If, in your mind, you feel
yourself equal to that, tell me, do you not feel in your mind that you
have in you the makings of a man indeed--a tremendous man?
Very well. That is what your father not only imagines, but _does_. So
he is decidedly entitled to your respect. You owe him gratitude, too,
of a very definite, tangible kind--the sort of gratitude you can weigh
in scales and count up in cash-book.
Now we come to the point of definite benefit for you in all of this;
for, mind you, this paper is for your own selfish interests. Even when
I am advising the beatitudes of life, I am doing it from the
view-point of your practical well-being.
Think, then, of the incalculable advantage of having at your beck and
call a friend who has proved that he knows the highways and byways of
the world by having successfully found his way around among them.
Think of the value of having such a guide for your daily counselor.
Think of how the worth of such a man's directions to you is multiplied
infinitely by the fact that he cares more for your success than for
any other one thing in the world. When you have thought over all
these things, you will begin to have some faint understanding not only
of what you owe your father, but of his practical helpfulness to you.
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