Part 1 (1/2)
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.”