Being told I would be expected to talk here, I inquired what sort of talk I ought to make. They said it should be something suitable to youth--something didactic, instructive, or something in the nature of good
. Very well. I have a few things in my mind which I have often longed to say for the instruction of the
; for it is in one's tender early years that such things will best take root and be most enduring and most valuable. First, then. I will say to you my young friends--and I say it beseechingly, urgingly--
Always obey your parents, when they are
. This is the best policy in the long run, because if you don't, they will make you. Most parents think they know better than you do, and you can generally make more by humoring that
than you can by acting on your own better judgment.
Be respectful to your
, if you have any, also to strangers, and sometimes to others. If a person offend you, and you are in doubt as to whether it was intentional or not, do not resort to extreme measures; simply watch your chance and hit him with a
. That will be sufficient. If you shall find that he had not intended any
, come out frankly and confess yourself in the wrong when you struck him; acknowledge it like a man and say you didn't mean to. Yes, always avoid
; in this age of charity and kindliness, the time has gone by for such things. Leave
to the low and unrefined.
Go to
early, get up early--this is wise. Some authorities say get up with the
; some say get up with one thing, others with another. But a lark is really the best thing to get up with. It gives you a splendid
with everybody to know that you get up with the lark; and if you get the right kind of lark, and work at him right, you can easily train him to get up at half past nine, every time--it's no
at all.
But I have said enough. I hope you will
up the instructions which I have given you, and make them a guide to your feet and a light to your understanding. Build your
thoughtfully and painstakingly upon these precepts, and by and by, when you have got it built, you will be surprised and gratified to see how nicely and sharply it resembles everybody else's.
