Every man is the architect of his own fortune.
energy to serve me. I soon felt the excellence of the
practice; it penetrated through my entire moral
system; I cherished it, and made a point of every-
thing I was active, brisk, and animated in all things
that I did, even to the picking up of a glove, or
asking the time of day. If I ever felt the approach
of the insidious languor,
even in the slightest degree,
I at once said to myself, "In the next quarter of an
hour I will do such a thing," and, presto! it was done,
and much more into the bargain; my mind was set
in motion, my spirits stirred and quickened, and
raised to their proper level. I watched the cloud,
and dissipated it at its first gathering, weil knowing
that, if it could grow but to the size of a man's hand,
it would spread out everywhere, and darken my whole
Oh, that this example might be as profitable to others as the practice has been to myself! How rich would be the reward of this book, if its readers would but take to heart this one article; if the simple truths that it here speaks could prompt them to take their happiness into their own hands, and learn the value of industry, not from what they may have heard of it, but because they have themselves discovered and experienced! In the first place, its direct and inevitable value, inasmuch as it quickens, and cheers, and gladdens every moment that it occupies, and keeps off the evil one, by repelling him at the outposts,
Prudence will thrive where genius will starve.
Little by little one goes far.
instead of admitting him to a .doubtful, perhaps
a deadly, struggle within the citadel; and, again,
its more remote but no less certain value, as the
mother of many virtues, when it has once grown
into the temper of the mind; and the nursing-
mother of many more. And if we gain so much
by its entertainment, how much more must we not
lose by its neglect ?
Our vexations are annoying to us; the disappoint-
ments of life are grievous, its calamities deplorable,
its indulgences and lusts sinful; but our idleness
is worse than all these-more painful, more hateful,
and, in the amount of its consequences, if not in
its very essence, more sinful than even sin itself—
just as the trunk of the tree is more fruitful than
any of the branches which spring from it. In fine,
do what you will, only do something, and that
something actively and energetically. Read, con-
verse, work, play, think, or study; the whole range
is open to you, only let your mind be full, or your
hands occupied, and you will want little or nothing
to complete your happiness.
From "Self-Formation," an American work.
Little winnings make a heavy purse.
The biggest horses are not the best travellers.
He that tholes, overcomes.
HERE is nothing possible to man which
industry and integrity will not accomplish.
The poor boy of yesterday-so poor that a
shilling was a miracle in his vision; houseless
and breadless; compelled to wander on foot.
from village to village, with his bundle on his
back, in order to procure labour and the means
of subsistence-has become the talented young man
to-day, by the power of his good right arm, and the
potent influence of his pure principles, firmly and
perpetually maintained. When poverty, and what
the world calls disgrace, stared him in the face, he
shuddered not, but pressed onward, and exulted in
high and honourable exertions in the midst of accu-
mulating disasters and calamities.
Let the young
man be cherished; for he honours his country, and
dignifies his race. Wealth! what cares he for that,
as long as his heart is pure, and his walk upright?
He knows, and his country knows, and his country
tells, that the little finger of an honest and upright
young man is worth more than the whole body of an
effeminate and dishonest rich man. These are the
men who make the country-who bring to it what-
ever of iron sinew and unfailing spirit it possesses or
desires.
When reeds brave the storm.
Who begins amiss, ends amiss.
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