And by
"hard time" I do not mean an unhappy time. Unhappy time! What greater
joy can there be for a man than the sheer felicity of doing real work
in the world?
While I am on this subject I might as well say another thing: Do not
think that you have got to smoke in order to be or look like a college
man. A pipe in the mouth of a youth does not make him look like a
college man, or any other kind of man. It merely makes him look
absurd, that is all. And if there is ever a time on earth when you do
not need the stimulus of tobacco, it is while you are in college.
Tobacco is a wonderful vegetable. It is, I believe, the only substance
in the world which is at the same time a stimulant and a narcotic, a
heart excitant and a nerve sedative. Very well. You are too young yet
to need a heart stimulant, too young to need anything to quiet your
nerves.
If at your tender age your nerves are so inflamed that they must be
soothed, and if at the very sunrise of your life your heart is so
feeble that it must be forced with any stimulant, you had better quit
college. College is no place for you if you are such a decadent; yes,
and you will find the world a good deal harder place than college.
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