The young man. Hints addressed to the young men of the United States

Front matter

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Chapter I. Introductory

Contents. — Anxiety of the Author. Reflections of manhood,— solemn. Why write a new book for Young Men. Work must be truly American, — and why? Contrast between Europe and this country. Curious ideas of foreigners in regard to this country. Every man here on the side of law. One very peculiar feature in the organization of this nation — and what ? How the right of primogeniture and inalienable property was obtained at first. Results of this principle in Europe. Results of the antagonist principle in this country. We belong to a peculiar race of men. Its characteristics — power and enterprise. The destiny of America two-fold. What it is. What needed to meet it. Dangers. What our Young Men have to do with this. What they need. Their dangers. Wish of Burns. -w 13

Chapter II. Character :— Its Value

Contents. — Character the foundation of respect — peculiarly so in this country. Example of Bowditch: !*• (5)

John Q. Adams. The principle applied to the adoration of God. Station cannot, of itself, command respect. Example of Nero and the martyr. Talents cannot command respect. Melancholy example. Wealth cannot do it, except on two conditions. The sinking creek. Character must be earned. The young* preacher of Crete. Philosophy of this. Beauty of this law. Its wonderful extent — its application not confined to this life or to this world. Character valuable in every situation. Equality of human occupations. Two great principles — individual responsibility, and combination. Self-observation. The rain-drops. Obscurity no bar to usefulness. What causes our troubles in life. The fools of ancient noblemen. The wise servant. What alone destroys a man. The keen remarks of a shrewd man 45

Chapter III. Character :-~its Foundations

Contents. — The great aim of the young man. His first disappointment. Definition of character. A great law of heaven — character must be of slow growth. Illustrations. Desire of early maturity. Ambition to be great. Why we do not regret the existence of this law. Illustrations — Moses, David, Newton, Luther. Great good which men do is to prevent evil. Small impressions become great in their results. Lockhart. A second great law of heaven — Reaping what we sow. Illustrations — indolence, dissipation. How God uses this law. Its extent and strength. Decision of character. Two things mistaken foi it. What decision is.

Illustrations. Lord Mansfield, — the hunter. Moral courage in saying no. Integrity. The Quaker's story. Matthew Hale. John Marshall. Beautiful incident in his life. Tenderness of feeling. John M. Mason at his son's funeral. The missionary's jewels. - 74

Chapter IV. Temptations Of Young Men

Contents. — Temptations common to all — come upon young men with peculiar power. The blast on the flower — the deer-hunter — the otter. Why the young men of this country peculiarly exposed to temptations. First temptation — to seek to live in great cities. The boy when he first entered a great city. Its peculiar temptations. The conscience and sensibilities blunted. Illustration. The Morgue. Why young men thus seek the city. High living and mean thinking. Gentility. The scene in the stage-coach. Second temptation : To waste time, enfeeble the intellect, and corrupt the heart, by foolish and wicked books. How the taste is created and cherished. Impure authors. Third temptation : Bad company. Power of associates — danger of hasty friendships. Progress in ruin. The beauty of a virtuous and pure young man. Thirst for intoxicating drinks — how created — its dangers— its only remedy. Fourth temptation: Reveries of the imagination. Its power — danger even in business— awful when imagination is impure. Castlebuilding, Fifth temptation. To shrink from the path of duty. The story of the highwayman. Justice Spread. Application 116

Chapter V. Habits

Contents. Why his Maker has put man under the control of Habits — easily and early formed — their power — their constant action — their unfelt control — power in old age — the maniac — shame of a bad habit — pleasure of a good one. First habit : early rising — proper allowance of time for sleep — Cobbett's testimony — luxury of early rising. Second habit : viz., of system in everything — ambition of doing things quick — is a misfortune. English system of charity. System of John Jay — Jeremiah Evarts — the porcelain slate. Third habit : finish what you begin — the curse of want of perseverance — the farm — the shop. Fourth habit: continued self-improvement — how to go about it — even if long neglected — Sir William Jones. Fifth habit: punctuality — importance of little things — punctuality in fulfilling promises — in paying debts. Sixth habit : regard to truth — great stories — boasting. Seventh: gentlemanly habits — what constitutes the gentleman — Dean Swift and Faulkner — use of tobacco — politeness — good humor. Eighth : habit of procrastination — evil and shame of this habit — ruins the soul. - 149

Chapter VI. Industry And Economy

Contents. — Men naturally indolent. The savage. Habits of labor to be formed early. Philosophy of forming them in childhood. How age is affected by them. The voice of mankind. Three Spirits wait on the Industrious — Health — Cheerfulness — and Independence. Feeling of New England. Daughters of Clergymen — noble examples. Story of the poor Student. Other examples. Remark of Washington. Industry the parent of enterprise. Illustrations — our villages, — whale-men, — the West, — seal hunters, — isles of the ocean, — stages among the mountains of Mexico, — hunters in South Africa, — factories. Industry preferable to despatch. Much may be accomplished. Illustrations, John Wesley, Matthew Hale. Lawyers — their character and influence. An unfortunate mistake. The Monk. Madame De Stael. William Wirt» The extravagance of the age. Economy urged. - - 182

Chapter VII. Cultivation Of The Mind

Contents. — ^Wrong notions. How men are equal. Denmark and United States. Dignity of the mind. Story of the Governor. Improvements depend much on men in common life. Illustrations — Iodine — the scurvy — Admiral Husier. Franklin. Light Houses and Life- Boats. Quinine. Grinding needles. Cotton gin and vaccination. Scotland and New England education. Nine objects to be sought in cultivating the mind. What they are. The higher one still. Meaning of the term education. Sources of Improvement 1. Culture of the memory. 2. Reading — three kinds, and books, 3. Conversation. Hints. 4. Literary Societies. A peculiar club. 5. Observation and meditation. The carpenter's square. Fran '.din's works. 6. The Sabbath. 7. The Bible. Discouragements — and hints. 1. Work laid out great. 2. I am poor. 3. I have a laborious occupation. Story of the sea captain. 4. I have no teacher. 5. I have but ordinary talents. - 206

Chapter VIII. Self-governjment And The Heart

Contents. — The heathen's view of self-government. What is essential to enjoyment. Extent of the power which we may obtain over ourselves. Story of the French philosopher. The schoolmaster at Cairo. The three assistants. Curious anecdote of Jeremiah Flatt. Wilberforce and the State paper. What self-control implies. (1) Government of the tongue. A bad habit noted. Great teachers. Dr. Mason and the iron spoon. Madame de Genlis and the flower-pots. (2) Government of the thoughts. Two things necessary. (3) Governing your feelings. Purity of thought. Woman. The heart. Description of it by Jeremy Taylor. The conscience to be cultivated. A right standard. The young physician and the cholera. Trials and disappointments must come. Seek to know yourself Three aids. Cultivate humility of heart. Have a liberal heart. -.---- 239

Chapter IX. Religious Views

Contents. — Dilemma of the Atheist. Dangers of infidelity. Report of the National Assembly of France Its results. What the danger of the present age. In fidel arguments. Seven questions to be put to the infidel. Death of Hume. His melancholy letter. Franklin's advice to Paine. Man must be a religious being. 1. His intellect needs it. John Bunyan. Carious description of Voltaire's mind. Colleges cannot live without religion. Experiments made and making. 2. Safety of our country demands religion. Experiment of 1790. Comparison between Holland and France. Dangers which surround us. 3. Religion necessary for the young man personally. What needed in order to religion. (a) The Sabbath. The shuttle invention. (b) The Scriptures to be read. (c) Prayer, (d) Beware of the first step in sin. The two apprentices, (c) Shun secret sins 275

Chapter X. The Great End Of Living

Contents. — Three modes of revelation. One great law lying at the foundation of the happiness of a created and intelligent being : — what it is. Judgment of this world wrong. Striking illustration. Works of God teach one great lesson. The rose. The old tree. The mountain brook. The bright star. Washington and Buonaparte philosophically compared. Wilberforce. What the first and great aim of every young man should be. Howard and the prisoners. Doing good in little things. How indomitable energy acquired. The great thing to be learned by man — is — to know God. Two great mistakes of young men. How and why they commit them. What it is to know God. Effects of a perfect standard. What part of the divine character is mcst glorious. Results of this knowledge upon the young man. The great end of writing this book. Concluding remarks. 318

THE YOUNG MAN.

Chapter I. Introductory

Contents. — Anxiety of the Author. Reflections of manhood,— solemn. Why write a new book for Young Men. Work must be truly American, — and why ? Contrast between Europe and this country. Curious ideas of foreigners in regard to this country. Every man here on the side of law. One very peculiar fea. ture in the organization of this nation — and what ? How the right of primogeniture and inalienable property was obtained at first. Results of this principle in Europe. Results of the antagonist principl-e in this country. We belong to a peculiar race of men. Its characteristics — power and enterprise. The destiny of America two-fold. What it is. What needed to meet it Dangers. What our Young Men have to do with this. What they need. Their dangers. Wish of Burns.

Heretofore, when I have entered upon any work which to me seemed great and important— such as writing a book, I have felt 2 (1-^)

a kind of buoyancy, — the mingled emotion of hope and fear and curiosity — a feeling highly desirable at the commencement of any great and laborious undertaking. But at the present moment I have such an impression of the good which is most desirable to be accomplished by this humble effort, that my fears preponderate and become the alkali which overpowers all other ingredients and gives its own color and taste to the contents of the cup.

Who that has passed the season of youth* and gone into manhood, has not looked back with many a sigh, and almost murmured aloud, that he could not here and there have received such hints as would have prevented mistakes? Who has not looked back, and with a sadness that is inexpressible, seen how in youth he formed habits that are to abide through life, how his character w^as moulded into shapes that are little less than deformities, and how his mind was taught to roam in paths that are barren of all that can yield food or refreshment? And who has not mourned that he is doomed to pass through life, accomplishing little or nothing ; neither meeting the hopes of friends nor satisfying his own conscience, — vainly looking for some outward circumstances to push him to do that which inward energy alone can move a man to do — and all because, in his youth, he had not such hints, such instructions, and such counsels as would have made him a character altogether different? If my own experience" accords with that of others, the very attempt to throw light in the patlnvay of the Young Men of this land, is praiseworthy. Should the attempt be a failure, I shall have the consolation that it was in my heart to do it. Should it succeed in any measure in accordance wdth my wishes, my heart will greatly rejoice.

I address you. Young Men of my country, not because others have not given you many and wise counsels ; but because, so far as I know, no one has occupied the ground which I have selected, nor said just the things w^hich I am washing to say. If, in the course of these pages, you meet with passages which indicate a w^arm pen, or passages not altogether flattering to the pride of the heart, believe me that I feel that the diamond which the fairy is called upon to polish, is so precious, that we may excuse her if her wings grow warm while she fans it, and if she turns it over and over, ever bringing the darkest spots into light. The fairy may soon be forgotten — but the jewel which she burnishes, shall yet sparkle on many a crown of royalty from generation to generation.

I speak to you as American Young Men — and have no expectation that what I shall write will meet with approbation or notice beyond the Hmits of my native land. The circumstances in v^hich the American youth is now coming forward in life are so very peculiar, the age in which he is to act is so marked, — the social organization with which he is to be united is so constructed, — and the responsibihties which rest upon him are so heavy, that I may be excused if I feel that he needs and deserves the best hints, the clearest counsels, and the wisest instructions w^hich can be given him. Let me call your attention to these circumstances which are yours by birth-right.

In almost all the old world, the mind of man is fettered, and the soul is clogged by other things besides the body. The whole machinery of society is based upon the assumed principle that men are not competent to take care of themselves, and that everything which relates to man, as a social, intellectual, moral and even immortal being, must be minutely taken care of by a superintending wisdom called government Hence the government provides, endows, directs and governs all the schools : founds the Colleges, prescribes the studies, appoints the Professors, marks out their duties and fixes salaries : the government regulates all trades and professions : the government decides what is religion and what is not, what modes of worship shall prevail, who are Christians and who are not ; it appoints, pays, removes, or banishes the Teachers of religion at its pleasure, and all the relations of man, family, social, intellectual and moral, are regulated by government. If you have thoughts of your own on poHtical subjects, you may not utter them, for the very walls of your dwelling have ears, — you may not communicate them in the confidence of friendship, for the Post Office is a spy over all the country ; you may not print 2* them, for the press is under close and severe censorship. Government is all, and the individuals of the nation are nothing. Hence it is that there is no public opinion to govern men; and hence it follows, that in little things with which the government does not interfere, they are under less restraint than w^e are here. Here, public opinion governs all and decides every question. It decides how you shall furnish your house, — how you must dress and live, in order to have such and such a standing. There, government gives you your standing, and you have no regard to public opinion. You may live as you please, in splendor or in plainness, and no one questions the propriety of your course. The government decides what is or what is not respectable, and gives every man his standing. Hence it is, that being governed here by pubhc opinion alone, foreigners are surprised to find us furnishing our dwellings so much alike, and to see so much that is cut out by the same pattern.

Very few have any but a faint conception of the dilFerence of character which is thus formed in the old world and in our own country. In that, a man is a Christian by law, and his children are, by law, made Christians, on being baptized. The high questions relating to eternity are all settled before he is born, and the citizen has nothing to do with them. The Schools and Colleges and Seminaries and Churches have all been provided for by government, and he has no anxiety about them. The army, the press, the newspapers, are all taken care of, and he need not worry about them. Every burden of the kind is wholly taken from his shoulders ; and he has no cares for the public, for these too would be useless. From the cradle to the grave, he is not a moment free from the control, the guidance and the powerful hand of government. He has nothing to do but to eat and drink, pay his taxes and obey, as his father did before him. Now we are told how happy these people are ! They can eat and digest four times as much as we can : they can drink four times as much, and they can sleep a great deal sounder, and they can laugh a great deal easier, and they pass through life without worry, anxiety and fatigue. Less medicine will cure them if sick, for if they to

THE YOUNG MAN.

will only stop eating and drinking, they will recover without any medicine, — or, if they must die, they die far easier than we do !

But is it not plain that if a man be laughing and happy in this condition he must be reared and trained and educated very much like an animal ? That he must be animalized to a degree that debases, cramps and almost reduces man from the scale in which his Maker placed him ? In this country, we prefer to live in our own way ; and we prefer to be thin in flesh, haggard in countenance, dyspeptic in our stomachs, but, to be free in our thoughts, free in our speech, free in our press, and free to use our powers and influence as we see best. We prefer taking the responsibilities of governing upon our own shoulders, — to undertake the mighty task of ruHng through public opinion, — to have all the anxieties of guarding as well as endowing, our Schools, our Colleges, the press, the Sabbath, and all that pertains to man as a social and immortal being. We choose to govern by public opinion, even if we sometimes have to manufacture that public opinion which we want, by slander and the aid of a sharp tongue, or even by the press. This is a part of the philosophy of all the hard and severe things which are spoken and written under a free government. We wish to regulate our neighbors and our public men, and keep them in their places, and we do it by ridicule, or severe speaking or writing, and in proportion as law is not felt or seen, there the tongue is the mightiest in its inflictions. We sometimes hear great complaints of the tyranny of public opinion. There is no need of complaining. If pubHc opinion be correct, it is the best ruler in the world; if it be not correct, let every man do his best to set it right. If it be ignorant, enlighten it. Strangers from abroad, as they pass through the land, wonder where our police is to be found. They see no tipstaves, no public men with the button on the hat, and hence they talk about our laws being a rope of sand. A friend of mine was lately gravely . asked in Europe, if a man could safely travel through this country at the present time ! And when told that in the summer we frequently leave the front door open all night in order to have the house cool, and that we have neighbors who never drew a bolt or turned a key in their house for forty years, they cannot comprehend it. They cannot conceive of a condition where every man is on the side of law, and every man is the guardian of law and a maker of law, and where every man helps to create pubHc opinion— the most powerful of all kinds of law.

Now, my young friends, you are coming forward to live and to act in a nation unharnessed and free, — where the whole machinery is planned with a view to have men make their own rulers, — to make every man a lord in the sphere which he occupies. There is one feature in the organization of this government which is peculiar, and, if I mistake not, it lies at the foundation of our social fabric. It places man in a new position, — keeps society always in motion, and is intended to make us love our country with a devotion, beyond that of any other people in existence. / refer to the abolishing the right of Primogeniture,

In our father-land, the right of primogeniture is a part, and a very important part of the foundation of the nation, and of national character. The oldest son inherits the home of his ancestors. He may adorn it and beautify it, and know that it will go down to his descendants to the latest posterity. When he looks at the furniture, when he walks over the grounds, he knows that he is looking upon the furniture of his ancestors, is sitting in their seats, and is walking in the paths in which they walked. He may be himself a tippler, and unprincipled, and not worth a shilling, still, the homestead is there. It cannot be alienated, it cannot be sold, or taken for debt. The younger sons have nothing, or next to nothing. They must cut their own way through life. The results are many and various. It makes a permanent population. It creates a powerful family pride. It creates a powerful love of home. It beautifies and adorns the country — since the possessor knows that every tree which he plants, every blemish which he removes and every improvement which he makes, is so much done for his posterity. This part of the population is permanent and staid, and upon it the government can always rely. A man is measured, not by his personal worth, but by his acres of inalienable ground, and the standing which his family have had. The older

24 THE YOUNG 3IAN,

the family, other things being equal, the more respectable. It is plain, however, that there must be another side to this picture.

In the first conquest and division of a country, the territory is given to a few — who are the favorites of the conqueror, or who have been peculiarly successful in aiding him and who claim it as their reward. In this way, the territory of Europe was at first mostly parceled out. In addition to this, their territory was made permanent in the family by hereditary descent, as I have stated, through the eldest son. Here, then, is a favored class provided for : they are the proprietors of the soil, they are contented. They have delightful homes secured to them and to their families. No change in the government is desired, since their condition cannot possibly be made better; they make things look stable, and settled and firm. Such is good old England at the present time.* But this system of proprietorship must necessarily leave a very large class unprovided for. They cannot possibly ever hope to become proprietors of the soil, for there is no soil to be bought or sold, and

* It is stated that all the land in England is owned by 36,000 individuals, out of a populatior of 20,000,000 !

they must be restless and uneasy, or else degraded, besotted and paupers, without a particle of self-respect. Hence the temptation to the government to plunge into wars and to the proprietors to pay the taxes of war in order to find employment for the uneasy, unprovided class of men. For it is this unprovided class, that feeds war, fills colonies and breeds seditions and daring enterprises. In some parts of Europe they congregate as robbers. And it is this large class, almost cut off from hope, which, unless the colonizing system be vigorously pushed, produces revolutions and civil wars.

Now the antagonist principle to this, is to divide all the property every generation : to favor no one child above the rest, — but to cause them all to share alike. This destroys for ever, the old English idea of home. We have no homes here. Very seldom does a man build a house or plant a tree with any expectation that his children will occupy the one, or sit under the shade of the other. Our boys all expect to leave their home and go out as soon as possible. Thus is each family aiding to send out new colonies all over the land. This is a new experiment made upon these shores. We have aboHshed the old system of ages, cured some great evils, and probably created some that are new. The principle designed to be introduced, is, that our country shall be our home ; and that the attachment which in other circumstances is given to the homestead, shall now be bestowed on the whole country, and that there shall be no spot on which character may pause and stagnate. Here we let the Saxon race loose, and have made office, and property, things that roll continually and which any man may chase, with the hope of grasping either. There is but a single step from the log cabin to the highest office within the gift of a great and free nation; and the orphan child picked up by the Overseers of the poor, may, as I have myself witnessed, rise to great distinction and occupy the most important civil or ecclesiastical stations. This one feature of our organization as a nation, is destined, if it has not already done it, to have a wonderful effect upon our character.

Every generation must start in the race on an equal footing, and this must and will create a character that is eager, restless and powerful. On this one thing, our wisest nnen depend for the permanence of our institutions. Here character must be created, which, for skill, enterprise, energy and greatness, is unequalled on the face of the earth. If it be said that this system has not hitherto produced as great men — as tall cedars — as are to be seen in the old world, I reply that for the time we have been a nation, no other population of the same amount has produced half as many men who will live in the future, solely by their character and the great deeds they have achieved, as we have ; and I reply moreover, that the plan of this nation was not, and is not, to see how many individuals we can raise up who shall be distinguished, but to see how high, by free schools and free institutions, we can raise the great mass of population. On this point, the world may be challenged to produce what we have produced. It is an interesting fact, however, that those great minds which are the glory of England, and which stand as a galaxy of light around the throne, came, not from among the oldest sons, and the contented, provided class, but from those whose situation most nearly resembles that of our youth — who must carve their own fortune and shape their own destiny. I have alluded to this peculiar feature, — the removal of what some would contend to be the balance-wheel of society, — not only because it will, in less than a century, affect the globe, but because also, it brings pecuHar responsibiUties upon the young men of my country. Our fathers, centuries ago, when in their pagan state, used to bury their gold and silver at their death, that they might compel their sons to seek it again in piracy or war, and to find it at the hazard of life. Inherited wealth was despised. The organization of our nation is on the same principle.

We belong to a peculiar race. In his wise providence, God, many centuries ago, gathered and clustered a choice selection of the Saxon race on a Httle island — a race as restless as the ocean w^hich breaks around that island. It seemed to be his plan to make that the starting point for the race. They fill the island, and then swarm and come and subdue this continent and make the rearing up of a great nation the work of a day. Left to ourselves here, we work off a small part of our restlessness in such small enterprises as subduing forests, filling valleys, levelling and tunneling mountains, sending the canal boat through the heart of a continent, or starting the deer by the snort of the iron horse as he scours over the plains, or by the panting steamboat that seems like a bird, to dip her wings in the water merely to cool them as she winds her way up every river in the land. In the meanwhile, England, the old hive, is constantly sending out new colonies all over the earth and making use of her very criminals to raise up a new nation. You can hardly go to an island, which is the natural breakwater to the continent and which commands that continent, but you see the flag, and hear the drum of the Saxon race — there filling the island and all ready to go over to the continent kindly to regulate their aflfairs and to eat them up. While we have been at work here, they have gone through all the East. Saxon laws and customs and dress, energy and religion are radiating in all directions, and the earth seems to be bending before the spirit of the race. To borrow the 3# imagery of one of our greatest minds, the morning drum-beat of the Saxon race salutes the sun at his rising on every spot on the globe, and follows him all round the world, and the whole face of the earth is dotted over with this people. There is a sagacity and a penetration to this mind which lets no opportunity escape, no flood-tide be lost. It would seem as if they were destined to eat up all other people — save the handful of Jews — who are miraculously preserved for noble purposes. That indomitable genius, which, w^ith the eager, burning eye of the savage, looked out of the forests upon Rome, when, like a helmed queen she sat clad in her warlike power, and which unflinchingly grappled with her, and finally placed its foot upon her neck, and sat down on her throne, still lives in all the race, — softened indeed, by Christianity, and enlightened by knowledge, but in no respect, I apprehend, enfeebled as to strength, or more near-sighted in laying its plans, or less undaunted in executing them. Should England grow old. and decay and perish, — should the owl hoot and the satyr dance where her palaces now stand, — the seedlings of at least twenty Englands are planted elsewhere, and among them will live her iron language, slow and simple as her ox, — and there will her arms and laws and arts and literature, her religion and language and glory hve, as long as the earth shall endure.