Ethics of Success ...

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Introduction

The great object of life is the formation of right character, and the time to do the shaping and moulding is in childhood and youth. Next to the parent, the teacher has the greatest opportunity and influence for character building. We need, therefore, in every schoolroom men and women of the highest moral purposes ; and it is one of the hopeful signs of the hour that school boards are laying emphasis more and more at this point. But teachers are hindered in their work most seriously unless they have the text-books which speak of those things which are noblest and best.

It is for this reason that we so heartily commend '* Ethics of Success," which, like all of Mr. Thayer's books, holds up to the youthful mind the highest ideals.

Any new book which comes to the public has a right, like any individual, to be fairly introduced to the public by its friends. This new reader, for the grammar or middle grades in our schools, is prepared on the same general line with the author's reader for the high schools, which met with such a hearty reception from our best educators a few months ago. It has new incidents and facts, and is enriched by the introduction of standard poems from the most celebrated authora. Nor has the value of pictorial b ETHICS OF SUCCESS.

illustrations, for the class for whom it is especially prepared, been forgotten. One of its peculiar charms is its anecdotes from real life. The child mind unaided too often forgets the most important truths when put in the abstract ; they not only have a new meaning, but are remembered, when given to him clad in flesh and blood.

Into the life of many a poor boy and girl, this book will come as an inspiration ; while to those whose early years have been spent in comfort and possibly in luxury, it will show what true success is. Not money, or fame, or power, but character is the final test of life. "It is not what a man has but what he is that makes the man."

Touching thus these highest truths which should be the warp and woof of every life, and doing it in an attractive manner, this last book of Mr. Thayer's should receive a generous reception. It is worthy of the man and his theme.

SAMUEL B. CAPEN.

Boston, March 31, 1894.

Contents

PAGE.

I. Who Wins? 11

II. Story from Real Life 16

II. Story From Real Life

A FORTUNE is the ideal of success with many youths. They read of poor boys going to New York or Boston, London or Paris, and finally becoming the millionnaires of those cities. They can buy every luxury and worldly pleasure there is ; and they are honored far more than many of the best men who ever lived. It is not strange, in these circumstances, that boys especially should conclude that wealth is the greatest thing to be sought for. They believe that to be rich is to be happy and respected, and so they want to be rich. Thus deluded, many enter the race for riches without regard for anything else.

The following story of two brothers will show, by contrast, how erroneous and misleading such ideas are. And this is only one of thousands of kindred

STORY FROM REA.L LIFE. 17

facts that might be adduced to prove that accumulating a fortune may prove the greatest failure.

Two brothers were left five hundred dollars each by their deceased father. " I will take this money and make myself a rich man," said Henry. He believed that wealth was the greatest thing on earth. " I will take this money and make myself a good man," said George, the elder. Henry, though having but little education, ceased going to school, and entered the world of traffic. He was quick-witted, shrewd, and willing to work hard for money. At the end of a year he had one thousand dollars. In five years he was worth twenty thousand dollars; and at fifty he was called a millionnaire.

George did not believe that success is getting money. He knew there was something better than wealth, and he looked for it. He spent two thirds of his money in going to school, before taking up his chosen occupation. Then he purchased a few acres of lg,nd near a thriving city, and became a farmer.

After the lapse of about forty years, the two brothers met at George's house. George was a vigorous, alert, handsome man, the very picture of health and happiness, though nearly sixty years of age, Henry was nervous, thin, and infirm, and walked like an old man, though several years younger than George. In his race for riches, he had completely broken down. On the other hand, George was as sound and hearty as he was at twenty-one.

They went into the library, where George spent all his leisure tims. Henry had no more interest in the books than in so many stones ; he had no taste for reading. They went into the garden. Henry began to cough, and said he was afraid of the east wind. George called his attention to some beautiful Bhade trees ; but Henry only answered, " Pshaw ! " They visited the greenhouse ; Henry remarked, " I don't care much for these things." " Are you fond of paintings and engravings ? " inquired George. "No, no," replied Heniy ; "I can't tell one daub from another." " Well, you must hear my daughter Edith play on the piano I " " Oh, don't, brother, don't ; I never could endure music." " But what can I do to interest you ? " continued George, almost in despair ; " shall we take a ride ? " After a silence of a few moments, Henry answered, "If you please, you may take me down to the bank, and I will have a chat with the president." George was glad to take him there.

Here was a man who had given his life to moneymaking, and he was nothing but a wreck. His body was shattered, and his mind, too ; and he could find no enjoyment in anything but the god he had worshipped — gold. He was not a bad man — he was known as a moral man. But he had made a grave mistake ; and he saw it when he contrasted his life with that of his brother; and he said, out of the depths of his disappointment : —

" George, you can just support youi-self comfortably with your income, and I have money enough to buy up your whole town, including the bank ; and yet your life is a success, and mine a dead failure."

UP AND DOING. 19

III. Up And Doing

This is a good motto for young people to adopt. It means about the same as Jesus meant when He said, " Whatsoever thy hands find to do, do it with thy might." Do not grovel. Do not delay. Do not lounge. Be up and doing. Work is something that ought to be done ; do it. Do it now^ while the day of labor is on. " Soon the night cometh when no man can work."

Many think that only the poor need to be up and doing — that the rich can sit and lounge at their pleasure. Not so. Our motto is everybody's motto. The millionnaire needs to put it in practice to keep his health and his money. The wealthiest man in our country was the busiest man of his time. He arose early and worked late. He had no time to visit or recreate. He was forced to use all of his time by day to be sure that his investments were safe. In every community, as a rule, the rich men are the busiest men. They have a score of irons in the fire, d-nd it keeps them on the alert to attend to all of them when hot. Many of them are never seen at the social gathering or the public lecture, because they are busy about their affairs. The well-to-do and the poor are there, many of them never stopping to think of the burdens of labor their rich neighbors are caiTying. They are " up and doing " all the time, except when night lures their tired selves to rest.

Cornelius Vanderbilt, who was the richest man in the United States when he died, went out into the world to seek his fortune at sixteen, with just one hundred dollars that he earned by hard work. When he died at eighty, he could say that he had made one million dollars for every year of his life. How did he do it ? By putting thought and work into every day of his life. He had no time for mere pleasure, not even time to read. Some one asked him, " What is the secret of your success ? " "Secret?" he replied. "There is no secret in it. All you have to do is to attend to your business and go ahead." That is, " be up and doing." Of course, Mr. Vanderbilt did not mean that native capacity for business and opportunity had nothing to do with his success ; for they had. But he meant that these could not have gained for him an immense fortune without attending to business and " going ahead."

At the age of eleven years, George Peabody, of Danvers, was obliged to leave school and home to serve in a grocery. His father was so poor a man that it was necessary for his children to earn a livelihood very early in life. For this reason, George entered the- grocer's service in his native town, and proved himself the right boy in the right place. He was very active, industrious, and persistent in serving his employer well. The latter learned to love and value him for his fidelity and gentlemanly bearing ; for he was as polite as he was faithful.

He remained four years in the grocery, and then removed to Thetford, Vt., and spent one year with

UP AND DOING. 21

his maternal grandfather. His energy, industry, and uprightness caused this aged relative to predict that the enterprising youth would become a distinguished man.

His brother David was the proprietor of a draper's shop in Newburyport, Mass., and needed George for his clerk. He went there with high hopes ; but the store was soon burned, and his hopes were dashed. He was thrown out of employment by this calamity, but he was not disheartened. Although he was an orphan at this time, without employment or money, he did not sit down and nurse his troubles. There was too much life and resolution in him for that. " Up and doing " was his motto, and soon after he was driving his uncle's business in Georgetown, District of Columbia.

Here his great activity and sterling character won for him a wide popularity, so that, at nineteen, a merchant of Georgetown, by the name of Riggs, invited him to become his partner in a remunerative business. From this time his signal success was assured, and in 1837 he became a banker in the city of London, England. At fifty years of age, his fame as a London banker of signal ability and honesty had spread over Europe and America. He lived plainly, practised the closest economy, dealt justly, and kept pushing onward and upward.

Mr. Peabody became one of the wealthiest men of his time ; and his noble character was worth more than his money. It was said of him, " with a private life above reproach, and a professional character dis-

HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW.

UP AND DOING. 23

tinguished even among the merchant princes of England, he had come to be pointed out, both at home and abroad, as the model of a man and a merchant."

He once said to a friend, " It has been my constant prayer to God for twenty years that I might accumulate a large sum of money to give in charity to the poor," and his prayer was answered. He amassed a fortune of nearly ten million dollars, and the poor of England and America received the lion's share of it. His life taught man how to make money and how to spend it, the latter lesson being the more important of the two.

A missionary's son remained in the Sandwich Islands in mercantile business, after his father's death and his mother's return to the United States. There came a time when his unprincipled partner cheated him out of his last dollar. In writing to his mother of his loss, he said, " I have good health, a good reputation, and sixty-seven cents in my pocket, — a good capital to begin business anew with." His mother concluded that a young man of such grit and force would work his own way to success. George Peabody, as we have seen, was once as badly off as the missionary's son, but he never despaired. Aroused by adversity to nobler deeds, he made his life illustrious, and became the wise benefactor of his race ; illustrating Longfellow's beautiful "Psalm of Life."

IV. A Psalm Of Life

What the Heart of the Young Man said to the Paalmiat

Tell me not, in mournful numbers,

" Life is but an empty dream ! "

For the soul is dead that slumbers.

And things are not what they seem.

Life is real I Life is earnest !

And the grave is not its goal ; " Dust thou art, to dust retumest,"

Was not spoken of the soul.

Not enjoyment and not sorrow,

Is our destined end or way ; But to act, that each to-morrow

Finds us further than to-day.

Art is long and time is fleeting,

And our hearts, though stout and brave,

Still, like muffled drums, are beating Funeral marches to the grave.

In the world's broad field of battle.

In the bivouac of life.

Be not like dumb, driven cattle !

Be a hero in the strife I

Trust no future, howe'er pleasant !

Let the dead past bury the dead ! Act, act in the living present !

Heart within and God o'erhead !

Bt;S7 HANDS* 25

Lives of great men all remind us We can make our lives sublime,

And, departing, leave behind us Footprints on the sands of time :

Footprints that perhaps another.

A forlorn and shipwrecked brother, Seeing, shall take heart again.

Let us, then, be up and doing.

With a heart for any fate ;

Still achieving, still pursuing, Learn to labor and to wait.

BUSY HANDS.

An old fable tells us that a dying father said to his sons, " My children, I am now departing from this life, and all that I have to leave you will find in the vineyard." Supposing that he had buried the treasure there, the sons proceeded to dig for it. Day after day they labored with a diligence never shown before, until they had turned over the soil in all the vineyard, but without finding the fortune. Each day they were stimulated to continue by the thought that, although unsuccessful to-day, to-morrow would uncover the treasure. But no wealth was found.

Their father's lesson, however, was learned. The thorough work performed, digging, digging, digging, improved the vines wonderfully, so that they yielded fruit as never before, and the vineyard became their fortune. We imagine thjvt the sons belonged to that class of shiftless boys who dread labor, and really believe that it is not a blessing to be obliged to work. Their father understood that they needed to know the value of industry, and he improved the last chance of his life to teach them its worth.

Many people deceive themselves in the same way. To live without work appears to them the greatest thing on earth. They labor because they must, or starve. They never stop to think that " busy hands " are the only hands that prosper anywhere. Strange as it is, they set a higher value upon idleness, which they may call by some other name, than they do upon industry. Scores of this class never see their mistake until they become paupers or criminals. If it cost hard work to obtain water, as it does to obtain bread, lazy people would choke to death.

" The sleep of a laboring man is sweet." The highest authority says this. Industry promotes health, so that the toiler feels strong and vigorous, and when he retires at night, after a busy day's work, his sleep is sweet. He awakes in the morning refreshed, and cheerily begins another day's labor, " whistling as he goes."

" He that tilleth his land shall be satisfied with bread." The same high authority states this truth. If he will not work for his bread he will go hungry for the want of it. Industry is not only the great bread-winner, but it produces all the wealth of the world. Busy hands make riches.

BUSY HANDS. 27

" The hand of the diligent shall bear rule." Here it is again, on the authority of the Bible, the industrious man " shall bear rule." That is, he will be honored. People will look up to him with respect and confidence. On the other hand, the lazy person is not respected ; he is despised. No one wants him around. His room is better than his company.

There was an old Roman, by the name of Cresinus, who would harvest larger and better crops than any other farmer in the empire. People wondered how it was done, and there was great excitement over his success. At length he was accused of sorcery by a man who could not understand how he could produce so large crops by legitimate means. He was brought into court for trial. Cresinus met the charge by displaying his fine implements of husbandry, his wellfed oxen, and his robust, rosy-cheeked daughter, saying, as he pointed to them, " These, Romans, are my instruments of witchcmft, but I cannot here show you my labors, sweats, and anxious cares." The mystery of his success was solved. The neighbors had mistaken industry for sorcery.

Benjamin Franklin was a busy boy, because his father sought to establish him in industrious habits by wise counsels and plenty to do. It became second nature to him to work. He disliked to dip candles, and yet he continued to do it so long as his father required, because obedience was as prominent a virtue with him as industry. When he learned the printer's trade, every moment was sacredly employed. Out of working hours he was poring over books and istoring his mind with useful knowledge. The older he grew the more careful and resolute he became to improve every moment. Work was a pleasure to him. He never wasted time in wishing he could live an easylife ; he had too much wisdom to indulge in such dreams. Out of his own experience in a busy life grew those useful maxims that he penned for the entertainment and profit of the ages. Some of them are as follows : —

" Sloth, like rust, consumes faster than labor wears, while the used key is always bright." " The sleeping fox catches no poultry." " Sloth makes all things difficult, but industry all

" He that riseth late must trot all day, and shall scarce overtake his business at night, while laziness travels so slowly that poverty soon overtakes him."

" He that hath a trade hath an estate ; and he that hath a calling hath an office of profit and honor."

" At the workirigman's house hunger looks in, but dares not enter."

Louis XIV. of France was not trained in industrious habits. There was no special need of it, his guardians thought, since he was to live a king. They forgot that God requires kings to labor in their way as really as their subjects. The consequence was that he was uncultured, ignorant, and inefficient when he came to his throne. He found himself handicapped on every hand. He knew nothing about the work of king o't subject, and, in the midst of his embarrassment he cried out, " Why was I not educated

WORK OB PLAY. 29

in these things in my youth ? " On being told that he was an obstinate child, unwilling to study or work, he responded, " Was there not birch enough in the forests of Fontainebleau ? "

The great men of our land, without exdeption, have been industrious. Washington, Jefferson, Jay, Roger Sherman, Jackson, Clay, Lincoln, Garfield, and a host of others from their earliest boyhood were drilled in work, thereby sharpening their intellects and developing their ability and manhood for the duties of public life.

VI. Work Or Play

It is quite time that the question whether boys and girls shall work or ' play was settled. Many of them believe that childhood and youth should be given to play — that work is for men and women. Not a few parents entertain the same opinion, and so plan for sons and daughters on that basis. It is not strange, in these circumstances, that so many young people count on play instead of work.

But there is no reason why our youth should not work. We do not mean on the farm, in the shop or store, or in the mill, as they will later on ; for youth is the springtime of life, when school and home duties make large demands. But the good scholar works ; and hard work it is that he does, leaving only a fraction of his time for play. The obedient son works about his home, doing chores, milking, taking care of horses and cattle, and performing a variety of errands. The true daughter works, also, assisting her mother to keep the house neat and tidy, sewing, sweeping, dusting, washing dishes, and taking care of her own wardrobe. This is work — necessary, honorable work. She works in the schoolroom, too, if she has a creditable ambition to excel. There is nothing valuable for young people to acquire that can be had without earnest work. Play will not do it.

For this reason, neither old nor young should think for a moment that youth is the time for play instead of work. If " all play and no work makes Jack a dull boy " be true, then work should have its place. And this truth becomes more important when we consider that the lazy, idle, shiftless boy makes a poor apology for a man. All play is the worst sort of idleness, and idleness is always and everyivhere a curse. Play, or recreation, must have a place, both in early and later life, but it is not the first place by any means. Work is the rule, play the exception.

A glance at the life-sketches in this Reader will show that successful men and women were workers in their youth. The work-habit was established in early life, just as other good habits are formed. They never believe that youth should be given to play, but to work, — school- work, home-work, brainwork, hand-work. To them youth was the golden opportunity to prepare for manhood and womanhood, which work, and not play, alone can do.

WORK OR PLAY. 31

Benjamin Thompson, known in history as Count Rumford, was born in Woburn, Mass., in 1753. He was a brilliant boy, and at ten years of age had advanced as far in his studies as the worthy schoolmaster could guide him. In consequence, he was sent elsewhere for private instruction. He studied hard, not only in school, but out of school. He had absolutely no time for play.

At sixteen he became a business man's clerk in Salem, where he devoted himself closely to his work during business hours, and studied as hard as ever during every spare moment he could snatch, day or evening. When, subsequently, he lost his place, on account of financial depression, he spent no time in idle dreaming or sport, but attended lectures at Harvard College, pursued astronomy and other sciences at home, and thus laid the foundation of his fame as a thinker, statesman, scientist, and philanthropist in this country and Europe.

He won because he did not believe that youth is the time for play instead of work. A harder working boy never lived, and a more industrious man was never known. It wag said of him in manhood, " So confirmed was he in habits of industry and method that it was impossible to tear him from his task.-'

Cleopatra was a renowned queen of Egypt, with gold, silver, gems, pleasure^ and power at her command. She was reared in play and pleasure, and her womanhood bore the fruits of that mistake. On one occasion, she dissolved a jewel worth three hundred and seventy-five dollars, and drank it to the health of Mark Antony. She would never have been guilty of so foolish an act had she not given her youth to play instead of work.

Not so with Cornelia, a Roman lady of fortune and learning. She was trained in industrious habits in childhood and youth, and, in her royal womanhood, devoted herself to the daily duties of her household with as much care and tireless interest as the humblest mother in the realm. A lady of the nobility called upon her and asked to see her jewels. Cornelia presented her children, saying, " The9e are myjeweU " — a rebuke that the " Lady of Campania," whose idea of gems, diamonds, and bracelets was the play-side of life, must have felt keenly. Rollin says of these two Roman women, " We need only examine our own thoughts in relation to these two ladies, to find out how far superior is the noble industry and simplicity of the one to the idle life and vain magnificence of the other."

VII. Keep Your Eyes Open

Db. Alcott, the celebrated author of a former generation, was wont to address young people, as well as to write books for them. One of his frequent remarks was " keep your eyes open " ; by which he meant, be on the alert to observe things ; cultivate the faculty of observation. Once he asked a school how many pillars supported the front

KEEP YOUR EYES OPEN. 83

of the building in which they were, and not one could answer. They had been in ,and out of the building week after week, without noticing the number of pillars. " If you had kept your eyes open, you could have told," he said. In other words, they were not observing.

The mind sees in the observation to which Dr. Alcott referred. When Brunei noticed how the ship-worm perforated the timbei-s with its armed head, he saw at once how he might tunnel the River Thames. Other men had seen the ship-worm work, but they did not learn therefrom how to tunnel a river. It was because they saw only with their eyes ; their thoughts were not there. A Massachusetts soldier was in the South, during the late Civil War, and he caught a rice-bird one day. On examining its bill carefully, he learned how it hulled rice so rapidly ; and it suggested to him a rice-hulling machine, which he invented at the close of the war. A young roan, who had studied agricultural chemistry, including mineralogy, was travelling in Maine. In a certain locality he noticed bricks of a peculiar color. Why this color? he inquired of himself. He traced them to the clay-bed that furnished the material, and became satisfied that there was great value in that land. He bought the farm for fifteen hundred dollars, and, subsequently, sold half of it in Boston for four thousand.

Here was close observation, in which the mind figured more than the eyes. The intellect was on the alert to know the reason of what is seen. The

ETHICS OF SUCCESS.

WATT AND THE TEAKETTLE.

whys and wherefores reveal themselves to sharp observers, as in the incidents narrated. Many of the greatest achievements in history are due to their authors' keen observation. With some, it

KEEP YOUR EYES OPEN. . 85

is a natural gift ; with others, it is acquired. It is well worth cultivating, as it certainly may be, because it is needed everywhere and by everybody. A good stock of it in some successful men has been mistaken for genius.

The want of this quality exposes one to various evils. Without it, the reader of books is superficial, and the scholar gets little good, comparatively, out of hLs lessons. The traveller pays little or no attention to the landscape, farms, flocks, and crops on his journey. The purchaser overlooks defects in the cloth or carpet he buys. And the young person, blind to the tendency of acts, is lured into vice. Observation is indispensable at all these and kindred points ; and only an active, bright mind possesses it in a good degree. It cannot dwell with dulness and ignorance. Discipline of the head and heart brings it to the front.