed, destroyed their little colony,
and the story of their wanderings, preserved in the
sagas of Norway and Sweden, however interesting to
us, has no large place in history. The time was not
ripe for such a movement of the world's forces as was
that of the voyages of Columbus. Yet even this was not
the time, nor was the land which Columbus discovered
the place, for the settlement of that portion of the continent which was to determine the character and destiny of the whole. The success of the heroic Genoese
emboldened others to make a similar attempt and gain
a like success, till gradually the whole coast line
from Newfoundland to the Spanish Main, and around
the Cape to Peru and the distant California, became
known to European navigators. But it was not till
democratic principles had become incorporated into
the English constitution; it was not till the Protestant
Reformation had been assured of triumph, that this
country was settled, and then it was settled for the
most part by Protestant Englishmen, and by those
brave IHollanders who had learned, under the leadership of the great William of Orange, how to resist oppression, and by brave endurance to conquer the
wrongs of despotism. Had it been settled at an ear
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lier period, and by men of a different nation and religion, its whole subsequent history might have been
changed. Compare the past history and the present
condition of the Spanish American States with those of
our own, and notice the difference. It is something
more than the influence of climate, and something
greater than the power of association. The difference
is in the whole constitution and character of the different countries. Our superiority now is unquestioned,
and if we do not lose it by our own sin and wrong, we
shall have the greatest possession ever given a nation
to enjoy. Believing in Providence, as we do, and
recognizing an overruling wisdom in the direction of
human events, there can be nothing clearer than the
providential design in which our country had its birth.
It was nothing less than this! If we have any skill in
tracing the course of human life, we can not fail to see
that God intended that on this soil, free from the prejudices of the ancient civilization, and safe from its
errors, a nation should grow up to be the embodiment
among the nations of the earth, of the democratic idea,
which is a Christian idea, of liberty and self-government, civil and religious liberty, for all men within its
borders. Whether we regard the physical features of
the country, its varied climate, its unsurpassed fertility
of soil, or the scarcity of its aboriginal inhabitants, the
character of its first permanent settlers, or the conduct of those who planted the seeds of the Republic,
the conclusion in any and all cases is inevitable, that
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THE YOUNG MAN IN THE STATE.
here was the place, and this age of history the time,
and this race the people, who were to inaugurate the
successful supremacy of democratic ideas in national
life. Hiere man, as such, living in all the power and
dignity of his manhood beneath the open sky and over
all this fair land, was to be greater than the State.
The necessities of all manly culture were to mould the
policy and direct the history of the nation. Sovereignty was to reside not in a titled nobility, or a pampered royalty, but in man; bearing the seal of liberty
on his free forehead, and holding in his own strong
hand the sceptre of a more than regal authority.
Manhood against all king-craft, against all priest-craft,
against all craft of whatever kind - this is the title
of American nobility. If we sometimes forget it, and
make ourselves appear foolish in our subservience to
other and weaker things, it is to our shame and sorrow.
The idea, the theory of our life is true, however we may
falsify it in practice.
Let us see how the Fathers regarded it!  In the
depth of winter, in the year 1620, a little, shattered
vessel lay at anchor, after a tempestuous voyage across
the sea, in the harbor of Cape Cod. It was more than
a century since Columbus had made known the existence of the new world. And if he then worked with
a secret and uncomprehended consciousness of the
Providential wisdom which had guided him, so did
they also who made up the company of the Mayflower. They had, in their own language, "a great
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hope and inward zeal of laying some good foundation
for the propagating and advancing the gospel of the
kingdom of Christ in these remote parts of the world."
That this hope might be realized, so far as civil government could make it real, the passengers of the
Mayflower, before they stepped foot upon the shores
of the world they had so long desired to see, assembled
on the deck of the vessel as she lay within sight of the
land, and by unanimous action, adopted the following
simple compact: "In the name of God, amen.  We,
whose names are underwritten, having undertaken for
the glory of God and advancement of the Christian
faith and [the] honor of our king and country a voyage to plant the first colony in the northern parts of
Virginia, do by these presents solemnly and mutually,
in the presence of God and of one another, covenant
and combine ourselves together into a civil body politic, for our better ordering and preservation, and furtherance of the ends aforesaid; and by virtue hereof,
to enact, constitute and frame such just and equal
laws, ordinances, acts, constitutions and offices, from
time to time, as shall be thought most meet and convenient for the general good of the colony, unto which
we promise all due submission and obedience." Each
man signed this document. There were forty-one who
appended their names, and these with their families
constituted the first American democracy. They chose
their governor, and thus began the colony of Plymouth.
Bancroft does not hesitate to call this action "the
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THE YOUNG MAN IN THE STATE.
birth of popular constitutional liberty." Another historian writes in glowing language: "This was the
birth of Individual Liberty, of Democracy! and thus
were organized the rights of man. Each man, master
and servant, thenceforward was recognized as a man,
felt the responsibility of a man, and voted as a man.
The time had come, in the history of the world, when,
in a civilized, organized community at Plymouth, on
the Massachusetts shore, this recognition of individual
liberty was to be a right - a right which neither seeks
nor allows superior privileges to king, or priest, or
aristocracy, but only the elevation and perfection of
man whatever may be his condition or birth."
New-England was filled with the same sentiments,
as its different parts were colonized. When RhodeIsland was established as a separate colony under
Roger Williams, it ordained the following constitution:
"We, whose names are here underwritten, being desirous to inhabit in the town of Providence, do promise
to submit ourselves in active or passive obedience to
all such orders, or agreements, as shall be made for the
public good of the body, in an orderly way, by the
major consent of the present inhabitants, masters of
families, incorporated together into a township, and
such others whom they shall admit unto the sameonly in civil things." This was in 1638. And in 1641
an act was passed as follows: "It is ordered and
unanimously agreed, that the government which this
body politic doth attend unto in this Island is a De
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mocracy." And Roger Williams declared in the
"Bloody Tenet" that "the sovereign power of all civil
authority is founded in the consent of the people."
The other New-England colonies partook of the same
spirit, and though New-Hampshire was settled for purposes of trade, and Connecticut was under the government of the church, yet the traders were democratic,
and the church had no bishop. Indeed, had I time
now to discuss the matter, I think I could show you
that it was the grand old idea of Congregationalism in
the churches, which knew no such thing as a hierarchy,
either of Rome or England, that cultivated in the minds
and character of the people of New-England that
sturdy independence which has given our country all
she has worth possessing.  The people chose their own
ministers as well as their own rulers, and in church
and state still carried out to its results the principle of
liberty.  Even from the royal government in England,
they demanded and received a recognition of the sovereignty of the people.
The democratic idea, though it was not realized in
other parts of the country to so great an extent as in
New-England, still found its expression, feeble though
it might be in sonime quarters. It was difficult in a
new land like this, to find a community which did not
embody, in some degree, at least, the principle of individual freedom. The introduction of slaves into the
Southern colonies hindered its course, as the institution of slavery now threatens its destruction. But
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THE YOUNG MAN IN THE STATE.
the principle was then thought to be too strong to be
greatly impeded. Let us hope that it now is too powerful to be subdued.
So, when the colonies combined into a nation in
1776, there was found through them all the same great
purpose-to found an empire, which should express in
permanent form, and declare before all mankind that
there was one place, at least, on the face of the broad
earth, where the individual man should be free, as God
made him; that he should say who should be his ruler;
and that all the power of him who was the governor
should be derived only from the consent of those that
were governed. Thus, the Declaration of Independence begins, after a short preamble, with the following
statement: "We hold these truths to be self-evident,
that all men are created equal; that they are endowed
by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that
among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; that to secure these rights, governments are
instituted among men, deriving their just powvers fromn
the consent of the governed; that whenever any form
of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is
the right of the people to alter or abolish it and institute a new government." Familiar words are these,
but they are the grand expression of grand ideas.
Becoming the basis of national life, they become the
grandest political statement ever uttered by human
lips. Shall they be called, in the sneering language of
a heated political discussion, by men who owe all they
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have to the freedom which they give, nothing but
"sounding and glittering generalities;" nothing but
"the passionate manifesto of a revolutionary struggle?" The facts of history contradict such faithless
words, and the memory of the fathers should palsy
forever the lips that are shameless enough to utter
them! The men who made the Declaration of Independence, and the men who won independence, were
not accustomed to deal in abstractions.   They did
nothing hastily or without deliberation; they were
not carried away by excitement, nor hurried into acts
of passion and resistance to fancied wrongs. They
wrought in that deep sincerity which makes all work
sublime, and conscious of the responsibility which they
assumed, laid the foundations of a state in prayer and
self-sacrifice, and nobleness, and honor, and truth; and
placed as the verycorner-stone the Christian idea of
the worth of man, and the great principle of self-government. They sealed their declaration with their blood,
and consecrated the American idea by the pains and
triumphs of martyrdom.   Shall we erect statues of
brass and marble to their memory, and shall we be
unfaithful to their principles?
When Independence was completely achieved, and
the time came for establishing a true government, the
representatives of the people formed a Constitution.
Its opening words are these: "We, the people of these
United States, in order to form a more perfect union,
establish justice, insure domestic tranquillity, provide
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THE YOUNG MAN IN THE STATE.
for the common defense, promote the general welfare,
and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our
posterity forever, do ordain and establish this Constituition for the United States of America." Hlere, too, and
in the provisions of the Constitution, the rights of the
people were strictly guarded. Even the President himself is liable to impeachment by their representatives,
if he violates his oath of office. And in the amendments to the Constitution occur the following remarkable words: "Congress shall make no law respecting
an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of
the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble and petition the government for the redress
of grievances." The right of the people to bear arms
was not to be infringed. Their houses and property
were secured from unnecessary seizure and searchings,
and they were never to have soldiers quartered upon
them without their consent. Even in such minute particulars the right of the individual was jealouslywatched
and protected. The whole spirit of American history
breathes of liberty; liberty civil and religious, for all
men within the borders of the American State! And
that is the idea which claims to be, and is American.
Only by that idea can the young man be governed in
his political action.
I have been thus particular in stating what the
American principle of government is, because it is
especially necessary for the American young man to
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understand by what chart to shape his political course.
If it be true that to us, in this day, are committed the
destinies of civilization, we should be particular to have
a clear and correct knowledge of our position, and what
the interests of civilization demand of us. If we wish
to be true patriots, if we wish to serve our country, we
must be faithful to the principles on which our national
life is based; the great principles of individual freedom,
of civil and religious liberty under constitutional law,
and the right of self-government.  No young man going to his political duties can be justified in any course
which does not distinctly and unequivocally recognize
these principles, and fully carries them out to their
practical application.  lie must not be deceived by
names. Hle must not be governed by any prejudice.
He must not be guided by personal ambition or the
mean truckling to party, for the sake of emolument or
office. The sacrifice of his manhood is too dear a price
to pay for any party preferment, and no man can be in
worse or more unmanly business than waiting upon
Executive patronage. There is no greater curse to our
young American manhood than this intense office-seekinig, which runs like an epidemic through all classes of
political life. There is so much which is lamentable in
it, that I always feel more like condoling with a friend
than congratulating him, if by any unfortunate chance
he becomes an office-holder. In it there is very little
patriotism.  The truest patriots to-day are not those
who are found in public station, but those men who,
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honest, industrious, honorable men of work, are faithfully attending to their own business, and are forming,
from day to day, that truthful character which enters
into the national life, and makes up a nation of real
men. So the young man should think less of office, and
more of himself. Shakspeare puts into the mouth of
Cardinal Wolsey, at the time of his fall from power, the
following words, addressed to one of his adherents:
"Cromwell, I charge thee, fling away ambition;
By that sin the angels fell; how can man, then,
The image of his Maker, hope to win by it?
*    *    *    *    Be just, and fear not;
Let all the ends thou aim'st at be thy country's,
Thy God's, and truth's! Then, if thou fall'st,
Thou fall'st a blessed martyr!"
III. Hlaving ascertained what the American idea is,
the young man must attempt to realize it in every
proper and honorable way. Through his agency, if possible, the idea must find its expression in American
life.  This is to be done in part by taking the position,
and firmly holding it, of equal and exact justice to all
within the boundaries of the country. Hiere, each
man's thought and speech go to produce public opinion,
of whose nature I have spoken in a former lecture.
Ihere, too, in some States of the Union, each man, with
certain limitations, has the privilege of voting. He has
a voice in the government of the country, and his particular vote determines in part the character of that
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government. IHere, then, is a direct responsibility
resting upon each one for that character. If it is tyrannical, if it refuses to give equal justice, if it does not
recognize the rights of the governed, if it fails to secure
the blessings of liberty; if it endeavors in any way to
establish injustice and wrong, then each one of us is
responsible for such a course, in some measure; and
each one of us must do all in his power, according to the
means given him, to put an end to such a government,
and establish one that will be faithful to the American
idea, and make justice and liberty facts. An un-American and an unpatriotic government does not deserve
to live on American soil. How shall it be made to die?
There are two legitimate ways; by public opinion and
vote.   So  each  one of us is bound  to make the
most of himself, and be true to himself as a man. lHe
must, spurning all party dictation, make up his own
opinions, think his own thoughts, and express them in
his own way. Where, as it is with us, the State exists
for the individual, and not the individual for the State,
the tendency is to individual independence; and that
tendency is a good one. So, as an American, each one
must be just to himself. You say, that is very easy.
Is it? I apprehend you will find that it is a very
difficult thing for a man to be just to himself. If you
think it an easy matter, ask yourself "Who has the
keeping of my conscience?  Ilow much of it has my
business? What part is in my sect? What in my
party? What portion of it is in this lodge-room, or that
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THE YOUNG MAN IN THE STATE.
council-chamber, or that political caucus?  How much
of it do I subject to the control of my associates, that I
may gain this office, or secure that position, or obtain
the other advantage I am looking for?"   No, it is not
so easy a thing. There are many who prefer to put
their conscience into others' keeping! So do not you!
If you would be a true patriot and be just to your
country, you must first be just to yourself. Then will
you help in educating public opinion. For a just man
always is powerful, and influences others; and if he
thinks freely and acts freely, he is doing his part toward making freedom a national fact.  His opinion,
expressed with all the force that belongs to justice, will
be like a mighty lever lifting up the weight of social
and political truth that now lies helpless, and overthrowing the mass of social and political falsehood that
threatens to crush his country's liberties!
2. We must, as American young men, always cherish a love of liberty, and in our political discussions
keep prominently in view the great idea which underlies the American nationality. As a general rule, we
shall be on the right side when we lean most to the
side of liberty. When we begin to find ourselves sanctioning, even in the slightest manner, or under any
pretext, what we know to be wrong and unjust, and
opposed to freedom, we may begin to doubt the sincerity of our patriotism. We must examine ourselves; we
must go back to the first principles of our national life,
and find in them the test by which to judge of our
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selves and the measures of the national policy. How,
for instance, is a public measure, recommended by
government, and supported by a strong party, to be
regarded?  In the troubles of the period men seem
scarcely to know what to do. The young man needs to
have some way of judging. I apprehend that there is
but one way. That way is to ascertain how far this
measure is in accordance with the design and soul of
the American nation, and how far it is at variance
from it. It is not a question of party allegiance, or
party success, or party defeat; not a question of personal profit to ourselves; not a question even of the
country's peace and quiet. But it is a question of
fidelity or unfaithfulness to the American idea. Does
such a measure deny the truth of human equality in
rights? Does it deny the democratic principle of
self-government? Does it give to government any
power not derived from the consent of the governed?
Does it deny justice and freedom to any community in
the land, and, opposed to their wishes, can only be
forced upon them by the aid of military power? If
these questions are to be answered in the affirmative,
if human rights are infringed, if injustice is practiced,
if government depends upon violence and force, then
is such a measure, in all its features, un-American and
unpatriotic. Nay, it is treasonable to every principle
of the American State. It is a matter of very little
consequence to us, who support or who oppose it;
whether it has this or that great name upon its side or
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THE YOUNG MAN IN THE STATE.
against it; whether it is affirmed or denied by this
political caucus or party convention. We have something greater and more important than any man or
body of men, the greatest name or the most ingeniously worded partisan platform. We have through
all the history of the colonies, and the early days of
the republic, the plainest declaration of the American
idea. He that runs may read. It is by that that
every political measure is to be judged. If in accordance with that, it must receive our approval; if opposed to that, it must receive our unqualified condemnation.  Let us go to no man and to no platform short
of the fundamental principles of our national life, to
learn our political duties. Those principles are sufficient for us. Under their guidance let us do our
political work, though we have to do it alone. Then
we shall discharge our duty, and we must be willing
to leave the consequences with God. He will take
care that no just or righteous deed will fail or have an
evil result.
3. Thus must the young man learn to apply his
principles when the time comes for him to vote. In a
country like ours, suffrage should be as free as is compatible with the safety of our institutions. Limitations
in respect to color are essentially un-American. Limitations in respect to foreign birth, except such as provide for a residence sufficiently long to understand the
nature of suffrage, the bearing of our political questions, and the character of our system of government,
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are equally un-American. Limitations in respect to
property belong to the same class; because our theory
is, that a man is a man, rich or poor, and the fact of
his manhood gives him the right to say who shall be
his governor. Two thousand years ago Plato said, A
city or state established upon property qualification
"must necessarily lose its unity, and become two cities
or states, one comprising the rich, and the other the
poor; who reside together upon the same ground, and
are always plotting against one another." I think it
is as true now as then. Limitations in respect to education are, on the other hand, particularly necessary;
for no one ought to deposit his ballot unless he can at
least read the name which is on it, and understand the
constitution which gives him the right to vote. I consider it one of the most solemn and prayerful duties
which a man has to perform in our country- this of
voting. He should vote, if he have the power, upon
all occasions, even if he can find no one whom he may
think more worthy to vote for than himself. I know
there are some who make it a matter of conscience to
abstain from voting altogether-the much maligned
and calumniated Abolitionists. But though I think
them mistaken in this matter, I can not but respect
the honesty of their opinions, and the ability and selfdevotion with which they maintain them. But there
are thousands among us who have no scruple upon the
subject, but who are utterly careless and indifferent
about the matter. I think they are neglecting what is
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THE YOUNG MAN IN THE STATE.
to me a most imperative duty-nay, a religious duty,
for the performance of which a man is held responsible
before God. Of course, it does not belong to me to
say with what particular party a man should vote,
except that he should vote, if he would be really patriotic, with that organization which most of all embodies the principles of liberty and justice. Vote
somehow a man must, and if he can find no party
which does embody the American idea, then let him
stand, if he can stand no where else, in a bare minority
of one. There is an advantage, sometimes, in standing alone. One is generally sure of being in the company of an honest man. i He is also safe from the
temptation of his integrity, involved in an election to
public office. Never allow yourself, young man, to be
relied upon as a party man, but vote, when the time
comes, not according to your neighbor's opinions, but
your own true conviction! Other such men may readily be found, and as ten righteous men acting boldly
and truly could have saved Sodom, so might there
arise a combination of men founded on the real American idea of liberty for all men in the country, and liberty for all mankind.
IV. The fourth great duty of patriotism is to oppose all powers which array themselves against the
American idea. Now the most insidious and the most
powerful foe with which we have to deal, comes in the
guise of republicanism, and bears on its lips the sacred
name of liberty! The Roman church makes no pre
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tensions to republicanism, and is an anomaly among
us; which I believe, in a fair field and an open contest
can not stand. I think our fears respecting it are
much exaggerated. But there is a foe, which. in its
unscrupulous disregard of all the rules of honorable
warfare; in its determined hostility to every principle
of liberty; in its alliance with ignorance, and injustice,
and falsehood, plots the overthrow of all free institutions and the national fabric itself. There is a foe
which is most of all to be dreaded, and most of all to
be fought against - the institution of slavery. Never
was any thing more false, more arrogant, more faithless, more aggressive, more despotic than this power.
In the name of democracy it builds up the most aristocratic oligarchy. In the name of liberty it threatens
treasonably to overthrow the Union. It breaks its
treaties in the name of faith. It tramples upon the
Declaration of Independence in the name of the Constitution. It cowardly crushes the weak in the name
of chivalry. It impiously oppresses and traffics in the
image of the Father in the name of religion and of God!
Here is the great enemy to the American idea. It
gives us battle every moment  that we live; it seizes
upon free territory,that it may perpetuate its existence;
it would legalize piracy that it may extend its dominion. By the falsification of history and the distortion
of law, it would make every place over which the
American flag floats, the soil of slaves.  The President,
from his high position, has recently declared, that, by
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the recent decision of the Supreme Court, "Kansas,"
(and the principle applies to all the Territories of the
nation) "is as much a slave State as Georgia or South Carolina." Is it necessary that I should trace its progress from the times when such men as Washington,
Franklin, Henry, George Mason, the Adamses, and
Jefferson, opposed it, until now, when it makes the atrocious statement which I have just quoted? Need I
say how it has triumphed in all the great contests
since the formation of the Constitution? In fixing
the ratio of representation; in deferring the abolition
of the slave trade for twenty years; in compelling the
rendition of fugitive slaves; in spurning Franklin with
his anti-slavery petition from the bar of Congress; in
purchasing Louisiana; in the admission of Missouri;
in the annexation of Texas; in the legislation of 1850;
in the repeal of the Missouri Compromise in 1854; in
all these it has succeeded. When has it not succeeded?
By the aid of venal and traitorous men, it has always
carried out its plans of aggression, and now it stands
more lustful of power and more arrogant than ever
before. With one hand it throttles the Supreme Court,
with the other it crushes the President and his Cabinet. It presses with its heavy foot upon the legislative departments; it points the cannon of army and
navy; it breaks open the Post-Office; it plunders the
Treasury; it reads history falsely; it outrages the law.
What it can not accomplish by bribery, it does by
force.  When it can not vote by ballot, it sends its
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hordes of reffians to take possession of the polls;
when it can not legislate by free discussion and positive majorities, it uses the bludgeon and the bowieknife; when it fails to gain the victory, it makes the
triumph of freedom barren of results. Every where
is its influence felt. There is no amenity of social intercourse which it does not rudely destroy; there is no tie
of domestic life which it does not sever. There is no
principle of morality, civilization and religion which it
does not violate. It has made labor disgraceful; it
has created that prejudice which has disfranchised the
black man in a majority of the nominally free States;
which refuses him equal rights in education, and denies his manhood. It degrades the national character;
it poisons the national life; it weakens the national
influence. It degrades our own manhood through all
our days.  Beginning with the enslavement of black
men, it seeks now to reduce white men to abject submission. Beginning with an unjust representation, it
now aims at destroying the principle of self-government altogether!
I speak on this subject, not as a politician, not as a partisan, but as a man, who desires to know what his duty
is in a crisis like the present; as a man, too, who is
accustomed to look at these and all other matters
from the stand point of Christian principle, and to
bring all things to the test of what I know to be right
and true; and, speaking so, I can not but think that in
the struggle now in progress the interests of all our
*-.-.' *'-'. *
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civilization are involved. It is not partisan defeat
which is threatened, but national death; and national
death would be the knell of millions in both hemispheres of the globe. God meant that this American
state should be the herald to all the world of a kingdom of righteousness, freedom and peace; on whose
soil should be grown the loftiest manhood; whose atmosphere should be electric with the grandest ideas;
whose influence, as a nation, should be felt to the remotest corner of the globe for the good of all mankind. Shall we attempt to thwart this design? Shall
we be false to the sublime ideal of a state which was
in the Fathers' mind?  Let us awake from our dream
of sloth and ease, and prove ourselves worthy of the
history that ennobles us. Slavery is plotting our destruction! Slavery is making us a disgrace before the
world! Shall we suffer it, my brothers? No! a thou.
sand times no! In the name of a Christian patriotism
let us be faithful to our national idea and our national
life!
Here, then, to sum up, are the duties of patriotism:
To understand the idea of our national existence - to
love that idea of justice and liberty with our whole
soul-to devote ourselves to its fulfillment with all
our might, and to oppose whatever may militate
against its progress.   These duties come  to us as
American young men, and appeal to us with overwhelming force. It is not to be questioned that the
young men of America are the hope of the nation.
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Within the next quarter century, nay, within the prep
ent decade of years, the question is to be determined
whether liberty or oppression is to bear rule for all the
future. It is for us to determine whether this grand
experiment of republicanism shall result in success or
failure; whether despotism or freedom shall triumph
on these western fields.
The conflict hastens on. I look out into the fuiture,
not with despondency but with hope. If we are faithful, the issue is not doubtful.  The interests of civilization are on our side. God's providence can not fail.
Not a word spoken, not a deed done in behalf of liberty and justice, can be lost.  From  all the places of
human life, where manly resolution, where faithful
adherence to principle, where self-devotion, courage,
patriotism, have left the impress of their nobleness
upon human life, and made the scene of their manifestation glorious, come voices of encouragement and
hope. Let us not falter; let us not be desponding.
Our country demands our patient, persevering, steady,
cheerful action for liberty, for humanity, for God! We
may not witness the entire redemption of our land,
but the time will come when the American idea will be
realized, and a genuine republicanism make all men
free within the nation's boundaries! Other men will
enter into our labors, and in due time the fields will be
white for the harvest!
"We can not falter! Did we so,
The stones beneath would murmur out,
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THE YOUNG MAN IN THE STATE.
And all the winds that round us blow
Would whisper of our shame about.
No! let the tempest rock the land!
Our faith shall live! our truth shall stand!
"True as the Vaudois hemmed around
With Papal fire and Roman steel,
True as the Christian heroine bound
Upon Domitian's torturing wheel,
We bate no breath! we curb no thought I
COME WHAT MAY COME! WE FALTER NOT I"
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VII. THE YOUNG MAN IN THE CHURCH.
IN concluding this series of addresses, I feel that I
can select no better subject than that which supports,
and embraces, and crowns a manly character, namely,
a true religion. Our course would be as incomplete
without the consideration of this subject, as a young
man's character would be incomplete without the presence of religious principle. As in the arch, which the
builder raises, there is necessary the keystone to make
his work firm and durable; so in the structure which
we have here, through the last three months, been endeavoring to plan, we need the keystone of religion to
complete our labors and make the edifice strong.
In treating our present subject,-the Young Man in
the Church,-that I may show you what should be the
character of a young man's religion, I shall speak of
the nature and form of religion itself; the universality
of its application; the manliness of a religious character, and its influence upon life. I think I shall be
able to show you that our subject is the most practical
we have yet considered.
Before we enter directly upon the discussion, however, it seems necessary to make a few preliminary 
THE YOUNG MAN IN THE CHURCH.
remarks, that I may meet the objections which young
men sometimes have to a consideration of a subject
like this. There are ideas which to me appear erroneous, but which still have their place in a young man's
mind. If we can succeed in dispossessing them, we
shall do a great service, not only to ourselves but to
all with whom we have intercourse.
1. It is often the case that we are inclined to look upon
religion as something we do not need in early life. Our
days now pass on without much that embitters them,
and, regarding religion rather as a retreat from care, or
a consolation from sorrow, or a refuge from the ills of
life, than as an active principle, which is the inspiration of all life, we leave, to the convenient season of
mature age, the consideration of a subject which is
suited for graver years. Now, we think religion
would interfere with the pleasures of our youth; it
would cast a shadow over the brightness of these happy days; it would make us sombre and serious, when
our hearts should be filled with a more natural joy;
and we should become old before our time. We entirely mistake the character of religion when thus we
suppose it is for our safety only that we must become religious; that, because we need solace, and support, and rest, when we are sad, and weak, and weary,
we should fly to the strengthening influences of religion; that because there are evil days in the prospect,
we should provide some shelter from the fury of the
tempest which they will bring with them. We en
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tirely mistake the character of religion when we sup pose it is to diminish our pleasures, or make us
too grave, or darken our days, or produce premature
old age. It is a mistake to suppose that religion is
nothing more than a convenient refuge for a man
when he has become sick and tired of the world, and
has found an earthly life empty and unsatisfactory;
that it is an expedient for his salvation from the threatened woes of the future, which his conscience dreads.
No, I shall advocate religion as a principle, to make us
more manful, more dutiful, more true; as suited particularly to the season of youth; as an experience of
the soul, which will enhance the enjoyment of life;
which will make the daily toil easier and more blessed;
which, instead of making the life sad, will fill it with
happiness; and, instead of producing untimely age,
will keep the heart fresh and young through all the
days of a man's life, and never allow it to grow old!
Religion is the power of a man's soul in the present
life, and far more concerns itself with the duties of the
present hour than with a way of escape from the
merited punishment of one's wrong-doing in the future.
It belongs to the life of to-day, and the scenes of time,
as well as, and possibly even more than, to the life of tomorrow and the scenes of eternity.
2. Another mistake which people fall into, and which
in its practical consequences produces a distaste to religion in the young man's mind, is the habit with some
religious people of regarding religion as something to
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THE YOUNG MAN IN THE CHURCH.
be obtained, rather than cultivated and grown. Many
persons say "get religion" very much in the same
way, and with the same manner, as a worldly man
would advise his son, "Get money -honestly if you
can, but by all means get money." So religion is to
be obtained by subjecting one's self to certain religious influences, which thus become a kind of religious
machinery, and the product of which is mechanical
and formal. Young men are accustomed to look at
matters in a common-sense and natural way.  They
do not believe in formalism. They rebel against authority. It is a natural state of the mind, and can not
be prevented, and if religion is presented in a formal
and mechanical way, it becomes offensive to them.
And the result is, they absent themselves from the
presence of religious influences of all kinds, and soon
cease to obey religious sanctions. They begin to doubt
religious truths, and soon fall into that supercilious
and irreligious frame of mind which sneers at and derides all moral and religious declarations; and if they
do not fall into utter atheism, they find themselves in
that condition which believes nothing and hopes for
nothing!
3. Another mistake which in its results repels young
men from religion, is to suppose that all the deeds that
are done in the name of religion are the results of religious workings. As the young man reads history, he
can not fail to find the story of persecution, of intolerance, of bigotry. His moral sense tells him that
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these are wrong. He is willing and even glad to witness the triumphs of Christianity, as it has made its
way along through the ages.  But he is interrupted in
his joy by the tales of cruelty that stain the pages of
the Church's life. lie sees the wrong that has been
done to man in the name of God. lie finds that they,
who were to be known as disciples of Christ by the
love which they were to have one toward another, are
filled with hatred, and variance, and strife. As he
hears the clank of fetters, and sees the smoke that
rises from the stake whereon men have suffered for
conscience' sake, and beholds the sword of the executioner dripping with the blood of martyrdom; and as
he remembers that the crimes at which humanity
shudders have been committed by men calling themselves Christian, he has lost their faith in religion
altogether, and has felt that it is all a falsehood.
If these are its legitimate fruits, he does not wish to
be known as its adherent. If, too, the meanness, the
cant, the hypocrisy, and Phariseeism, which the Church
too often shelters, are to be taken as products of the
life of the Church, he wishes for nothing of the kind.
It is a fact that is too conspicuous, and which does
more to make religion distasteful to young men than
almost any other influence in our time, that most men,
sensible, practical, shrewd in all other relations and
actions, when they conme to speak of religion and its
duties, seem to lose their good sense, their practical
wit and shrewdness, and utter themselves in solemn
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THE YOUNG MAN IN THE CHURCH.
commonplaces, and unmeaning and inexpressive religious phrases. Talk of business, and they surprise you
with their plain and practical good sense, and their
knowledge of human nature. Talk of politics, and
they are full of all wise suggestions.  But talk of religion, and they are either dumb, or they have a flow
of sounding words whose significance or aptness it is
utterly impossible to perceive. They either say nothing, or have such a lingual power that it overwhelms
you. Like Talkative, in Pilgrim's Progress, they "talk
of things heavenly or things earthly; things moral or
things evangelical; things sacred or things profane;
things past or things to come; things more essential
or things circumstantial."  But what Christian said of
Talkative, that "all he had lay in his tongue, and his
religion was to make a noise therewith," is also true of
these men who have, if not an immortality, at least
an eternity of speech. There may be much in the
character of professed religious men to disgust the
generous and earnest youth, who naturally looks for
consistency between profession and practice, between
speech and action. iHe may find meanness, and narrowness, and selfishness, and dishonesty, where he expected to witness the opposite qualities of character,
and, in his haste, he may condemn religion. But he
does not remember that these are not the true products of a religious character. If they appear, it only
shows that the man who exhibits them is really deficient in religious principles, and has yet to learn what
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religion is. Let the man be censured for his falseness,
but let not religion be held responsible for such practices. It is not because he is a religious man that he
engages in them, but because he is devoid of religion.
I. Our first inquiry then must be into the nature of
religion itself. Religion signifies the union of man with
God. I believe it to be a natural condition and state
of the soul. It is because man is a child of God; the
creature of his power; the ward of his guardianship;
the recipient of his love; that he is essentially a religious being. Religion belongs to the best part of
man's nature; and, thus belonging to him, he becomes
most of a man when he is most truly and most thoroughly religious. I need not now attempt to show
how universal is the existence of the religious sentiment. It is found wherever man lives, and, though in
some instances it may be existing in the midst of ignorance, barbarism and degradation, it is still in the soul
of man. Hie builds temples to his gods; he erects
shrines and altars where he may offer up his worship;
he gives to his deity the dearest possessions of his life;
he immolates himself, if conscious that an offended
god requires the sacrifice. We can not find a tribe of
people so degraded as to be without religion of some
kind. They must worship something, if it be but the
elemental familiar phenomena which appear in their
daily life. There has been no age of history which
has not borne witness to the existence of this power of
religion. Indeed, we can not read history aright, even
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THE YOUNG MAN IN THE CHURCH.
of heathenism itself, unless we take into the account
the religious element of human nature, and its influence upon human life. Through all the past we find
men facing the great questions which demand their
answer in the discussions of to-day. They bow before
the sense of the supernatural.   They inquisitively
search for the origin of their existence.  They attempt
to investigate the nature of their souls. They strive
to pierce the clouds that hang over the grave, and ascertain the mysteries of the future life. And though
the endeavors to settle these momentous questions
may have been accompanied by deeds of dark and
even terrible wrong, yet no man, who has traced the
operations of the laws that govern his life, can fail to
see that the noblest achievements of the human race
in wisdom and love have been the result of the mental
and spiritual activity which these endeavors have required! We can not interrogate any past age without
receiving for answer the assurance that man has lived
in obedience to divine laws; that he has recognized
his dependence upon divine existences, and that all his
hopes for what is best and fairest in life have been
inspired by his consciousness of divine connections.
Hiow true is that word of St. PauLl: "God hath made
of one blood all nations of men, for to dwell on all the
face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation;
that they should seek the Lord, if haply they might
feel after him and find him, though he be not far from
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any one of us." The culture and learning of the
Apostle had opened to him the fact, which had a profound philosophy in it, that God was present in the
affairs of men; that his providence guided the nations
in their course, and that their best endeavors in all
intellectual and spiritual things were called forth in
the search for the knowledge of "the unknown God."
Yes, it is God that ruleth among the inhabitants of the
earth as well as in the armies of Hleaven. Nations,
empires, whole races and tribes of men, live and die,
and pass away into almost utter oblivion, but they do
not pass without leaving the witnesses of their subjection to the control of their religious ideas, and of their
devotion to the Being who determined their life. Call
it superstition, if you will; but it is of a really sublime
character, and it is deeply significant of the power of
divine influence. Yes, it is God who orders all human
life.  No nation lives without his care and fatherly superintendence. In studying history we should never
forget this great truth, but should strive to find those
manifestations of a universal providence, which make
history a revelation of God himself, recognizing in the
thoughts and acts of men the " vestiges of him whose
path is in the deep of time." Thus reverently would
we tread the ways of life, and read the truth of the
eternal God in the perishable works of man. The
Eastern poet sings in lofty strains the divine perfections:
"There's a Godhead in attendance,
Unobserved by ear or eye;
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There is a divine resplendence
On the darkness of the sky;
Highest of all heights o'ershading
In unmoved complacency;
Deepest of all depths pervading
In serene felicity.
" Sitting still, through space he travels;
Calmly resting, fills all time;
And to the pure heart unravels
E'en his attributes sublime.
Who desires him shall obtain him,
He who loves him, wins his love,
Till God's truth shall teach and train him
For the highest seats above."
Religion, however, in my view is somewhat more
than a sentiment, residing within the spiritual nature
of man, and then becoming the inspiration of worship.
It does not occupy itself wholly in devotional aspiration.  It belongs to all intellectual activity, and is the
soul of all true philosophy. As a system of belief, as
the incitement of the reason, as the strength of the
intellect, and the power of all the best mental exertion
of man, it extends beyond the domain of sentiment,
and connects itself with the solution of all the proble-ns with which the mind grapples. The most lasting
of intellectual accomplishments are those which religion has been the means of effecting, I do not say,
indeed, that the ablest men, intellectually speaking,
have been the most religious men; but I think it is
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true, that there is no real and true ability in intellectual labor, which has not connections with the culture
of the religious faculties. Intellectual truth must have
a sure alliance with spiritual truth; and the man who
works in the service of truth, of whatever kind, is working in the service of God, who is the source of truth.
"The love of truth," embodying itself in all intellectual achievement, "is the natural and instinctive piety
of the mind," says a recent writer.  "In studying the
facts of nature, material or human, I am studying the
thought of God; for in the world of real things a fact
is the direct speech of the Father. Words make up
the language of men; facts and ideas are the words of
God; his universal language to his children, in which
he speaks from all eternity to all time.:Nani, "made
in the imnage of God," loves his Father's thoughts, and
is not contented till he hears that speech; then lie is
satisfied." This seems to me the proper work of the
mental faculties; but it must be pursued with that
expectant and hopeful energy which looks for more
light constantly to break forth upon the truth of God.
If the mind makes up its own system of religion, and
declares that the theories which it may form respecting divine things are the truth, and there can be no
progress beyond them; if it assumes to define what is
not definable; if it sets up a creed or formula of religious truth, and declares that that establishes the
bounds beyond which it is unsafe and dangerous to
travel; thus putting its feeble speech against the word
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of the Almighty, it is evident that it is doing a work
which is not legitimate. It transgresses its powers
and deserves rebuke. It is impossible that the whole
of divine truth is to be measured and guaged as one
would measure a field or sound the depths of the sea.
There may flow, indeed there does flow into each honest mind, some knowledge of divine realities, which
the         mind may be unable to repress; and there is no
creed, however laboriously the intellect may have
wrought in its formation, which can truly give form
to the formless truth. Well does Prof. Park say: "In
unnumbered cases the real faith of Christians has been
purer  than their written statements of it.  Men, women and children have often decided when doctors
disagreed; and doctors, themselves, have often felt
aright when they have reasoned amiss. * * * * Where
the school-room has transplanted the metaphors of the
Bible to the rude exposure of logic, they are frozen up,
their flagrance is gone, their juices evaporated, and
their withered leaves are preserved as specimens of
that which in its rightful place surpassed the glory of
the wisest sage." If the Church so mistakes its mission to the world as to say that its peculiar system of
doctrine teaches all that can be taught respecting religion; that it is profane to investigate farther and
deeper, and that every thing beyond its pale is heresy
and falsehood, the Church will suffer more than mankind. For men must think, as a matter of necessity;
they must go beyond Church limits, and they will pre          17*
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fer a free and progressive heresy to a narrow and
stationary orthodoxy. The mind feels that there are
truths outside the creeds of the churches, and if the
churches attempt to prevent investigation, they will
find themselves suddenly powerless; for the reason,
active in other things, will refuse to be inert in this.
We may well believe that God gave men the powers of
the reason, that they might be employed. If we do
not employ them, we should be doing injustice to ourselves and an impiety toward him. Their highest
use must be in the search for God's truth. That truth
is greater than the Church, and if the Church stand in
the way of its progress, it will be ground to powder,
as Judaism was by Christianity; as Romanism will be
by Protestantism; as Protestantisn itself must be if it
attempt to control the human mind, and is false to the
great principle of its life-  the right of private judgment. If the Church would exercise its power rightly
upon human life, it must not assume to be the dictator
to the mind, supreme and absolute, speaking by authority. It must rather be the teacher; ready itself
to be taught, and willing to acknowledge that both
teacher and disciples are but learners at the feet of
Christ.
Religion has a wider function still. It concerns
itself with the moral conduct of man, and thus becomes
a practicable principle in the life. Its seat may be in
the heart; it moves  the brain to right and true
thought; it directs the will that controls the practical
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work of human existence.  It speaks from the tongue,
in every true and sincere, every loving and generous
word. It springs from the hand, in every faithful,
earnest, and disinterested action. It works through
all the toil of life, and leaves its blessing wherever its
presence makes its way; so that it becomes the soul of
all daily practice, as it is the spirit of the secret closet
prayer. We misapprehend religion when we consider
it merely as a sentiment, whose influence brightens
the heart with a glow of devotional feeling, and induces an ecstatic state of soul, in which visions of
heaven are enjoyed, or hushes it into the repose, which
belongs to the indulgence of devout meditation. The
devotee and the monk, isolated from the world, may
find a pleasure in the seclusion of pious emotion, and
may enjoy the luxury of prayer; but they lose half
the faculty of life in their deprivation from the privilege of duty. Religion may become mysticism, as in
the olden time it sent its disciples out into the desert,
employing them upon useless labors, and separating
them from association with their fellows; or, as at the
present day, it pronounces all natural affection profane
and wicked; separating its sanctions from the social
and domestic life of man. We equally misapprehend
religion, when we consider it as embodied in a creed,
demanding assent, on pain of excommunication, and
even refusing the opportunity of salvation except upon
conditions of belief which the reason can not possibly
acept. We equally misapprehend religion when we
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consider it as simply a system of works, and wholly
residing in outward human conduct; when we harden
it into a cold, stiff system of morality. We certainly
misapprehend it when we attempt to separate it from
our common daily life; when we shut it up in the
church, and make it a Sunday observance and an ecclesiastical form. Religion belongs to the week-day
life as well as the Sunday life; to the world of duty as
well as the seclusion of piety; and there is not a word
nor a deed of which it may not be the great informing
spirit, unseen, yet present still!
Religion is not prayer, it is not belief, it is not duty.
It is a combination of all these; a union of all the faculties of human nature, moving the entire man to all
worthy and righteous life. It is the interior secret
spirit, which works through all inward and all outward
things; which fills all life; which moves the heart with
all gentle and pure emotions; which guides the intellect
into all right and correct thought; which shines through
every deed, making the humblest act glorious, and dignifies every common duty, making the meanest office
noble.  It is the most vigorous faculty of man.  It is
the loveliest grace of woman.  It beautifies the innocence of childhood. It consecrates the generous ambition of youth. It softens the formalities of middle
age, and  saving it from the canker of worldliness,
makes it useful to the grandest results, It cheers the
declining steps of age, dispelling the clouds that hang
around the grave, and opening upon the darkness,)f
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the closing day of life the golden splendors of immortality. It separates us from no duty of the earth, but
it fills that duty with the glory of heaven. It takes us
away from no connection with time, but it fills it with
all the power of eternity. It teaches while it inspires.
It strengthens while it teaches; and in inspiration, instruction and action, it is the soul of all true life!  It
lights up the blackened walls of poor men's homes.  It
gilds anew the magnificence of rich men's mansions.
The earth, the air, the sky, is all full of its glory!  It
applies every where. Its power is felt every where.
It is present every where.
II. Religion having this nature, power and universality of application, we come next to consider its effect
upon human character. We are sometimes inclined to
think that a religious character has some portion of
weakness and effeminacy.  We say that it is unmanly
to be occupied in religious service. It is soft and yielding. It resents no injury. It is meek and forgiving.
It has not that brave and firm consistency of purpose,
and resolution of action, which go through all dangers
and difficulties, and meet death in its most terrible
form without shuddering.  We could not fall into a
graver error.  I affirm that a religious character is the
manliest, the bravest, the firmest, the most heroic.
There is no man so true and courageous as the genuinely religious man. Instead of shrinking from danger, he meets it with the boldest face and the most
unflinching fortitude. Instead of retreating from diffi
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culty, he fronts it with intrepid brow; he conquers it
with the most resolute valor. Instead of avoiding death
through fear, he does not hesitate to meet it, if it comes
in the path of duty, without the blanching of a cheek
or the quiver of an eye-lid. Cool, calm, collected, fearless, firmly standing to the right through disaster, defeat,
torture, pain, and all things horrible, the truly religious
man never falters or faints. If duty says, die in behalf
of truth, he willingly lays down his life a sacrifice of
all things dear to his right conviction!  If in all ages
he has been the noble and brave, who is willing to die
for his country, how much nobler and braver must he
be thought who is willing to die for humanity and God!
who, widening the hope of his vision beyond the limits
of his own home and country, sees himself bound to all
mankind by the common tie of a common brotherhood,
and goes to the frightfullest death, that they, who have
no claim upon him but this common tie, may receive
an eternal benefit! There is the highest kind of manliness, I think, in that.
There is manliness, too, in the meekness and the forgiving spirit which belong to the Christian character.
Self-control is certainly a manly quality. To hold one's
self in complete check; to have entire mastery over
the passions; to be able to look calmly upon the wreck
of all things that are choicely valued, and have no
feeling of anger toward the man who caused it; nay,
to forgive, when forgiveness is the most difficult thing
to be done; these are not tokens of a weak but of a
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strong character. They do not indicate a timid, fearful, or unmanly man; but rather a man whose nobility
of soul rises above the weakness of passion, and governs all the movements of his life with the force of
religious principle. The Hiebrew moralist understood
the strength which resides in the constancy of dutiful
self-control, when he said: "Hie that is slow to anger
is better than the mighty; and he that ruleth his
spirit, than he  that taketh a  city."   There is no
man that has held himself back, in moments of excited
passion, but knows how much real bravery and firmness are required to keep the control of his spirit.
Certainly, there is manliness in a calm, and, as
is often necessary, a solitary adherence to the truth
through all vicissitudes of life. Then the lonely constancy to principle becomes heroic. I acknowledge,
and am glad to appreciate the bravery, with which
men enter into the conflict with terrible death upon
the field of battle. But this, great as it may be sometimes, does not compare with the bravery which dares
to stand alone and confront death - nay, confront life
- for the sake of one's misunderstood and misapprehended truth.  Confront life, I say, for it sometimes is
easier to die than live. Nay, it is more brave and
manly to live through and conquer misfortune than it
is to yield one's life, and sink despondingly before it. It
is comparatively easy, too, to stand fast in battle array,
surrounded by numbers, and strengthened by the sympathy of companions. But it is not so easy to stand
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alone, with only truth and God, and defy a whole
world of unbelief.
"Count we  o'er earth's chosen heroes- they were men that stood
alone,
While the men they agonized for, hurled the contumelious stone;
Stood serene, and, down the future, saw the golden beam incline
To the side of perfect justice, mastered by their faith divine,
By one man's plain truth to manhood, and to God's supreme design."
Well and bravely does an English preacher say:
"In human things, the strength that is in a man can
only be learned when he is thrown upon his own resources, and left alone. What a man can do in conjulnction with others, does not test the man. Tell us
what he can do alone. It is one thing to defend the
truth when you know that your audience are already
prepossessed, and that every argument will meet a willing response; and it is another thing to hold the truth
when truth is to be supported, if at all, alone- met by
cold looks and unsympathizing suspicion. It is one
thing to rush on to danger with the shouts and sympathy of numbers; it is another thing when the lonely
chieftain of the sinking ship sees the last boatful disengage itself, and folds his arms to go down into the
majesty of darkness, crushed, but not subdued."
It must be the manliest of all things to be incited to
all noble action by the consciousness of God's presence
with us in the scenes of life, and the assurance of God's
help in every dutiful work. To feel through all the
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various scenes and toils of life, that God's arm is the
strength of ours; that his protecting care is always over
us, and that we are laboring with him by every daily
faithfulness. Certainly there is a dignity given to the
commonest life thus, which redeems it from its commonness; which raises it from its obscurity, and which sets
it on high in light. Listen to David: "l He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High, shall abide
under the shadow of the Almighty. Because thou hast
made the Lord, who is my refuge, even the Most High,
thy habitation, there shall no evil befall thee; neither
shall any plague come near thy dwelling. I will set
him on high, because he hath known my name. He
shall call upon me, and I will answer him. I will be
with him in trouble; I will deliver him and honor him."
Hear Isaiah:  "The Lord giveth power to the faint;
and to them that have no might, he increaseth strength.
Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the
young men shall utterly fail. But they that wait upon
the Lord shall know their strength; they shall mount
up with wings as eagles; they shall run and not be
weary; they shall walk and not faint." And Jesus
declares:  "If a man love me, he will keep my words;
and my Father will love him, and we will come unto
him, and make our abode with hi'm."  And Paul expresses the same thought in his words to the Corinthians. "We are laborers together with God. Know
ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the
spirit of God dwelleth in you?" It seems to me that
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that is the manliest of all conditions in life, which thus
possesses, as the grand power of all existence and all
action, this indwelling presence, and this protecting
care of the omniscient and omnipotent God; the all
merciful and all loving Father!
If the young man desires to know of personal examples, he can find them wherever a true religion has become the motive power of a man's soul.
First, I mention, in our own times, one of the most re
ligious of men and one of the most manly of men,
THOMAS ARNOLD.  Placed in that most trying situation, the master of an English school, with the wills of
an hundred boys to train into conformity with his own,
and inspire them with his own noble purposes, and yet
not to allow them to know till after years had revealed
the course of discipline, how careful, how diligent, how
observant of their interests, how judicious in his treatment he had always been, not forgetting the smallest,
and impartial in his guidance of all; a broad, catholic,
genial, liberal, cultivated man, without austerity, without hypocrisy, without pretense, without a particle of
cant- his character adorns the annals of the Church
as one of its most saintly and one of its most heroic
men. Valorous, truthful and brave, he made an impression upon the English religious mind, such as no
other man engaged in the great religious movements
in England ever could have done. For it was not
within the boundaries of a school-room that his influence was exerted, but through his pupils upon all Eng
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land, and through England upon all Christendom; and
not alone by means of his pupils, but by means of his
muanly and Christian writings.   "The pupils," says
one of his eulogists, "saw that their teacher was a
true man and a Christian; the grasp of his energy
they felt upon them; they knew not how, but the very
air seemed pervaded by his influence. Accustomed to
be treated as Christian gentlemen whose word was not
to be called in question, they learned to shrink from
meanness, to acquire self-command, and to make intelligence and nobleness their aims. At the university,
youths from other quarters might excel in the quickness, the cleverness, and, it might even at times happen, the minute accuracy of school-boys; those from
Rugby had the character, the thought, the deliberate
purpose of men."
I have selected this instance out of many, because it
is thought that boys are not susceptible to religious
impressions, and that the period of youth is not favorable to religious growth. I believe that the fault is not
in the nature of boys and young men, so much as it is
in the character of the man who attempts to guide
them in the way of religious truth. They are quick
observers; they are keen in their judgment of character; if there is any thing like falsehood or cowardice,
or a venal time-serving, they are sure to detect it, and
when they lose their feeling of respect toward the
man who teaches, there is an end of his influence. But
if he is manly, true, without assumption and without
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forwardness, he will be always sure of attentive con sideration, and his influence will always be felt for
their good. An untrue and cowardly man is no fit
teacher for boys, and they very soon know it. Thus a
boys' school becomes a test of character, and he that
faithfully abides it shows himself a just and manly man.
To go back a few years more remote, we come into
the stormy times of the PReformation of the sixteenth
century, and among those brave men who controlled
the destinies of modern civilization, we find numerous
instances of the power which religion gives for the
performance of the manliest deeds. The bravest men
of that period were men who were swayed by a religious purpose of doing God's will.  Whether that purpose led them to the battle-field to strive for liberty of
conscience and the salvation of the State; or to the
pulpit and the public hall, to speak the words which
were to move the nations to the way of truth; or to
the stake and the dungeons of the Inquisition, to seal
their testimony with their heart's blood, in every and
in all cases they amply proved that the religion which
they professed and practiced was far from making
them unmanly; nay, it moved them, as with the
strength of the Omnipotent. I need not mention to
you such men as Wyclyf, as John Huss, as Ulric Zwingle, as Socinus, Luther, and  Melancthon, as  John
Knox, Hampden, Robinson, and their brave associates;
you know them as the world's heroes; you know
them also as the world's religious men. What a grand
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word that was which William of Orange once said,
showing that he too belonged to this glorious company!
The Spanish tyrant, Philip II., had set the price of
25,000 florins of gold upon his head; for William was
the main opponent to the scheme of the infatuated
monarch, to force the Inquisition upon the people of
Holland against their will. In the decree which the
despot made -almost unparalleled in baseness- beside the offer of the money, there was also added the
promise of nobility. If the murderer "have committed crime," says the royal command, "we will pardon
him, and if he be not already noble, we will ennoble
him."  In the defiance which William hurled back,
occur the following noble words: "I am in the hand
of God; my worldly goods and my life have long since
been devoted to his service. He will dispose of them
as seems best for his glory and my salvation."
The annals of religious history are full of such records of bravery. In the early ages of the Church
what instances of fearless martyrdom! The feeblest
maiden seemed gifted with a more than manly courage, when the truth of Christ became the inspiration
of her heart.  She stood naked and defenseless in
the arena of the Roman Amphitheatre without the
movement of a muscle; calm as though she were on
her knees at prayer in her cottage home, though the
ribald jeers of the shameless multitude smote her ear,
and the wild beasts, hungry and thirsty for her blood,
were rushing forth in the madness of their fierce onset
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to rend her in pieces. The young man, who had all of
life before him from which to choose, willingly gave
up all the world had to promise him for the sake of his
truthful conviction, and in the fresh buoyancy and
hopefulness of youth went cheerfully to the death
which he could scarcely bear, and proof against all
promises of earthly rewards, made Heaven sure by his
manly faithfulness!
Or to go back farther still - think what the Apostles were: John, the gentle, brave old man, ending his
life with the words, 1"Love one another," upon his
lips; Peter, the strong, rash man, crucified with his
head downward, with that added agony as a kind of
expiation for his denial of his master; James, the
just and honest practical Christian, stoned to death by
the Pharisees of Jerusalem; Paul, the fervent, zealous,
catholic Apostle, refusing no labor and peril, and suffering death at the hands of Nero's executioners, for
his fidelity to the truth which Christ had taught. Was
there no real manliness in the character of these men?
Nay, was there not the most genuine manliness?
But to find the manliest of men, we have to go to
the founder of our religion- JEsus CHRIST himself.
In all history there is nothing equal t(Pthat. To all
womanly gentleness he joined all manly courage. To
all the devotion of a saint he joined all the bravery of
a hero. The most loving, the boldest, the kindest, the
most forgiving, the most firm and faithful; he met all
things, and endured all things, and did all things in
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that self-sustained, quiet, unpretentious and complete
manliness which made him powerful against every
influence of the world. We do not appreciate that
sublime character of Christ till we make it a part of
our own experience, and teach ourselves to follow in
its way of manly duty. When we do so, we shall find
that there is no trait of character which we are accustomed to look upon as belonging to the character
of a complete, true and whole man, which can not be
found in the character of Christ. Serene, calm, humble, dignified, honest, brave, pure, devoted, lovely,
strong in purpose, persevering in action, benevolent,
self-forgetting, noble, charitable, all the inward graces,
all the outward virtues, combining to form the perfect
stature of the man Christ Jesus!
0 young man, if you desire to be noble, if you desire
to be true, if you desire to be bold in all righteousness;
if you desire to have that bravery which never flinches,
and that courage which never falters in the way of
truth, heed the examples which the history of manly
endeavor gives, and learn from them that there is no
strength, no truthfulness, no bravery, no courage, no
manliness like that which is born of religious principle.
I know your temptations. I know your trials. I know
your disappointments. I know how soon your dreams
of happiness fade. I know, too, your aspirations after
better things- all your struggles with these powers of
evil, that are dragging you down to earthliness and sin.
I know how you desire to shake them off, and how
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weak the flesh is, though the spirit be willing. And
though I have not passed from the years of youth, I
have lived long enough to know that there is nothing
which can effectually help you to suffer and to do but
the power of a religious life; a recognition of dependence upon God; a constant effort to do his will; a resolute and persevering course of faithfulness to religious duty. There is no strength like a truly religious
strength. There is no manliness like the manliness of
religion! Prove, by your faithfulness, that there is as
much now as in the days that are passed; and that you
can bear as submissively, and do as bravely as any of
God's bravest heroes! Manfully and modestly do the
work which God demands of every earnest man, and
daily duty shall become noble, and daily life a perpetual glory! Let a true spirit of religion dwell in all our
hearts. Let love to God, and all God's children, guide
us into all pleasant and  dutiful ways.   Let God's
presence be our help and our support. Do temptations
press? This will give you power to withstand them.
Do trials and disappointments come? This will give
you comfort. Does duty demand allegiance? This
will make you faithful against all the world.  Does
death threaten, with its darkness, its sorrow and its
pain, shutting out the bright prospect of future earthly
happiness and good? This will deprive it of every
terror, and open the prospect of blessedness brighter
and more lasting than any thing which earth affords.
"Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered
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into the heart of man, the glories which the Father
hath prepared for them that love him." Each day adds
to our experience of mingled pain and joy. Let each
day add to our experience of the power which shall
make both pain and joy conduce to good! Liberal
and tolerant, faithful in religious work, strong in soul,
though weakness seize the body, and pure in heart, let
us pass our time below; and when the hour which
closes all earthly scenes shall come, we shall be ready
to pass onward to the life above, rich in all manly experience, and having bravely done our work. God
grant that we may hear the Father's voice speaking to
our hearts, "Well done, good and faithful servant,
enter thou into the joy of thy Lord!"
III. Let me briefly state what I think the character
of a young man's religion should be. 1. It should be
a matter of principle. Young men, before character is
formed, act generally from impulse; and a young
man's impulses are generally right. But when these
impulses are affected by a religious excitement, he is
too apt to make his religion a mere impulse. Thus carried away, perhaps by the influence of his generous sympathies, he may feel himself swayed, as he thinks, by the
sweetest and holiest emotions. Without stopping to
question himself, he believes himself acted upon by the
spirit of true religion. Hie becomes zealous; he becomes alert and active; he hurries into the Church.
But after the influence of the excitement is over, and
he is left with himself to combat with his temptations
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and his doubts, he finds that he is far weaker than he
thought. His religion is on the surface and shallow.
It has not reached down into his soul and become the
controlling power of his life. It began with an unnatural excitement, and continued just as long as that
continued, and no longer, and it leaves him a disappointed, sad, disheartened man. If he continues in
the Church, he is too apt to become a hypocrite. If he
leaves it he falls into skepticism; and so he lives, with
perhaps an open profession of religion, and an observance of its forms, but with a seeret repudiation of its
sanctions. I think this to be a fair statement of the
condition of that man who allows his religion to be
one of impulse merely, and to grow by reason of some
transient influence of temporary religious excitement.
Let the young man calmly form himself; grow in
silent self-communings; make  his religion one of
strong, genuine, undying principle, that it may sweeten his affections; that it may purify his thoughts
that it may control his words; that it may direct all
his actions; that he may feel, think, say, do, in all circumstances, what that principle directs him to do.
The mushroom grows in a night. It decays as quickly.
The brave old oak toughens and matures through a century of conflict with the storm, and repose in the grateful sunshine. True religion grows like the oak rather
than the mushroom, by a lifetime's work.  So let the
young man grow in religion by daily faithfulness; so
let him erect the structure of his character by perse
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THE YOUNG MAN IN THE CHURCH.
vering labor. Thus he is not building his religion upon
the shifting sands of worldly policy; of uncertain
impulse; of sympathetic excitement; but upon the
broad, strong, eternal rock of truth. Then wherever he
may be, in the church or out of it; in prosperous or
adverse fortunes, in quiet or in action, in life or in
death, he is the true religious man.
2. A young man should be liberal and catholic in his
religious-principles. While he should have distinct religious opinions of his own, and should hold fast to them
through all vicissitudes of his life -standing alone, if
necessary, satisfied that if he has a real truth, the
world will come round to him in time - he should also
be tolerant of differences of opinion in others. Let
him remember that men can not all think alike upon
any subject, and that, upon a subject like this, which
belongs to the deepest experience of our nature, uniformity of belief is particularly impossible.  While he
is intolerant of all that has the appearance of evil in
the moral conduct of. men, injustice, wrong, oppression, falsehood, vice, let him  be tolerant of all that
wears the appearance of truth, believing that others
are as sincere as he, and that he can have no right to
censure what is honestly and sincerely held as true. I
can not believe altogther in the maxim, that we should
agree to disagree; but that we should agree to discuss
our disagreements in friendship and love. We all have
some truth; and it is for the benefit of the Christian
world that every shade of Christian doctrine should
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find its expression. Only let us hold fast our allegiance to Him who is the common teacher of us all!
Let us be no bigots. Bigotry should ever be a stranger to the young man's heart and head; but with tolerant faith let us do our work in life, with a community
of philanthropic labor, and a community of active,
practical duty, in all Christian spirit and in all Christian works, as Christian men should.
3. The young man should be generous in his religion; welcoming truth from whatever source it may
come; reading God's wisdom and love in all the works
of his hand, imprinted on the earth and sky -each
plant and flower, each sun and star, bearing the impress of Divinity - reading it in the lives of holy men,
who have spoken as they were moved by the Holy
Spirit; in the life of Jesus Christ, teaching us all of
God's fatherhood, and our own great Brotherhood;
reading it in the best experience of our own souls, as
they have looked up with reverential eye to the Father
of all truth, and received the inspiring influences which
he always sends!
4. He should be honest in his religion; receiving it
with all candor, and living it with all truthfulness.
Let him free himself from all cant, and all hypocrisy,
and all falsehood. Let him profess nothing which he
does not thoroughly believe. It is a sad thing for a
young man, if he attempts to be false to God and his
conscience; if he can accustom himself, for the sake of
peace with his friends and kindred, or for fear of the
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THE YOUNG MAN IN THE CHURCH.
consequences to himself, to subscribe to opinions which
in his heart he rejects; if he chooses his religious belief
from any cause but a conviction of its truth; because
it is fashionable, or because it may be more profitable
to himself. No man can rise to the full stature of his
manhood "out of the ruins of his violated truth;" and
no young man is safe in moral life, whose religious life
is not thoroughly honest.
5. Finally, he should always keep himself loyal to
the spirit of truth. There is nothing in all this universe which can serve its stead. There is nothing so
great, so powerful, so full of good. Hie that enters
into the service of truth, never letting himself loose
from its sanctions, never allowing falsehood to warp
his inclinations, or prejudice to weaken his obedience,
is the man who best serves his fellow-men and God.
In t        he apoc hryphal book of the 1st of Esdras, it is
related that Darius, king of Persia, having made a
great feast, called together all the princes of his kingdom. Three young men, of the king's body guard,
wrote each a sentence and gave it into the hand of the
king, that he might judge the wisdom of their writing.
The   first wrote, "Wine is the strongest;" the second
wrote, " The king is the strongest;" the third wrote,
"Woman is the strongest, but above all things truth
beareth away the victory." In explaining their different propositions, the first declared, "Hiow exceeding
strong is wine! it causeth all men to err that drink
it!           " T he second declared, that as all things were obe                 19
217 
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dient unto the king, the king was the mightiest, for he
had dominion over them. The third declared, that as
woman controlled the king himself, she was stronger
than all the rest.  "But," he continued, "'is he not
great that maketh these things?  Therefore, great is
the truth, and stronger than all things. Wine is wicked, the king is wicked, women are wicked, all the children of men are wicked; in their unrighteousness
they shall perish. As for the truth, it endureth and is
always strong; it liveth and conquereth forevermore.
With her there is no accepting of persons or of rewards; but she doeth the things that are just, and
refraineth from all unjust and wicked things; and all
men do well like her works. Neither is her judgment
in any unrighteousness; and she is the strength, kingdom, power and majesty of all ages. Blessed be the
God of Truth!' And all the people shouted,' Great is
truth, and mighty above all things!"'
Such is the nature and manliness of a true religious
character. Let it be your constant effort to grow in
all its virtues and in all its power. Let it go with you
into your homes, and it will consecrate every pure
affection, and make every labor a disinterested and
generous work for those who there depend upon you
for their welfare. Let it go with you into your social
life, and it shall make you always true and faithful to
the great interests of humanity, which are intrusted
to your care and direction. Let it go with you into
your business, and there give you that complete integ
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THE YOUNG MAN IN THE CHURCH.
rity of purpose and act, that genuine honesty and
manly truth, which make the business relations of mankind the great forces of human civilization; which
make all the toil of life a glorious labor for all human
good. Let it be with you in your hours of relaxation
and rest, and every pleasure shall be enhanced, and the
enjoyments of life shall have the relish which innocence
and gratitude always furnish. Let it go with you into
your politics, and it shall save you from all partisan
slavery, from all prejudice, from all commendation of
injustice; giving you in all relations, in all circumstances, in all conditions of life, the character of a true,
independent, faithful man of God!
And now, my brothers, I can not bring this course of
lectures to a close, without a word of acknowledgment.
I thank you for the kind attention which you have
given me, and the candid hearing which I feel I have
received. I have spoken with the utmost frankness,
as becometh speech between man and man. I have
undertaken not so much the office of an adviser, as the
duty of a friend, and if you have not agreed with all
I have said, I know you will accord me the credit
of having spoken honestly, sincerely and heartily.
Claiming the privilege of friendship, I have endeavored
not to abuse it. I am sorry now that our course is
ended. I shall miss this oft-recurring meeting, and
your waiting and cheerful attendance. Let me hope
that our three months' work has not been useless; that
my words have not been spoken in vain. If there has
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been any thing wrong and false, pray forget it, if you
can. Let it fall and die. If any thing true and right
has been said, receive and heed it well. Let it inspire
you to all noble and truthful action, and let us all
strive together to be true, sincere, upright, manly men!
And so, I bid you a friendly and affectionate farewell!
220 
ADDRESS
AT THE ANNUAL EXAMINATION
NORTH-GRANVILLE FEMALE SEMINARY,
JULY  29, 1857.
IN closing the exercises of the week, by addressing
the members and friends of the Institution, the occasion itself, and the audience before me, furnish the appropriate subject for the brief remarks which it becomes my privilege to offer. I therefore ask your
attention to a few thoughts upon the Position and Privilege of Woman, her Claims, Demands and Duties.
Among the results wrought out in the progress of
civilization, none can be more noticeable, and, indeed,
none is more beneficial than the gradual advance in
opinion respecting the rightful position of woman. It
is a long step forward from the condition of a slave to
man's caprices and his sensual passions, to that of the
companion of his life, sharing his best thoughts and
feelings, doing a portion of his work, and helping him
solve the great problems of human welfare. It has
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been a step attended with many struggles -which,
indeed, are not yet finished   and whose progress has
been marked with defeats as well as victories. It has
not been the least of the triumphs of the Christian
religion, that it has succeeded in lifting woman out of
her degradation, and placing her upon that level with
man where both may labor "together with God," in
the promotion of all human good. To illustrate the
point which I here make, let me recur to the condition
of woman under the civilization of the past.
In the countries of the East, the position of woman
was servile. The laws of ancient Egypt, the customs
of the people, and the habits of domestic life, alike
reduced woman far below the place of man. Yet
Egypt was the most refined and humane of ancient
nations. And if there woman was compelled to bear
the heaviest burdens, to perform the most laborious
work, to suffer exclusion from all but the menial offices
of the Temple service, and to endure the ignominy which
is always incident to polygamy, we may well imagine
what would be her fate among nations where humanity
and refinement were unknown. India had no better
place for woman. There, too, she must be the slave of
man. Beside the oppressive system of caste, there
was the cruel exercise of superior might to degrade'
her.  Man was the lord of creation, and even in that
vague realm of the future, to which the thoughts of
the pious Hindoo sometimes turned, her condition was
determined by the degree of servility which character
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ADDRESS AT NORTH GRANVILLE, N. Y.
ized her devotion to her husband in the present. China
did not hesitate to deny even the possession of a soul
to woman -the last degradation to which any human
being can descend. Even among the Chinese at the
present day, this opinion is openly declared. In a recent book of travels, written by a French missionary
to that people, an account is given of an interview,
which the writer enjoyed, with a Chinese of some importance, that may serve to show in what opinion woman is now held.  "I have heard you say," said the
Chinaman, "that people become Christians to save
their souls.  Is that it?"  "Yes," replied the missionary, "that is the object we propose to ourselves."
"Then what  can women  become Christians for?"
"What for? to save their souls, like men." "ZBut
they have no souls," said he, stepping back and folding
his arms, "women have no souls.  You can not make
Christians of them." The missionary endeavored to
remove his scruples upon this point. The very notion
tickled his fancy so much that he laughed with all his
might.  "1 Nevertheless," said he, "when I go home I
will tell my wife that she has got one. She will be a
little astonished, I think." Still the same writer declares, that some Chinese women have faint hopes of a
future life. They endeavor to find some relief for
their sufferings in the doctrine of metempsychosis.
They have formed a sect called Abstinents, and by the
exercise of extreme austerity, they believe they will
secure a life in the future, as men.  "They promise
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themselves, doubtless," he drily remarks, "ample compensation after their metempsychosis; and it would
not be, perhaps, a very hazardous conjecture, that
some of them enjoy a little the idea of the vengeance
they will take upon their husbands, when they shall
be transformed into men." We can conceive of no
degradation more painful and cruel, than that which
must result to any class of human beings from a denial to them of an immortal soul.
Among the nations of the West, though woman
occupied a somewhat better position, she yet was not
removed from her condition of servitude. The treatment of woman in Greece has been made the subject of
a panegyric too fulsome to be true. For, though Greece
was almost the only country of its time where a man
was the husband of but one wife, yet the position of
that wife was by no means an enviable one. The debasement of her sex still belonged to her. As a maiden,
she was subject to be sold by her father or brother as a
slave. As a wife, she was liable to be divorced by her
husband, and given by him to another man. Moreover, she was denied participation in her husband's
feasts and entertainments, where, beside, she had the
mortification of knowing that the vile and vicious had
free intercourse. The virtuous wife was no fit companion to her Grecian husband.  The licentious Heterm
usurped her place. The accomplished historian, Grote,
gives the following painful testimony to the inferiority
of Grecian women: " The free citizen women of Athens
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ADDRESS AT NORTH GRANVILLE, N. Y.
lived in strict, and almost oriental recluseness, as well
after being married as when single; every thing which
concerned their lives, their happiness, or their rights,
was determined or managed for them by male relatives;
and they seemed destitute of all mental culture and
accomplishments. Their society presented no charm
nor interest, which man accordingly sought for in the
company of the class of women called Hetoare, or Courtesans, who lived a free life, managed their own affairs,
and supported themselves by their power of pleasing."
These, and not the wives who presided over the much
lauded homes of Greece, were the honored and cherished companions of the poets, the orators, the philosophers, and the statesmen of this cultivated but dissolute
nation. Aspasia and Theodote may be considered the
type of the best of their class; accomplished, brilliant
and fascinating, but, alas, too frail. In later times,
woman received more respect. The picture of the
beautiful, pure, virtuous and learned Hypatia has come
down to us, in the history of the period, and shows us
how a woman can successfully maintain a position of
influence and respect. Her terrible death lies at the
door of the Christian Church. For she was literally torn
in pieces, by a frenzied and fanatical mob of monks and
devotees, with the sanction, if not under the immediate
direction of the Christian Bishop of Alexandria.
Among the Romans, woman fared but little better
than among the Greeks.   "In the first ages," says
Gibbon, "the father of a family might sell his children,
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and his wife was reckoned in the number of his children; the domestic judge might pronounce the death
of the offender, or his mercy might expel her from his
house; but the slavery of the wretched female was
hopeless and perpetual, unless he asserted, for his own
convenience, the manly prerogative of divorce. The
warmest applause has been lavished on the virtue of
the Romans, who abstained from this privilege for five
hundred years; but the same fact evinced the unequal
terms of a connection, in which the slave was unable
to renounce her tyrant, and the tyrant was unwilling
to relinquish his slave. When the Roman matrons (at
a later period) became the equal and voluntary companions of their lords, a new jurisprudence was introduced, that marriage, like other partnerships, might be
dissolved by the abdication of one of the parties. In
three centuries of prosperity and corruption, this principle was enlarged to frequent practice and pernicious
abuse. Passion, interest and caprice suggested daily
motives for the dissolution of marriage, and the most
tender of human connections was degraded to a transient society of profit and pleasure."
Among nations which claimed to have a better
theory of life, we find but little improvement upon the
condition of the much injured sex. The Hebrews, in
common with their Eastern neighbors, practiced polygamy almost without restraint, and polygamy is
always an indignity and wrong to woman.  While it
defiles the purest affections of the heart in the indi
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ADDRESS AT NORTH GRANVILLE, N. Y.
vidual life, it is always the exponent of barbarism in
social life. It is the unmistakable evidence of the inferiority of her whose condition is the sure index of the
character of human civilization. The Old Testament
is full of allusions to the inferiority of woman. Almost
always she is a being to be despised. Even in later
times the reproach is not removed. The Jewv, catching the spirit of his ancestor, in his morning prayer,
thanks God that he did not make him a Gentile, a
slave, or a woman. The Jewish woman had little to
expect from her husband and her master, among her
own countrymen. She had less, if she should fall into
the hands of the Gentiles. The Book of Esther gives
us a glimpse of the condition of affairs at the court,
and in the time of Ahasuerus, King of Persia. The
shameful repudiation of Vashti, because she would not
sacrifice her womanly modesty at the drunken behests
of her lord; the still more shameful exhibition of
women at court, that the king might select from
among them the mistress of his harem; the certainty
of the fate of Vashti, if not a worse one, for Esther, if
the king had not deigned to show, in her behalf, the
royal clemency, are but so many indications of the
treatment which women then were compelled to undergo. The reproduction of those times is to be found
to-day in the cruel customs which sanction the public
sale of the beautiful females of Georgia and Circassia,
and which have spread over the East the tokens of
woman's degradation and woman's woe; and in that
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vile system of Mormonism which seeks to perpetuate
in our own land, under the guise of religion, the worst
evils of the barbarism of the past!
I am aware that there are qualifications to be made
to the statements which I have here put forth. I remember the women of the Bible who vindicated the
freedom, and in some instances the superiority of their
sex. The sagacious wisdom of Deborah, the heroic
daring of Judith, the sweet simplicity of Ruth, can
never  be forgotten.   I remember  that  Semiramis
sat upon the throne of Assyria, and made her reign
memorable in all Eastern annals -that in later times
Zenobia swayed a wise and powerful sceptre in Palmyra, queen city of the desert. Yenus was not the
only female divinity of the Greeks. The sage Minerva
and the chaste Diana had divine honors given them;
and bountiful Ceres, too, sweet goddess of the fields.
I recall to mind the virtue of Roman matrons, proverbial in history, the sublime self-devotion of Lucretia,
the noble bearing of Cornelia, the mother of the Gracchi. Socrates, indeed, wisest and most manly of all
the Grecian sages, might say —and it was because he
was the wisest and most manly that he did say it"the female sex are nothing inferior to ours, excepting
only in strength of body, or perhaps in steadiness of
judgment." Let us never forget this noble declaration
of the noble heathen! But his great disciple, Plato,
gave utterance to the more prevailing sentiment, when
he declared that "man, if he misuse the privileges of
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ADDRESS AT NORTH GRANYILLE? N. Y.
one life, shall be degraded into the form of a woman"
in the other! Exceptional cases there may be, but
they are more prominent and noticeable because they
are exceptional, and serve but to prove the proposition
that woman is indebted to the influence of the Christian religion for what of freedom, what of good, what
of power and privilege she now enjoys. It is Heathenism that degrades her; it is Christianity alone
that elevates her to her true place.
This elevation, however, was not accomplished without great struggle. The old prejudices, which had become consolidated into institutions, could not easily be
extinguished, and old customs, become fortified in law,
could not easily be abrogated. But when Jesus made
woman his companion and friend, when Paul declared
that in Christ Jesus there was neither male nor female,
and found in woman his best and most efficient coworker in teaching and living the Christian truth, the
movement was begun which is to end in the complete
emancipation of woman from every species of thraldom
that oppression may devise, in the acknowledgment of
her equality with man in every noble enterprise and in
every worthy work; in the recognition of her claim to
a rightful "communion of love and labor" in the interests of Humanity, Civilization, and the Progress of
mankind! What a pure piety; what a saintly devotion that was which adorned the early ages of Christian History! What heroism, that faced the torture,
the arena, the stake, the cross itself, without blenching,
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and showed how strong a heart beat within a maiden's
breast! What courage shone out upon a mother's face,
and told how faithfully woman could live; how bravely
she could die in defense of the truth, which filled and
inspired her; all the weakness of body made strong in
the power of a devoted soul!  Later ages, too, have
borne witness to the best traits of womanly character.
The Roman Church, with that rare faculty of appropriation which distinguishes all its practical movements, has seized upon the peculiar qualifications of
woman for benevolent and humane enterprise, and in
the Sisters of Charity, and other kindred organizations,
has done much to redeem its character, and command
the gratitude of the world. Indeed, it has been seriously declared, that one reason why that church calls
into its fold so many carefully educated women, is
because of "the power it gives them to throw their
energies into a sphere of definite utility, under the control of a high religious responsibility." Still, as benevolence belongs to no one sex, or to no one religious
name, but is the product of the Christian truth, operating in the hearts of all human beings, so it is confined
to no one branch of the Christian Church. Among the
ranks of Protestant believers, there have been women
-real Sisters of a world-wide Charity-whose lives
make us proud to belong to the same great family with
themselves. Need I mention such women as Elizabeth
Fry, bringing the presence of Christian love into that
English prison, which was truly described by one of
her friends as a very "den of wild beasts? " -
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ADDRESS AT NORTH GRANVILLE, N. Y.
"She sought her way through all things vile and base,
And made a prison a religious place,
Fighting her way- the way that angels fight
With powers of darkness- to let in the light."
As Dorothea Dix, providing, with a pertinacity which
is only born of true philanthropy, a home for the indigent insane in nearly every State of the Union! As
she who stands out before all the rest in our day,
uniting energy with gentleness; calm perseverance
against dicuities, with womanly weakness; the highest education and the most cultivated refinement, with
complete devotion to the menial service of the sick, the
maimed, and the helpless; showing to the world, in her
illustrious example, how the very noblest souls can
perform the very humblest duties, and still be noble;
that pure heroine of the Crimean war, Florence Nightingale! Such instances as these, and they are not isolated in their spirit, though they may be in their practical results, assure us that woman deserves the position
to which Christianity has raised her; that she was not
created to be a slave; that she was not created even
to fill a station of inferiority; that she was created to
stand side by side with man, equal with him, though
different in her characteristics; and able with him to
work in the great cause of Hiumanity, God and Truth!
"The honest, earnest man must stand and work,
The woman also."
The progress of civilization is but the gradual recog
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nition of universal truth, and its application to universal
life. Where the feminine element of truth is disregarded and ignored, there must be an imperfect civilization. Yet, in the human heart is still the ideal of
truth, and if it does not at once become real, it still
strives to find expression in some way. Through the
lives and acts of those who become the leaders of mankind, the truth speaks, and the artist, the poet, the
man of genius, in whatever calling, looks beyond the
present and the real, into the future and ideal, and
constructs his Utopia, peopling it with the beings of
his own creation. The future makes it real, if the
present fails.  In such a case as this of woman, there
is the same looking forward, and if mankind in general
do not recognize her worth, those who are above mankind discern the truth of her life. 3May this not be the
reason why she finds so prominent a place in poetry,
in sculpture, in art! May it not be, even as expressed
among barbarous men, a foreshadowing of what is to
be in the time to come? See how, in art, Civilization,
Virtue, Love, Liberty, have taken the female form in
their expression. It is as woman that these shine
from the canvas, or speak from the marble. See how
the genius of the artist recognizes the feminine principle of life. It is as woman that he would personify
this, not as the rough, strong man. It is woman that
treads upon the serpent of evil; that breaks the chains
of cruel power; that arms herself, not with the sword,
but with the palm-branch-the sceptre, as it is the
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ADDRESS AT NORTH GRANVILLE N. Y.
weapon of peace. She fills the earth with plenty.
She covers the sea with the white sails of commerce.
She teaches the world of men the science and the art
of human life. Is this accidental, this almost involuntary personification, in a female form, of the virtues, the
best powers, and the great principles of human progress?  In the ways of Providence, nothing is accidental, and it is a significant evidence of the power,
which belongs to the truth, of breaking through all the
errors and prejudices of men, and making, as it were,
an unconscious manifestation of its presence. Let us
accept it as the assurance of a position to woman, as
the equal and companion of man; as his instructor
even, in the graces of life; as his director in paths of
wisdom; as his friend and teacher in the ways of truth
and peace. The age of freedom has dawned upon the
world. It is well that it is an age of Christian freedom.
It is woman's privilege, that in our day, the position
which I claim for her under Christianity, is becoming
so fully recognized. So much light has been shed upon
all the subjects connected with human welfare, as to
preclude the idea that, however tenacious the opinions
of the past may be in retaining their hold upon the
public mind, there can ever be a return to those opinions. To-day, in our own land, beneath these over.
arching skies which are the dome of God's great
Temple, we rejoice to feel that God's great truth can
not be stayed in its progress, and that what he has
said, and what Christ has declared, and what the saint          20 *
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liest lives have borne witness to, can not be falsified by
feeble prejudice and foolish pride!  Not to one sex
alone belongs the privilege of culture, and the opportunity of work. Human nature is the same in both
sexes. The same human heart beats within the breasts
of both alike. The same human wants need supply.
The same human weakness needs strength. The same
human infirmities call for help. Not that I would be
understood as saying that there is no difference in the
mental and spiritual organization of both, and no difference in the line of work. The very distinction
which we make, in the terms manly and womanly, as
applied to character, would forbid such a statement.
But, while we make a difference, we are not therefore
necessitated to deny an equality. Because man may
be fitted to do one kind of work, and woman another,
it does not follow that man's work is better, though it
may be of a rougher and more practical kind. The
feeble and more ideal and more spiritual is as much
needed, and the soul of an action must give that action
life. The outward life is the form; the inward the
substance. Is it not a better philosophy to believe
that each sex is dependent to some extent upon the
other, and that it is by mutual help, that both are
benefited?   Both have been placed here to labor for
each other's good, and the labor is best performed, not
by dividing, but by uniting it.
Standing, then, equal with man, and possessing equal
privilege, what are the demands of woman? The lan
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ADDRESS AT NORTH GRANVILLE, N. Y.
guage which we use respecting her suggests the demands which she has to make. We speak of her as
the ornament, the genius, the presiding, animating,
enlivening spirit of Home. There she is the equal, the
companion of man. As the motive power of that
simple, underlying, yet strongest force of our civilization, she claims to be educated for that position, that
she may best and most effectually exercise that power.
It is not too much to say, that the civilization of a
people is determined by the character of that people's
homes. Look over our own land. Trace the influence
of Home life, as it runs in every direction over the
country. See how our own blest and beloved NewEngland owes her prosperity, her virtue, her intelligence, her high-toned, wide-spread power to the homes
of her children! What missionaries of truth and wisdom over all the land -over all the world indeedhave gone out from their midst to carry with them the
spirit that breathes through a New-England home.
Never could New-England be what she is, were it not
for the purity and love that find a dwelling-place upon
her soil. That soil is sterile, the climate is unsteady,
the way of life is hedged and filled with difficulty; but
beneath an unpropitious sky, and in contention with
hostile elements, have been reared the men and women
that have made a community famous over all the
globe. The old Puritan, stern and harsh though he
may be called by his more pliant descendants, narrow
even and mistaken though he may be thought, had
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still that far-sighted wisdom, and that sagacious virtue,
which told him -for our lasting good-that a mighty
empire could only be built securely, by having for the
corner-stone of its foundation, a true and Christian
Home!
It is but a truism to say, that woman does most to ward making home what it should be. It is easy to
conceive how great an influence was created upon the
subsequent history of New-England, by the simple
fact that the early settlers brought with them their
wives and children. And certainly, to preserve this
empire which they have bequeathed to us; to send
down, unimpaired and undiminished, to future generations, the blessings that have been sent to us, there is
needed the utmost fidelity to the principles which produced them. And thus we arrive at a knowledge of
the importance which a proper female education possesses, as a preserving and directing force in our civilization. Pretentious and superficial influences are not
always the strongest. There is a power working underneath the surface, which may be secret and hid
away, but which, after all, is the very soul and spirit of
our social and national life. We have been startled,
during the past year, with the occurrenee of domestic
tragedies whose frequency is without a parallel in our
history, and may well fill us with alarm. Mlay we not
trace a great portion of the crime which has the
widest results of injury to all that is best in our
American society, to a complete misunderstanding or
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a willful and wanton perversion of those most sacred
obligations which bind the family together? We must
look well to the character of our homes-to the education to which we subject ourselves- to the education
which we give to those whose privilege it may be to
be at once the charm, the blessing, and the bulwark of
defense to domestic life. Woman demands a home
education, first of all, which shall be thorough and
complete, neglecting no detail of useful work, even
though it be accompanied with some feeling of disgust; neglecting also nothing which tends to the
adornment and the conmfort - neglecting, moreover,
nothing that tends to the moral and religious discipline of the household. Woman is to be at home, not
her husband's servant, but her husband's companion.
The fireside is to be the brighter because of her presence there.  3lusic and art are to blend their charms
to soothe the weary hours. The cultivation of the
mind is to diffuse its agreeable and refining influence.
While affection, confidence and purity -that culture
of the spiritual nature, without which all other accomplishments are vain- are to consecrate every hour of
mutual intercourse, and fill the day with blessing!
How  beautiful the communion of mind  and heart
within the circle of a true and happy home! With
pure souls and gifted minds, words inspired with intelligence and winged with love, the interchange of
thought and feeling may be made the source of the
very highest good beneath the skies, because its source,
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in turn, is above the skies. Listen to Cowper, as he
sweetly sings of that rare happiness, which there is in
meeting with the excellence of a pure and true soul:
"When one, that holds communion with the skies,
IHs filled his urn where these pure waters rise,
And once more mingles with us meaner things,
'T is e'en as if an angel shook his wings!
Immortal fragrance fills the circuit wide,
That tells us, whence his treasures are supplied.
So, when a ship, well freighted with the stores,
The sun matures on India's spicy shores,
Has dropped her anchor and her canvas furled,
In some safe haven of this western world,
'T were vain inquiry to what port she went -
The gale informs us, laden with the scent!"
There are minor matters which belong to this important part of woman's education, but which I can
not dwell upon at this time. Such are habits of personal neatness - the proper treatment of servants - a
practical knowledge of housekeeping- as thorough an
acquaintance with the direction of the kitchen, as a
completeness in the ease and grace which adorn the
drawing-room and parlor, and the like. I speak of
them as minor matters. But I would not thus in any
way disparage their importance. They are important,
far more so than we are aware. A neglect of them is
a source of much of the unhappiness and discord of
home. Nay, it may lead to other and worse results
yet, and be the means of much evil and perhaps down
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right vice. That mistress of a household, who is not
thoroughly cognizant of what is called housekeeping,
will find many a bitter trial for herself and her family.
She is wholly at the mercy of her servants, if servants
she is able to have. She is unable and incompetent to
manage her household work, and becomes a mere
drudge, if servants she has none. The romance of
early wedded life is able to pardon many short-comings and overlook many faults, but it gradually yields
to such influence. An ill-kept table, untimely meals
and poorly cooked food, are as fatal to sentiment as to
digestion. And it is extremely difficult to discover the
angel of courtship, in the unkept hair and the slatternly
dress of the wife.   The slightest things oftentimes
give rise to serious trouble, and the most pernicious
habits may grow out of such small matters as these.
They have a reflex influence upon character. Many a
home has been blighted, and many a man and woman
made wretched for a lifetime, on account of neglect in
the little things which make up so large a portion of
our lives.
" It is an error to suppose that homely minds are the
best administrators of small duties." As it requires
Divine power to raise out of the ground the humble
spire of grass, as well as to lift the mountain's sublime
and awful head; as it is the same Divine art that tints
the delicate hues of the flower, and paints the glories
of the skies; so it requires a genuine, manly and womanly power of soul to insure fidelity to the common
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things of life, and the humblest offices may be beautified
by the influence of love, truth and faith.   I think
a proper home education takes into account every thing
which is connected with the benefit of all who are in
that home; to make the man more manly, the woman
more womanly, the children more like what the Saviour
meant when he said, "Of such is the kingdom of
Heaven;" to build up in all that complete independence
of character which is the assurance of faithfulness in
all the duties of life.  Goethe once said: "The excellent
woman is she, who, if the husband dies, can be a father
to the children." There is a great deal of truth in the
remark, as showing how much true self-reliance and
thoroughness in the accomplishments of character, are
needed in woman's life, as well as that of man.
Notwithstanding the acknowledged importance of
iHome, I still think it is a grave error in any one
to feel that the chief end of a woman's life is to be
married.  Marriage is not an absolute necessity of nature, and one may be a good and true woman without
it. There is such a thing as self-support and self-protection, and that consciousness of helplessness and dependence which leads one to seek in marriage the only
supposable means of development, is evermore to be
guarded against. Certainly, that mode of speaking,
prevalent among young and old, of marriage as taking
a young girl "out of the market," or of single life as
being still "in the market,"' as though woman was a
subject of sale, is open to the severest reprehension.
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"I would have woman," writes one, who had thought
long and deeply on the character of her sex, " lay aside
all thought such as she habitually cherishes, of being
taught and led by men. I would have her, like the
Indian girl, dedicate herself to the Sun of Truth, and
go no where, if his beams did not make clear the path.
I would have her free from compromise, from complaisance, from helplessness, because I would have her
good enough, and strong enough to love one and all
beings from the fullness, not the poverty of her being."
There was something more than a jest in Sidney
Smith's wish, that his daughter might be born with but
one eye, so that he might always be sure of keeping
her in his own home.
And here, I can not refrain from putting in my protest against the reproach that is too often cast upon
unmarried life. "Old Maid" - what a term that is
upon the lips of many persons of both sexes -let us
hope thoughtlessly, rather than heartlessly uttered! 
Yet I ask any man or woman of you all, to-day, to
recall the list of your friends and acquaintances, and
see if you do not find among those whom you esteem
most highly, who are ornaments to their sex for their
unobtrusive goodness and kindly nature, and to whom
you would soonest go for counsel and consolation in
times of difficulty and grief, these same unmarried women, whom the unthinking and unfeeling are so ready
to deride? Do you remember a maiden aunt, or sister,
whose  hand was the softest, and whose touch the gen
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tiest, in hours of pain and sickness, whose voice had
the sweetest tones for you, and whose love you were
most sure of, when other friendships had been broken,
and selfishness or death had quenched the affections of
other hearts? Do you remember a maiden friend,
whose path was marked by quiet deeds of modest
worth -
"Unpublished charity -unbroken faith -
Love that midst grief began,
And grew with years, and faltered not with death?"
In what happy contrast does such a life as this stand
to many a married life, where disgust is not latent,
where strife is not unknown, and where regard and
love have long been strangers! Better far a single life,
than a false and miserable marriage.  Independence,
even with poverty, is better than dependence with the
comforts of wealth, and the unhappiness of a soulless
Home!
Woman's position at the present day demands a
suitable education for society. I do not mean by this
an education for social intercourse, so much as for social
life. Though in the first respect, certainly, a proper
education is needed. Woman is the leader in social
intercourse, and she can make it what she chooses
Let her carry into the social circle graceful, easy manners, acquired not so much by'rule, as by a gentle,
loving demeanor at home and in private; a cultivated
mind, a sincere heart, a righteous principle, and that
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ADDRESS AT NORTH GRANVILLE, N. Y.
genuine politeness which grows out of a pure and womanly character. A brilliant woman will always be
the centre of a circle of admirers, even though she be
unprincipled and heartless. A virtuous, intelligent,
true woman can always attract-what is better than
admiration- respect and regard, and can always exert
a strong influence for good. Who would think of indulging in falsehood by her side?  Who would willingly
encourage folly before her? Who would countenance
wrong in her presence?  Who would talk nonsense to
her? The very thought of such things could not abide,
when she is near.  Better impulses, purer thoughts,
nobler feelings, fill the mind and heart, and society -
using the term in its limited sense- would be the
richer for her truthful life.
But a woman's duties to society are something more
than those which belong to the social circle. Beyond
that circle; beyond the home walls; beyond the world
of fashion is another life, which asks for woman's presence to beautify and bless it. Every social evil affects
woman most of all, and woman most of all should be
interested in its removal.  Home and the social circle
affords no surer protection from its influences. True
it is, that whatever distinction we may make between
different classes of society, between rich and poor, be-'
tween the lofty and the lowly, we have but one human
nature; we are all joined to each other and dependent
upon each other; the highest allied with the humblest;
the richest with the poorest; the most powerful with
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the weakest; the most famous with the most obscure.
And this fact of mutual dependence and mutual connection inculcates the duty of mutual help. No young
woman ever " comes out," as the phrase is, in its true
sense, or is fit to "come out," till she has learned that
love and charity, and benevolence, are womanly accomplishmnents, as well as Christian duties!
I have said that social evils fall heaviest, in their results of woe, upon woman. She is the victim of the
brutal appetite of the drunkard; of the cruel lust of
the slave owner; of the inhuman passions aroused by
war. Certainly, if the greatest suffering demands the
greatest interest, woman, most of all, must aid in the
alleviation or removal of the woes of life.  She may
not, indeed, wish to enter into the grim conflict with
evil, but she may have a duty to perform to those who
lie wounded upon the field of battle. And not only after,
but before the battle, she has the privilege to inspirit
and cheer on the combatants. You remember the women of our revolution. What privations they enidured!
What hardships they suffered! What important services they performed in behalf of the great cause of
national liberty!  Even the musket itself was not
wholly a stranger to their hands! You remember how
they sent out the husband, brother, father, friend, into
the dread strife, and you can judge with how much
better bravery that strife could be carried on, when
the stimulus of the remembrance of loved ones at
home lent vigor to the arm. How think you a coward
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ADDRESS AT NORTH GRANVILLE, N. Y.
or a traitor would have been received in those patriot
homes? And has woman nothing now to do in this
great revolution which is carried on in hehalf of liberty and human weal? May she not make men feel
that they now have homes to defend?  May she not
now make men heroes for truth, freedom, righteousness, justice? Let no mean coward or false traitor
now find favor at her hands!
I feel that I ought, before closing this address, to say
a word or two in relation to that great question of
modern civilization, the occupations of woman. There
can be no doubt that it is a very serious matter, affecting all the interests of social life, to determine what
shall be the employments of women, and how they
shall best be fitted for carrying them forward. It
reaches down into the depth of all social life, and affects
as no other subject can, the whole substance of our civilized state. I do not think we do wisely, when we
allow prejudice, or any pre-conceived notion, to decide
such a question as tnis for us. It demands careful
thought, and the most enlightened and candid consideration. Certainly, woman, as well as man, should
have freedom of choice in her selection of an occupation, and be debarred from it by no rule or custom.
Even in professional and in the higher walks of literary
life, she has shown her ability to acquire equal honors
with man. We are glad to accept her services as
teacher. We have seen how successful she may be,
in any line of work in which she may engage. Even
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as a sailor, as is abundantly shown in the recent heroic
instance of Mfrs. Patten, she has proved successful in
encountering the roughness of the elements, and the
insubordination of rude and reckless men, with a fortitude full of the spirit of true manliness, yet without
any derogation of womanly dignity. As a ruler, she
has left many an illustrious record in the history of the
race! As a writer, she has had few equals. As a
scholar, she has exhibited unwonted genius. The best
Universities in Italy, in the fifteenth century, were
proud to enroll among their professors, and to load with
academic honors, the learned women of the time. The
scientific world acknowledges its indebtedness to her
power of acute perception and accurate description.
She has stood at the bed-side of the sick and dying as
nurse and as physician too, and by her kind and careful
treatment has smoothed the way of many a weary
hour of pain; while, as the teacher of religion, she has
brought the consolations and strengthening precepts
of the Gospel to aid the tempted, to encourage the
harassed and doubting, and to solace the heart worn
with the cares and troubles of life.
"Day unto day her dainty hands
Make life's soiled temples clean,
And there's a wake of glory where
Her spirit pure hath been.
At midnight through that shadow land,
IHer loving face doth gleam:
The dying kiss her shadow, and
The dead smile in their dream."
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I think we should pursue toward woman, in this instance, as in every other, the most respectful and the
most geneeous course.  Allowing her freely to choose
the occupation which best suits her capacity, her inclination and her convenience, if it be an honest and
honorable one, we would encourage her in it, to be
faithful. Believing that the enlargement of her sphere
of action will be for the improvement of her character,
and, indeed, of all social life, we would demand for her
a more regardful estimation. We have no right to
sneer and ridicule her ways of life, if they are good,
for sneers and ridicule are cowardly and unmanly.
Let woman choose her occupation as she will, and let
her be encouraged to success in it. This is what a true
man would always say.  But, whether we say it or
not, woman will generally have her own way. There
is a great deal of significance in the old, homely couplet:
"When a woman will, she will, you may depend on't;
And when she won't, she won't -and there's the end of't."
Let us accept its truth, and make the best of it!
Ladies and gentlemen, the subject extends itself in
such various directions, and over so wide a field of
thought and discussion, that I have hardly been able
to do more than offer a few imperfect suggestions. So
intimate a connection has it with all social welfare, as
to demand the most thorough examination, and while
I could not hope to exhaust it, I still desired to present
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it to your attention. I leave it now to your own reflections.  The position of woman, rightfully considered, is so noble, her influence so powerful, her work
so wide, her duties so commanding, as to demand for
herself and them the most faithful consideration. This
institution, with all its advantages for moral, social,
and literary culture, attests the appreciation in which
you hold the subject of the development of womanly
character and mind.  May it long remain a monument
to the beneficence of its founders, and disseminate, far
and wide, the blessings of sound instruction, good
morals, and religious life!
Young Women, accept the position which I have
held up before you, and improve the means which here
are offered for educating yourselves, to work upon human life to the very best advantage for yourselves and
others.  Look out upon the world.  Life is somewhat
more than a scene of gay frivolity and fashionable display. It is a scene on which the purest virtues, and
the noblest accomplishments of character may find
their theatre of action. To beautify Home, to purify
Social Life, to exert a humanizing and elevating influence upon all our Civilization-this is now your work.
When you leave school walls behind you, your education is by no means finished. All along your way of
life, you will find schools and schoolmasters, and from
every hour's experience shall come lessons of renewed
instruction, and encouragements to renewed fidelity.
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Let there come wvi tli them, too, mingling with every
event of life, and
"Blending the soul's sublimest needs
With tasks of every day,"
the lessons and influences of a true religion. Let its
spirit pervade the life, like the warm breezes of Spring
upon the earth, entering every nook and cranny of the
soul-mine'ting the ice which selfishness freezes around
the hbeart -softening every harsh feature of the character with its gentle touch- breathing through the
whole soul its fresh and genial airs. A pure religion,
whien it ei ters into a man's soul, makes him a hero in
duty - when it enters a woman's, it makes her a saint
in life.  There is heroism in saintliness -heroism of
the brightest kind.  The pages of Christian History
have no more illustrious examples of self-devotion,
than were exhibited by the female martyrs of the
Church! What higher heroism can there be than that
which had for its scene of action the hospitals of the
East, and, still more recently, the plagule-stricken cities
of the South?  What higher heroism can there be
than that which shows itself in patiently suffering, in
bravely working for human good, and in that sublime
self-sacrifice which may glorify each humblest woman's
heart? The noblest ladies of Europe are proud to
bear the name of Sisters of Charity and Mercy. But
there is a nobler name still -and that is possible to
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achieve by every youthful maiden now before me,
which in its satisfying influence, will make life all
beautiful and rich -the name of CHRISTIAN WOMAN!
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E R R A T A.
Theater and center when they occur, should be theatre and centre.
Page 45. 17th line from top, insert evils after those.
Page  56.  4th line from bottom, read strong for they, and is for be.
Page  68.  10th line from bottom, insert our after carry.
Page  69.  3d line from top, read as for or.
Page 162. Last line, read feet for foot.
Page 170. 5th line from bottom, read free for true.
Page 190. 14th line from bottom, read his for their.
Page 195. 13th line from bottom, read there for then.
Page 197.  13th line from bottom, read school-man for school-room.
Page 239.  13th line from top, read unkempt for unkept.