The Young Man and the World.
by Albert J. Beveridge.
PREFACE
The chapters of this volume were, originally, papers published in _The Sat.u.r.day Evening Post_ of Philadelphia. The first paper on "The Young Man and the World," which gives the t.i.tle to the book, was written, at the request of the editor of that magazine, as an addition to a series of articles upon the Philippines and statesmen of contemporaneous eminence.
This paper called for another, and each in its turn called for the one that followed it. And so the series grew from day to day, largely out of the suggestions of its readers--a sort of collaboration. A considerable correspondence resulted, and requests were made that the articles be collected in permanent form. This is the genesis of this book. I hope it will do some good.
While addressed more directly to young men, these papers were yet written for men on both sides the hill and on the crest thereof. I would draw maturity and youth closer together. I would have the sympathy between them ever fresh and vital. I would have them understand one another and thus profit each by the strength of the other.
The manner in which these papers were written created certain repet.i.tions. After careful consideration I have concluded to let them remain. They are upon subjects of vital concern. Where it is necessary to remember, it is better to be wearied than to forget. And these papers were meant to be helpful. They are merely plain talks as of friends conferring together.
ALBERT J. BEVERIDGE.
INDIANAPOLIS, _May 1, 1905._
I
THE YOUNG MAN AND THE WORLD
Be honest with the world and the world will be honest with you. This is the fundamental truth of all real prosperity and happiness. For the purposes of every man"s daily affairs, all other maxims are to this central verity as the branches of a tree to its rooted trunk.
The world will be honest with you whether you are honest with it or not. You cannot trick it--remember that. If you try it, the world will punish you when it discovers your fraud. But be honest with the world from n.o.bler motives than prudence.
Prudence will not make you _be_ honest--it will only make you _act_ honest. And you must be honest.
I do not mean that lowest form of honesty which bids you keep your hands clean of another"s goods or money; I do not mean that you shall not be a "grafter," to use the foul and sinister word which certain base practices have recently compelled us to coin. Of course you will be honest in a money sense.
But that is only the beginning; you must go farther in your dealings with the world. You must be intellectually honest. Do not pretend to be what you are not--no affectations, no simulations, no falsehoods either of speech or thought, of conduct or att.i.tude. Let truth abide in the very heart of you.
"I take no stock in that man; he poses his face, he att.i.tudinizes his features. The man who tries to impress me by his countenance is const.i.tutionally false," said the editor of a powerful publication, in commenting on a certain personage then somewhat in the public eye.
You see how important honesty is even in facial expression. I emphasize this veracity of character because it is elemental. You may have all the gifts and graces but if you have not this essential you are bankrupt. Be honest to the bone. Be clean of blood as well as of tongue.
Never try to create a deeper impression than Nature creates for you, and that means never attempt to create any impression at all. For example, never try to look wise. Many a front of gravity and weight conceals an intellectual desolation. In Moscow you will find the exact external counterpart of Tolstoi. It is said that it is difficult to distinguish the philosopher from his double. Yet this duplicate in appearance of the greatest of living writers is a cab driver without even the brightness of the jehu.
Be what you are, therefore, and no more; yes, and no less--which is equally important. In a word, start right. Be honest with yourself, too. If you have started wrong, go back and start over again. But don"t change more than once. Some men never finish because they are always beginning. Be careful how you choose and then stick to your second choice. A poor claim steadily worked may be better than a good one half developed. The man who makes too many starts seldom makes anything else.
But don"t pretend that you have a thousand dollars in bank when you hold in your hands the statement of your overdraft. Face your account with Nature like a man. For Nature is a generous, though remorseless, financier, delivering you your just due and exacting the uttermost of your debt. Also Nature renders you a daily accounting.
And, at the very beginning, Nature writes upon the tablet of your inner consciousness an inventory of your strengths and of your weaknesses, and lists there those tasks which you are best fitted to perform--those tasks which Nature _meant_ you to perform. For Nature put you here to _do something_; you were not born to be an ornament.
First, then, learn your limitations. Take time enough to think out just what you _cannot_ do. This process of elimination will soon reduce life"s possibilities for you to a few things. Of these things select the one which is nearest you, and, having selected it, put all other loves from you.
It is a business maxim in my profession that "law is a jealous mistress." It is very true, but it is not more true than it is that every other calling in life is a jealous mistress. To every man _his_ task is the hardest, _his_ situation the most difficult.
By finding out one"s limitations is not meant, of course, what society will permit you to do, or what men will permit you to do, but what Nature will permit you to do. You have no other master than Nature.
Nature"s limitations only are the bounds of your success. So far as your success is concerned, no man, no set of men, no society, not even all the world of humanity, is your master; but Nature is. "We cannot,"
says Emerson, "bandy words with Nature, or deal with her as we deal with persons."
"_Poeta nascitur, non fit_," is just as applicable to lawyers and mechanics and engineers as to poets. More failures have been caused by the old idea that a man may make himself what he will, than by any single half-truth that has crept into our common speech and belief. A man may make himself what he will within the limitations Nature has set about him.
"When I was born, From all the seas of strength Fate filled a chalice, Saying, This be thy portion, child,"
declares the Persian sage. But all that Hafiz means by that is that a Paderewski shall not attempt blacksmithing, or a Rothschild try cartooning or sculpture or watchmaking, or any man undertake that for which Nature has not fitted him.
Do we not see instances every day of men made unhappy for life, and their powers lost to the world by trying to do that for which they have no apt.i.tude? Parents obeying the attractive theory that any boy can make himself what he pleases decide upon some ambitious career for him without considering his natural abilities and efficiencies.
Usually some calling of clamorous conspicuity is selected.
Twenty years ago the law was the favorite avenue upon which fond parents would thus set the feet of their offspring; the law, they thought, would enable him better to "make his mark"--that is, to parade up and down before the public eye and fill the public ear with declamation. Even yet that profession has clientless members, miserable in their hearts over their self-consciousness that they are not lawyers and never can be lawyers, who would have been useful, prosperous, and happy if they could have been permitted to be architects or merchants or farmers or doctors or soldiers or sculptors or editors or what not.
One of the cleverest of our present-day writers of fiction started out to be a lawyer. But he could not keep his pen from paper nor restrain that mysterious instrument from tracing sketches of character and drawing pictures of human situations. Very well! He had the courage to obey the call of his preferences; and to-day, instead of being an unskillful attorney, he is noted and notable in the present-hour world of letters.
Anthony Hope in England is another ill.u.s.tration precisely in point. On the other hand, Erskine, who was intended by his parents for the army, was destined by Nature for the bar. This master-advocate of all the history of English jurisprudence felt it in his blood that he _must_ practise law; and so his sword rusted while he studied Blackstone.
Finally, he deserted the field for the forum, there to become the most ill.u.s.trious barrister the United Kingdom has produced.
I therefore emphasize the importance of finding out what you can _do_ best rather than what either you or your parents _wish_ you could do best. For it seems to me that this is getting very close to the truth of life. The thoughtless commonplace that "every boy may be President"
has worked mischief, sown unhappiness, and robbed humanity of useful workers.
Every boy cannot be President, and, what is more, every boy ought not to be. Let Edison remain in his laboratory and enrich mankind with his wizard wisdom. England would have lost her great explorer if Drake had tried to write plays; while Shakespeare would doubtless have been sea-sick on the decks of the Golden Hind. Let Verdi compose, and charm the universal heart with his witcheries of sound; let Cavour keep to his statesmanship, that a dismembered people may again be made one.
Every man to his calling. "Let the shoemaker stick to his last," said Appelles.
Ito might have led the j.a.panese armies to defeat--Oyama led them to victory. But Ito created modern j.a.pan, wrote its const.i.tution and introduced those methods which made Oyama"s successes possible. Each man succeeded because he chose to do what Nature fitted him to do.
Of course you may be fitted for more than one thing. Caesar could have equaled if not surpa.s.sed Cicero in mere oratory had he not preferred to find, in war and government, a fame more enduring. But, if you try all things for which you may be equipped by Nature, you will so scatter your energies through the delta of your apt.i.tudes that your very wealth and variety of gifts neutralizes them all. No. Pick out one of the things you can do well and let the others go. A tree is pruned on the same principle. Stick to one thing. Beware of your versatilities.
Your life"s work chosen give wing to your imagination. Behold yourself preeminent in your field of effort. Dream of yourself as the best civil engineer of your time, or the soundest banker or ablest merchant. If you are a farmer fancy yourself the master of all the secrets science is daily discovering in this most engaging of occupations; picture yourself as the man who has accomplished most in the realm of agriculture.
Set for yourself the ideal of perfection in your calling--being sure that it is Nature"s calling. Then let your dreams become beliefs; let your imaginings develop into faith. Complete the process by resolving to make that belief come true. Then go ahead and _make it come true_.
Keep your resolution bright. Never let it rust. Burnish it with work--untiring, unhasting, unyielding work.
Work--that is the magic word. In these four letters all possibilities are wrapped up. "Seek and ye shall find; knock and it shall be opened unto you." Or let us paraphrase the sacred page and say--Work and you will win. Work to your ideal. If you never reach it--and who can achieve perfection?--you surely will approach it.
Do not be impatient of your progress. If, to your own measurement, you seem to be moving slowly, remember that, to the observation of your fellow men, you are making substantial and satisfactory advance and, to the eye of your rivals, you are proceeding with unreasonable speed.
Don"t pay any attention to how _fast_ you are getting on but _go ahead and get on_. Keep working. And work with all your might. How wise the Bible is: "Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might."
And keep on doing it--persist--persist--persist. Again the Bible: "Seest thou a man diligent in his business? he shall stand before kings." Do not fear hard knocks. They are no sign that you will not finally win the battle. Indeed, ability to endure in silence is one of the best evidences that you will finally prevail.
Yes, put yourself into your work--and put all of yourself into your work. Having done that, be content with your effort--do not fret. If all you do yields the fruit you hope for, do not fret while that fruit is ripening. On the other hand, if your labor comes to nothing, still do not fret. A like fate has fallen upon uncounted millions before you and will come to unnumbered myriads after you. If you have done your best you have done better than the man who has done more than you but who has not done his best.
And so, whatever the outcome, start out with this rule and keep it to the end. For nothing wastes your powers so much as apprehension. The hardest work, if done with common sense, is after all a tonic. But fear lest that work will not yield you as much as you wish is a sort of irritating cocaine of character, numbing and deadening all of your powers and at the same time lashing your mind and nerves with the knotted thongs of unhappiness. Besides, fretting is so trivial, so little, so commonplace. Fail if you must, but do not be contemptible.
He who worries not only poisons the very fountains of his own strength but arouses in the world"s att.i.tude toward him a sort of sneering pity. So the very first thing that I have to suggest to you is that you should _be a man_ in all your doings and throughout your whole career.