Be in no haste to displace your seniors.
Time will do that all too quickly. The finest characteristic of the
Oriental is his profound regard for all age. Follow the Asiatic in
this one thing only. Heed venerable counsels; defer to maturity's
wisdoms. There is something majestic about advancing years. Be to all
men and women older than yourself what you would like other young men
to be to your father and mother.
Be a man; that's the sum of it all--be a man. Be all that we Americans
mean by those three words.
II
THE OLD HOME
Do we not pay so much attention to mere material success that we
exclude from mind and heart other things more precious? I am anxious
that every young American should win in all the conflicts of life--win
in college, win in business, etc.; but I am even more anxious that
through all of his triumphs he should grow ever broader, sweeter, and
more kindly. After all, we are human beings. We do not want to become
mere machines of success, do we?
That is carrying our mechanical age a little too far. We want to keep
that within us which makes our victory worth having after we have won
it. What matters your mountains of wealth, or your network of
political power, or those secrets which in your laboratory you have
wrung from Nature--what matters all and everything that the world
calls "success," if the human quality has been dried up in you?
Those are fine things that St.
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