But it was _yesterday_ that he did this. He is dead now. Already you
have half forgotten him. You see we are living a century in a minute.
Besides, if Clotho has not spun greatness into your destiny, be sure
that it does not matter. The reward of Cecil Rhodes was in the thing
he did, and not in the memory which men have of it. The man who digs a
well has precisely the same reward. The point is that you must do the
deed for the deed's sake. Do not do it because the crowd will clap
their hands. When present applause or ultimate fame become your chief
purpose in life, what are you, after all? You are a play-actor--that
is what you are. Put it from you. Be a man.
Yes, consider Nippur, and be a man. One lesson these ancient ruins
teach--the nothingness of fame, and that the only things in life worth
while are love and duty. I cannot think of any blessing so great to an
ardent young American as to learn at the very threshold of his career
of activities that duty and affection are the only things really whose
value lasts and increases--the only things that pay increasing
dividends.
In a conversation in which the same view of reading given in this
paper was set forth, a very bright and earnest woman questioned the
propriety of such advice.
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